Thinking Outside the Box: Breakout EDU and the library

Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, I'm always pushing the proverbial envelope, always challenging my students and teachers to explore new ideas. And I'm lucky enough to work with several brave souls who are willing to come along for the ride, even if they've got no idea what I'm getting them into.

And so goes the story of how Breakout EDU came to the library . . .

As a librarian, I want to provide my students with opportunities that encourage them to challenge their thinking, to take risks, and to provide them with experiences that allow them to apply information and explore their strengths in nontraditional ways. I'd heard about Breakout EDUs and knew it was something I wanted for my library and for my students.

Using my library budget, I purchased three kits from Breakout EDU. I figured since I was a novice at setting up a Breakout game, I'd better start with the experts. By purchasing kits directly from Breakout EDU, I was provided with all the materials I'd need, plus access to numerous games with all materials and set up instructions included.

It didn't take me long to find my first willing participant . . .

One of my 5th grade classes was participating in Global Read Aloud with the novel Pax. When I saw that there was a Breakout game for the book, I immediately approached the teacher to ask if she would be willing to let me use her students as guinea pigs. Despite the fact that she had no idea what I was asking of her, she graciously agreed, especially when I assured her that I would have everything set up and ready to go!

I dutifully printed the instructions, read them over carefully, and began to prepare the materials for the game. I must admit that I was intimidated by the locks. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get them set and that I'd be dead in the water. But the worries were unnecessary. Breakout EDU provides a number of video tutorials that walk educators through each step of setting the locks.

With the locks set and materials prepared, I was ready for the big day!

The locks were set, ready for students to break out!

On the day of the game, I set up the library (as instructed via Breakout EDU) and welcomed our students. I gave them the most minimal of explanations of what they were doing, gave a quick tutorial of the locks (I wasn't sure how many of my students had actually explored locks before), and started the timer.

And then I watched.

Students gathered as a whole group to review the clues, often coming back together to share information.
 

Students often broke off into small groups to work through the various puzzles.

I watched as students took the challenge on. I watched as leaders emerged. Students stepped up to take charge of the various puzzles, while others helped or worked to communicate between the small groups that naturally formed. I watched students play to their strengths. Students who were good with words tackled the word puzzle, while students who were good with math tackled the math puzzle. I watched students work together. I watched students reread clues to each other. I watched students problem-solve. I watched students struggle. I watched students succeed.

Mrs. Hetzel's 5th graders broke out with 12:54 remaining!

For me, the whole experience affirmed the benefits of Breakout EDU. Students who struggled in regular academic tasks were able to find success in a variety of capacities during the game. Students were given an authentic opportunity to problem-solve, to work as a group and to persevere in the face of adversity, to work past frustration and rely upon others. Students had to communicate, students had to think, students had to work together as a group.

Was it perfect? Absolutely not. As with anything, there are always things to improve or tweak to make the experience even better. But ultimately, it was a wild success . . . My students learned to think outside the box.

Sharing a Love of Reading

As librarians, we know that there is no greater joy than helping our readers connect with that perfect book. But when we can empower students to share their reading experiences with others, it's "goosebumpy!"

While I try to encourage and empower all my students to share and celebrate their reading experiences, two of my 5th grade classes (and their teachers) wanted to take their sharing to another level. As their Teacher Librarian, I was more than happy to oblige!

Using Padlet, I am sharing the Thinglink and Animoto book recommendations my 5th graders created. These book recommendations were also shared via our library website and through our Library Google Classroom in order to engage as many readers as possible! Below this Padlet, I have included a description of each tool (and how we used it)!
 

Created with Padlet

Thinglink

One of my 5th grade classes utilized a site called Thinglink. Thinglink allows students (and teachers) to create interactive images and videos. Students (and teachers) start with a base image or video. Once the base image has been uploaded, creators add "Tags," or the interactive touch points. Information added to the images includes text or links to sites or videos. Finished Thinglinks can then be shared multiple ways, including shareable links or embedding in sites/blogs.

I utilized the free version of Thinglink Teacher. This allowed me to create student accounts. The process of creating classes and student accounts was fairly easy, but tutorial videos are always helpful. While I am able to view my students' creations, I am unable to collaborate in the editing of the Thinglinks.

Animoto

Animoto is a web-based video production tool, allowing for professional-looking video creation. To begin, students (and teachers) pick a theme (there are a variety of free ones to choose from). Each theme comes with a selected song, but Animoto provides a robust music library if creators wish to change. Creators then add a variety of text and images to create their video. The text slides are limited to a total of 90 characters each and videos must have at least one image. Pacing and transitions are automatically generated during the production process, but various slides can be highlighted during creation to ensure ample focus time. A preview option also allows for editing during the creation process. Much like Thinglink, finished Animotos can be shared a variety of ways, including shareable links, downloading, and embedding.

