Miss me?

I know, it's been too long. Hasn't it been busy? Here's a Monday update to start your week.

EdTalk 2019
Looking for a great way to spend your Saturday morning? Come to Paxton Keeley on the 26th for an edcamp style discussion with teachers and a presentation from author Lester Laminack! Registration starts at 8:00 and the sessions will end by 12:15. It's a great way to get refreshed and load your toolbox with ideas from fellow teachers. Come on out! 

Library Stuff
First, please make sure you are sending your returns down in the morning. We aren't getting the help we thought we'd have this year for circulation (checking in and reshelving) so it's important you send books down early so I can get to it before you arrive. 

Second, we won't be checking out new books to students who have overdue materials. I sent each of you a list of current overdue books. I'll run hard copies later in the week for you to send home on Friday. Then I'll have another round for you to pass out at conferences next month.

Book Fair
The book fair will be held in the media center the week of conferences. I will have the fair set up on November 7th before I leave for the Smoky Mountain trip. We will watch the preview video the week before and have students complete wishlists during their checkout time. I'd love some 5th or 4th grade help with the kindergarten classes again. Those times are:
Friday the 8th at 2:40 with Ms. Huhman
Monday the 11th at 2:40 with Ms. Lammers
Tuesday the 12th at 2:40 with Ms. Hawf
Wednesday the 13th at 2:40 with Ms. Schooler

Matt's Projects Update
Done:
-Completed the PLTW "tiger rescue" with all third grades. Students built simple machines and then designed a compound machine to rescue a tiger from a pit.
-Started 5th graders on their collaborative Minecraft Ecosystems projects.
-Tried to do a breakout in Mr. Higgins' classroom...
-Working with Ms. Wall and Ms. Geha students to 3D print an object after reaching their goals in Class Dojo.
Coming up:
-Maker stations with 4th graders for a job well done
-Lots of Halloween buttons with kindergarten
-Mini breakout with Ms. Maude's first grade
-Google Hangout with author Abby Cooper on November 4th with 5th grade

Have a great week!

"I Do It For You"

Too bad there's no audio to go along with the picture!

Congratulations to Ms. Wall's class for completing the "decorate your book return bin" contest. Her musical box came down the hall this morning blaring Bryan Adams and decorated with custom student art. It's pretty awesome so she's definitely getting some cash. I only know of one other classroom that is attempting it. You have until next Friday to finish.

I have a new (hopefully recurring) feature in my blog this week. As we've been struggling to get fruit to grow on the pineapple chart, I thought it might be helpful for me to share the types of things I am doing in different classrooms. I try to tweet my activities so you can see what's happening, but maybe a digest each week would be more helpful. So I'm including things I did this week (one time only) and what's coming up. Pretty much everything I do can be modified to any grade level or content, so talk to me about planning it out with you.

Matt's Projects Update
This week:
- Showed iPad productivity tools with all third grade classes

4th graders building their egg drop contraption

(15 minutes each)
- Made "about me" buttons with Trisha's class
- Completed an egg drop with Nikki's class for students to simulate the effect of heavy impact on the head
- Visited Leanna and Taryn's classes with the bookmobile
- Completed the Amazing Library Race challenge with all 3-5 classes
Next week:
- Working with all 2nd grade classes to design, build, test, and analyze machines to spread seeds over an area
- Collaborative activity with Taryn's class
- Showing Flipster digital resources to grades 3-5 during checkout times (no need for students to bring their devices)
Down the road:
- Collaborative Minecraft ecosystems with 5th grade
- Country research with 3rd grade with final projects being published using Pages and iBooks Author. We'll also use a green screen to record travel videos of their country. 

Global Read Aloud
The Global Read Aloud is upon us. I know, I missed it last year. This year features author Yuyi Morales. We have some of the titles now and I'm looking to add the ones we don't have. If you would like to participate, I can lend out the books for you to read to your classes. The lineup of books is listed at this blog site. Let me know if you'd like to join up. 

Bookmobile

So many choices...

The bookmobile is rolling around the school. Sign up your class by emailing me. I can post up in your class or in the hallway. Students can return and checkout new titles. If you are focused on a specific genre/author/topic in class, I can find titles to support more reading. 

Bookroom
Time for some friendly reminders about the bookroom. As of now, it's only accessible for our teachers. I think that might change at some point. Here are the key points:

• All materials need to be checked out in the library. If someone isn't there to help, add the numbers to the clipboard on the counter behind the circulation desk. I need to have record of our circulations and to be able to track down missing copies. Which brings me to...
• Make sure you are sending back all six copies in the bags. 
• This point might seem small, but I would appreciate it if you could return the bags with the information sheets facing out. That way the next person can see the title, level, and other info that they need to make decisions. And it saves me time. Because it's really all about me. 
• Finally, all materials need to be checked out. I know, I'm repeating myself. 

New book orders

I'm planning on putting in another book order for the library in the coming weeks. Send me any titles that you would like to see in the library or would like to see more of.

