While we're all distance learning (quaren-teaching?) because of Coronavirus, I realized this is a GREAT opportunity to remind my readers about the fantastic app Flipster, wherein you can read hundreds of digital magazines online on your iPad! With our subscriptions to Flipster, at SPMS we have access to the following online magazines:
Each of these beautiful, full-color magazines is ready to download at a moment's notice. New editions are released monthly or bi-monthly depending on the magazine, and back issues are available for up to three years! Here's how to login to Flipster through your iPad: Aren't they gorgeous? They are an unlimited number of users, too! I love, love, LOVE Flipster! Happy Reading!!
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What a memorable day in my career... my first day as an online school librarian AND (now that the cat's out of the bag) it's the day I can announce that I'm taking on a new challenge for 2020-21... I'll be a Boonsboro Middle School Warrior next year!
How lucky I am to have had such a wonderful experience with my SPMs family, which makes leaving next to unbearable. A little piece of me will ALWAYS be a Springfield Cougar. I love you, Cougars. You'll always be "my" kids. 💙🤍🐾🤍💙 With the Maryland public school closures extended for four additional weeks, it's more critical than ever that our students have access to high quality eBooks... so here I am again, singing Capstone's praises! In an amazing show of generosity, Capstone has unlocked their ENTIRE eBook collection for students through June 30, 2020. Our students can use their iPads and the Capstone app to access this collection. Here is a quick video with the instructions! Here is the login information:
Username: continue Password: reading It's that simple! Just login to app and read your heart out! If you need additional help accessing these resources with your students, please reach out - I'm just an email away! With the Coronavirus closure for the next two weeks, many authors and their publishers have granted permission via Twitter for teachers to record read-alouds of their books! I knew immediately which book I would select: Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein! This fantastic book details a group of twelve 12-year-olds who are locked in the most technologically advanced library of all time with 24 hours to escape... and the winner gets to be the Mr. Lemoncello spokesperson! I read this book several years ago when it was a WCFL Battle of the Books title. It's fast-paced, funny, and full of puzzles - a perfect read aloud! Listen along with me as I read two new chapters each day, and check out this cool video Mr. Grabenstein put together all about Mr. Lemoncello's Library! UPDATE 6/11/20: Per the publisher guidelines, I removed the link to my read aloud folder at the conclusion of the school year. I hope you enjoyed listening while I read all 56 chapters aloud! It was fun reading to you, even if I discovered that I was not meant to be a voice-actor, HAHA! Thank you for listening!
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED. You guys. They totally surprised me... Mrs. Ruppenthal said that there was a projector issue in a science classroom, so I followed her down to the classroom to fix it (yep, it was that easy). There was no projector problem. There was, however, a huge group of people gathered to surprise me ... I was selected as a finalist for WCPS Teacher of the Year! Literally my face: 😱 That's our superintendent, by the way. No big deal. 😱 😱 😱 I have no idea what he said to me after telling me I was selected as a finalist. It's all a blur! I did manage to hold it together to take pictures with my admin team though... it's easy to be a great teacher with support from great administration! My favorite picture, by far, is the pic with the kids. They are the reason we show up every day. Just look at them: Can you believe this?? I can't. To quote Junie B. Jones, "Wowie wow wow!" What an amazing day!
Coding and computational thinking tools are all the rage in education right now... everywhere you turn, another company has popped up with another electronic device that will teach your students to code. But sometimes it is nice to unplug, right? Enter the Turing Tumble - a computer that doesn't need any batteries, wires, or plugs... just your brains, perseverance, and some little marbles! So how exactly does it work? First, you have assemble the computer. This can be a bit of a process, so I'd recommend it be done before you hand the Turing Tumble to students. I had my library helpers assist me in assembling my five kits for first time use. Here's a great unboxing/setup video if you want to see what is involved before you begin: The included graphic novel style challenge book is fairly self-explanatory. I went over expectations with my students and let them go... and wow, did they ever go! Within minutes they had the first puzzles set up and began running their "programs": But then came the best part... the talking. The first 2-3 puzzles are fairly simple and mostly teach the operations of the computer. Starting with the 4th puzzle, things start getting intense. The collaboration! The trial and error! The discussion about WHY it wasn't working and HOW to fix it! My nerdy-teacher-heart was SINGING!! YES!!! Just listen in on this discussion: And this one (from the same group)!! The puzzles continue to get more and more complicated, adding more pieces, demanding different outputs - it really gets them thinking! The Turing Tumbles are, without a doubt, one of the best additions to our Makerspace. I can't wait to see what else my students do with them!
