Happy Veterans Day to all those that have served or are serving.
This weekend I worked on social media posts to highlight our Veterans on campus, but also finished up my lesson for our LIFE Students- Government Class.
Reminder about my school: -9-12 Comprehensive High School -Have various programs that include Culinary/Floral/Vet Tech/ROTC and more -LIFE (Learning in a Functional Environment) 9-12
Anytime I can showcase our Premium Resources- I am doing it! It doesn't matter the content or ability- there are so many resources to make them accessible for all learners.
Lesson: -Using Britannica to learn about Veterans Day (we will spend time navigating to the article) -Completing a Matching Sheet -Using Canva to create Thank You Cards for our Veterans on campus (this might be finished in the classroom depending on length of time for the other pieces)
Reasons I LOVE Britannica for ALL levels of learners: -can change the reading level -can change the font size (make that font size bigger!) -can change the language -can have it read to you
Ways I am making this lesson more accessible to all: -anytime I need them to type something or search for something I have it spelled out so they don't have to look at the screen
-The presentation that I used as very little words and has one picture per slide (This is great for any type of scaffolding)
During the summer our district moved from Google Classroom to CANVAS for our course management system. Background on my district -3 early childhood schools -20 elementary schools (k-5) -8 middle schools (6-8) -5 high schools (9-12) We have over 33000 students. Lower-grade levels use Seesaw with CANVAS usage beginning in 2nd or 3rd grade. I am a middle school librarian and our school is in a hybrid model right now as students have the opportunity to be in person or virtual and can change that every six weeks.
My Top 3 Favorite things about using CANVAS:
1- It keeps all of my information in one place (and I love that I can pull data from that- I love having data to share with my admin and also my patrons) I do still update our website as well
2- I can post passwords because it is protected
3- I feel like I am reaching more students, and I think some students feel more comfortable asking questions through email than face to face (middle schoolers) I also love that I can set up announcements- more information on that below.
There are so many ways to use CANVAS- how I do it is just one. I have one CANVAS course for the school and added all of our students to the class.
Landing Page- I used my Bitmoji/Canva/Picmonkey to make the buttons- but there are so many free ones that are available. Each button either leads to our Lamar Library Website, a different website, or a Google Slide with interactive links.
First Row
Each of these buttons leads to a specific Google slide that gives more information on our different resources. The Lamar Library button leads to our library page.
For the Google Slides- I published them to the web so students can click on the different links (much like Google classroom)
-although I get data information on how much students are interacting with CANVAS, I did change all my links to bit.ly so I can see how often they were actually clicked.
This is what one of the Google slides looks like- what you can't see is at the bottom of each of these I have the passwords listed or how to login to them. Although.. many of our items are now in Classlink which I LOVE! One less step for signing in!
Second Row
This row has links to my different activities that I do. Literary Lions Every Monday I have Literary Lions- where I am reading a book that students chose- I think that I am going to change this up a bit. It is from 8am-8:15am every Monday morning. Remote students can log in, but I also send calendar invites to teachers so they can join as a class while students are eating breakfast.
Monthly Calendar
I started creating these in October using Canva, but I realized it was so much easier through Google Slides (and easier to copy and paste) I get the ideas for dates from BrownieLocks and link back to our databases for students to access. -Another reason I love CANVAS- is I can schedule announcements. So, although this is a button for students to click on, I also make it a daily announcement and set it for 8:15am when school begins (and encourage my teachers to have students interact with my page.
-Want a copy of the March calendar? Click on this link and it will copy the Google Slide (there are no links- you will have to add your own.
First Chapter Friday
Every Friday from 8am-8:15am I have a First Chapter Friday. Much like Literary Lions on Monday I invite students and classrooms to join in (and I love that I have Band and Science joining me too!)
I cam currently doing a First Chapter from authors that will be at the North Texas Teen Book Festival (which is FREE and VIRTUAL this year!!) Each book is also linked back to our system so a student can place it on hold.
Third Row
This is just a spot where students can learn more about me and check out our Library social media.
I also a FlipGrid where I post a #BookTalkTuesday every Tuesday (I do this through TikTok as well) and a #WAYRWednesday (What are you Reading Wednesday) every week. This way students can go back and look at book talks. The Events button leads to a Google Slide that has all the monthly challenges and events that are happening or I am hosting.
