Star Wars Reads Day: May the force be with you!

Ogg library held it's 1st annual Star Wars Reads Day, and we had a blast! The Book Wizard (me) teamed up with our fabulous counselor, Karen Gresham, to provide Ogg students a day of fun celebrating reading and Star Wars. As Yoda would say, "Read, you must!"

Mrs. Gresham is a fantastic story teller, so I asked her to read some Star Wars stories. She enthralled students with her reading skills and sound effects.

We had some wonderful volunteers help us with some Star Wars crafts and science. At one station we were making lava lamps to represent the planet Mustafar from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. We used empty, plastic water and soda bottles, water, vegetable oil, food coloring, and alka seltzer tablets. To make a lava lamp, first fill a bottle half way with water. Add food coloring. Fill the bottle to the top with vegetable oil. Finally, add an alka seltzer tablet and watch it bubble. 

 

Inspired Tom Angleberger's Origami Yoda series, we offered Star Wars origami. We had paper at several tables with instructions on how to fold Yoda, a wookie, an ewok, Jabba, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and the Emperor. They could also make space ships (paper airplanes).

The last craft station was light saber construction. To make light sabers, you need tubes from toilet paper and/or paper towel rolls, silver or grey duct tape, clear packing tape, and poster board. Start by wrapping the tube in silver duct taper. This is the handle. Then roll up a piece of poster board and insert it in the tube. Secure the poster board with clear tape at the handle and at the top. You may want to put a piece of tape in the middle, as well.

Once the students had their light sabers made, they went to the Jedi Arena to practice their light saber skills.

After light saber practice, students had some space snacks. We had Rocket Fuel (fruit punch) to drink and Saturn Rings (Fruit Loops or Cheerios), Asteroids (cheese puffs), and Moon Rocks (marshmallows and crushed heath bar) to eat.

We had so much fun and made some new friends. Thank you to all the volunteers who made it happen. Thank to Mr. Jerry Adkins, our school board representative, for stopping by to share in the fun. I look forward to next year's Star Wars Reads Day! May the force be with you while you read!

Star Wars Reads Day at Ogg Elementary

Upcoming Events

Pics of New Ogg Library Spaces

Starting at the top center and moving clockwise: teaching area with whiteboard and short throw projector, Chromebook station, magazine/atlas/globe area and possibly a maker space, comfy seating, comfy seating, comfy seating, and in the center pic is our maker space (under construction).

I am very excited about our new spaces in the Ogg Library. I also have a small PreK size table set up for a maker space for my littlest friends, and there are rugs and pillows for more comfy reading areas. Also not pictured here is my repurposed hexagon computer table. Right now it is in the center entry area for displays or another maker space. I also did not include a photo of my little desk and greatly downsized work area. I'm actually enjoying the smaller space and don't feel overwhelmed by mountains of unfinished projects. I can't wait to see these spaces filled with students creating, exploring, discovering, inventing, and enjoying learning!

Day of Learning Part 2

Yesterday was another great day of learning with Shannon Miller. It was all about maker spaces. We started off by visiting campus libraries in our district, one of which was mine. I was thrilled and honored to have Shannon visit my library and make design suggestions. The rest of the day with Shannon was spent learning about her maker spaces and why they are so important to students. Maker spaces give our students voice, problem-solving skills, outlets for creativity, opportunities to collaborate, and so much more. I'm excited to start exploring the options for maker spaces in the Ogg library.

So today, I started working on my space. I took the suggestion of some of my fellow librarians and moved a small desk into the library. This will be my new work station. Behind the big circulation desk, as suggested by Shannon, I will set up a maker space for my students. I don't know yet what is going to be in that space as far as materials for making, but I thought I would follow Shannon's lead and allow the students to give me ideas about what they want in the space. They need to feel some ownership with the space. Since I stepped completely out of my box and gave up my workspace, I took on the challenge of rethinking my teaching space, also. Again using suggestions from my colleagues (this one I owe to Lenise Garratt), I moved my whiteboard back and shifted my teaching area to a new space. And taking suggestions from my friends Michelle Griffith and Bridget Lewellen, I moved the computer tables (which no longer house computers) and made a Chromebook area.

I'm still working on the design for the Ogg library, and I will try to post pictures tomorrow. I'm very excited about how it looks so far and hope that the students will find it an inspirational space.

Day of Learning (Part 1)

Today was a very exciting day of learning. Our lead librarian, Michelle Griffith, invited Shannon Miller from Van Meter, Iowa, to be the guest speaker at our staff development. I have recently started following her on Twitter (@shannonmmiller), and she is amazing. She is the librarian for Van Meter's k-12 campus. Shannon taught us about social networking and the importance of connecting and building a professional network. We also talked about getting our students connected and giving them a voice. I learned more about Twitter and Facebook, and I will soon be getting an Instagram account. For Twitter, you can follow me @BronwynRumsey, and you can follow my library @oggbookwizard. I will be creating an Ogg Library Facebook page, too. My plan is to post what is happening in the Ogg Library on all these social networks. I hope to allow the students to post, also.

We also learned about some other digital tools: Padlet, Symbaloo, Edmodo, Layar, MackinVia, etc. The list is extensive. I can't promise I'll master all of them, but I plan to try some out in the library to provide a more engaging learning environment for my students. I'm excited about what this will bring to the quality of education coming out of Ogg Library.

Tomorrow we'll spend some time with Shannon looking at our library spaces and getting advice on how to design our spaces for maximum learning impact. I can't wait!

Mobile Learning

I participated in an interesting Twitter chat (#txeduchat) last night about mobile learning with @kevin_corbett. What is it? How has it changed learning? Now, I'll admit, I'm probably over thinking this, but here are my thoughts.

First of all, I don't like all these educational catch phrases and fads. I really don't like the term 21st century learner/skills. I can't stand it when someone asks me what I think the 21st century library should look like. I am so tempted to describe it as a scene from Star Wars or Star Trek (both of which do have librarians and libraries, I might add). That being said, I don't believe that mobile learning is a 21st century skill. If you define mobile learning as learning on the go (which I do), then you will realize that mobile learning is timeless. Humans have been learning on the go for a long time. Explorers like Lewis and Clark were mobile learners. Their tools were different, but they were learning on the go. I stated in the chat, rather facetiously, that my favorite mobile learning device is a book. That is seconded by my journal and pen. I can read and learn, observe and record from anywhere at anytime with these tools just like explorers of old.

After much reflection on this topic, I realized what is truly meant by mobile learning in the 21st century is access to information. Now this has truly changed and revolutionized how we learn. Because of digital devices and wireless internet, accessing information is easier and faster than it has ever been. Anyone with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop can access information, read and process the information (learn), observe and record findings, and invent and create new products.

So now I must change my definition of mobile learning. It is the ability to access information anywhere at anytime using a digital device and wireless internet connection. I grudgingly agree that this is a 21st century skill only because we have not had digital devices and wireless access like we do today. What has changed in the 21st century are the tools and the ability to access information readily.

Whatever the tool and means, I am in favor of mobile learning. It is an exciting development in education, and we educators need to embrace it.