I have the honor and privilege of teaching in a county that is very forward-thinking in terms of technology integration. This academic year (2016-17) we are going 1:1 with iPads for grades 3-12 countywide... we are one of very few districts across the state to embrace a 1:1 program on such a large scale. Apple has a new program called Apple Teacher. It's a series of tips, tricks, and information to help you become adept at using Apple products in your instruction, and it's FREE! You can sign up here: www.apple.com/education/teachers/ Once you are signed up, you will have access to a series of instructional videos and resources that will help you expand your knowledge base. There are 8 areas of expertise for Mac and 8 areas of expertise for iPad. After you have reviewed the content, you can take a quiz related to the material. Each quiz contains 5 questions, so there are 80 questions total to earn Apple Teacher status. You'll need to pass each quiz with an 80% (or a 4 out of 5). You CAN retake the quizzes if needed. Each quiz passed earns a badge. To become certified, you'll need to earn all 16 badges. My badges look like this: After you have earned your badges, you'll get a congratulatory email celebrating your success! YAY, GO YOU!!! You also will have directions to download and add Apple Teacher logo to your email signature, website, blog, wiki, or other online resource.
I found the experience to be enlightening, and I've been teaching with iPads and Macs for more than 5 years. I hope you will sign up to become an Apple Teacher this year, too!
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Banned Books Week is September 25th - October 1st, 2016. This annual event celebrates your right to read and your right to freely access information! To celebrate Banned Books Week, I created a bulletin board (found on Pinterest, not my original idea). Here it is: It includes some infographics about banned/challenged books, as well as a list of the top 100 most challenged books. The students are fascinated by the paper-chain lock... it's the little things, I suppose! Why promote banned books? It's important to draw attention to the idea of censorship - we cannot allow materials to be censored for our students. It is important that they read a wide variety of materials from a diverse spectrum of writers. I have a deeply held personal belief that materials in the library should be free choice. I absolutely understand the importance of putting a book that is "just right" into a child's hand, but I also know that it's vital for the kids to have choice. Just check out this article: How to Motivate Students By Letting Them Choose Books Many adults, while well-intentioned, destroy the love of reading in kids by limiting the selection of books that they can read. This comes in many forms - by telling a kid to put a book back that looks too hard for him/her, by limiting students to a certain book basket or a certain Lexile level, or by telling students they can only select books from a certain part of the library (eg Fiction, or Biographies). All of these are forms of censorship and must not be practiced in a public school library. Does this mean we should just let students pick whatever books they want with no input or thought? No. We certainly can encourage students to select books that are closer to their reading level, or guide them toward books with content that we know they will enjoy. We can allow them to take the book that is too difficult or too easy while also helping them find one that it just right. HOWEVER, the ultimate decision should be with the children... if we are to raise life-long readers, we MUST allow them to self-select their texts. *STEPS OFF SOAPBOX* So if you're still with me, let's work on promoting banned books! The ALA has an amazing collection of digital downloads all available for free! Just click the link above and check it out. I also have a contest running this month... I took the first two pages of a banned/challenged book, shredded it up one line at a time, and I put it in a jar so students can guess the title. The contest is open all month. The winner will win a free book of his/her choice and a lunch pass for themselves and a friend for the week. Here is the setup: Can you guess the banned book? It's one of my FAVORITES!
So in September, make sure you exercise your freedom to read what you want, when you want! Read a banned book! Welcome Back, dear readers!! Summer was short and busy, but it's great to be back to school. We had some AMAZING entries for our Summer Reading Challenge from the SPMS Media Center. To complete the challenge, students had to read 5 or more books over the summer AND redesign the cover-art for one of the books they read. The results were amazing! Take a look at some of this incredible Cougar artwork! The students who participated will have the opportunity to come to the library for snacks and to make a cool LED bookmark. Directions and pictures of our party are forthcoming. I am so proud of our students!
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About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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