March 14 - March 18

I had the great fortune to attend the Google Summit conference this week on Monday and Tuesday, and boy did I learn a lot of new things to share with the staff at Park View. With technology changing all the time it's important to step outside of our school district and see what's happening elsewhere.  So after spending a couple of days immersed in Google I came back to work with Mrs. Grau's class on creating movies on a European country.  Students began their research, found images, and got a reminder on how to cite sources.

Friday Mrs. Turk's class came in to finish up their writing assessment and Mrs. Lynch's classes came in to work on book reviews that will eventually been digitized to QR codes and placed on the books for other students to see their review of the book.

March 7 - March 11

This week has been a week full of students learning how to create a website.  Students in Mrs. Honn's social studies classes worked on creating websites on an African country.  Student learned how to use the Wix website builder to create their website.  Students researched information on their country last week, cited their sources while gathering information, and completed a storyboard before they began their website.  The students are doing an excellent job of creating websites that no only have great information, but websites that are visually stunning as well.

Ms. Czerwinski's students came in to check out books on different states in the United States as they are working on researching for their state projects.  I'm looking forward to hearing their completed presentations.

Writing Assessment for the 8th grade students finished up this week.  Teachers will be assessing the writing in the next few weeks.

Teen Tech Week

Teen Tech Week was celebrated March 7 - March 11.  Students at Park View were invited into the library to try out some different web tools that allowed them to do photo editing, 3D creation, movie making, as well as art and music creation.  The Maker Room was open to all who wanted to try out a variety of gadgets including: Google Cardboard, Little Bits, Ozobot, and the Makey Makey.  Students also were given a variety of cardboard tubing and they created a ball run.  This was started by one group of students and throughout the day students added on to the structure, making it stronger and more reliable. It was great watching different groups of students working together to solve different problems while trying to complete the structure.

February 29 - March 3

Well this week started off with leap day and a weekend that was sixty degrees, a snowy Tuesday, and chilly weather to end the week. Monday I had the opportunity to go to  Mrs. Honn's room and help guide her students in citations for their research project on Africa.  All students created a Noodle Tools account and they each completed two of their citations.  These same students will also be using Noodle Tools in their language arts class this week for a project linked with City of Ember.

Tuesday, I was reading Alabama Moon with a small group of students from Mrs. Somer's class.  We're a little over half-way through and the students are learning more about each of the main characters and their lives.  We're all looking forward to what happens next.

Wednesday and Thursday Mrs. Murphy was in the library working on a video project with her students and practicing their Español.

Thursday we were double booked, which is always fun.  While Mrs. Murphy's students were working on the desktops, Mrs. Horne's students brought in their Chromebooks where they finished up their research and then watched a tutorial on Thinglink and began their project.  The students all have different topics that relate to the book City of Ember, and wow, are they interesting topics.  The students worked hard to gather their information and will be ready to create their Thinglink project when they come back Monday after an extended weekend.

Next week is Teen Tech Week, so keep your eyes and ears out for some exciting announcements regarding activities in the library.