As a teacher or librarian, you can apply for an educator account. If approved, you are provided with a code that allows you to create student accounts. Both you and your students can then create videos exceeding the 30 second limitation of the free version. Animoto does provide detailed instruction in how to create the student accounts. 

There are a multitude of ways to have students extend their reading experiences! These are just two that worked really well for my students and allowed them to create a reading experience that could be shared with others!

Originally published (by me) on the IASL Blog: http://www.iasl-ia.org/2016/05/sharing-love-of-reading.html

Consider Coding in Your School Library!

With the Hour of Code celebrations kicking off next week in coordination with Computer Science Education Week (December 7-13), students across the nation will be exploring the basics of computer programming and get an introduction to computer science.

Will your school library be part of the celebration?

Why Hour of Code?

The statistics speak volumes.

According to Code.org's site, right now there are 3,930 computing jobs waiting to be filled here in Iowa. Nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (as found via Code.org), "67% of all new jobs in STEM are in computing."

In a society which grows more and more dependent on technology, we need people who can "speak" the language of computers in order to not only keep up with the technology we already have, but, more importantly, to create the technology we've never imagined. How can we expect this to happen if we aren't offering our students the opportunity to explore the skills they'll need? By hosting Hour of Code events, we are allowing our students a deepen their understanding of our technological world and unlock hidden potential and interests that have implications for their futures.

And beyond the implications for our students' future (and our own), there are additional benefits to hosting Hour of Code events for our students. I love this infographic created by Sylvia Duckworth:

Image via @sylviaduckworth

I can bear witness to the "hidden" advantages of providing students the chance to explore coding. As I watched my 2nd through 5th grade students work their way through our Hour of Code events last year, I saw them engaged in authentic and meaningful problem-solving, critical thinking, analyzing and collaborating practices. Students who often hesitant to try new things were willing to take a risk and learn from their mistakes. Students who often rush through work were engaged and determined to finish each challenge placed before them. That's learning at it's best!

So why should libraries be involved in the Hour of Code?

Libraries have always been about empowering our students, encouraging exploration of interests, and supporting literacy. Hour of Code provides our students with an opportunity to do all three.

As a side note, some might argue the coding is a far stretch to literacy. I would argue that your definition of literacy might need to be redefined. Coding is a literacy that requires students to be fluent (read and write) in the language of computers in order to embrace the future and be part of developing the technology that is so much a part of our lives.

Libraries are uniquely situated to serve the needs and interests of all students.  Libraries are intended to support, extend and enhance the traditional curriculum delivered in the regular classrooms. Hosting Hour of Code events is just another extension of these principles.

And like any librarian, you know that you don't have to have all the answers. You just need to know where you can find the resources!

Hour of Code Resources:

Image of the Lewis Central Hour of Code Symbaloo (linked below)

My colleague, Josh Allen, the Technology Integration Specialist was kind enough to create an Hour of Code Symbaloo (pictured above) for our students at Titan Hill Intermediate full of links to online coding games. tutorial videos and information about coding apps. Feel free to use the link to explore with your students as well!

And as an ultimate collection of coding ideas and resources, our friend Shannon Miller has put together a Coding Padlet as a place to reference and share all things coding, just in time for Hour of Code next week! 

Created with Padlet

Padlet created by Shannon Miller

*Note: This blog was originally written and published (by me) via the Iowa Association of School Librarians Blog: http://www.iasl-ia.org/2015/12/consider-coding-in-your-school-library.html

Winter Challenge for Google Classroom

Last year several  of my Nebraska educator friends put together a #12daystwitter challenge (click the link to find out what they're up to this year!) meant to encourage fellow educators to explore the connective and collaborative power of Twitter.

Inspired by the fun and collaborative nature of this challenge, a fellow Titan Hill teacher, Laurie Kammrad, and I wanted to find a way for our 2nd through 5th grade students to participate as well. However, Twitter didn't seem the right medium. Although we have several teachers using Twitter within their classrooms, we wanted a way for all students to be able to participate on a more personal level and our students are (technically) to young to have Twitter accounts of their own.

We'd just begun utilizing Google Classroom and thought this would be a perfect way to allow our students to continue to explore this new tool, to connect with other students in and outside their own classrooms and to actually practice some of the digital citizenship skills we'd been discussing.

And so the "12 Days of Google Classroom Challenge" was born!

So how did it work?

