Library Media Tech Talk

While attending the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference back in the spring , I was approached by our State Program Advisor for School Libraries. Cassandra Barnett. She told me she wanted to send a film team from the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to feature our library program. She was specifically interested in our newly renovated library spaces and our collaboration programs. I was surprised and excited by this wonderful opportunity for our learning community. Later in the fall, I was contacted by director, Cindy Hogue, about a visit. Gayle and Kevin prepare for Sidra's interview The Visits Cassandra and Cindy were accompanied by the film crew, Gayle Morris and Kevin Briggs. We decided to invite them to our annual 8th grade English class Dust Bowl collaboration. It was great fun to show the team how we use the library for common core collaborations that we design to bring books to life for our high school learners. The team returned a week l...

The first of the school year is always a wild experience full of change and excitement! August went by extremely fast, and now I'm trying to figure out where the first half of September has gone. I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on a few of the library events over the past few weeks. Each of these are programs we have hosted in previous years, but it is the first time we have attempted them in our new library spaces. I will also provide links to detailed blog articles we have written about the events in the past. The Dust Bowl ( Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse) This is a collaboration we have done with 8th grade English classes since 2012. The program is designed to introduce students to the 1930s (and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse) by immersing them in a variety of media from the era. This year we featured four learning centers: 1. FDR Dust Bowl Speech (Audio File) 2. Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Blues (Music Video) 3. Book Check Out/ Artifac...

We have been privileged to host a Dust Bowl collaboration with 8th grade English classes for the past 4 years. If you want to read about how this started, go here . The program is designed to help students understand Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Our 8th grade science teachers asked if they could join in the collaboration by adding science experiments to the program last year. In addition, the Chartwells food service catering manager also wanted to include a food station last year so learners could get a taste of the Dust Bowl era. Luckily it went so well that these additions were kept for the 2015-2016 school year! As an added bonus we used a 1934 painting in our two day program to illustrate how art can be a primary source. We want to share about the setup and reception of this library collaboration. The program took place over two days. Day 1 consisted of four learning stations with a general focus on the era. Day 2 consisted of three learning stations with a focus on the ...

One of our big collaborative project events during the first semester is centered around the Dust Bowl Era. 8th Grade English classes read Out of the Dust  by Karen Hesse. To help make this period come to life for students, we started this as a one day project in 2012 and continued it in 2013 (as a two day event). We had a table with dishes set up in the library with dirt all over the top. We also had signs and posters from the period (Coca-Cola, Grapette, other various advertisements). Pictured from left to right: Stony Evans (LMS), Ray Borel (Library Assistant), Mari Simmons (8th English), Shea Gregory (8th English). As a change for 2013, we decided to create an introductory skit using iMovie. We dressed and acted as characters (farmers) from the book. Here is the video: If you can't see the video link above try this:  http://goo.gl/L1E3hg We also dressed as these characters for the first day of the event. We had 5 different learning "stations" set ...