Meet Me at the Library

Photo by Leeloo The First: https://www.pexels.com/photo/question-marks-on-craft-paper-5428830/ As a former teacher, inquiry is something that I have always been interested in, but never had the time, resources, or support to experiment with it in the classroom. That being said, I was most excited to interview about this shared foundation. For this interview, I spoke to Kersten Epting. She is the librarian at Saxe Gotha Elementary School. Throughout this interview I learned how inquiry can be more than a formal inquiry lesson or activity. The most memorable quote from this interview is when Kersten related inquiry to  “teaching an alien how to brush their teeth.” She works at an elementary school, so this analogy puts it into perspective for me. Something that I have struggled with throughout this internship is making sure that what I plan and create is age appropriate because I tend to make things too higher level without realizing it. Children tend to have a lot of questions and a...

Photo by Tara Winstead from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-person-holding-a-puzzle-piece-with-a-heart-8386182/ The Include domain is one that I was very interested in interviewing a middle school librarian about because I am curious in how this would look at this level. For this interview, I interviewed Mrs. Jennifer Gibson. She is the library at North Central Middle School, which is in the most rural part of Kershaw County. Throughout this interview, I learned a lot about the school and community that I did not previously know.  The most impactful part of this interview was our discussion about how she uses Holocaust lessons each year. These lessons build on one another and provide discussion amongst the students. For example, she does an interactive timeline lesson, a map with the Holocaust and its impact, and a psychology lesson. You might assume that students in rural South Carolina cannot connect with the Holocaust in a personal way, but you would be wrong. ...

          Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Baccomo about the shared foundation of engage. This foundation is centered on the safe, legal, and ethical use and creation and sharing of information. Throughout our conversation, I was able to see how she structures her middle school library and the thoughtfulness that she puts into creating materials to use with students and teachers alike.      I learned that in everything that she creates and promotes that she is modeling this domain. For example, she annually trains the faculty on copyright as the law states. The last three years I have been in a classroom and never have been trained on the copyright laws. I appreciated that she makes it a point to do this with her teachers and shows them resources to use that are free to use. I learned about a new website to use called Copyright and Creativity. Something that we both related on is that we should all be modeling to students ou...

    Pear Deck       This week's post is a video overview and tutorial of the educational technology tool, Pear Deck. 

  Unfortunately, since the advancement of technology, bullies have taken to using online platforms. A study conducted by Faucher et al. (2015) shows the interconnectedness of bullying and cyberbullying and how this continues into the workplace. This article surprised me because someone who gets bullied in elementary school could face a different set of bullies as they age out of K-12 school and into the workforce and university. It was powerful to see what this study brought to light and how little time is spent educating students about bullying of all kinds in K-12 schools. After reading the article, I reflected on the bullying education that my school does. We do a few lessons at the beginning of the school year, but that is all that we do. More attention and time need to be spent on this to be effective.       From personal experience in the classroom, I know that many students don’t think before they speak to one another.  I have a poster that uses th...

Scribe One tool that I enjoy using in my classroom is Scribe (link: https://scribehow.com/ ). Scribe allows for the user to capture their screen to create tutorials. Users can either create one from the website or download the extension to their web browser. Once you create an account, you can record your screen and the website will create a visual and written tutorial based on the steps you took in the recording. Click the link below to see what a Scribe looks like. https://scribehow.com/shared/How_to_Find_and_Cite_a_Video_on_Britannica_School__Fs4O_MtQSj6y2xNqi6bqxA You can also download your Scribe as a PDF. How to Use and Create a Scribe To create a Scribe, you must first create an account. Next, you will click the home button on the left-hand side of the screen to ensure you are on the dashboard. Once you are on the dashboard, you will see a grey box with a plus sign in the middle. Click on that and you will select which tab you would like to use to create your Scribe. It will beg...