ISTE Presentation: 

From Library to Learning Commons

Click the Image to View Our 2017 Presentation:

Link to our ISTE Presentation 

Portable Green Screens in the Library

Don't throw that Pizza Box Away! - Portable Green Screens in our K-2 Library -

Three kindergarten boys working on their movie

How and why you should turn all those pizza boxes into portable television studios for your students. 

Whole class filming is a wonderful experience,
but how can we increase student ownership?

Earlier in the school year my students created whole-class videos using our large green screen studio. While I assigned students a variety of tasks (director, camera operator, acting coach), my students spent the majority of their time on the carpet as an audience member. At the end of these units I wondered how we could increase student ownership of the production. Could I have my students create a green screen movie without having to play the audience member for large portions of the time? Could they be empowered to create a movie independently of the teacher? Could this be done by kindergartners and first graders?


For most of the school year I struggled with these questions. That was until I met Brenda Windsor and Mary O'Neil of Trumbull, CT at the Fairfield University "Education Technology Collaboration Day" in March.  Brenda and Mary presented on how they have incorporated green screens in the classroom, and shared the idea of using a pizza box to make a miniature portable studio. Here is a link to the video they created.  From that moment, I was on a mission to have my K-2 students write, direct, film & star in their own collaborative group mini green screen movies.

How I imagine my kindergartners, except without the beard. 

Kindergartner researching &
taking notes on PebbleGo

I eventually decided to offer the pizza box green screen activity as a choice for students to demonstrate their learning about animals they researched in the library.  All of my kindergartners and first graders researched and took notes on animals using PebbleGo. Following their research, I gave them three options to demonstrate their learning to the class. The options included a Scratchjr coded video, ChatterPix student narration, or the green screen project. The majority of my students jumped on the opportunity to try out the pizza box green screen. Here's how I got them started:

A 1st grade students selecting Green Screen
as an option and beginning to plan their story.

Step 1: Eat 8 large pizzas and bring the empty boxes to school. This is the most fun of all the steps. 

Fortunately my friends helped me on this front. That and kind
pizza shop owners donating empty boxes to a pleading teacher!

Seven separate stations are set up so multiple groups
could record at once.
.

Step 2: Prepare the green screen stations. To make the boxes green, we pasted green construction paper to the inside. Green paint would also have worked out fine. We also wrapped rulers in green paper, so that the students could paste their characters on them. I also made sure that DoInk, the green screen app we would use, was loaded on all the iPads. Additionally, I loaded a dozen animal habitat background images to the camera roll on the iPads. This way, my K-2 students would be able to choose their background without having to search online. Before sending my students off, we reviewed how to use DoInk as a class on the SmartBoard.

1st graders drawing and cutting out their animals

Step 3: After my students researched, their next step was to draw and cut out the animals they studied. I loved how a technology project involved the students coloring with crayons and making delicate cut outs with their scissors! It was fun hearing the students remind each other not to draw green animals. At this point, I let students work together or individually. I gave them time to write scripts, but many students simply used their notes and improvised. 

Step 4: Unleash the chaos. As students were ready, they taped their animals to the green sticks and went off to record. Some worked alone, others combined their animals into a single story. Their movies could be fictional, as long as they shared the facts they learned about their animals. The library was alive and buzzing with students working. As students finished their projects, they saved their videos to the camera roll on the iPads. I relied heavily on "ask 3 before me", my parent volunteers, and knowledgeable students to help those in need during the simultaneous recording. I loved the level of collaboration I saw, as students worked together, trouble shooting problems during their filming.

These 1st graders are figuring out how to

 position their characters on the screen.

This first grader is working alone on her
movie about Arabian Horses. 

Step 5: Upload the student work to Google Drive. After the students finished their recordings (some students needed a few extra days to complete their work during flexible book checkout time), I went to each iPad and uploaded the student projects from the camera roll to a Google Drive folder. Not all of the projects were student viewing-ready, but I was impressed by the high percentage that were done really well. 

