The LIttle Library that Could.

My latest online "Cool Tool" discovery began with an offline project this summer.  Our family of five just relocated for the second time this year.  Knowing our first move was temporary, many of our possessions remained packed for the interim; including our large collection of books.  To add to our chaos, my middle school classroom was demolished over the summer to make way for a beautiful new building.  The construction work required me to bring my entire classroom library home.  When we began unloading our belongings into our new home, we had a final count forty-five boxes of books.

As my husband designed and built our oak shelving, I began to sort through our collection.  As we progressed from piles by letter, to stacks by author's last name,  I began to realize the inadequacy of my traditional excel spreadsheet.  I needed ready access to certain types of information about each title.  To create such a database by hand would take more time than I had summer.  I decided to take my offline problem in search of an online solution.  

As part of a literacy drive within our school next year, I am hoping to use my room as model classroom library.  I will need to assist my student's in finding the appropriate choice reading book. In order to do so, I will need instant access to a book's reading level, age level appropriateness and perhaps a synopsis of the book.  

When I found Book Retriever, I found so much more.  My children and I spent hours separating our collection into a home library and a classroom library.  We each downloaded the free Book Retriever app.  It was simple to use and worked very consistently.
  

Once we logged our devices onto the account (one android phone, three iPads) we could choose "quick add" and the QR code reader would appear on our device.  With one bleep. the book would appear within my library.  

If the ISBN search was unsuccessful, then we would leave the app and search for the book online by title and author.  Of the 1250 books in our home library, all but 200 scanned directly into my online library.  Of the remaining 200 books, many were missing an ISBN number.  Only about 30 books had to be entered manually because they were not present in the system.  

One of the benefits of this program is the ability to create multiple locations for books.  I was able to create a set of books at home as well as a set of books for my classroom.  One of the constraints of the program is that "location" cannot be entered in en masse.  Since I could not enter a large number of books under the umbrella location of "home" we had to spend an enormous amount of time entering the 16 pages of books one book at a time.  It took us nearly as long to add the location portion of the book as it did to enter the books initially.  

However, once a book is scanned into the system, the bevy of information at your fingertips is astounding.  Not only do I have the title and author's name, I have the genre, a synopsis, the book's worth and a picture of the cover to assist my students in finding the offline version.  To make this information even more valuable, with one button I can search my library by reading level using GRA, Lexile levels, AR and AP reading levels.  It has never been easier for me to match a student to a book. 

My books are housed through the Book Retriever website for a fee of $3 per month.  Within the website, I can create an account for each student in my class.  I can use the account to check books out, back in and to create an archive of the books a student has already read.  The online tools can also be used to print information labels for your books.

Another constraint I asked about was the inability to share the library online in a view only mode.  I would love for my students to be able to check out books on their own device.  This feature, while not currently present, is a work in progress for the next update.   

I am hoping to use Book Retriever within my school environment to further my fellow teacher's limited access to books.  With a program like Book Retriever, the large number of books we found locked away in storage could be resurrected, organized and put into circulation in our classrooms with relatively little time and effort. 

Until then, my books have found a safe and happy home both online and off.  

An Introduction to the Digital Makerspace Platform

My Purpose

I went to school to become a teacher, I emerged a builder of bridges.  

The Digital Makerspace platform is designed as a foundation for the bridges we build with our students as 21st Century Learners.  Today’s generation of learners needs to emerge from our classrooms as experts in critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, information, and media literacy.  With this site, I intended to create a rigorous, A successful 21st Century classroom is one that bridges the gaps between the passive consumption of information, the active construction of meaning and the creative synthesis of concepts.  

The Digital Makerspace - A Frame of Mind

First, do not be intimidated.  

Take small steps.  

The Digital Makerspace choice platform is scaffolded for both teacher and students.   While the directions allow space for creativity, there are enough resources available to guide the consumption and creation of information using digital tools.  Some of these tools vary enormously from traditional pen and paper tools, while others do not.   There are 20 separate digital tools available within the site.   They are organized from most accessible to most challenging according to the SAMR model of technology evaluation.  Certain programs vary in rigor according to the method or project involved; in such a case, I have placed the product in multiple categories.