Overall
In reality- database usage, book check out, and digital book usage has declined. Not everyone participates in my different activities.. but I feel successful if even one person does because that student probably needed it. Students, teachers, and librarians are learning how to navigate during this crazy time.
BUT-I have also noticed an increase in databases since I started posting the daily announcements and engagement with the page has also increased.
I am always looking for ways to grow and reach ALL of my students, teachers, and community. I like having the CANVAS data and the bit.ly data to show what students are interacting with. I also like that I can still have a "safe" space in CANVAS. One of my favorite things about being a librarian is being able to have a space and different opportunities for students.
How do you use CANVAS for your library?
Each Six Weeks
I take a look at my data every six weeks and create a Piktochart to share with admin and patrons as to what has been going on in the library. Much like everyone- we are shifting/growing/changing.. and not everything works.
Friday (12/18/20) I finished my first official semester of being a librarian during a pandemic. Wow what a semester it has been! There have been many downs, but also many ups. I have a reflection blog coming up, but I wanted to share my 5 Top Favorite Things of this first semester.
School background: We are a middle school hybrid model. We have virtual and in-person students and our student enrollment is about 850.
Nearpod is my absolute FAVORITE app to use for lesson planning and creating!
Our school is a Nearpod school, but it is a platform I would be happy to pay for because of how amazing it is. It is a platform that allows for interactive lessons, games, and ways to embed items. Students can access Nearpod through a web browser or an app on various devices.
How I use it: -I create slides directly in Nearpod or use one of the many thousands of lessons already created and tailor it for myself -I embed activities to keep students engaged such as Time To Climb, Matching, and videos -Sometimes I just use it as slides while teaching -I can give the teachers the embed code so they can embed into their Canvas course or give them the student link so the asynchronous learners can have access to the lesson as well
Canva Being mostly virtual I love that I can use Canva for social media posts, flyers, and my monthly calendars. There is an option to embed and also share through links. Back in October I created my first calendar, and have loved making them ever since. I also currently use the free version, but have put in an application for the educator account.
How I use it: -social media posts (there is even animation available) -the phone app is pretty good for ideas on the go -monthly calendars that have hyperlinked ideas
-embed items into my Canvas course
I will be honest, there are not many things I pay for when it comes to apps (I do pay extra for Google storage), but I do pay for Piktochart- and it is the BEST money I spend a year. Piktochart is fantastic for creating infographics, flyers, and other digital content. There is an educator discount that I use. There are plenty of templates, but it is also easy to start from scratch.
How I use it: -Each six weeks I create an infographic of all that happened in the library -Each month I create an "Installment" which is a newsletter that goes in all the staff bathrooms -I share the links to the different infographics through social media outlets along with downloading PDF (which has clickable links) -I also love how interactive it is when looking at the PDF and website (and I can keep track of how many times it was viewed) My second six weeks infographic for the library
Flipgrid Flipgrid is a platform that offers video discussions. Once a topic is created students/staff can add videos to enrich the conversation, share their own information, or record a response
How I use it: -I have a Book Talk Tuesday topic and a What are you Reading Wednesday Topic where I post weekly book talks (it is also open to students to respond) -I have a Staff Recommendation Topic for teachers to share their reads -I have topics for Try It Tuesdays where students can share what they have tried I like that I can see how many views these have and how I can easily share it to Twitter. I also like that I can control who posts and who sees videos
I want to get books in kids hands, but that has been a little tougher than usual lately. Our district (and our public library) use Sora (which is under the Overdrive app) Because of Sora I have read and listened to SO many more books (but that too is for another blog on how my reading habits changed because of the pandemic)
How I use it: -I use it personally- audiobooks for my walks and in the car and eBooks for my Kindle (I don't have the self control to read on my phone) -promoting to our students- all of our students have iPads- although it works in the browser- the app is amazing!
I know that 2021 is probably not going to be much easier, but I am jumping for joy that I can check 2020 off my list!
What are your top 5? I know that there are several other items that I use on a regular basis, but these have gotten me through this semester.
