What Can Come From Putting Something New Into The Hands Of Our Students?

Before the 5th graders came to the library I got something new ready to show them.  

Last week my friend Tom Lapping and the others at JDL Horizons gave me a big plastic box with a handle on the top.  

Today I put the black box filled with cords, a camera lens, microphone, batteries, my iPad, cords, and a holder for the iPad in the corner of the library were they usually sit in rocking chairs and bean bags to work on projects, read or just hang out.  

I told them to get into the box and figure it out....How did it go together?  What could we do with it?  

It took them about 2 minutes to get a few things put together and then all of them, with different parts of the kit in their hands, asked me to help them put it all together so they could see what it would do.  We put the iPad in the holder, screwed the lens into the back of the holder over the iPad camera, put the battery in the microphone, got the tripod out of the black bag, and then set the iPad into the clip on top of the tripod.  

During library they were working on the Poetry Summit that we are having on May 17th with three others schools across the country and several special guest stars.  Our students have the chance to be MC's for the event by applying with a video application that we have set up for them to complete.  

                  

You can read all about the Poetry Summit and the application process on our Poetry Summit Smore. 

I told the students who were going to apply to be a Poetry Summit MC that they could use the iPad and the new equipment.  They all jumped over to the iPad and couldn't wait to figure it all out.  

They turned on the Camera, were checking themselves out, got the microphone set up, and were grabbing the script we had printed off.  They were ready to go! 

I let them play around with it for awhile and then told them I had something else super cool to show them.  A tool that would make it be easy and fun to use.

On my iPad there was a new app called Fuse for Camtasia Relay. They recognized Camtasia Relay right away because they created talking booktalks using it on a laptop a few months ago. 

Now they also had the tools they needed to use Camtasia Relay on the iPad with the Fuse app.  Fuse does the same thing that Camtasia Relay does on the computer.  Students record using the app and upload the video into our Van Meter EduVision Channel.  Camtasia Relay and the Fuse app are as easy as "Create, Capture and Publish Video...To EduVision In 3 Clicks!"  

These tools from TechSmith are very simple to use, and can even be used by kindergarteners. We have in our library and our kindergarteners are now getting ready to record their Iowa Animal Research Tuxpaint eBooks using Camtasia Relay too.  

It is very simple and takes just a few minutes after the recording is done to upload it too.  Once they are uploaded into our EduVision portal, I just have to go into my Video Management settings and approve the videos (as shown in the picture above).  I can also make changes to the text or add details, grab the url and embed code, and syndicate the videos to other sites.  

           
Meridan loved creating a booktalk from her favorite series.

And Kadence couldn't wait to tell you all to read Junie B. Jones books (click on this picture to go to the Camtasia Relay Fuse recording for this one). 

As you can see the students love giving booktalks while using video.  It enhances the experience and gives them an enriched connection to the work they are doing.  They can use the equipment themselves and help one another while using Camtasia Relay and Fuse.

It makes it fun because they love being videotaped and the opportunity that they will be seen around the world once their videos are published online.

And most of all booktalks give students such ownership on their learning and reading, while giving them the chance to encourage someone else to read.

So keep checking out the Van Meter Community School EduVision portal.  We have other projects available and these videos will really grow over the month of May with all of our elementary video projects in the works.

And I am sure that I will see several secondary students again tomorrow as they spotted the camera and iPad today.  They will love taking it upstairs into their classrooms or working within the library to create really awesome projects too.

I can't wait to see what comes from putting this new equipment and tools into the hands of our students at Van Meter.

The curiosity, wonder, and sense of community made me smile today.  It confirmed what we all know about learning, teaching, creating, sharing, collaborating, and communicating with our students and school communities.

You can read about a webcast I did with JDL Horizons and eSchoolNews a few weeks ago entitled Leading Educators Innovate With Video.  There are a few ideas you can share with students, teachers and the school community from me and other educators too.