The first thing I did was to draft an email to our staff to share about the idea Laurie and I had created, sharing the Google Classroom codes with the teachers. At the time, I hadn't previously required all of my students to join my Library Google Classroom (this has since changed). I set up a Google Classroom for each grade level (2nd through 5th).

Google Classroom Sample E-mail sent to 4th grade teachers:

The next thing I did was to create graphics for each question. To do this, I used one of my absolute favorite tools, Canva. I wanted to create some visuals to go along with the questions, similar to what was being done with the #12daystwitter challenge. In drafting the challenge questions, we went for a variety: some questions that allowed for individual responses and some that would stir up a debate. Ultimately, the goal was for students to share their ideas and respond to their classmates!

Sample graphics:

The final piece was to put the questions into Google Classroom and allow the students to respond using the commenting feature available within Classroom. At the time, I used the "Announcement" feature to post the questions and images.

Starting on December 1, I began to post the questions. Just like the #12daystwitter challenge, I posted them Monday through Friday (no weekend posts) for 12 school days. Students would access Google Classroom and post their response in the comments and reply back to others when they could. If they missed a day, it was no big deal. They could easily catch up when the opportunity presented itself!

Example Google Classroom announcement post:

So how'd it go?

It was absolutely incredible to watch the students' response flow in . . . and to take advantage of the teachable moments!

The participating teachers and I were able to have some fantastic conversations with our students about a multitude of topics. On the educational side, we discussed things such as formulating appropriate responses to the prompts, editing their responses before publishing (hooray writing skills in action!), using the "reply" feature to enhance and continue conversations (besides responses of "Me too!"), and practicing good digital citizenship (this was a huge one for them to explore in a safe environment)!

More importantly, this gave our students a chance to exchange ideas with other students beyond their classroom walls and practice all the skills we'd been addressing in an authentic way.

What's in store for this year?

This year, the Titan Hill students will be given the opportunity to participate, although I've decided to rename it the "Winter Google Classroom Challenge." I wanted my teachers to have a little more flexibility to extend this activity throughout the winter season if they chose. 

I'm also excited about some of the Google Classroom updates that have happened since last year and the potential implications for the challenge this year: 

• This year, there's a new Question feature that I think will work wonderfully for this challenge! 
• There's also the "Draft" feature which will allow me to get everything set up beforehand and have all the questions ready for me to post quickly! 
• I'm also excited that since last year, Google Classroom added the ability to add fellow educators, which means I can add the question prompts and images for any teacher wanting to have their students participate within their regular Google Classrooms (as opposed to a school-wide Classrooms). Any time I can do some of the "behind-the-scenes" work for my teachers is a win.
• I'm extremely excited to take this Winter Google Classroom Challenge across school districts. We have recently launched several cross-district (which happen to be cross-state) Google Classrooms. I'm excited for our students to be able to interact with students outside of our school and to see what conversations are sparked with the responses!

So can your students participate too?

Absolutely! Here's a link to this year's Winter Challenge for Google Classroom. Feel free to use and share with your own students! Happy winter!

Reflections and Renewed Resolve

It's the last night of break, and as I sit here contemplating my return to my responsibilities as a Teacher Librarian, I can't help but pause and reflect on how the first few months of my tenure have gone. Clearly from my lack of blog posts, to say that I've been busy and it's been eventful might be the biggest understatement of the century. But when I really attempt to articulate to myself what I've accomplished in the last 5 months, I can honestly say, I feel like I've made tremendous headway.

So what have I done?

1. I completely overhauled a library space.

My predecessor, to her great credit, truly built a tremendous collection for our students. However, as things came in, nothing went out. I inherited a collection of baskets scattered around the library, the organization of which was known by only one. And I wasn't her.

In order to familiarize myself with my newly inherited collection and to truly make the library space someplace accessible and functional for all, I spent countless (and by countless, I mean simply that I quit counting after I hit 100) hours weeding, reshelving, and rearranging.

My library serves roughly 945(ish) 2nd through 5th graders. In addition to adhering to the teachings of Lucy Calkins, the staff had recently adopted the Fountas & Pinnell leveling system. All this meant that it was vitally important to ensure that our students could find a "Just Right" book. While I don't believe in strictly adhering to a reading level (insert my belief that students can often read about their assigned level if the subject matter truly engages them, and that it is equally okay to read books that are "below" students' reading levels from time to time), I did want to ensure that the students weren't entirely overwhelmed when they walked into my library and that they had a sense of where to start. To this end, I divided my fiction section into three subsections, simply labelled "Section 1," "Section 2," and "Section 3." Anyone who has ever worked with any leveling system knows the variance between systems, but roughly each section corresponds to a group of Fountas & Pinnell levels (with some overlap between sections).