SAMR MODEL

    I have used these programs successfully within my own classroom environment, implementing the tasks with students as young as grade 5 and as old as grade 11.  Some projects require more than the modeling available on the website.  In an effort familiarize students with a new medium, I will frequently roll out the program gradually.  For example, before expecting students to recreate a novel entirely in memes, as assigned under the Meme Creator task, I asked each student to provide a meme for one different chapter within a novel we read as a group.  Once each student created their meme, I was able to post the memes on a plotline demonstrating, collaboratively, the events depicted within our narrative as well as the process necessary for completing a meme book report.  

The Digital Choice Board

The site itself is a digital choice board in which each column of the page represents one task.  That task is broken into several key pieces:

Product/Platform:  The first aspect of each column gives you my preferred digital tool for either an apple or PC platform or both.  If the product needs to be downloaded, a link for the download is provided.  If the product is web-based, then there will be a link to the web source provided.

Your Mission:  Under this heading, you will find the task in each column.  Tasks are, for the most part, provided in document form.  It is frequently helpful to provide students with a paper version of their task enabling them to take notes or refer back to the task when necessary.  

Tutorial:  Within the Tutorial section there are instructional videos, written manuals, and pro-tips to help students gain an understanding of the digital tool at their own pace while maintaining authenticity and rigor.    

Sample Work:  As often as possible, I found student work to represent a possible final outcome.  In the absence of student work, I created or compiled examples as a model for students and teachers alike.

Research: Geared toward increasing and expanding a student’s idea of literacy, each of these projects are created with a research base.   My most influential research is listed on the bottom of each page.

Most of the tasks found on the page require higher level thinking around a narrative. They are a system of DIY book report formats reflecting multiple aspects of Garner's intelligences. However, the hacking activities, like VideoAnt, Genius and Vialogues are a creative method of encouraging close reading across any curriculum. Programs like Fakebook, Toondoo, Piktochart and Tackk can be applied to work in Social Studies or Science. Toondoo and Storybird are also used in Foreign Language classrooms.

Future Directions:

I built this website as a dynamic platform, as such, it is designed with a mechanism for feedback.  I am happy to clarify any misconceptions I can.  

While I am trying not include multiple digital products with a duplicate purpose.  For example, while multiple options are available, I have chosen the infographics or collage- making programs I find most user-friendly.    

I would love to learn about any digital tool you use on a regular basis.  As digital learners, we are all in this together.  

As my experience grows, I am hoping to create my own screencasts talking about issues and tips I encounter within my own classroom.  

My teaching experience is within the realm of Language Arts, however, I have seen many of these tools used inside science and social studies classrooms.  I hope to blog about cross curriculum work at a later date.  

Acknowledgements.  

Much of my work is inspired by the digital learners and Jedi reading specialists that came before me.  Especially the work of :

Lemov, D., Driggs, C., & Woolway, E. (2016). Reading reconsidered: A practical guide to rigorous literacy instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand.

Johnson, D. (2014). Reading, writing, and literacy 2.0: Teaching with online texts, tools, and resources, K-8. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

I could not conclude without thanking my fearless leaders, Dr. Julie Coiro, Dr. Renee Hobbs, and David Quinn  at the University of Rhode Island’s where I am working to complete my Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy.  I could not ask for better mentors or more enthusiastic cheerleaders.  You throw open doors, and I run through them full tilt free to create and collaborate with a much larger world.  

I Think You Can: Graduation

One mom.  

One campus. 

Twenty professors.  

Two high schools placements. 

Three middle schools placements. 

20 courses. 

60 credit hours.  

560 hours commuting.

 2 PRAXIS tests. 

Quizzes.  

Projects. 

Exams. 

Comps. 

Lit Reviews. 

96 lesson plans 

and three children. 

It is two years.  I only need to survive. 

If I can get through tomorrow...

I THINK I CAN.

If I can get through this week...

I THINK I CAN.

If I can get through this project...

I THINK I CAN.

Then the moment finds you; a tipping point.  

The place where I think I can, I think I can, I think I can gives way to I think I did. 

     My moment occurred about two weeks before graduation.  My grip released, my jaw relaxed and I realized the mountain was behind me.  I survived and I grew in ways I could never imagine. 