Side note: The Turing Tumbles are named after Alan Turing, the famous mathematician responsible for laying the foundation for modern computer science! His work with decoding ciphers helped win WWII. Unfortunately, he was arrested and jailed for his at-the-time illegal relationship, dying an untimely death that is still debated whether it was accidental or suicide. Alan Turing's work was critical to the development of stored-program computers, and it can be argued that all modern computers are an iteration of Turings' work. Can you envision using a Turing Tumble in your classroom? Leave a comment below and let me know! When someone says "computer programmer" to you, what do you immediately think of? If you're like many people, it's something like this: A nerdy white guy, right? Girls Who Code is here to shake up that stereotype. Their mission statement, from their website, states: Girls Who Code is a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Our programs educate, equip, and inspire girls with the computing skills they’ll need to pursue 21st century opportunities. Fantastic, right?? I am proud to be the first school in WCPS to host a Girls Who Code Club. We met 2x a week, 24 girls participating. As a secondary GWC Club, my girls had access to their iPads to work. They learned how to write "real code" - not just block coding in a drag-and-drop interface, but by actually writing code in Apple's Swift Playgrounds, shown here: With the Learn to Code I, Learn to Code II, and the Answers playground, my girls learned how to write lines of code in Apple's Swift language. They found and fixed bugs, learned about variables, and so much more. The final project was to work on coding a personal assistant, much like Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa. More importantly, these girls discovered that they COULD code... that they could break down the stereotype of the nerdy white guy and that THEY, this amazing, talented, diverse group of brilliant young women, could be the future faces of programming: To quote Beyonce... "Who runs the world? GIRLS!"
It's not secret that I love Capstone Interactive eBooks... if you've been in my library for more than a few minutes, you have probably heard me talk to a student or staff member about them! How can you not love professionally narrated eBooks that have an unlimited number of simultaneous users? Note: I am not compensated by Capstone in any way - I just love them THAT MUCH!!! My amazing school has a substantial EL population. How lucky that Capstone has a whole section of books called "Hello/Hola!" These books include books written in Spanish, and even some dual language books! Here' s a quick video I made on how to use the Capstone Library: I knew after reviewing the phenomenal titles that we had available through WCPS that I had to test them out with my EL students... I set up class time with our awesome EL teacher, Mrs. Phillipson, and her students. The books were a hit! The students were able to listen to professionally narrated books read by native speakers in their home languages. They felt "seen"... a critical step in their development as learners and English speakers. Every single student was able to find multiple books that they wanted to read. When it was time to close up for the day, the students groaned and didn't want to leave. THAT is the hallmark of a successful lesson! If you have Capstone Interactive eBooks in your library, what are your students' favorite titles? Drop a comment below and let me know - I'll get it for my kids, too!
I recently had the opportunity to partner with a 6th grade math teacher and her Magnet students for an amazingly awesome and fun project - making pianos with Makey Makeys! If you aren't sure what a Makey Makey is, check out this video for a quick explanation... it takes any item that conducts electricity and turns it into an input device (like a mouse or keyboard) for a computer! We've used water, aluminum foil, playdough, even PEOPLE! This lesson was the perfect collaboration between the classroom and the library. The math teacher handled all the math content, while I taught the kids how to use the Makey Makeys to create a scaled-up piano... like in the movie Big! (Yes, we showed them this clip... and yes, they thought it was pretty cool!) Here is the small model piano the kids used, which was drawn by the creators of Makey Makey: The teacher allowed the students to pick their own scale factor. She created a quick rubric for grading, found HERE. The kids had worked on scale factor in class prior to coming to the library, so after a brief review of scale factor, I taught them how to wire up the Makey Makey... and they were off and running... well, dancing! Take a look at some of the amazing work they did! And now you know why I say I have the best.job.ever. How would YOU use Makey Makeys with your students? Drop a comment below and let me know!!
Each year, the SPMS Media Center holds a bookmark contest. Students can enter original artwork for consideration as the school bookmarks for the year The students vote for their favorites. Here are our 2019-2020 winners! 6th GradeCongratulations to Sergia N. and Tessie D.! 7th GradeCongratulations to Kristalyn N., Catherine B., and Averie B.! 8th GradeCongratulations to Libby F., Peter R., Hope D., and Lucas O.!
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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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