Special Book Fair Edition

Happy Friday! This post is going to be short. I had a few things written down on a post it note that I wanted to include. I wrote them down so I wouldn't have to remember them. So if you are really curious, you'll find a hot pink post it note by my keyboard in the library. 

Fall Book Fair
I have chosen to go with an online book fair this fall through a company called Follett. If you recognize that name, it's because that's our library book vendor. They will give us 25% of our sales to go towards our collection. So that's good. They also ship for free to the school so there's no minimum order for families. Here's what you need to know:

• The fair will run from October 30 through November 16.
• Teacher wishlists are available through this Teacher Wishlist Link
• I put all classroom teachers in there. If I missed you, it wasn't intentional (except for Larry). Let me know and I'll add you in. 
• Get your wishlist done before Friday.
• All orders will be shipped to the school and then I'll work on getting those to families either in person or via a drive thru.
• I'll be sending out information to families next week via SeeSaw. That will include some eFlyers. I have a marketing kit coming soon and I look forward to opening that in a few weeks.

This link is the Main Cedar Ridge Book Fair link. You can visit it to see what the selection looks like. 

I told you this would be short. Have an excellent weekend!

Thursday update instead!

I wanted to get this out to you early so you have time to think and act before the big day on Monday! Remember to test out your flat panel display and make sure you know how to launch Airserver so you can display your iPad on Monday. I'd prefer to spend time proactively fixing issues than getting emergency calls on Monday. You know, the whole "your lack of preparation doesn't make it my emergency" thing. 

Library Time
Exactly one of you has scheduled library time with me. Please send me a 30 minute chunk that works for you. First come, first served. These times will carry over when we are able to visit the library again. The good news is we won't have to share with Locust! We'll use the time to share new stories, teach digital mini-lessons, promote digital reading, and use Destiny to place holds. For younger grades, I will work with you on a process for bringing down books for students to choose from and check out in addition to placing holds in Destiny.

Book bins
Please place outside your classroom doors. Include "return library books" into your arrival routine. I will walk the halls around 9:00 to pick up all the returned books. Later in the day we will place checked out books in your bins. We'll have a bookmarks with the student's name in each book. Because holds will be ongoing, students can return/check out as many times as they want per week. 

Camp Chairs
I purchased 30 camp chairs for you to use outside. Email me how many, what time, and what zone you need them to be and I'll set them up for you! Lots of fun colors too!

Chargers
Have been delivered to your rooms. Everyone got 3-4 so hopefully that will hold you over in a pinch. Unless the dead iPad is close to an outlet you'll just have to confiscate the iPad and the student will be without until it's charged.

Loaner iPads and Laptops
Loaners will be distributed through the media center. If a student forgets their device and you deem it necessary to have a replacement, email me and I'll bring one down to you. Please specify if you want an iPad or laptop. Know that you'll need to add apps as needed and coach students on how to log in and log out of applications. 

That's it for now. Let me know if you need anything!

SeeSaw pinned activities, Happy Halves, APL, STEAM kits, magical lamps

Another week down! I want to remind everyone that we are just three weeks away from the first Hallmark Christmas premier of 2020: Jingle Bell Bride on October 24th. Looks like it brings together some classic content: a wedding planner, a town in Alaska, and charming small town spirit. I'll have updated bingo cards ready for you by the 24th. Mine are way better than the Hallmark copycat version. 

SeeSaw Pinned Activities and Calendar
In case you didn't see on Twitter, SeeSaw has added the capability to pin an activity to the top of your class. There's also a new calendar view so it's easy to see what activities should be completed. Click this link for a how to video from SeeSaw and try it out! 

Happy Halves
Next week I'm restarting the Happy Halves PD sessions. For those of you who didn't attend last spring, they are 30 minute targeted learning on specific skills that you can use tomorrow. Teachers from around the district are invited. It's so nice to get perspectives from different schools. Next week's is scheduled for Tuesday from 3:30-4:00 and the topic is "Speed Dating: Your favorite virtual teaching tips". I sent an email with the Zoom info earlier this week. If you deleted it, pull it out of your trash! 