Needless to say, my work in overhauling the library is an ongoing process (isn't managing any library space?). I've already got visions for reorganizing the physical shelves (right now, the Fiction Sections are split apart and there are quite a few supervision blind spots), reorganizing the fiction section (to start) into a bookstore/genre format to further allow for students to find their "Just Right" books independently, and to create a more inviting atmosphere in general.

2. I have promoted literacy.

Okay, so this one most librarians might read and scoff at . . . after all, that's truly why a majority of us got into the business of librarianship. We love reading. We love books. We want our students to experience the same positive experiences we've had. We know that knowledge is power. And we know that reading gives us the keys to the kingdom . . . it allow students to live multiple lives, to view the world from multiple perspectives, to stretch their imaginations and to broaden their horizons.

We know all this, but from what I've gathered, literacy promotion wasn't necessarily a previous priority for my students. Sure students checked out books, but literacy promotion wasn't a big thing.

I believe strongly that the library should be a place where every child can find themselves, to cultivate a love of reading and the power of knowledge. To this end, I've been very intentional about promoting literacy in general (via various writing activities and vocabulary activities . . . my library has a "Word Nerd" that my 3rd graders "feed" words they encounter in their reading), but I've worked especially hard with book promotion. I always share the books I've been reading or books that correspond with the curriculum our students are working on in their classrooms via book talks and recommendations via my library site. We've done several book "tastings" and "samplings" (beyond their normal visits to the library), we've taken part in numerous literacy celebrations (such as National Picture Book month), and we have student and staff recommendation displays.

I have so much more I want to do with this, but it's more than there was before. And it's just the start. I can't wait for some of the literacy promotions I still have up my sleeve (think student recommendations and book clubs).

3. I have promoted information literacy via technology.

Prior to my arrival and that of another recently hired colleague, the integration of technology to enhance students learning was both desired, but was often hindered, whether by access, apprehension, or a combination of both. As a librarian, I understand that access to information, no matter the format, is integral to our students' success. I also know that our students and staff are inundated with technologies that allow them to access, manipulate, and share information. The demands on a teacher's time make it difficult to keep up with all the potential ways to utilize technology in the classroom and the astronomical amount of choices of apps and websites available. Now, more than ever, it is essential that they have someone to help them navigate the sea of infinite possibilities. My colleague and I have worked very intentionally to be supportive guides.

We have worked with our students and staff to create lessons and units that allow students to explore technologies that support and enhance their learning, that allow them to acquire and explore the curriculum in new and different ways, to reflect upon and share their learning, and to do both of these in ethical and responsible ways. We've helped our students and staff integrate several Google apps, we've helped them utilize Google Classroom, we've promoted various apps that support literacy, we've explored information literacy and the requirements of responsible online citizenry via authentic learning experiences. We created experiences that have allowed our students to interact with others beyond their classrooms, to explore coding, and to publish their writings. We've helped acquire additional devices for our students and we've implemented professional development for our staff to explore ways to enhance their curriculum via technology.

We've worked very hard to make technology a regular and authentic part of what we do.

3. I extended the reach of the library program beyond the walls of the library.

I have never liked conforming. I've always liked to make my own path. And, although I do love traditions, I am by no means traditional (an eclectic mix of irony and oxymoron right there). I have never wanted to be a traditional librarian. I don't want to spend my days in quiet isolation, keeping watch over the books that line my shelves. I want to be out among my students and staff. I want to promote literacy. I want to promote technology. I want to support learning in any shape or form.

Libraries should be the heart of the school, and I want to ensure that I have a firm grasp on the pulse of my school. And to do that, I have worked extremely hard to show both my students and staff that I'm there for them. I have made it my mission to constantly seek out opportunities to demonstrate what my library and I have to offer. I created a "Library Services Menu" for my staff that showed them what I could do for them (anything from pulling resources to co-teaching lessons), I have made it my mission to learn the standards and know the curriculum, I have attended leadership meetings, I have attended grade-level meetings. And I will continue to do so, because it's what I believe a librarian should do.

So overall, I look back at my first few months with a sense of pride. Not too shabby for a newbie. And, of course, I have so much more I hope to accomplish by the end of May (creating a MakerSpace, additional technology professional development, actually keeping up my blog).

As I return to school tomorrow, there will be a schedule change that will limit my amount of time outside of my library. My reflections on the first few months of my time as a Teacher Librarian have filled me with a new sense of resolve. I am resolved to keep moving forward. I'm resolved that I will continue to work for my students and staff. I am resolved that my reflection on the last few months of my first year will fill me with as much of a sense of pride as the first few have.

I'm proud to have joined the ranks of Teacher Librarian.