Visitors from Irvington, NY

L to R: Christina Rosenblatt, LMS K – 3; Greer Fischer, Assistant Superintendent;
Jackie Richardson, LMS 4-5; Joann Malloy, LMS 6 – 12;
missing from photo - Jesse Lubinsky, Technology Coordinator

Today five visitors from the Irvington, NY public schools (pictured and named above) visited four of our schools to observe the ITL program. They specifically wanted to see instances where technology was integrated into the library media program and/or examples of collaboration between a library media specialist, a technology teacher and a classroom teacher.

OUR DAY:

8:30 AM -- We all met at Long Lots School. Barbara Eilertsen, LMS, and Michael Brownstein, technology teacher, worked with 12 5th graders who produced the daily school news program in their TV Studio. Spanish teachers explained the history of Cinco de Mayo, students read poetry, happy birthdays were given, and summer programs were advertised. Brian Fagan, assistant superintendent, welcomed the group and time was spent discussing our ITL scope and sequence and curriculum, our ITL committee structure in our schools and the process of TV production at LLS.

9:20 AM -- The 5 visitors and I, in role as the EARTH MIGRATION BIOME DECISION-MAKING PANEL from the planet SHTAM (named with the first letters of each of the 4th grade teachers involved: Sullivan, Harper, Taft, Ackerman, Malbin) observed four presentations from Phaedra Taft's 4th grade. Michael Brownstein and Barbara Eilertsen had collaborated and worked with Phaedra Taft and her class on a study of biomes. This activity had been planned as a "Big Think" -- a final activity designed to promote higher level thinking. Each presentation focused on which biome should be colonized by the people needing to leave the overcrowded planet of SHTAM, and the Smartboard with Notebook software was used in the presentation. Two groups chose the Andes mountains, and two groups chose the rain forest. The "SHTAMIAN PANEL" questioned each group and could not decide between the mountains and the rain forest. Students were asked if they could add new facts to persuade the panel to change their decision. (Some new content was provided in a very emotionally charged final plea to colonize either mountain or rain forest regions.) Ultimately the panel decided to give the SHTAMIANS a choice to settle in both regions, with the thought that trade between the two regions would be beneficial. The students suggested that mountains and rain forest exist next to each other in Bolivia. Watch out Boliva -- The SHTAMIANS are coming!

10:50 AM -- Bedford Middle School for a very quick visit. In the library media center we spoke with Rita Hennessey, LMS, about the 7th grade Science research project that was in progress in the media center - Techford Area. We moved to the technology lab where Kathy Fleming, technology teacher, was working with a group of 7th graders on video editing.

11:30 AM -- Staples High School. Julia Roberts and Robin Stiles, library media specialists, prepared several handouts and a DVD for our guests. While we enjoyed lunch, Robin and Julia talked about a new assessment program for ITL skills (TRAILS) that they are piloting with some 9th grade classes this year, which will hopefully be given to all 9th graders next year. They talked about some of the features of their library media program. Natalie Carrignan, director of instructional technology, gave an overview of some district ITL accomplishments and described some works in progress (such as the implementation of an Internet Safety Curriculum in the 2009-10 school year).

1:00 PM -- Coleytown Middle School. John Horrigan, library media specialist, provided an overview of a 6th grade French class working with French teacher, Sharon Gardner, on a study of Quebec. Students used a rubric to prepare a topic, conduct research and present results in a Photostory. [For information related to the class: http://cms.westport.k12.ct.us/cmslmc/foreignlanguages/Quebec.htm]

At 1:25, after visiting the TV Studio we went to a computer lab where Deb Perry, technology teacher and TV coordinator, worked with 8th grade students to setup an electronic portfolio in Blackboard using the content of their recent research projects on green technology topics. John Horrigan worked with the students on this project as well.

2:00 PM -- Irvington Public School visitors returned to New York. It was great to share information and technology literacy stories and activities with each other.

BMS: ART in the MIDDLE [school] AGES

THE BEDFORD COMMUNITY OF

LINE, SHAPE, DIRECTION SIZE, TEXTURE, COLOR, VALUE, BALANCE, GRADATION, REPETITION, CONTRAST, HARMONY, DOMINANCE, UNITY, PERSPECTIVE, ABSTRACT, SCULPTURE, CUBIST, SURREALISTIC, CARTOON, MODERN, COLLAGE, MOSAIC, MULTI-MEDIA, PHOTOGRAPHY, CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING are some of the concepts and skills that students worked with in the creation of the hundreds of art projects on display on two floors in Bedford Middle School.