Step 6: Viewing Day. After uploading over 60 student videos to a Google Drive folder, my next goal was to share these videos with the K-1 students for viewing. The videos included the pizza box green screen projects as well as the Scratchjr and Chatterpix options that some students selected. To share out the Google Drive folder, I had the students log onto a Nearpod presentation. I embedded a view only link to the folder in the Nearpod presentation. Students were given 10 minutes to view as many of the projects as they could. Following the viewing, they wrote and submitted compliments through the Nearpod app.

Kindergarten students viewing each other's projects

as we celebrate our work

The students had such a great time at the pizza box green screen that we will be using them again shortly in the future. Next time, they will be retelling folktales that we read in the library. Not all of my students were able to finish their green screen projects in advance of the viewing day, but they chose to keep on working on their films regardless because of how much fun it was. Here's some examples of their projects below:

A Kindergartner's individual movie about barracudas

Two students work together on an arctic fox video

Three 1st graders teaming up with different animals and having fun

Stations Provide Choice and Exploration During Book Checkout

How Stations Can Provide Choice & Exploration During Book Checkout, While Reinforcing Curriculum Goals. 

Osmo Tangram Station

On a typical day in the library, our K-2 students spend the last 10-15 minutes of their 30-minute library class freely checking out books. Since transitioning from a classroom middle school teacher to elementary library media specialist last year, I often struggled with how to engage some reluctant students during this flexible time. While most students used this time to locate and read books, inevitably a handful of students in each class would forget to return a book (which prevents them from checking out a new one). Others sought to play hide and seek in the stacks, or watched the clock until this time ended. My classes share the space with a second media specialist's class, resulting in upwards of 45 students using the space at a time for checkout. This can pose some real management problems if the students are not engaged. Given our situation, the other media specialist, Erica, and I began to explore how we could incorporate open choice stations during book checkout time. These stations, which would be aligned with our learning commons curriculum goals, would engage students through free choice and exploration.

We rolled out stations with little to announcement or instruction:

An hour of code computer station ( 6 computers)

We decided to roll out the stations over the period of a couple months, with little to no announcements or fanfare each time a new one was introduced. By taking our time with introducing the stations, we were able to see how the students engaged with them, allowing us to plan considerations for future stations. By providing little to no introductions, we attempted to prevent large groups of students from simultaneously flocking to a new station during book checkout.  We also wanted students to take ownership of how they engaged with the stations, and to learn independently through exploration. My inspiration for this approach was the "hole in the wall" in New Dehli, where Sugata Mitra learned that children working in groups could teach themselves to use a computer without any formal instruction.

Listening Station (1 of 3)

Our first stations were simple and aligned with literature appreciation:

Our first stations to be introduced were the "Readbox" and listening stations. The Readbox had been introduced last year as the only station during book checkout (link to blog post). At this station, students can scan a QR code next to a book to view a 30 second ChatterPix review of it created by a peer. At our listening stations, students in groups could read along with a book on a tape. Along with providing comfortable bean bag chairs for quiet reading, we saw an immediate transformation in how students engaged during book checkout time. The need to manage student behavior during this free time dropped significantly. Students who forgot to return a book could immediately join a listening station or explore the Readbox. Other students who quickly found a book had choices to engage in if they wished to read it at a later time. 

Our Readbox of student created book reviews

1 of  3 quiet reading spaces

Students watching/reading along with Bookflix videos

After finding the students engaging well in the initial stations, we next introduced our final literature appreciation station - the Bookflix Station.  We logged a row of 6 computers on to the Scholastic Bookflix database. Initially we chose a specific Weston Woods video ahead of time for the students to watch, but quickly found that students learned from each other how to navigate the site and find the stories that interested them. After seeing our own "hole in the wall" experiment work we no longer selected the videos for students and allowed free choice.

Bookflix home page

After building a culture of engaging in free choice stations, our next ones involved greater use of technology and focused on collaboration, tech skills, and problem solving:

After a month of rolling out our various literature appreciation stations, we placed two Osmo Tangram stations in the library without any explanation. When groups of students inevitably found and flocked to these stations, we discussed common sense rules for taking turns, sharing, and collaborating.  These two Osmo stations became so popular, that we had to introduce a new rule to our stations - you must check out your book before engaging in a station. This rule helped prevent students from waiting until the last minute of library to check out their book (an unintended consequence of our stations that we hoped to avoid.) Given the success of the Osmo Tangram station, we added three new Osmo stations. This included one "Newton" station, and two Coding stations. While occasionally we will need to intervene in groups that struggle to take turns, I have been  incredibly impressed and thrilled by the level of collaboration and teamwork seen at these stations. Our final station to be introduced was during the Hour of Code week, when we logged another row of 6 computers on to Kodable. Again, we provided no instructions and allowed the students to explore and learn together. 

Osmo "Newton" Station

Our Takeaways:

It has been a wonderful experience watching the "hole in the wall" experiment succeed in our library learning commons.  By providing these free choices during book checkout, we have tapped into a significant amount of time each class to provide learning opportunities aligned with our program goals (literature appreciation, technology skills, digital citizenship, communication collaboration and innovation, and inquiry).  Students are excited to use the space and explore together, and while some students still choose to engage in off task behavior from time to time, these occurrences are significantly reduced. The balancing act at this point is to not detract from the experience of checking out books during this time. For the most part, we find that some students need simple reminders to find their book before engaging in a station. Whether it's avoiding large groups or having a diversity of interests, we also find that for the most part students tend to spread themselves well across the library without being assigned a specific station. Some students still decide to read quietly or together with friends on the bean bad chairs and not engage in any station.

In the week leading to our holiday break, a 1st grade student asked me if she had library class on December 23rd. When I asked why, she told me with a somber expression that her family was leaving for Disney World on the 23rd, and she didn't want to miss library. If for that student, her elementary school library can compete with Disney World for her interest, then I like where we are heading.

ISTE Presentation - Transform Your Library into a Learning Commons

I'm excited to present my poster next week at ISTE 2016! Click on the image below to view my Google Slides presentation on our transformation to a library learning commons.

If you are attending, stop by at:

Monday, June 27, 8:00–10:00 am MDT

Building/Room: CCC Lobby D, Table 32

How to Have Successful Learning and Making Stations with a Fixed Schedule

How do you build enriching maker and learning spaces within the confines of a jam-packed fixed schedule? 

If you are new to the idea of making in the library, there are great blogs dedicated to this movement. I recommend checking out Laura Fleming's Worlds or Learning, and Diana Redina's Renovated Learning. Diana Redina defines a maker space as "a place where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials." Laura Fleming provides some best practices for successful maker spaces, which includes focusing on themes  and curriculum connections. Maker spaces provide great opportunities to foster creativity, collaboration, and innovation, but...what if you don't have a dedicated maker space, what if you don't have a flexible schedule, what if, like me, you teach eight 30-minute classes a day with no transition time? What if like me you share your library with a second media specialist, who teaches a class (sometimes a different grade) at the same time? What if like me, you have 1,000 students, coming to the library twice a week? How do you begin to make this work? This article shows our journey to initiate stations within our fixed library schedule. Some of these stations could be considered maker stations, others we call our learning stations.

A full tour of our library learning and making stations

Step 1: Consider your Curriculum Connections.

The first step, as with any unit planning should be to begin at the end. Reflect on why you wish to adopt learning and making stations in your library. What are the student learning outcomes and standards you wish to address. These are critical questions to consider, as you must be prepared to answer them when asked by classroom teachers, parents, and administrators. 

My colleague, Linda, and I began by looking at the K-12 mission statement and program goals for our district library learning commons:

Our K-12 Vision Statement:

The Learning Commons of Wilton Public Schools will be the physical and virtual core of our inquiry-based learning community. By fostering the development of socially responsible, empathetic and compassionate citizens, members will become creative and critical thinkers who effectively innovate and collaborate in a globally interconnected society.

Our K-12 Program Goals:

1. Inquiry and Information Fluency

2. Literature Appreciation

3. Technology Skills and Concepts

4. Digital Citizenship

5. Collaboration Innovation and Communication

Learning and making stations fit well with our district library learning commons vision. They also provided opportunities for more authentic, meaningful, and student-centered learning experiences. The planning behind each learning and making station began with the question, "which of our program goals is this station addressing?" We also wrote down Common Core State Standards, AASL,and ISTE NETS that applied.

Step 2: Create Some Initial Learning/Making Station Themes with "I can Statements"

With a fixed schedule and combined classes totaling 45 students meeting at the same time, we decided to create 8 separate learning and making stations in the library. Students come to library twice a week, so we decided to make their second library visit of the week a stations day. We used the entire library space to spread out these stations. All of our K-2 students would be engaged in the same stations, with minor modifications. Students would rotate through these 8 stations, trying a new station each week over a 2-month period.  Each station would address one of our K-12 program goals (communication, collaboration and innovation became a central theme). We placed a sign at each station, with an "I can" statement to provide direction for the students as to their learning objective. Our signs were inspired by Heidi Neltner's blog post on Maker Centers. We also placed tech instruction signs for our parent volunteers to assist students. 

This news letter to the parents reveals our initial 8 stations and "I can" statements

These station signs show some additional centers during a later unit, which included a book recording station, technology timeline museum, and presentation station. Here's a Vine video of those new stations.

Table sign for our "Presentation Station"

Step 3: Begin to Build a Culture of Innovation  

Before we rolled out the stations, we worked to prepare our students and parent volunteers for this significant shift in the library experience. This was my first year as a media specialist in our school, and up until this year, the library still followed a very traditional model. In order to make this work, we needed to prepare students with our expectations. Additionally, we needed to build support among the parent volunteers, so that they could assist students at the stations, and see the value in these changes.

To build a culture of innovation with the students, I followed the advice I learned from Maureen Schlosser's (@MaureenSchlosse) presentation on STEAM activities in the library at CECA/CASL 2015. Maureen's Knowledge Quest article, 5 Books to Introduce STEAM, provided some great ideas for books to build this culture. Using this article as a resource, I began pre-teaching with the following lessons:

Day 1. We Read and discussed the picture book "What Do You Do With An Idea?" written by Kobi Yamada and illustrated by Mae Besom. As a class, we discussed how we can make ideas grow, not be embarrassed by our ideas, and support each other. Kindergartners and first graders drew pictures of exciting ideas they wanted to grow. Second graders wrote about their ideas and posted online to a Padlet wall. We then introduced the idea of learning and making stations, and let the students know we would soon have a place to build our ideas.

Our 2nd grade students' Padlet of Ideas

Day 2. We read and discussed "Too Much Noise in the Library" written by Susan Margaret Chapman and illustrated by Abby Carter. As a class we discussed how libraries can be lively and loud, but differentiated between good noise and bad noise. As a class we discussed expectations for the upcoming stations.

We reviewed these expectations at the start of every stations day

Day 3: We read and discussed "The Most Magnificent Thing" by Ashley Spires. This was a great text

to discuss perseverance, and how we keep from quitting when it gets tough.


Day 4: We began our stations. I called on students one at a time to sign up for a station. We limited the number of students at each station, and used the Smart Board to track totals. 

