The $5 Temporary Green Screen

Annually, our library hosts Maker Days for several days during the holiday season where we promote craft and tech activities in our high school library. We always have a small upcycling/craft section available to students, and by holding maker events, students become more aware of the materials we have in the library. Additionally, students who typically do not come to the library for study hall find their way here and discover that we are more than just books!

Traditionally, I provide materials for upcycling books into beautiful ornaments and gift tags, and I set out card stock and stickers for students to make holiday cards. This year, in an effort to promote the use of technology in the library, I also set up a digital holiday card section that is easy to set up and tear down and most importantly is inexpensive!

For the green screen, I purchased two plastic tablecloths from a local dollar store. I layered them, as I had to hang the tablecloths over our book shelves because we do not have enough wall space. If you have a blank, light-colored wall, you most likely would only need one tablecloth. Note that these are not very durable, but they are inexpensive. If you wish to have a green screen that lasts for many years, I would recommend purchasing a more durable fabric for your screen.

For the app, I purchased Do Ink for just a couple dollars. I chose this app for ease of use - there are other apps for more complicated green screen work, but for simple digital holiday cards, Do Ink works great! Since I only have one screen set up, I really only needed to purchase the app to use on one device.

Do Ink has some great tutorials that you can use with students; however, I wanted some written instructions that I could hand to students as they walked through the door. Here are the instructions I made in Slides. I printed six to a page. I made the instructions fairly general so I would be able to use them anytime, even if it wasn't the holidays.

I created a few holiday card backgrounds and saved them to our iPad photos that students could choose from, or the app has pre-loaded backgrounds that students could use, as well. Most students chose to find their own backgrounds. I recommend using Creative Commons for free, copyright free photos.

At the holidays especially, high school kids are just big little kids - their eyes light up when I tell them that they can take green screen photos in the library and make crafts! And the best part is that when we are done, it will only take a few minutes to tear down our temporary green screen (unlike the craft projects I set out for students...those take quite a while to clean up...). Have a happy holiday break, and happy making!

Nearpod in the Library

On a Friday afternoon, I opened a letter from my school district informing me that I would be the full time high school librarian the following school year. I was elated! I had so many lesson ideas floating around my head to support literacy and critical thinking in our school; however, I had one problem: I would be taking over a library that was ill-equipped to handle contemporary information literacy lessons. Enter the magic of Nearpod to make information literacy lesson dreams come true. Below, you will find my top five uses for Nearpod in the school library!

Nearpod for Presentations 

1. Although these days there is SO MUCH you can do with Nearpod, I started using the program as a way to disseminate instructional slides to students because we didn't (and still don't) have a presentation screen in our library. It was easy enough to upload an existing PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation and then students could view the slides directly on their device! The classroom management aspect was also a bonus. Nearpod shows the presenter when a student is out of the program. Instead of wondering if students are on task and paying attention to the lesson, I can simply say, "Oh, I see that someone is no longer in the presentation. Did you happen to get kicked out?" And as quickly as that, my student is back in the game!

Nearpod for Research: No More Mistyped Links!

2. Never again do I hear the phrase "Ms. K, that link doesn't work," and then proceed to cringe because a student mistyped one character out of seemingly a thousand in a URL. I include just a few slides that demo how to use our library databases or other web-based resources and then include the website immediately after for students to conduct a sample search. My instruction has become so much more effective now that students can immediately practice the skills that they gain during a research lesson. I can easily check for understanding with a follow-up question that requires each student to answer or a Collaborate Board to see what students discovered during their search. Nearpod has transformed the research learning process!

Nearpod for Study Hall Expectations

3. Many of our students use the library space every day for study hall, so it is imperative that they understand library policies and procedures. I used to hand students a piece of paper with expectations listed, they would glance at it, and then throw it away. Now, I do a five minute live Nearpod presentation providing important procedures for library attendance and methods for learning about library closures. I get to show a little bit of my personality by posting goofy photos from my life, and I can include a draw-it slide so that students can upload a photo or draw a picture to let me know something important about them. Getting to know students who come to the library to collaborate with peers or to work independently on a computer can be challenging, but a Nearpod presentation can be one quick way to connect with students. You can always look back on student answers about themselves later on to remind yourself of student names and interests. Plus, I can launch a student-paced lesson for students who are not present during the live lesson.