If I wrote a letter, what would I say to my twelve-year-old self?  Nothing.  I know she will make it because here she is thriving at forty-three. A better question is “What do I say to the twelve-year-old sitting in front of me?”

    It is two weeks after my moment and I sit in my cap and gown waiting for my degree to be conferred.  There, among my fellow student teachers, I begin to feel the weight.  In one short breath, I will hear my name, walk across the stage, and shake hands.  As I cross over from student to teacher, I understand it is my duty to pay forward this feeling of relief, of pride, of exaltation.   I’ve climbed the mountain.  I know the way. 

     Every student at every desk deserves this feeling. 

     My journey did not start with graduation.  It started with a mother finding the time to read to her children every night.  A father who, frustrated, wrestled through another night of homework.  The steadfast support of grandparents picking up, dropping off and cheering on.  The love of a sixth-grade teacher who still emails me every May after thirty years; or my eighth-grade teacher who follows all of her students on Facebook from her nursing home. 

     I am that teacher now.  It will take a lifelong, marathon of dedicated love for my students.  I sit in my chair in my cap and my gown and I pray I have it in me.  I think I can.

     I know that graduation is not the end of learning because learning itself is gradual.  Each step, big or small, is planned, performed and punctuated with “I think you can.”  Each smile, each handshake, each hand written note says “I think you can.”  Each pattern I find, each assessment I make, each habit I push aside brings another in an endless series of “I think you can.” Then I see the shift.  I recognize the moment because it is my moment seen in the eyes of someone else. 

And I know I have chosen wisely.

As I sit writing tonight, like I have every night for two years, I know I can.  My daughter says “Mommy, you graduated.  I thought you were done” and I smile, “No sweetie.  I am just getting started.”  

This post is inspired by and dedicated to the amazing teachers at Blackstone Valley Prep who, every day, tell my children "I think you can."  You can find a reflection of their work at BVP Musings.

Badges, Hit Record, Choice and Authenticty

This year I am a practicing, practicing teacher, which is to say I am a student teacher rehearsing my teaching practice in the classroom of another practicing teacher.  Being a practicing² teacher, there are certain limits to what I can attempt within my classroom.  However, I have tried to include digital authorship, creativity, and student choice in every aspect of my teaching.  What follows is a the digital authorship experiment foisted upon my unwitting students.

Badges VS. Hit Record

I had a blended learning panic attack when I first learned about badge programs like MacCarthur Foundation’s DIY.  “ Leveling up,” a pedagogy based on the video game concept of levels, is frequently used by Kahn Academy, TenMarks Math and other web-based tutorial programs.   My children have found the idea of level up programming  very exciting and very accessible, but generally only for a short while.  The extrinsic nature of the motivation rarely transfers into the intrinsic quest transforming a student into a lifelong learner.  However, the DIY Badge program is more than a web-based tutorial.  Students are given a great deal of latitude in choosing their area of study, they complete three challenges within their badge, then their work product is graded on a pass/fail basis by a person at DIY.  The diversity of work at DIY may be difficult to monitor, scaffold and supply for a larger number of students, but it lends choice and authenticity to the assigned tasks.  Whether creating assignment parameters that align with the standards of a subject area or using the badge economy to bolster summer student growth, DIY enables students to receive sheltered feedback from a community of people with a shared interest.  

 Badging has been a long standing method of motivating students, particularly within the real  of scouting.  DIY provides a safe online environment for learning that incorporates social interaction.  The application has been used by after school programs as a way to engage students.    

     For middle and high school students to engage in a rigorous, long term project requires work and rewards that are authentic.  Hit Record is similar to the DIY concept in that it provides choice and challenge, but instead of an invented badge economy, the student work has the authentic possibility of being published.   In my experience, invented economies like the one in DIY or those in Kahn Academy will eventually need to be reinforced with some other more tangible reward.  Yet, with Hit Record, just the possibility of publication has been enough to inspire members from three of my poetry, theater and ELA classes to submit their work to the process.  Once submitted, their work can be seen online as a part of a community of creators waiting to be published to a much wider audience.  They can receive feedback from that community and their work may garner further publication.