Of course art is important in its own right, and many students will become "real" artists. But producing and appreciating art plays a role in all of our lives.

Dan Pink says that design is an essential 21st Century Skill. Strong art and design skills when combined with content in other areas (history, psychology, law, engineering, catering, health care, etc.) create new job descriptions and new ways of relating and collaborating. These skills help individuals differentiate their skill sets and special abilities from the skill sets of others. These skills are regularly applied in all subject areas at school (as evidenced by some previous blog posts) when students are asked to synthesize and present their thoughts, research and writing. Tonight's student ART display at BMS is an indication that all students are learning many principles of art and design.


Art and design are essential ingredients in the information literacy problem solving process. Decisions need to be made at all steps in the process which may be impacted by design questions, but especially must be considered in the synthesis/presentation stages of the process.


There was also a multi-media gallery and a video installation called Project Run Away, an animated mannequin fashion video projected on a white abstract human body.

Music was also an important part of the Art Show with two student string groups performing -- one in the library media center and the other in the cafeteria, with plenty of food for the crowd of parents, teachers, administrators and students.


Congratulations to the three Art teachers -- Lynne Karmen, Peter DiFranco and Cecily Cowburn.

BMS: Magic School Bus - 7th Grade Science/English

At BMS each year Science and English are integrated in a special interdisciplinary project where students create a children's book on a science concept modeled after the Magic School Bus series by Joana Cole and published by Scholastic. Today I was fortunate to be in Kimberly Materese's 7th grade Science class held in a computer lab, but you might have thought it was an English class, or maybe an Art class, or possibly a Technology or Library Media class. Wait a minute! It was!

Students were working on the story and layout of their children's book on computers, and each book focused on a specific science topic, such as gravity, Pluto, meteors, black holes, and others. (See topic list below.) In English class students worked on their nonfiction story to entertain and teach others about their science topic. Students were using their checklists and rubrics to self-assess their book. They were extremely excited and proud of their work. All students were focused on last minute efforts to perfect the mechanics, content, story and art work of their book, since the project is due tomorrow, April 9th.

Rita Hennessey, LMS, was also working with students on many aspects of their project, including the use of Noodletools to create a thorough Works Cited page for every book.

Thanks to Mrs. Matarese, here are the rubrics, checklists and other documents used for this project:

• The Magic School Bus Science book revised 08-09.doc
  
• Timeline and checklist.doc
  
• Magic School Bus Topics.doc
  
• Rubric-Science.doc
  
• Rubric-English.doc

... and a sample page from Matt and Jeremy's book on Gravity...

BMS: Creating Book Trailers

NO, NOT THAT KIND OF BOOK TRAILER!!

Rita Hennessey, library media specialist at BMS, recently challenged students to create a Book Trailer, a movie to advertise a book! The contest was also advertised in the BLAST and Lauren Bullock & Kathy Fleming, technology teachers, also helped promote the contest in their computer classes and in the after school Media Club. This is the advertisement for the contest:

Book Trailer Contest!

Create a trailer (or commercial) for a book. You can use Windows PhotoStory 3, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or any other technology that can be saved (or converted) to a .wmv or .mov file.

Guidelines:
Minimum length: 30 seconds
Maximum length: 2 minutes

What to include:
The Title and Author of the book are required - everything else is up to you!
Your goal is to convince the viewer to read the book.

Students can submit their videos to the "Book Trailer Contest" drop box
(on the "R" drive).

Finalists' trailers will be shown on BAM, so please use
school-appropriate language and images.

Deadline:
Friday, March 6, 2009

Winners will be announced Friday, March 13, 2009

Prizes: Your choice of iTunes or Barnes & Noble Gift Certificates

First Place: $25.00
Second Place: $15.00
Third Place: $10.00

See complete details at http://bmslmc.pbwiki.com/Book-Trailer-Contest

From the student entries, three were selected as 1st and 2nd place, and a 3rd was given honorable mention.

