Pine Glen Library & Technology Center

Shelf Signs Thanks to Our Amazing PTO

Mrs. D'Elia — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:07:00 +0000

This is almost the end of my second year as the School Librarian of the LTC at Pine Glen and I am finally getting around to the task of creating shelf signs for the collection. What? You say. You had no shelf signs? I know, I know, but I think you’ll agree that these were worth waiting for.

Not only did I want to provide signage for the collection but I also wanted to make sure that the signs were useful and meaningful to the students, not just to me. That meant clear, simple, and visual signs. After lots of consideration, I decided to ask the Pine Glen PTO to help me purchase a lot of white cardboard magazine holders. I created signs that include the Dewey subject, the Dewey number and images to match. Then I printed them and attached them on the back side of the magazine holder. Fortunately for me, there is plenty of room on the shelves for these sign holders.

I’ve only just begun labeling the shelves but I already have seen how much easier it is for even the youngest students to find what they are looking for and that is my ultimate goal: developing independent users of the library space and collection.

Thank you Pine Glen PTO for once again supporting the Pine Glen LTC with the vision of creating a friendly and inviting space and turning your kids into enthusiastic and effective library users.

Pine Glen 5th Graders Share at Edcamp Boston

callahan — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:37:50 +0000

Mrs. D’Elia and I were thrilled to have five of our great fifth graders attend Edcamp Boston this year to share their experiences in 1:1 iPad classrooms. The event was attended by over 200 educators from across New England and New Jersey, and the students spoke before a group of 50 educators who asked them some very tough questions about how they handle working on the iPad and what they liked or didn’t like about it. It was an amazing experience, and they made us incredibly proud. Thank you so much to Ashlyn, Dilan, Judy, Kenan, and Sammy, as well as their parents, for joining us on Saturday!

See the Storify below to see pictures of the students in action and the reactions of all of the educators who saw them!

Creating Graphic Novels in First Grade

callahan — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:25:15 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks, the LTC has been working with first grade to create their very own comics! We were looking for just the right project to work on with Mrs. Hayes when she heard all about our new graphic novel collection. She knew that the graphic novels would fit in great with her ELA class’s learning about the parts of a story. So we came up with a plan to use the iPads to make some great comics.

We started off by doing some dramatic interpretations of Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems to demonstrate the use of dialogue and speech bubbles to tell a story. Then Mrs. D’Elia spent some more time over the next few days introducing students to the graphic novels in our collection and exploring graphic novels on the web site The Professor Garfield TOON Book Reader. We learned new storytelling features such as panels, speech bubbles, and facial expressions. After discussing the parts of a story, students started to develop their comic strips which would include characters, a setting, a problem, and a solution to the problem. At first we thought we would simplify things by making the comic strips limited to 4 panels, but the students had so much to write that we let them choose their number of panels.

After outlining their ideas and then creating rough drafts on paper, we got to create our pictures on the iPad. The art tool of choice at Pine Glen is Drawing Pad, an excellent Elementary-level art creation tool, and one of our Core iPad Apps. Our art teacher, Miss Fallon, was on hand to help the students realize their vision of what they wanted in their panels, making sure they had good details but still left room for the speech bubbles.

Once students created their panels, it was time to make them into comics! We used the Strip Designer app on the iPad to choose our page layouts and add speech bubbles and sound effects. You can see the completed comic book embedded below.

Pine Glen Graphic Novel Issue 1

Bam! Pow! It’s Our New Graphic Novel Collection

Mrs. D'Elia — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 01:46:27 +0000

We love our little LTC (Library & Technology Center.) It has great books, a computer lab, a story throne, chromebooks, a handful of iPod Touches, a Wall of Awesome, a tower of cushions, and amazine volunteers. But the one thing we didn’t have was Graphic Novels. So we asked our super supportive PTO if they would fund a new collection.

And guess what? The PTO said yes!

Once they arrived (as you can see by the photos on the right) students have been exploring, reading, and enjoying the books in the new graphic novel collection.