There are a quite a few things I really like about the Hit Record experience.  First and foremost is the availability of choice.  They have managed to organize the freedom to create anything.  In doing so, they created a very exciting new collaborative outlet.  Choice plays an important role in innovation and creativity.    The sheer magnitude of "Records" available is staggering.    It takes only a few minutes to find and master the searchable “Explore” tab.  The tagging system inherent in the upload process allows a user to search across media, subject matter, artist, genre or any other category.  If you find a project and you feel you can make a contribution, then you use your specific skills to add to the product.

     I decided to jump in on a project called “Morning Monsters”.  The project started as an idea.  Several scriptwriters and illustrators made work contributions.   The illustrations sparked a secondary idea, namely, creating an illustrated children’s book.  The lead collaborator, at this point, had several poems written about the morning monsters attached to the project.  The poems were then read out loud, creating a voice over to be animated later by yet another party.  The project itself is starting to take shape as the result of at least six different artistic choices made by collaborating strangers.

     The lead collaborator for Morning Monsters communicates with the collaborating world via video updates.   In her latest update, she included several examples of the kind of footage she found useful for her project.  She was looking for footage of children, ages 8-12 getting ready for school in the morning.  I happen to have a plethora of children that age.  The animated morning monsters will be added to the live action footage creating the complete scene.  This footage will be part of a montage of meddling morning monsters wreaking havoc in the lives of school children everywhere.  With her simple parameters in mind, my children and I set out to make our leap together.

Here is Logan’s leap: A slipper being commandeered by the as of yet unseen "Morning Monster."

Logan's Leap

Here is Maya’s leap:  A towel, stolen by yet another "Morning Monster" to be added later.

Another advantage I see in using Hit Record in a classroom is that of brevity.  From concept through editing, each project taught one on one with a middle school student took about 45 minutes to accomplish.  While it may take longer to teach a group of children to accomplish the “Record”, it is much easier than creating an entire film short from scratch.

     Not every “record” is included in the final collaborative effort.  However, simply seeing their video posted to the Hit Record website was enough authenticity for my children to become very excited about the process.  With older children, this may not be the case, but the "collaborative challenge" option allows students to accept a challenged already issued by someone outside of the classroom.  Such an opportunity may give more closure to their concept of authenticity.

I did have a very Patricia Lange moment with my leap.  My children were very excited to put together a video project on their iPads, yet do I really want my children to become part of a “Hit Record” video set somewhere?  In the end, I decided the experience was worth the risk.  As collaborators, we are supposed to cite and tag each work or idea we have used to build and remix our new product.  As a teacher, I like the idea of citing other artists within a creative environment.  As a parent, I am glad that the work my children created will be cited and I will be notified of the ongoing building process. What remains to be seen is, where will our record end up?  I love an enduring mystery.

I created something - something at the beginning of its journey.  I wonder where it will lead.

     

This is My Brain on Evernote

So now I have all of this wonderful information funneling into my world through my coursework, professional development, fellow teachers and other resources.  The information is wonderful, yet if I stuff one more piece of information directly into my brain I will forget something important like my children's names or my mother's phone number.  With my limited capacity in mind, I began to explore Evernote.

     Evernote has web clippers available for my smart phone, my laptop and my tablet.  If I read something interesting, I can clip it, place it in a folder and tag it from any device and it shares across all devices.  The number of tags a user can create is unlimited.  The number of folders a user can create is large, but not unlimited.  I have many tags but only two folders.  My "bagged and tagged" folder holds information I have read and tagged.  My "first folder" serves as a to do list calling up anything I think might be interesting, but have not had the opportunity to read and tag.  I will occasionally create a folder for a specific project, specifically when sharing group work.

     Designing your Evernote account from scratch begins with a considerable amount of personal reflection.  I needed to create an online storage source that mirrors my thought process as a teacher. The information I create or find online, in class and through Twitter converges account in three important ways:  Curriculum, literary canon and professional resources.  I created an Evernote infrastructure that reflects my own divergent thought process and can grow as my resources develop. 

      I began my curricular organization using Inspiration 9 software to create a detailed map of the ELA Common Core Standards. This is a map of each path I need to cover within my teaching year.