Have a great weekend!

Lots of things for you!

Between soccer, cross country, scouts, dance, piano, and choir, I'm over this week. But I'm not as tired as Josh! 

Reading Capsules

I launched our new Reading Capsules this week. Students have enjoyed hanging out in them to read their books. They are taking up a bit of space in here, so I'd love to ship them to your classrooms. If you are interested in using them for a day or more, let me know. They work best for grades K-2. I'll consider buying giant ones for the older students if you are interested. 

Headphone Splitters

Per popular request, I purchased ten splitters to use in the iPads. Nikki has used them in the past for students to listen to an audiobook in a group. If you'd like to try them out, let me know. 

Collaboration Activities
I wasn't able to find time to create my first round of activities. I'm planning to take that on next week. Several of you have expressed interest in starting those, so I'll contact you as soon as I am ready to schedule a time. Should be fun! 

Interactive Bulletin Board
Our board is starting to fill up! Taryn brought her class down to add posts and I'm seeing more students stop by to add their thoughts. I'd love for some of these ideas to spark conversations/research/service learning projects in your class. If something on the board fits with your teaching, let me know if I can help you get going. 

Mark Twain Nominees
For our 4th and 5th grade teachers, I have buttons ready to make for our book nominees this year. No, you don't have to complete a project like the students. I'll trust your word. Of course, if you teach K-3 and also finish a nominee, you are welcome to a button as well! There are some good ones this year. 

Attention 3-5 Teachers!
Next week for checkout, we'll be competing in the Amazing Library Race! We'll review info on how to use Destiny, reading spine labels, and finding books. Then we'll have a short competition to achieve their library certification. Please have 6 students bring an iPad to access Destiny and serve as our group leaders. 

Come and get it
I have a small book display that's just taking up space. It's by the tv. First come, first served. 

Finally...
Several of you have mentioned a Library Book Return Crate decorating contest. So let's do it. Decorate your crate to enter the contest. Scoring will be totally arbitrary and done by me. I like lights, music, bright colors, and butterflies. The winner of the contest will receive a $100 gift card to Scholastic. The contest will run until a suitable winner is found. Or two weeks. Whatever comes first. 

Have a Great Weekend!

Breakout, buttons, and bookmarks

I enjoyed attending most of your team meetings this week. It's fun to hear what's happening in your room. Please let me know how I can support your work in the classroom!

0 for 24. That's our current Breakout stat line. Third and fifth grades all took on a Breakout over the last two weeks and we came up empty. But we learned a lot, which takes me to point number one...

Collaboration Skills
As I watched so many groups work on their Breakout tasks, I realized that we need to continue to work on those crucial skills. We may not know what jobs our students will have, but we know that collaboration is vital for the workplace. My plan is to come up with short group activities and explicitly teach students different collaboration strategies. I'd like to fit it all within a 30 minute activity: mini-lesson, group task, debrief. The tasks will be tailored to your grade level. Yes, I mean kindergarten as well! I'm going to have everything organized by grade so we can keep building on these skills from year to year. Please let me know if you would like to start us off. 

Interactive Bulletin Board
Many of you have noticed the interactive bulletin board outside the library. Many students have as well. I haven't brought it up because I was curious to see what happens. And today, we had two girls add to the board when they arrived at school! Yes, it is meant for open discussions. I have supplies there for students and teachers to add their thoughts. Hopefully it can spark some conversations or writing in your classrooms. 

Maker Activities
We started making "about me" buttons and bookmarks with kindergarten this week. It is just so fun seeing their reactions when they see their drawing turn into a button. If you would like to schedule the same activity with your class, just let me know. 

PLTW
My big rock next week is to get organized with Project Lead the Way. I'd like to share the specific science unit with each grade level and start to think through how to implement it in your classroom. The learning is hands-on and I'm here to co-teach it with you. 

Have a great weekend!

We made it!

What a long week. Hats off the kindergarten for pulling through! Lots of energy in that wing. I'm out of energy after getting through all 3-5 classrooms for iPad deployment. Thank you teachers for all your support in that process! 

My "to do" list is currently 23 items long. I swear I've marked some items off the list, but it's not shrinking as fast as I'd like. I promise I'll get to everything... 

Success Ready planning
I jotted notes at our back to school meetings about Success Ready communication. I would love to chat with you about digital options for communication. It looked like they didn't have a preference for how it was communicated and I'm really good at working with very broad parameters. So let me know and we can talk about efficient ways to make that happen! 

Team Planning
So I was a failure at getting to team meetings. Like the "Good Egg", I can see where I went wrong. But now that I've gotten through iPad deployment, I'm good to go for next week. That didn't stop many of you from emailing me things you need. I have everything on my list and will be working through it ASAP.

What Matt can do for you
Now that I'm done with iPads, I'm in good shape for getting into your classrooms more. I wanted to share our menu of fun items with you again. Read through it and if something strikes you as interesting, let me know and we'll figure something out. Anything we have can be tied to your learning standards. 