Our 2nd Graders Are Visiting Our Community Through Walks, eBooks, Books, Conversations and iMovies

We only have 17 days of school left.  In these 17 days we have so many things we want to do with our students.  

In second grade they are finishing the year by learning all about their community.  

Last year during the time they were learning about community, we created flippable eBooks with Evernote, FlipSnack and Skitch.  The collaborative class FlipSnack "My Community" eBook turned out awesome....we all loved it.  It was so much fun taking the iPads out in the community to get pictures of the things they wanted to highlight within their eBook. 

This year the second grade teachers and I decided to take a different direction with the community project.

The second graders are going to create "My Community" iMovies within small groups of 3 or 4 students.  They will each have a different part of their community.....Public Library, Post Office, City Hall, Fire Department, School and School Library, Casey's General Store, Bank, and Vet's Office.

After each group has created their piece of the iMovie about their part of the community, we will put them all together into one "Our Community" iMovie to share with each other, our school, our community and the world.

To start out their research we used several books from our library collection and eBooks with our MackinVIA that focused on different parts of communities.  They can find these eBooks within a Group I set up within MackinVIA...this always makes it very easy for the students to find the eResources that they need.  

I also gave each group a long piece of paper that will be their "Story Script".  They can lay out their iMovie on this anyway they would like.  The biggest requirement....they work together as a group to figure out how they want to develop and create their project.

I just loved walking around the library listening to the conversations and seeing them all work so hard together to create something unique and wonderful that would be part of their collaborative class "My Community" project.

On Friday we will take our walk around Van Meter with the iPads to get video and pictures.

I can't wait to see what they do with their project next.  This will be one that they will gain so much from as they finish second grade and go onto third grade.

And we can't wait to teach you all about our community of Van Meter, Iowa too.

We are "Choosing Kind" at Van Meter....and Making a Difference with R.J. Palacio and Patricia Polacco

Choose Kind....Make a Difference. 

This is what we are doing within our library and school at Van Meter.  It is starting with our fourth graders and it is going to spread around our entire school community.  

Two weeks ago the fourth graders and I created a virtual poem entitled "Choose Kind" with our friends in Vermont.  We used Padlet and thought of all kinds of wonderful ways to show kindness.  They loved the connection with our friends in Cally Flickinger's library and loved seeing the poem that we all created with these kind thoughts. 

When we visited the Choose Kind Tumblr, we saw a beautiful video that Josh Mika created for the Naperville Reads event this year.  In the video his students tell us how they will choose kindness, what they can do to make a difference in the lives of others.  

Today we started creating our own message. 

I started out the time with them by reading the first four chapters of Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  

Wonder is inspiring, transforming and gives one so many honest reasons to choose kind.  The little people could have listened to me read to them all day.....they loved the book and couldn't wait for their teachers to continue to read it in their classroom. 

They brought their white boards and wrote their "Choose Kind" messages on them.

They took this very, very seriously.  All of them knew that their message of kindness will make a difference in the lives of others.

I then took each child outside and took their picture in front of the school.

The really powerful thing....

The students were sharing their messages to #ChooseKind.

While we were taking the pictures outside, I also started another activity that tied into our theme for the day.  

Last weekend I had the honor of attending the Patricia Polacco Skype Professional Development Workshop at Mackin Education Resources in Minnesota.  What a wonderful event!  She is one of our favorites at Van Meter....and has been one of mine forever.  It was such a special day for me to be involved in this event and to meet Patricia.  

After hearing her personal story and thoughts about what is happening within schools and among children, families, teachers, and the world I was moved to bring her words back to Van Meter.  

I introduced Patricia's new book Bully to the 4th graders. 

London did a great job reading Bully to our class.  This is one book that every library, classroom. school, and family should have and share....The message is one that focuses around cyber bullying within schools and among young people.  

 London, you say it all.

Smile :) 

What a simple, yet powerful way to make a difference.  We are so excited to put all of Van Meter's messages together.

Thank you R.J. and Patricia for the little extra inspiration you have given us through the messages in your beautiful books.  We can't wait to share our message with you too.