Nearpod Time to Climb and Reports to Collect Student Growth Data

4. In Pennsylvania, part of our Teacher Evaluation System requires that we collect data to demonstrate student growth (for the Student Learning Objective). Collecting data to display student growth can be a big challenge for many school librarians who do not see the same students every day. I discovered that Nearpod can alleviate some of the data pressure by using the game Time to Climb. Librarians can create a stress-free pre-test with Time to Climb, all while providing students with a preview of what they will learn. The data collected for each student, along with the graphs, make for compelling pieces to demonstrate student growth to a supervising administrator. You can either ask the same questions in a post-test to illustrate growth, or you can score part of the student project. I often just ask the cooperating teacher if I can grade student research notes or citations - whatever part of the project the librarian lessons covered.

Nearpod Library of Information Literacy Lessons

5. Finally, the Nearpod Library has a huge collection of engaging Digital Citizenship and Literacy lessons. Many of the lessons are created in collaboration with the highly regarded Common Sense Media, which creates content that librarians already know and trust. Lessons range from spotting fake news to responsible engagement with social media and how to deal with phishing scams. Lessons are available for kindergarten through high school level, and are searchable by topic, audience level, or even standard. For those librarians who also provide professional development in their district, Nearpod also has an extensive library of "Ready to Run" PD. Or, you can always create your own PD using Nearpod, increasing peer engagement by adding polls, Collaborate Boards, and important weblinks for colleagues to access.

Clearly, I use Nearpod a lot in my library. Whether I need a quick way to get the right online resources into students' hands or I need an engaging way to present new material, Nearpod has been an important tool in my library. Check it out for yourself!

Google Summit on Digital Safety and Citizenship at Google HQ, Pittsburgh

On March 22, 2018, a group of educators from all over PA assembled at Google HQ in Pittsburgh for the 6th iteration of Google's Digital Citizenship Summit. I was unsure of what I would be able to gain at the summit, as we were made aware that the information would be geared toward middle grade teachers. But the conversations we started and many of the resources we received could apply to teachers at any grade level.

We began and ended with sessions lead by Larry Magid. Mr. Magid has created numerous resources for students, parents, educators and seniors surrounding the topic of digital safety. His first talk focused on connectsafely.org, an organization for which he is president and CEO, located in tech hub Silicon Valley. ConnectSafely offers news, resources, and guides all surrounding the topic of digital safety. Some of the guides Larry shared with us are for parents, educators, and seniors. Our final session with Mr. Magid was a "Fireside Chat," during which a Googler lead a Q&A not only with Larry, but also with the educators. I enjoyed this interactive session, hearing from experts both in the classroom and in industry.

Other sessions included an overview of Google's Be Internet Awesome with Googler Rob, and another was lead by several teachers at McGuffey. The teachers at McGuffey had implemented a number of Be Internet Awesome lessons, including the Interland game, in their middle school. The game is neat, and I imagine middle schoolers would really enjoy the entertaining reinforcement of digital citizenship skills. In Rob's session we had a chance to test out the game for ourselves. I did hear some educators mention that the game may be a little young for middle school and perhaps be even more engaging with elementary-level students.  The age group that I work with, high school students, are not the target audience for Google's digital citizenship resources; however, the other guides and resources we received are relevant at any level.

Overall, it was an engaging workshop that started important discussions on media literacy and digital safety. We all need to be more cognizant that we are incorporating these skills and teachable moments into our digital lessons.

WIRC 2018

Our teams performed so well this year, and I am so proud of how each and every student represented Norwin. As always, we had a blast at what has become my favorite school day of the year. One of our WIRC team members wrote a wonderful article about the competition for the school paper, so everything that follows is her article:

Ribbons for reading

By Madison Stanley

     On March 5, Norwin’s Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition (WIRC) club attended their yearly competition at Seton Hill University.  

     WIRC students spend months reading books from a list of 30 that is released at the end of the previous year.  At this competition, teams are paired up with different teams for 4 rounds. These rounds consist of 30 questions total on any of the various books from the list. If a team misses a question the question goes to the opposing team and if that team answers correctly they are granted a quarter point. This makes the total amount of points available 18.75 per round.

     The Norwin WIRC club met during lunches with more frequent meetings as the competition grew closer. During these meetings the group would discuss books from the list with the intention of giving the entire club a better understanding of all the books on the list. Every student was required to read four books and write question sets on each, which is the only requirement of joining the club.

     Norwin had three teams attend the competition this year. The teams based their names off of books from the WIRC list. The freshman team was Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Nerdy, which is a pun on the book Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The sophomore team was Code Name Norwin, based off of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein.  The senior team, including one junior, was Booking for Alaska, based off of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

     Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Close placed third overall and awarded yellow ribbons, the highest finish for any Norwin team ever in WIRC competitions.  Booking for Alaska placed fifth overall, which was awarded with pink ribbons.

