Another Busy Week, the Friday Countdown

It's been another busy week in the library, after closing down the book fair and getting the room back to normal, we were able to visit Wonderopolis again.  If you haven't looked at this free web site yet, you really need to.  Every day is a new wonder and they run the gambit.  This week alone, we wondered about leukemia (awesome, goose bump video), going on a quest, predicting the future and wrist watches.  Lots of great predicting,  wondering and questioning by all grades.

In THE PIT we enjoyed the book Paul Meets Bernadette a story of goldfish love by Rosy Lamb.  Paul's life is pretty boring, swimming in circles all day until Bernadette "drops in" and shares her view of the world.  It's fun to look at the world through a gold fishes eyes and one 4th grader came up with an interesting observation about the final thoughts, I love it when kids see through the words and think on a higher level.

Last weekend was the Dublin Lit Conference and I got some big news to share with the 3rd, 4th & 5th graders.  While talking to Tami from Fundamentals Book Store in Delaware, OH I learned that Natalie Lloyd, author of A Snicker of Magic, one of my all time favorite books, is coming to the Delaware Library.  I mentioned that I would like to get up to hear her and Tami mentioned that she would like to visit a couple of elementary schools while she is here and I mentioned that Bailey would love to host her!  So now, we are in the preparation stages to host Natalie Lloyd on her visit to central Ohio, very exciting!

We've been observing a run on the Who Was...series of biographies, so my super aide Yvonne and I made a move.  First we ordered about 25 new titles that we didn't have and then we found an empty shelf where we can feature them.  They tend to get lost in with the other biographies so by pulling them out the kids will be able to find the ones they are looking for more easily.  I love that they will read any book in the series regardless of who it is about.  They are learning about great people from history that they wouldn't normally be interested in.  I really love it because as a kid, the biographies were my favorite books at the Ashland Public Library.  I think I read every one of the junior biographies on the shelf several times.  I still love a good biography.

That pretty wraps up the week, now we are all on Storm Watch to see if yet another blast of the white death is headed our way over the weekend.

NCFL Conference San Diego

I know I said that I would post about the work portion of our trip to San Diego on Tuesday, but I had to let Karen tell about her experience with hot yoga. Me personally, I prefer a hot pretzel, but each to his own I guess.

Just to catch you up, my friend and colleague Maria at Teaching in the 21st Century were invited by the good folks at the National Center for Family Literacy to present how we use their Wonderopolis website in our classrooms. We were part of a panel that included 3 other educators including one public librarian, more on that later.

After enjoying the city we had some responsibilities to fulfill on Sunday, one of them was the opening general session that included some very inspirational speakers. I was moved by the story of Jennifer Navarro Burns, a single mom from Long Beach that knew education was the only way to give her son the life she wished she had as a child growing up in Columbia. She used the ESL services provided by the Long Beach Family Literacy program, became proficient in English and began studying at Long Beach City College. From there she worked in a dentist office and decided to continue her college studies at Cerritos College to become a dental hygienist so she would have more time with her son Bryant a happy, successful first grader.

I must admit, before attending the conference, I didn't really know much about what NCFL did. While at the conference I heard countless stories of people in the trenches working with little or no budgets, with people who are struggling to make ends meet, but understanding that education is the ticket to a better life for them and their families.

On Monday we presented. We had 30 or 40 people attend our session. Our panel was made up of people who had received Wonderopolis mini grants from Better World Books. Maria and I were joined by 5th grade teacher Ashley Cripps from South Carolina; Julia Dweck, a multi talented gifted specialist from Pennsylvania and Aime Thomas, a public librarian from Brownsburg, Indiana. Each of us took about 15 minutes to present how we were using Wonderopolis in our classrooms or libraries and I was honored and humbled to be included in such a smart group of people. Quite honestly I came away with several ideas that I'm currently trying to implement into my library, so I'm sure the others in the room walked away with plenty of good ideas too.

That evening we attended the NCFL banquet, where we sat as a panel at a reserved table very near the front. They made us feel very important, but I must say that there was a lot of silverware around that plate, fortunately my new friends Heike and Donna from NCFL helped keep me straight. After dinner I was once again moved by another alum of programs sponsored by NCFL, Henry Hildreth, Jr. Henry is a proud Navajo from New Mexico who is also a veteran of Iraq. When he returned from his tour of duty he set his sights on becoming a better family man and especially father to his son Adam. He and Adam began participating in the FACE program, Family and Child Education. It's an exciting program in which the parents and children go to school together. For part of the day the kids do the preschool thing while the parents work on GEDs or other further education opportunities. The other part of the day they work together and learn ways to increase literacy in their homes, not only to help the children but the parents as well. Henry was very obviously a proud father, Adam who is ready for kindergarten this fall. It saddened Henry that he and Adam wouldn't be attending school together any more, but he will still be attending school, continuing his education in college. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Adam joined his father on stage, awesome!

On Tuesday we packed up and flew home to Ohio. It was an amazing week of fun, learning and inspiration. Maria is blogging about the conference today too, so check out Teaching in the 21st Century for her views on our week in San Diego.

