Best+Practices

**A place to share what is already "working for us"**
I would love to build a collegial library of digital instruction - PPt, video, etc. to which we each contribute and can all access. E.g. my "using call numbers" PPT could be useful for introductory work, but one of your higher level presentations would work for kids who need more of a challenge. When I return to school, I'll put something here that you can look at to see what I mean. BA

I find that if you invite a teacher to accompany you to a workshop like Kickin It Up a Notch at BOCES School Library System over the summer, you have time to plan an inquiry project when the teacher is not facing the daily demands of managing her classes. They are rested and energized for new ideas. MJD

I've been using the BookFlix page with my first graders this week (our free trial is good through April 30, user name :slsa, password: slsa). We've been talking about fiction vs. nonfiction this month, so it was a natural resource to use. From a tech. point of view, using the page on our network, I was not able to choose full screen view of the streaming video, but was able to successfully use it in it's small screen size. By using the projector to show the whole class, the smaller size was fine. MSH

__Chap. 2 - Sensemaking models:__ Sometimes the idea of using graphic organizers just come naturally to students. I'm working with a team of 7th graders on their energy project. They are ready to culminate their research and present. They are working in groups of 3 and will be creating a PP presentation to argue their particular energy resource in front of the Crossgates Mall board to persuade Crossgates that their resource is the most cost efficient and best for the environment. One of the students thought of the pie chart as the best way to show how much coal is being used today in the USA and asked how to do this. We used excel to create this visual and after she saw how it looked got very excited as to how much more effective this would look in her presentation! I realized I need to do a mini-lesson this week on various means of graphically presenting their data. The "bird book" reading came at an appropriate time! SDM

All 8th graders at the middle school are involved in year-long science projects. They come up with their own scientific hypothesis and experiment to prove it. We have worked with them on their research, but I wonder how much they have been guided in using all forms of graphic organizers to present their data? Reading this chapter has prompted me to have that conversation with teachers involved. SDM I have an my form "A" evaluation today. Dianne has suggested we speak about technology. To simplify it form me, and give her a concrete example, I've put together an I Keep Bookmarks page (Megrarian's Bookmarks) with many of the sites and activities I've shared with my students this year. I've included a voicethread I created, plus a few other resources I've taught. MSH