But often I am asked many questions by parents and teachers about graphic novels. Here are the most frequent ones:

What are Graphic Novels?

Graphic novels are books written and illustrated in the style of a comic book that resembles a novel in length and narrative development.

Why Graphic Novels?

Graphic novels can dramatically help improve reading development for students struggling with language acquisition as the illustrations provide contextual clues. They are also a great way to reach reluctant readers!

But Do Graphic Novels Count as Real Reading?

The excellent graphic novels available today require readers to be actively engaged in the process of decoding and comprehending a range of literary devices which leads to the development of critical skills necessary to read more challenging works. Yes, they count as real reading.

So far, some of the students’ favorites are Lunch Lady, Babymouse, Amulet, Tintin, and Binky the Space Cat.

Thank you, PTO, once again for generously supporting the LTC and giving all the students of Pine Glen the opportunity to explore, read, and love graphic novels.

Presentation for iCon 2013

callahan — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:27:19 +0000

We were happy to have a chance to lead a conversation this weekend at iCon 2013, hosted by BPS at Marshall Simonds Middle School. Our discussion was focused around the problems that surface when implementing a 1:1 technology program and how we’ve handled them. Here are the slides we used to lead this conversation.

Celebrating Books, Reading & World Literacy

Mrs. D'Elia — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:24:41 +0000

From March 1 through March 11 (extended due to snow days), Pine Glen celebrated Bookapalooza, a school-wide event that allowed us to share our love of reading and to support world literacy. It was a lot of work but even more fun!

First, it was important to promote Bookapalooza to our school community before the big week. I asked the Student Council if they would like to help and they were eager to get on board. These students came up with the name “Bookapalooza,” made posters to hang around the school, and helped me make Dr. Seuss goodie bags.

Students making posters

Stuffing Dr. Seuss Goodie Bags

Bookapalooza poster

“Make a Change With Your Change” poster

We kicked off Bookapalooza by celebrating Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s 109th birthday on Friday, March 1. Ms. Smith’s first grade classroom made Dr. Seuss posters to hang around the school and Mrs. Visocchi helped to arrange for her Bridges senior volunteers to visit classrooms and read Dr. Seuss books to our students. The lunchroom served green eggs and ham and the Library & Technology Center handed out small goodie bags to all students (you never know when you’re going to need a Dr. Seuss bookmark!) Rumor had it that the Cat in the Hat showed up to do a little reading, too!

Lots of excitement (and silliness!)

First grade posters for Dr. Seuss’s birthday

Goodie Bags

Member of Mrs. Visocchi’s senior Bridges program reading Dr. Seuss

The Cat in the Hat made an appearance in First Grade

Then we turned our focus to world literacy by participating in a week long celebration of World Read Aloud Day, March 6. Our homerooms signed up to be Book Buddies with other homerooms so students could read picture books aloud to each other. It was so great to see older students reading to younger students and vice versa! The LTC had plenty of great read-alouds set aside so students could choose their favorites to read. I love seeing which books students chose especially those who wanted to share a book that they loved when they were younger.

Samantha reading to her Kindergarten Book Buddies

Devin loved reading his favorite childhood book to his Kindergarten Book Buddy

Brennan is enjoying being read to by his big sister Book Buddy, Shea

World Read Aloud Day is a worldwide event hosted by LitWorld.org that brings awareness to world literacy. There are 793,000 people in the world who are not literate.

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

Pine Glen participated in World Read Aloud Day in a handful of ways. First, we Skyped with other classrooms in the United States, sharing a picture book and reading aloud to each other. The majority of the books we shared we read on the WeGiveBooks.org, a database of digital picture books that you can read online while supporting world literacy:

We read One Cool Friend with Mrs. Lussier’s class in Connecticut,
We read Bunny Days, Duck! Rabbit! and Mine-O-Saur with Ms. Broderick’s class in Massachusetts,
We read Mine-O-Saur with Ms. Broderick’s class in Massachusetts AND Mr. Winner’s class in Maryland at the same time! (that was definitely a shining moment
We read Same, Same but Different with Mr. Plemmons’s class in Georgia,
We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons with Mrs. Schmidt’s class in Georgia and her students performed Reader’s Theater for us,
We read Extra Yarn with Mrs. Potter’s class in Maine,
We read One Cool Friend with Ms. Myles class in North Carolina,
We read Bunny Days with Mrs. Hundt’s class in Wisconsin, and
We read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon with Mrs. Kaldenbergh’s class in Iowa.