An NCFL Grant to Extend My Wonderopolis World

A few months ago, several of my Dublin colleagues and I received $500 grants for technology that would allow us to increase literacy in our classrooms. The grant was awarded by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) the sponsors of the Wonderopolis web site. NCFL was looking for ways to help teachers use technology in creative ways to increase literacy.

My friend Maria at Teaching in the 21st Century, an ambassador for Wonderopolis before she was even selected as an official Wonder Ambassador, told me I needed to apply. I've been using the Wonderopolis web site in the library for a while now, since she put me onto it and have found it to work well with all of the kids grades 1 - 5 that I have each day. I figured I had nothing to lose and knew I had been wanting/needing to get some iPads for our library so I applied. Lo and behold, not only did I get one, Maria got one and our kindergarten teacher Kitsy got one. It seems the good folks at NCFL were intrigued by the collaboration possibilities of three recipients in one building. In order to seal the deal the three of us had to sit down and come up with a way to collaborate with the iPads to bring Wonderopolis to a new place at Bailey.

It's been an exciting journey so far and I think we've come up with some pretty good ideas with our collaboration. For example, I've been playing with QR codes this year, I've converted my Amazing Library Race clues to all QR codes, I've been placing QR codes in random books with links to web sites or extensions of the books and recently I've been going through the non-fiction section and putting codes that link to Wonderopolis where the Wonder of the Day extends the book.

The three of us have some big plans for using Wonderopolis to create a file of QR codes that link to Wonders of the Day that will connect to the curriculum standards and beyond and I'm working on some sort of Wonderopolis scavenger hunt for my 4th and 5th graders. It's amazing what great professional development comes out of three teachers sitting down and working together for the good of the students in their building. Amazingly we didn't talk about data or statistics or grades, just how the creative and innovative use of technology will increase our students knowledge base and literacy. Can't wait to get started.

Thanks NCFL for your support of good teaching!

Wonder Jars and Wonder Wednesdays

I posted a few weeks ago about how I had started Wonder Wednesday in my classroom. It has been a grand adventure, one both of my language arts classes look forward to each week.

The vehicle that I use to tie together my thinking for each Wednesday is the website Wonderopolis with its daily wonders. But oftentimes, already this early in the year, I have found that Wonderopolis provides the springboard to even bigger thinking.

Let me give an example. Last Wednesday, I went back in the archives of Wonders at Wonderopolis, and looked at the different possibilities listed under geography. I wanted to support the teacher I team with as she was starting a unit on geography with our students. The Wonder that I chose was posted last April 22 for Earth Day, and started with a video clip about the Wonders of the World. It was one of the longer videos that I had seen, but it was a great kick-off for where I wanted to go with our thinking.

To help the students think and write more critically, we created a t-chart with questions formulated after watching the video and as we looked at the focus questions Wonderopolis provided on one side. On the other, we clearly articulated in writing any new learning we had as we read the rest of the article. Great thinking abounded!!

To further our thinking about the wonders, in word study I had a large picture of Angel Falls (a possible new Wonder) displayed on our SmartBoard. The students did a Word Storm together, brainstorming all the words and phrases that came to mind as they looked at this image. What a great vocabulary builder!! Each class filled 2 entire chart papers with their words and phrases - the power of learning and building vocabulary with peers is immense!

One of the items posted in this Wonder is the fact that there is an opportunity to vote for new Wonders of the World. Wonderopolis generously provided this link, and the students found out there are 28 places nominated for this new distinction. Students will begin doing partner research on these 28 places, share what they learn with their classmates, and then each student will have a vote on choosing the next Wonders of the World in the next few weeks.

How cool is that?! And it all stemmed from the connections we made using Wonderopolis.

I'm also grateful to Wonderopolis, because they overheard a conversation I was having on twitter this summer with a few friends about the idea of having a Wonder Jar in our classrooms, and what that might look like. They supported this train of thought, and it really has guided the type of thinking we are doing in our classroom this year.

I had to think about what a Wonder Jar might look like for me. As you can see in the picture, what has happened is that the Wonder Jar for both language arts classes I teach is from Sam's Club, and used to be full of Cheetos (what happened to them is a conversation for another article) :). I wanted this to be a year full of all students wondering and inquiring and researching topics of interest to them. I thought it would be fun to capture that wondering and make it visible to all.

Our Wonder Jar is where we put things that represent what we are wondering about. One of my students wonders about BigFoot; he put a small plastic BigFoot in the Wonder Jar. Another student wondered about how glue is made; a glue stick was deposited into the jar. Another student is fascinated about the process of making ice cream; she got a cup from Coldstone to represent her thinking and put it in the Wonder Jar. The list goes on and on.

As each student shared what they were wondering, they put a replica that demonstrates what their current wonder is. As they deposit their wonders, I take pictures of them, and have put their pictures in frames throughout the room. These pictures are yet one more visible reminder that we will be a class that wonders together. I expect to change these pictures multiple times over the course of this school year. Once we investigate and learn about one wonder, we will move right on to thinking about yet something else.

The Wonder Jar is providing all of the students an opportunity to delve deeper into topics that interest and intrigue them. I noticed that in this first sharing of wonders, the students' thinking was pretty surface level. As we continue to work with wondering throughout the year, I anticipate their level of sophistication of wonders and questions to improve.

My students and I love our Wonder Wednesdays and our Wonder Jars! Thanks Wonderopolis!!