Apple Professional Learning Virtual Conferences
Our district's reps from Apple are strong leaders and are willing to share. They sent a schedule of free opportunities that I want to pass along to you. Some of you attended some sessions in the spring. If you haven't before, they are low key and informative. You can attend with your camera off and just follow along. Here is the schedule for the rest of the month. The times for us are from 4:00 to 5:00. Check it out!

At Home STEAM Kits
I'm in the process of organizing kits for kids to check out and use at home. Kits include Ozobots, Sphero, Dash & Dot, Duct tape creations, Origami, and more. There will be a website highlighting each kit and a Google Form to reserve them. I'm creating a SeeSaw course to go along with the process. Students would be able to upload a picture/video of what they have created to the corresponding activity. When activities are completed, students will get a button for the activity. I'll be building the site next week with the hope of launching the following week. I'll have all the info in next week's blog so you can send out to your classes. So if parents say they didn't know about it, I'll know what teacher to talk to :)

Show Me Award Nominees
I've enjoyed reading the first Show Me Award nominee to our kindergarten and first grade classes this week. I'd like to expand to second and third next week. So if you teach 2nd or 3rd, contact me for a time to get started. 

The Lamp
I'm trying something new. I was tired of the awkward "I'm on a call right now" hand gesturing when people come to the library. So I bought a new bulb for my salt lamp. If you see the lamp on, that means I'm on a zoom or phone call. Or perhaps I just don't want to be bothered...

That's it. Have a great weekend!
 

It's October, so let me share one of my fears.

I always fear that all our students aren't getting the same opportunities. I think that is happening right now. I don't want our students to miss out on opportunities but I also don't want to flood your inboxes with emails. So please glance through the sections because sometimes I sneak in relevant info amongst the hilarious memes...

iPad Troubleshooting
Things have really slowed down this week in the iPad repair department. Thank goodness. I appreciate you sending out the document I created for families. Please remind your families that issues should go through you first. I'm happy to help if you can't, but I think it's important that you know what's going on. There are so many different tools out there and I just don't know what you all are doing. If you are going to try something new, please let me know ahead of time so I can look it over and find out who to talk to if it's broken. Especially if it's a district provided resource. I'm so glad you all are trying new things, but a little heads up is appreciated. 

Sora
Thanks to Nikki, Julia, and Abbey for letting me talk to your classes about Sora. If you are new to CPS or teach younger grades, perhaps you don't know what a great resource Sora can be. It's a digital collection of eBooks and audiobooks that have been purchased for use by myself just for Cedar Ridge students as well as from Columbia Public Schools. It contains engaging, popular, new titles just like the library. And unlike Epic, it's free to use 24 hours a day. I recently purchased over $1000 in materials that are only accessible to our kiddos, so I would really like to see that money go to good use. Talk to me about giving your class a ten minute intro into how to use Sora. As a bonus, I will show them how to get into theDaniel Boone Regional Library's collection as well.

Library Drive Thru
We've just finished up our third week of Library Drive Thrus. We've been able to check out several hundred books to families. If you teach 3rd through 5th I should have already talked to your class about placing holds in Destiny. I would like to expand to 2nd grade next week so they can learn how to place holds. I'd appreciate any advertising you can give to your families. We are scheduled for Thursday and Friday from 11-1 next week. We might add another evening session once I figure out my personal calendar. Stay tuned.

ClassLab Works!
If you are looking for another interactive tool to use with your classes for formative assessment, try out ClassLab. Most of you may remember ClassLab as the tool that is inserted into Smart Notebook files. It allows students to post comments directly to your Smart Notebook activity from anywhere (I got my wife started on it earlier this week so I know it works!). Kids can launch it from the ClassLab icon on their iPads and connect with the code you provide them onscreen. If you need a refresher course on how to utilize this simple, effective tool for engagement and formative assessment, let me know. 

Have a Great Weekend!