     The Common Core Standards for ELA are layered across four methods of communication used in English; writing, reading, speaking/listening and language.  There is a considerable amount of concept repetition among the standards.  For example, assessing the credibility of written material is very similar to assessing the credibility of spoken material.  I combined any similar standards and created a list of each individual concept.  From this list I created my first type of tag:  Curriculum.  Here is a sample tag:

     My tag list counts the number of notes with a particular tag, making it possible to use my tag list to assess my curriculum for weak areas.  For example, I currently have a large number of resources for vocabulary. However, I have very few tags with regard to informational writing making that my next area of research. 

     My second type of tag is a straightforward reflection of literary canon.  It contains the author and title of the a piece of literature.   I also file informational text about the life and times of a particular author in a general file under the author’s name.  For example:

Lit.Twain.TomSawyer

Lit.Shakespeare.general

     I can use my literary tags in the same way to determine my balance of fiction and non-fiction writing.  I can also cross tag my literature and curriculum resources.  For example, instead of using only Edgar Alan Poe to discuss mood and tone, I can search my Evernote for "Mood" and the results will include any mentor text I've encountered to help teach the concept.  This feature adds variety to my lesson planning and is particularly helpful when trying to personalize learning across a large number of students. 

     My third type of tag revolves around research, best practices and professional development.  There are any number of outside influences affecting my work within a classroom.  My “PD” tags organize the girth of information and resources flooding a teacher’s world every day.  I began my PD tags with units of study in each of my graduate courses; their expansion reflects my interests, the professional development opportunities I have enjoyed and more.    Here are examples of my assessment tags:

Pd.assess.MC

Pd.assess.Formative

Pd.assess.standard

     I will need to ground my teaching in solid practices and methodology in order to serve my students and fellow teachers well.   This segment of my tag population is built to grow in order to include curated information about new trends, ideas or current issues in education. 

   I have an enormous box in my dining room filled with lesson plans, book lists, and other information I have gleaned from my mentor teachers.  With Evernote I am able to scan those resources digitally enabling me to build a working resource base and to once again have guests over for dinner.  I also look forward to scanning and compiling student work to incorporate into my planning. 

     Evernote also gives you the ability to annotate documents and PDF's.  I anticipate using Evernote to teach annotation and evidence gathering within my classroom activities.  To do so will enable each of my students to design a personal knowledge base, cataloging their research across multiple grade levels as they dig deeper into each concept.  But that is another blog for when I have my own classroom.  

     Meanwhile, Evernote is an important part of my growth and reflection as a teacher.  

My Current and Ever Expanding Tag List

Curricular Resources Based on CCSS.