     “This year’s questions must have been a lot harder than last year’s,” said senior Sebastian Pratt, due to the fact Booking for Alaska had a lower score than the Norwin team which placed sixth in the previous year. 

     Overall, Norwin’s WIRC teams have been improving and expanding over the years and will hopefully continue to do so.

     “We did better than I thought we did,” said senior and Booking for Alaska team captain, Meghan Williamson.

    The Norwin WIRC team hopes to continue improvement next year and awaits the next list of books to dive into.

Freshman Library Orientation: A New Approach for a New School Year

For the last couple of years, I have made a concerted effort to make freshman library orientation more engaging and more meaningful for our first-time high school library-goers. I gradually moved away from the dreaded rules lecture to half rules/half scavenger hunt, and then finally this year I may have hit the winning combination. I had heard of Aurasma before, but I had never really envisioned much of a use for it at the high school level. After exploring some ideas of how to create a Pokemon Go inspired library scavenger hunt, I came across several ideas for incorporating Aurasma into a library orientation. I decided to ditch Pokemon Go (that was SO 2016 anyway) and opted for a simpler way of introducing students to their high school library.

To start, I watched this very brief  Step-By-Step instructional video on how to create an Aura. I then walked around the library to determine the couple of items and places I most wanted students to know about on their first visit here. I created a handout where group members could record their responses to the scavenger hunt.

I was also able to get my upperclassmen student library aides involved, which was helpful. I recorded a couple of students talking about certain aspects of the library. I use freshman library orientation to shamelessly promote our reading team to interested freshmen, and it was just fantastic to have upperclassmen explain to the freshmen that it's a really fun and welcoming club!

After freshmen completed the scavenger hunt, I was able to intertwine policies and procedures into our discussion of the scavenger hunt answers. This approach was pretty painless and fairly well-received. When we were done discussing the answers to the activity, I took students on a tour of our online resources. I directed students to the "Policies and Procedures" page of our website first to finish talking about anything important that didn't fit into our previous discussion, and then instructed students on how to log into our databases and ebooks. Overall, the lesson was engaging and it also hit upon everything I needed students to walk away knowing about the library. Next year, I hope to have a little bit more time to make my Auras more fun (they were pretty bare-bones this year), but overall I highly recommend this method of library orientation!

A New Space for a New Year

This year, I am so excited to roll out our new Reading Nook. A couple of years ago, there was some talk about possibly updating the high school library. At that time, I sat down with a few students in their English class and asked what they wished we could have in the library. A number of them asked for a quiet place to read. Our library is set up with many large tables that easily facilitate collaboration - and for better or worse, it can get pretty noisy sometimes. The request seemed like a necessity that had been overlooked. Although the funding never materialized, I still felt compelled to make our reading nook happen.

Over the summer, I asked for one of our shelving units to be moved into the fiction section (we can always use more shelving in the fiction section!), which opened up a nice bright space by a window. Then, I moved a few of our reading chairs into a quiet, secluded area of the library. I bought a rug and inexpensive end tables at Ikea for a total of $120. Luckily, I had a small grant left over and was able to be reimbursed for this cost. Now, we have a lovely reading nook that seems to really provide something special for our library.

Our First Author Visit!

We were very lucky this past April to invite YA author Jessica Warman to visit our school library. I had written a small grant earlier in the school year that included a request for funds so that we could enjoy an author visit, which we had never experienced before. Luckily, one of our awesome Knight Readers had a connection to YA author Jessica Warman, whose book Between was on our reading competition list! After just a couple of emails back and forth, Jessica came to our library for a visit! She requested an interview format, so I prepared a few questions after reading her book The Last Good Day of the Year and after reading several articles and online interviews with the author. As a true crime podcast fan myself, her most recent book, a bit of a mystery thriller, appealed to me. In an effort to keep the group small and engaged, I invited members of the reading team, our student-run book club, students who had checked out Warman's books from our school library, and finally anyone who expressed an excitement about the author visit. Students had permission to miss about an hour of class, as I didn't want lack of a ride home to inhibit students from participating in this experience. Ms. Warman was just absolutely lovely during our interview, and then she very graciously answered a number of student questions about her books, about being an author, and finally about living in Pittsburgh. She revealed that one book had been optioned for a movie, so we will continue to look forward to that! After expressing that the time had flown by quickly during our visit, Jessica offered to send autographed bookmarks for all students who attended. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I was able to surprise our students with a souvenir from our first author visit! I decided to hide the extra bookmarks inside of all four books we have in the library authored by Warman with a little note stating that the bookmark is a gift for the reader. Our students (and I!) very much enjoyed this visit, and we cannot thank Jessica enough for making the trip out to our school library!