Our fourth graders know how important it is to be responsible users of our technology. They shared what they have learned about being good digital citizens by creating posters using an app called skitch. Then we took the posters and used them as backgrounds in another app called Tellagami. Tellagami allows you to create short animated video. You can get your message across in a fun and quick way. Check them out at our Internet Safety Tips page. Tellagami is free for your iPad and you can learn more about it at tellagami.com

On Monday, January 20, we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday. This year our fifth graders remembered and honored Dr. King by viewing a video of his last speech in Memphis, TN on the night before he died. We thought about what Dr. King's message was that night. We answered the questions: What did the mountaintop stand for? Why do you think Dr. King felt that It would be OK if he did not get to the mountaintop? We wrote about it and then we took our work and created a collage with our thoughts and images of Dr. King using the pic collage app on our ipads. Please have a look at these. Click here for MLK posters.

In November of 2013 my colleagues, Erin Broderick, Jamie Lightfoot, and myself presented "Developing an Internet Safety Curriculum for K-5 at the AASL conference in Hartford, CT. In addition to outlining our curriculum, we have posted many free online resources that you can use with your students. The presentation is available here: Developing an Internet Safety Presentation

My second graders created Library ABC books using the app 3o hands. We read an L is for library by Sonya Terry to get some good ideas. We asked the questions "What are resources? and what resources are in our library? Then each student was assigned a letter and we looked around the library to find a resource that started with our letter. We wrote a sentence about our resource and snapped a picture of it with our iPad. Then we created a presentation using 30 hands and recorded our voices to tell about our resources. Here are our results. Enjoy!

mr. Joyce abc book fall 2013 from Cheryl Kosmo on Vimeo.

Mrs. Osiecki abc book fall 2013 from Cheryl Kosmo on Vimeo.

Where did the third graders travel to this summer? Just imagine!

Our third graders learned about the fifty states by using the Enchanted Learning Website. They researched their state, wrote postcards to their teachers filled with interesting information, and created an electronic postcard using Google Presentation. Take a peek. You will definitely learn something you didn't know about our fifty states.

Ms. Matrisciano's class

Mrs. McKenna's class

No conflict between ebooks and print books for me.

I've read a lot of articles lately about libraries thinking about going all digital all the time. This concerns me.  What is so difficult about the idea of embracing electronic resources while also having the beloved books in print available for all? Think about it. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that this time of year is the perfect argument for both formats.

 I have books downloaded on my iPad, but when I go outside to enjoy some time on my lounge chair, I can't see the screen. Also the electronic devices don't like the warm weather, even if I could see the screen. It's just too hot for them. So I take a good old fashioned book outside to my yard, on the beach, at the pool, at the lake, at the park, and I read. No unhealthy sand and sun for my iPad or laptop, and no worries about spilling my iced coffee and having a significant cost to replace it.  I don't have to worry about charging them up! I am not tempted by the distractions of my online communities. I get to enjoy the outdoors and relax. Who wants to be stuck inside this time of year?

Next week I am headed out of town. It is pretty easy to take along my ipad. I can access my ebooks on the plane, train, or bus. If I am driving I can plug it in and listen to an audio book.  It provides its own light in the hotel room late at night when my husband wants to turn in for the night. If I want to go online and check twitter or Facebook, watch a movie, or listen to the radio, the network access is there for me. And has there ever been a better app to have with you all day than MLB.com? I can check on the scores and root for the Sox to win and taking a peek at all their competition and hoping they are not winning. That option is not available with those old fashioned books! I can get the classics for free and literally have them at my finger tips. What more could I ask for?

So for me, it is not an either or situation. I appeal to all libraries not to abandon the printed word for the electronic word. Both are viable and valuable for our mental and physical well-being.  I am on my electronic devices every day, at all hours of the day, but let's not go crazy here. We need all that the web 2.0 world has to offer and all that the a book we take out of our beach bag provides: an opportunity to read, relax, learn, and enjoy. Happy Summer! 

Summer reading!

Today I want to remind everybody to go to the Newton Public Schools library media page to access summer reading list for elementary students.  The link is:

http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/teachingandlearning/departments/librarymedia

For our new Williams graduates headed to Brown Middle School you can see their Summer reading choices and more at:

http://brown.newton.k12.ma.us/content/best-books