A Smart Board file used to track totals each class

Step 4: Plan for Space & Technology Needs

Without a dedicated maker space, we decided to roll out the stations throughout the entire library. This spread-out spacing provided some sound barriers between groups that were collaborating, and other students who were working independently or recording their voices on iPad presentation apps. Our stations involved some robotics purchases, but these are not necessary to getting started. There are wonderful ideas out there, including the linked sites in this posting, for affordable and low tech maker stations. You'll need to consider your students, space, finances, and even scheduling. With our fixed schedule of 8 library sessions a day, with 2 classes meeting at the same time (over 350 students each day, about 1,000 students coming twice each week), we stayed away from maker stations that required a lot of perishable supplies and clean-up. If you are interested in involving coding/robotics in your stations, here's what we have tried and found successful:

1. Scratchjr App - This is a free app, but since it is not web-based, it requires a tablet (iPad or Android) to run. Check out my previous blog post about how Scratchjr can be used as a multi-media presentation tool for students to share out stories or their learning.

2. Dash & Dot - Created by the Wonder Workshop, these robots provide great opportunities to teach the fundamentals of coding and robotics. They come with a collection of free apps, which includes the Path App (for all ages including pre-readers) and Blockly (for students 8+). Dash retails for $149.99, and Dot for $49.99. Additional accessories can be purchased including a ping pong ball launcher for Dash. The Wonder Workshop also provides great resources and lesson ideas for teachers. 

3. Cubelets - Created by Modular Robotics, these robot building blocks enable students to construct interactive robots by simply snapping the various cubes together in purposeful arrangements. No coding or wiring required. The Cubelets station is incredibly popular, and provides great opportunities for critical thinking and collaboration. Like Dash & Dot, they come with adapters so that you can build on them with Legos. One downside of Cubelets is that they are pricey. If you have a group of students working together, you will want at least 3 batteries, and some larger kits. Be prepared to spend over $500. Over the year, I did experience some problems with defective cubes, but costumer service was excellent and supportive, so I kept coming back for more Cubelets.

4. Makey Makey - This easy to use invention kit lets you substitute everyday conductive objects for your keyboard by alligator clipping the object to the Makey Makey (a credit card sized device similar to an Arduino Board). This enables the user to turn objects like bananas, play dough, metal, water, or people into game controllers, musical instruments, camera clicks, or whatever you dream up. The Makey Makey plugs into a computer through the USB, no downloads required. This worked great for 2nd graders, but could be conceptually challenging for K-1. I'm looking forward to adopting a simpler version, the Makey Makey Go, with K-1 next year. At our stations this year, we brought up a code for a piano (through Scratch) and had students build a piano out of some provided objects. We also challenged students to make game controllers for pong and pacman. This also provides an opportunity to teach computer coding. The Makey Makey Classic runs for $49.95, and the simpler "Go" version for $24.95. Side note: because of wheat allergies, we used Crayola Magic Clay instead of Play Dough at our station. 

Again, these purchases are not required to begin learning and making stations, and there are other robotics and coding products out there. But we were pleased with these devices and are happy to share our use of them. We were fortunate enough to have the support of our PTA and Wilton Education Foundation in making these purchases possible. If that is not possible for your library, you may want to check out options like Donors Choose to crowd-source funding. If you're looking for other great early elementary school ideas, check out Nan Stifel's Blog and follow her on Twitter (@nstifel). Her ISTE 2015 poster presentation on pairing books with maker activities introduced me to Cubelets. 

Step 5: Just Go For It!

After all of our planning, we still didn't feel ready and had no idea if this was even going to work. Would students be engaged? Could they handle the independent work? Could two library media specialists coordinate a combined class of 45 students working in 8 separate groups? Throughout the 8 week unit, we made minor adjustments in the layout of stations, modifying expectations for grade levels, and eliminating an origami station that required too much teacher support. In the end, we were amazed by the high levels of student engagement and collaboration. To quote a colleague, who it turns out was quoting Victor Kiam, "even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward"

Some Student Data:

At the end of our first 8-week session, we used Nearpod to poll the 2nd graders about their experience. Here are some findings:

If you read through this entire blog post, I'm very impressed! Please leave a comment or questions below! If you are attending ISTE 2016, come visit me at my poster presentation!

How to use Scratchjr as a multimedia presentation tool for your K-2 students!

I can't believe it's been over 6 months since my last blog post! The adventures in library rolled on, but a brand new adventure in fatherhood eclipsed the blogging time! When we last left off, I had blogged about my decision to use Scratchjr during Hour of Code month in December. The posting explained how Scratchjr goes beyond introducing the concepts of coding to early readers, by empowering students to share their learning, and create and publish their own interactive multimedia projects. With Scratchjr, you don't just learn to code, you code to learn. Today's post picks up where we left off, at the end of the Hour of Code month.

______________________________________________________________________________


By the end of the month, after 6 brief library visits, the Kindergartners were presenting their creative wordless fiction stories that they coded, while the 2nd graders were coding interactive presentations that taught the kindergartners about an animal they researched. These students had never used Scratchjr before, and now they were harnessing its power to share their learning with their peers in a breakout event. 

Some examples of student work and our breakout event:

2nd grade students present their animal projects that they coded in Scratchjr. They are presenting to a kindergarten class that has library at the same time, and had not yet begun their coding unit.

A kindergartner teaches his peers how to code at a breakout event in our library. He is teaching fellow kindergartners from a separate library class that had not yet begun their coding unit.

These are some more samples of  the animal projects created by our 2nd grade students at the end of their 6 library visits.  

I was blown away by how the students picked up programming in Scratchjr, and harnessed its power to create authentic and meaningful work that they shared with their peers. 
Here's how we got there:


Lesson 1 (20 minutes): Before handing out the iPads, I used SMART notebook to introduce the concept of coding in Scratchjr. I placed images of the some basic movement blocks on the notebook page, and turned on the "infinite cloner", so that students could add the blocks to a line of code by dragging the image with their finger on the SMART Board (see below). We discussed what programming is, and reviewed the meaning of the movement blocks. Students raised their hands to come up to the SMART board, and create a line of code for the teacher to act out. Students then volunteered to act out the code themselves. After this initiation activity, students received their iPads and were directed to the app. I walked them through this basic intro lesson lesson from these Scrathjr playrgound resources. 

The SMART notebook page mentioned above. The blue movement blocks have the "infinite cloner" turned on.

Lesson 2 (20 minutes): We played the same SMART board initiation activity from last class, "program the teacher", and I acted out movements that students selected on the board. Students then volunteered to act out new code as well. I then walked the students through the second basic lesson from the Scrathjr playrgound. 

Lesson 3 (20 minutes): I introduced my students to their main goals for this coding project. K-1 students would create their own wordless picture book stories using Scratchjr. 2nd grade students would create an interactive presentation about an animal that they were already researching that month. Before coding, I shared the wordless picture book Flora and the Flamingo with my K-1 students. 2nd graders watched student work samples on YouTube posted by Jacob Lee. I introduced some new Scrachjr blocks to students and let them begin their projects. 

Instruction slides from the SMART notebook file

Some new blocks I previewed

Lessons 4-6 (about 1 1/2 hours total): I reviewed the project goals at the start of each class (see images below) with K-1 and grade 2 on the SMART Board. I reviewed some various coding blocks with each class, and created some examples of what students could do in Scratchjr by mirroring my iPad (using an Apple TV). K-1 students also read some additional wordless picture books. Mostly, I stepped off the stage and gave the students time to work.

SMART Board slide with goals for 2nd graders

SMART Board slide with goals for K-1 students

Lesson 7: The break out event! My students presented their projects to the students from the other library class (we have two library media specialists each teaching at the same time, but not always to the same grade level). My colleagues' students had not yet begun learning to code in Scratchjr (we have only one iPad cart). Her students learned about Scratchr from mine, while enjoying their fiction stories (K-1) and presentations about animals (2nd grade).


Learn more about Scratchjr online, and post below with any comments or questions!