Pineapple board
Don't forget about the Pineapple Board in the teacher's lounge. I added some activities for next week. Stop by to see what's happening. And please add your own activities. It's fun to share! 

#CREteach (#CRfamily)
Just one more week until the end of August and the first #CREteach award of the year. I love seeing all of your tweets throughout the day. You are doing a great job of telling our story. I have a list of Cedar Ridge teachers on Twitter. If I've missed anyone, let me know.

Have A Great Weekend!

Welcome back info

Howdy! For those new to Cedar Ridge, this blog is my avenue for sending out updates concerning media center programming. I promise to only send out group emails in "emergency" situations during the week. This blog is linked from the media center web page. I'm sure many of you will want to mark it as a favorite so you can access it daily!

Tech Work Orders
Our tech director has instructed us to put in work orders for every technology related issue and let our building tech handle them. Our tech, Carl, has six other schools. You can do the math. Her intention is great because it will enable me to work in classrooms more. But I'm not going to leave you hanging while you wait for Carl to show up. So here's the plan:

1. Something breaks/doesn't work
2. Report the issue using one of two ways
1. You can contact me like you normally do. I'll worry about the work order part. At the least, I'll assign it to me and resolve it so I can rack up high scores. 
2. You can put in a work order yourself through the portal. There's a folder called "Helpspot". I can train you how to use it if you want to go that route
3. Someone comes to fix it. If it's critical, I'll come ASAP. You have enough to worry about without having to worry about when the technician will arrive

Checkouts

We are open for business tomorrow! Kids need reading materials. So I'm planning on you coming this week unless you tell me otherwise. Then my feelings will be hurt. 

Checkouts are not release time for you. I'm not sure where else you'd want to be anyway. Grab a seat on the couch, call up a few friends to join you, and enjoy the show. We'll start with reading around the space after checking out and move into stations in a while.

Please send your returned library books in the morning. With another school in our space, this is really important so we can get everything checked in before your students arrive.

Students who have missing materials from last year will be allowed to check out one book to keep at school in the classroom. 

Book a Day Board

I found teachers to be a bit unreliable last year in reporting their reading to add to our board. So I'm going a different route. See the link below to submit your books. This applies to students as well. For grades 3-5, you can have students add the link to their homescreen of the iPad and submit their books directly. I have a QR code they can use from the board itself. For grades K-2, when you finish a read aloud in class you can submit it as a group. Or have students submit their reading from your computer or iPad. I think it will be fun. 

Book a Day Link

Team Meetings

I'm looking forward to listening in at your grade level planning times. I'll start attending next week. 

Maker stuff

Look for these blog posts for ideas you might want to try. I'll also bring ideas to your meetings. Room 305 is a mess, but we hope to have it straightened out soon. I have already scheduled some scavenger hunts with Kindergarten and Breakouts with 3rd. Be thinking of things we did last year (bookmarks, buttons, crafts, challenges, etc) that you want to do again. And there will be more stuff to come. 

That's probably enough for now. Who am I kidding? Only four of you made it this far. If you are one of those people, see me for a surprise. After 1:00. I'm hungry. 

Last week updates!

Here is my final installment for the year. Lots of great info below...

CREdX 2019
We are getting closer to the big event on Thursday. The plan is to create a live stream at 1:00 so you can watch from your classrooms. I'll send out a link later in the week once I have it all set up. The committee and speakers have worked really hard. Thank you teachers for your flexibility in giving me access to the kids these past weeks. Here's our schedule for next week:

• Tuesday at 9:30 - final rehearsals
• Thursday at 12:00 - Committee members to the library for final preparations (4th grade will have to eat lunch early)
• Thursday at 12:30 - Speakers to the library (5th grade will need to eat early too)
• Thursday at 1:00 - Showtime

Media Teacher Checkouts

I put a "media checkout" sheet in your mailboxes. It's checking for your teacher iPad, laptop, walkie, and books. I'll need to see everyone's iPad and laptop to make sure they aren't broken or missing (I trust nobody!). Once your checkout is complete with me, you'll be awarded a priceless trinket to take to Angie or Jacqui for your final checkout. 

Lost Books

We are still getting a slow trickle of book returns. Thank you for your efforts in getting materials back. I've been talking to students as I see them and the results have been pretty good. Big shout out to Ms. Maude for being the first class with ZERO books out. Several classes are right behind her with only one or two. As a reminder, students with missing books this year will be only allowed one "at school" checkout next year.

Speaking of next year...

I'm thinking of purchasing each classroom a rolling crate for book returns next year. It can be painful to watch the various methods for transporting books down here. I hate to give Kara an ego boost, but her little rolling bin is pretty sweet. So bins for everyone (even you Abbey because that janky thing you use is ridiculous!). I'll also get an official "at school" tub for those students who can't take theirs home. I think that would be easier to manage than trying to make sure they don't put their books in their backpacks. If I'm wrong, let me know!

Have a Great Weekend!