Students at WPE are Buzzing In!

How do you get fourth and fifth graders excited about reading? Waldo Pafford Elementary has students buzzing about reading! Recently, media specialists, Roxanne Lee, invited fourth and fifth grade students in to preview the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl books for this year.

Students listened to brief book talks about each of the 17 selected titles and then checked out their favorite. The books flew off the shelve in no time. In addition to getting familiar with the books, students learned the rules for the reading bowl. The visit concluded with students participating in a mock bowl. The questions for the bowl came from the most popular books in circulation- Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants were both represented!

LCHS Helen Ruffin Readers are Rocking the Green Screen!

Students at Liberty County High School are getting ready for the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl! Media specialists, Kay Williams and Jeff Staggs, host two weekly after school meetings for students to review and discuss the selected reading bowl books. Along with the weekly meetings, students meet with Bradwell Institute HRRB team members and scrimmage frequently to prepare for the reading bowl.

Last week, LCHS readers stepped in front of the green screen to learn how to use Adobe Visual Communicator 3 to create book trailers for the books they have been reading and studying. The book trailers will also be entered into the school media festival!

Technology use and a love for reading are hand-in-hand in the LCHS media center

Families at LHE Break for Breakfast and Reading!

Each year students and families look forward to the book fair coming to Lyman Hall Elementary. It is always exciting to see the new books, fun kits available, and the pancakes are out of this world! With the help of special area teachers and the front office staff, media specialist, Diana Anderson, welcomed 721 guests to a sit-down family pancake breakfast in the media center recently.

The pancake breakfast is a school tradition. Each child is given an invitation and requested to RSVP for his/her family. The media center is transformed into a fine dining establishment, with table clothes and flowers on every table. Each grade level is hosted on a different morning during the book fair. This enables families to browse for new books and enjoy a peaceful breakfast.

The benefits are two-fold! Since beginning the family pancake events, the book fairs at LHE have seen their profits double. When families feel welcome and enjoy their time at school everyone profits!

LCSS Media & Technology Showcase

I attended the annual LCSS Media & Technology Showcase yesterday and had a blast!  I was able to attend 3 sessions (well, I cheated and went to half of two, but shhhhh don’t tell) – podcasting, media festival and STAR Early Literacy. 

Melissa Roberts and Brittney Mobley of the LCSS Technology Office offered great ideas about podcasting.  Their hands-on workshop was a great deal of fun and I left feeling much more confident in using some of the free resources available to podcast. 

A session to promote the International Student Media Festival was offered by Deborah Hargroves.  Along with media festival tips and ideas, I learned of many free tools available for the 21st century classroom.  It will be so much fun sharing these programs with the teachers and students!  I just know we can utilize them in creating technology projects to submit to this years media festival.

STAR Early Literacy with Ellen Gadberry was the last session that I “sneaked” into and I certainly was glad I did!  I was so impressed with the program.  STAR Early Literacy is a web-based early literacy assessment tool that provides immediate feedback on the development of students' literacy skills.  I am extremely interested in this program for our kindergarten and possibly first graders who struggle with STAR testing.  Very informative session! 

Oh, but I haven’t told you the best part of that day (besides wearing jeans, of course)… I was a winner two times over!  Yes two times!  I won a NEO 2 from Renaissance Learning.  I am so excited!  I am going to put it to great use too!  It is going to travel each month to the classroom with the highest AR points AND testing accuracy at FLE.  How cool will that be for the kiddos?  I also won a book, In One Ear, Out the Other by Michael Dahl from Perma Bound Books.  (My friend Tara suggested I pick this book as my free gift… so, I haven’t actually read the book yet, but I’m sure it is GrEaT!) 

NEO 2

All in all, it was a great day!  Thanks Jaime for organizing the event!

Tracking Student Use of the Media Center

Last year, Mrs. Judy Serritella, the media coordinator for Georgia, requested each district submit a report detailing the number of students using the media centers. Compiling a number for each school was a bit of a challenge, never being required to report that statistic in the past. Each school was asked to do their best to arrive at a ballpark estimate.

This school year, Mrs. Serritella confirmed that each district would again be asked to state how many students have been served by the media centers. Tracking the number of students that visit the media center can be a very taxing and a time consuming task. In an effort to streamline and simplify the process of tracking student visits, our district is beginning a demo of James Maclaskey's software "Library Time Clock 2.1."

The software uses a database system that allows each student to type in his/her id number or scan his/her student id card when entering the media center. From the time a student scans his/her card the system is counting the length of the visit. Each student scans out as he/she leaves the media center.

The elementary schools are using a basic version of the system, "Time Clock 2 Basic". The high and middle schools are using a more advanced version, "Library Time Clock 2.1." The high and middle schools can collect data on the purpose of the visit.

The use of the time clock system does present a new process for students, but many of the students find it fun and quicker than using a visit log. The software also allows media specialists to run reports on the number of visits for any date range.

The number of student visitors is staggering! For example on August 27th the following visits were recorded in the elementary and middle schools that have begun trying the system:

JME- 393; FLE- 315; TCE- 404; MMS- 388

Wow! We knew the media center was a busy place, but now we have the numbers to prove it!

Helen Ruffin Book Club 2010-2011

This year media specialists, teachers, and paraprofessional from elementary, middle, and high schools across Liberty County created book trailers to peek the interest of student readers for Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. Participants learned how easy video production can be with Adobe Visual Communicator 3.

Several media specialists plan to teach students how to use the program. Liberty County High School's media specialists, Jeff Staggs and Kay Williams, plan to use the program with students to create media festival projects!

Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Fever!

Thank you to all who volunteered to read and write questions for this worthy cause! Your time will benefit students throughout the school system and even the state! The questions that you create from your HRRB reading selections will be used for student practice, county, regional, and state reading bowl question banks. Your dedication will encourge students to read!

If you would like to learn more about the rules of the bowl, check out this video:

Share the reading lists and rules with your students! Here are a couple of brochures that may help!

Rules and Procedures Brochure (Publisher)


Elementary and Middle Brochure
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059499-bba

High Brochure
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059498-f72

Need More Information about the HRRB? Read the Liberty County Handbook:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12110024-aad

Read the Georgia Framework for the HRRB:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/hrrb/files/EBC2B357E3DC4C5FAC0B055B05E84111.pdf

If you are taking the professional learning course for the HRRB, the presentation is available here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059500-e3b

This is a great rubric for video production!
http://www.divshare.com/download/12059501-e00

This handout helps students begin the book trailer production process:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12060070-0a9

Use this template to create questions for the bowl:
http://www.divshare.com/download/12107697-da0