Curr.argument.context, 

Curr.argument.evidence, 

Curr.argument.POV, 

Curr.argument.reasoning, 

curr.booklists, 

Curr.colab.groupdiscussion, 

Curr.colab.listening, 

Curr.colab.persuasive, 

Curr.colab.showknow, 

Curr.collab.ideas,

curr.figurative, 

curr.figurative.aliteration, 

Curr.info.analysis,

 curr.info.comprehension,

 Curr.info.integration, 

Curr.info.organization, 

curr.info.planning, 

Curr.info.research, 

curr.info.text, 

Curr.Lit.games, 

Curr.Lit.Tech, 

Curr.media.interp, 

Curr.Media.use, 

Curr.narrative.characters, 

Curr.narrative.context, 

Curr.narrative.events, 

Curr.narrative.POV, 

Curr.narrative.structure, 

Curr.narrative.theme, 

curr.poetry, 

curr.rich.general, 

curr.shortstory, 

Curr.Speaking.group,

Curr.Speech, 

Curr.Speech.graduation, 

Curr.theater,

Curr.vocab.etymology, 

Curr.vocab.figurative, 

Curr.vocab.linguistics, 

Curr.vocab.nuanced, 

Curr.vocab.phrases, 

Curr.vocab.reference, 

Curr.vocab.words, 

curr.wp, 

Curr.WProcess.development, 

Curr.WProcess.planning, 

Curr.WProcess.prompts, 

Curr.WProcess.structure, 

Curr.WProcess.style, 

Curr.WProduct.context, 

Curr.WProduct.editing, 

Curr.WProduct.grammar, 

Curr.WProduct.publishing, 

Curr.WProduct.rewriting, 

Curr.WProduct.wordchoice, 

Curr.Writing.tech

Literary Resources/Mentor Texts

Lit.Auden.Funeralblues,

Lit.Austin.general,

lit.Bierce.Devilsdisctionary,

lit.bradbury.dandelion,

lit.bradbury.general,

lit.bradbury.wicked,

lit.bukowski,

lit.cabrera.rudy,

Lit.cervantes.Quixote,

Lit.Chaucer.General,

Lit.Collins.HungerGames,

Lit.Conrad.Heartdarkness,

Lit.Dante.DivineComedy,

lit.doyle.baskerville,

Lit.Dubois.letters,

Lit.Einstien.letters,

Lit.eliot.lovesongprufrock,

Lit.Elliot.AncientMariner,

Lit.Fable,

lit.ferlinghetti.11,

Lit.Fitzgerald.Gatsby,

lit.frost.roadnottaken,

lit.gaiman,

Lit.general,

Lit.Gibran.Autumnleaves,

Lit.Gibson,

lit.gray.churchyard,

Lit.GreekMythology,

Lit.Hemingway.general,

Lit.Jones.Marshall.touchscreen,

Lit.Kafka.general,

lit.kaplan.lincoln,

Lit.Kivi.SevenBrothers,

Lit.Lee.Mockingbird,

Lit.Lewis.General,

lit.lovecraft.general,

Lit.Lowry.Giver,

Lit.mcmanus.grasshoppertrap

Lit.Melville.Mobydick,

lit.miller.crucible,

Lit.mythology,

Lit.Nash.Isabel,

Lit.Nietche,

Lit.Orwell.Animalfarm,

Lit.Parody,

lit.plato.republic,

Lit.Poe.CaskAmontillado,

Lit.Poe.General,

Lit.Poe.Raven, Lit.Poe.Telltale,

lit.rand.general,

lit.scifi,

Lit.Seuss.GreenEggs,

Lit.Shakespeare.general,

Lit.Shakespeare.Hamlet,

Lit.Shakespeare.JuliusCasear,

Lit.Shakespeare.MacBeth,

Lit.Shakespeare.MuchAdo,

Lit.Shakespeare.RomeoJuliet,
Lit.Shakespeare.Tempest,

lit.Shelley.Frankenstein,

Lit.Silverstein,

Lit.Stockton.LadyTiger,

 Lit.Thoreau.Walden,

Lit.Tolkein.LOTR,

lit.turing,

Lit.Twain.general,

Lit.Twain.HuckFinn,

lit.urban.johncougar,

lit.verne.80days,

lit.waites,

lit.wallace.general,

Lit.Watterson.CalvinHobbes,

lit.whitman.captain

Professional Development Topics

pd.accom,

PD.accom.ADHD,

PD.accom.aut, 

PD.Accom.dislexia,

 PD.accom.ELL,

PD.accom.gifted,

PD.accom.loss,

PD.accom.OG,

PD.assess.essay,

PD.assess.MC,

PD.assess.project, 

PD.assess.stand,

PD.assess.tech, 

PD.assessment.data, 

PD.Authentic,

PD.blended,

PD.booklists, 

PD.Civicengagement, 

PD.class.culture, 

PD.class.culture.bullying, 

PD.class.culture.character, 

pd.class.culture.cheating,

PD.class.culture.conflict, 

PD.class.culture.grit, 

PD.class.decor, 

PD.class.discipline, 

PD.class.man.tech, 

PD.class.managementplan, 

PD.class.organization,

PD.clipart, 

PD.collaboration.strategy, 

PD.collaboration.tech, 

PD.communication, 

pd.crossover.history, 

PD.Crossover.Math,

pd.decor,

Pd.engagement, 

PD.freeresources,

Pd.gaming,

PD.innovation,

Pd.inquiry, 

PD.lessonpan.strategies,

PD.lessonplan.graphorg, 

PD.lessonplan.ideas, 

PD.lessonplan.search, 

PD.lessonplan.tech, 

PD.lessonplan.tech.flipped, 

PD.opensource.resources, 

pd.personalized,

pd.projectbased, 

PD.reading.strategies, 

PD.reading.tech,

PD.reflection,

PD.RTI,

pd.tech.blended,

pd.tech.blog, 

Pd.tech.digitalcitizenship, 

Pd.tech.resources,

pd.tech.video,

Pd.tech.webdesign