Reading One Cool Friend with ours friends in North Carolina

Skyping and reading with Ms. Broderick in MA and Mr. Winner in MD at the same time!

Reading Same, Same but Different with Mr. Plemmons in GA

Pine Glen also decided to raise money for world literacy. We created the “Make a Change, With Your Change” Fundraiser (thank you, again, Student Council for such a great name!) After a week of collecting change, we raised $400.00! The LTC will donate this money to WeGiveBooks.org who, during the winter season, will give two books to a world literacy campaign for every $5.00 you donate. That means Pine Glen donated 160 books! Great effort to everyone who donated. Pine Glen definitely made a change with our change

Devin adder her change to the bottle

Finally, we ended Bookapalooze with “Dress Up as Your Favorite Book Character” Day. There were many great book characters spotted that day such as Percy Jackson, Pinkalicious, Skippyjon Jones, Harry Potter, Tintin, and Pippi Longstocking.

Pinkalicious

How many Things are there?

Paper Bag Princess

Tintin

Skippyjon Jones

Rendi from Starry River of the Sky

Percy Jackson

Pippi Longstocking

Even the Friday Faculty Breakfast got into the spirit!

Thank you, Pine Glen, for a memorable week of sharing our love for books and reading.

View the whole set of photos from Bookapalooza 2013

Bookapalooza Extended!

Mrs. D'Elia — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:14:08 +0000

Bookapalooza Events Rescheduled!

Monday, March 11

“Dress Up As Your Favorite Book Character” Day

It must be a BOOK character.

Characters from TV shows or movies don’t count unless it was a book first!

Costumes should be appropriate for school; no weapons, swords, sticks, etc.

Costumes should not get in the way of learning.

Students can still bring their change in on Monday for the

“Make a Change with Your Change” Fundraiser.

Bookapalooza is Coming!

Mrs. D'Elia — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:45:23 +0000

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, March 1, and World Read Aloud Day, March 6, Pine Glen is celebrating our very first Bookapalooza. (Thank you to the Pine Glen Student Council for such an awesome name!) Bookapalooza is a week long event focused around how much we love books and reading (see the planned events listed below.) It is also a great time to support efforts worldwide to increase literacy.

Celebrate by reading aloud, giving away a book, or taking action in any way you can to Read It Forward on behalf of the 793 million people who cannot read.

Imagine a world where everyone can read…

Demonstrating nonfiction text features

callahan — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:32:09 +0000

I recently had the chance to work with Ms. Marcus‘ 5th grade ELA class on creating some books. But not just any books! We created nonfiction books about nonfiction text features using those very same text features. This was a great chance for students to show what they know about the different kinds of text features.

Students were given a list of text features they had to include in their book, as well as some optional ones to choose from in order to fill out their books. They were tasked with creating their books in Book Creator, and they were supposed to use the features they were learning about in the books as much as they could. Students first went on a scavenger hunt for the text features in a variety of nonfiction books, taking pictures of them using their iPad’s camera. They then imported the pictures into Book Creator, where they also were able to design their pages and lay out their text the way they wanted to. Here’s a couple of examples:

Book Creator is one of Pine Glen’s core apps! It’s in heavy use currently in several 5th grade projects, and will be used for an upcoming project in 2nd grade.

You can download all of the books the here!

Read a Winner!

Mrs. D'Elia — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 22:29:24 +0000

Congratulations to all of the great books that won an award at this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards!

Find them in the Pine Glen LTC.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.