Honorable Mention to Melissa B. & Will H. for The Wizard of Oz
Runner up to Alex P. for Kensuke's Kingdom
First Place to Caroline S. for 13 Reasons Why (View Below)

BMS: Student ITL Committee

Meg Tiley, Assistant Principal, and I have been coordinating a student ITL committee for three years at BMS. This group meets before school three times a year with several subcommittee meetings throughout the year. The mission is to increase awareness of the importance of effectively utilizing information and technology at home and in teaching and learning activities at BMS. Currently two groups are focusing on two different initiatives: a call-in information literacy contest held for one week live on BAM (Bedford's TV Station), and a video contest which asks students to creatively focus on the technology that they use at home. The group has an ITL Student Committee Wiki for agendas, and notes. In the wiki each student and teacher is represented by a self-created avatar name and icon.
Meg Tiley said, "Bedford has over 30 students involved in the Student ITL committee. We were able to target those kids with technology interests from their elementary schools and we advertise committee participation school-wide. It has been a wonderful connection between the students and faculty and the needs of our students. Currently, we have one student representative on the faculty BMS ITL committee. As we all know, our students are steps ahead of us with regard to current technology. We have found the student ITL committee to be an invaluable part of the BMS community. Each year, the student ITL committee holds one to two ITL contests to get other students involved in Information and Technology Literacy and what it means to them and to BMS. It is my hope that the committee will continue to grow and that students will feel empowered around some of the decisions regarding technology within the classroom."

BMS: Digital Photography -- Abstract Architecture

Kathy Fleming, Technology teacher at BMS, is currently working with students over a series of sessions on a Digital Photography unit. Students viewed several YouTube videos and a BrainPop video about taking good digital images and using digital cameras.
Students learned the three essential elements of a successful photograph: the subject matter, the composition and the lighting. The subject matter must be interesting, or beautiful, or striking, or funny, or touching. The composition is the arrangement of the subject matter within the photograph and it should create a balance and/or special meaning. The lighting defines the shape, mood, depth, and contrast.

Students also spent time reviewing and identifying basic photography principles, such as:
• The use of focus to add depth or a 3-dimensional feel
• Looking at the background - for weird looking objects or for being too busy and distracting.
• The use of flash both outdoors and indoors
• Moving in close on a a subject
• Getting down to the subject’s eye level
• Using the Rule of Thirds
• The power of vertical vs. horizontal images
• The meaning and use of a Dutch tilt
• Acting as "a picture director"
• Capturing the feeling of the moment.
• The use of lines, angles, & shapes in objects (esp. in abstract images)
• Focusing on a small part of a larger thing (esp. in abstract images)

Students were given many images, and asked to work with a partner. The students wrote short comments under each photo which described the basic photography principle that was followed.
They were also asked to comment on images that did not show any of the principles, and asked to explain how the image could be improved.

They also perused many images in Flickr's Abstract Architecture Gallery and made comments on some of them.Each student then used a digital camera to take 5 – 10 abstract architectural photographs around the BMS campus. They were told that quality, not quantity was most important. When they returned to the classroom they used a card reader to download their images to their "Y-Drives." After reviewing their photos, they selected the 2 best and inserted them in to a Word document, under which they described how each photo demonstrated the principles of photography.

Since this lesson is in progress the finished products will not be posted for another 2 weeks. Please come back very soon to view a few samples of the amazing digital photography work done by the 7th grade computer students at BMS.

BMS: Creating Screencasts

Rita Hennessey, library media specialist at BMS, has started creating tutorials (also called screencasts) using Notebook recorder (which comes with Smartboard software). These can be used by students and staff as a review or to learn concepts for the first time.

Rita started creating these screencasts using CamStudio (a free program from the people who make Camtasia with a great feature that highlights the cursor), but she was having issues with the file size and switched to Notebook Recorder for ease of recording and posting. She posts to TeacherTube (which does have advertisement) and is looking at Vimeo. Another posting option is to create a free NING, upload the video and then embed the code in Blackboard, a wiki or a webpage. (The sample below, "Destiny, Resources Lists & Power Search" is on a NING.) Two other tutorials "Searching e-Books" and "Using Sirs Researcher" are available on the BMS LMC Screencasts Page.

BMS: Marketing Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries!

Debra LaBella's 6th grade Social Studies class at BMS recently completed a study of the 13 British Colonies. The details of the unit with a check list and rubric (as well as many other resource materials) were provided for the students through Blackboard. Each student was given one of the 13 colonies to research, then joined with one or more student(s) to create a persuasive digital story about that colony.

Here is one example: