Announcements
Fabulous Edublog Award News!
Dec 15th
Yesterday, the Edublog Awards were announced and it was a big
day for the Bulldog Reader Blog!
In the Best Library Blog category,
we were the runner-up!
Mrs. Hembree is the happiest runner-up Librarian in the world!
It’s quite an honor to be short-listed with all of these other fabulous teacher librarians! And it’s all because of our world-wide support system and your votes!
Big congratulations to Mrs. Ducharme the winner of the Best Library Blog category! TryCuriousity is located in Budapest, Hungary at the American International School of Budapest. We nominated her for this category and are so thrilled she won!
Thank you so much for voting! Edublogs had the most votes ever! There were a total of 35,083 votes cast on 1792 nominations in 18 different categories!
The Edublog Awards were announced in a ceremony via Blackboard Collaborate at 4pm yesterday afternoon. Anyone who wanted to participate could log into the live webcast and watch the proceedings.
People from every continent logged in and had fun chatting in the back-channel before the awards began. Many of the attendees were students who were nominated for Best Student Blog. I watched the event on my computer at home with my dogs Reese and Kasa next to me. They couldn’t figure out why I was home and not taking them for a walk!
When the library blog short-list was announced, I guess I got a little excited and pretty soon both dogs were barking and running around the house wondering what all the fuss was about! It was a fun and noisy afternoon at the Hembree house!
Many of our blogging friends either won or were short-listed in their categories!
Mrs. Yollis won for Best Class Blog, and Mr. Salsich’s Class in Connecticut and 2KM & 2KJ in Australia were finalists! These teachers also won for the Best Group Blog – Our World, Our Stories.
Mrs. Yollis also won Most Influential Blog Post and came in second in the Lifetime Achievement category!
Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog was third in Best Use of Audio/Video/Podcast!
The Best Student Blog went to Jaden, a 4th grader in California! He was in Mrs. Yollis’s class last year!
A really special moment for me came after the ceremony was over when BB came on the microphone and congratulated all her friends and teachers! We get lots of comments from BB and I have even received packages from her, but I had never heard her voice before! She was in Mrs. Morris and Miss Kelly’s classroom for the ceremony.
BB hosts BB’s Awesome Blog and is an almost 4th grade student in Australia and always leaves us a comment! Our students love her and she is held in the highest regard around our school for her blogging skills! She will be going on summer vacation next week, and won’t be blogging much over the holidays, but I know she would love a comment!
My last big congratulations goes to Ms. Joyce Valenza who won for Lifetime Achievement. She is a fellow teacher/librarian and contributes so much of her knowledge to our librarian team.
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Have you ever won an award before?
Which are your favorite blogs to visit?
Vote for the Bulldog Readers!
Dec 5th
We have unbelievable news!
The Bulldog Reader Blog made it to the voting round for
Best Library Blog in the Edublog Awards!
This is our first time being nominated and we are thrilled that we made it to the voting stage! Now we need your help!
You can vote for our blog from your home computer, your work computer or your smart phone. Voting ends on Tuesday, December 13th at 9pm Pacific Standard time.
Please note, you can only vote one time per day per category from an IP address. So please vote daily! Here is the direct link to the voting page for Best Library Blog!
Once you open the page, you will see a drop down menu. In category select, Best Library/Librarian Blog. Once you do that, another drop down menu will open with all the nominees. Select Bulldog Readers Blog. It will look like this.
Then push the Vote button and you are done for that category.
Your family, friends, neighbors can all vote for us! It doesn’t have to be just someone at our school.
This is world-wide voting, so as long as you only vote once from the same computer per day, you are free to vote from anywhere in the world. Once per IP address per day means you can’t vote from the same computer more than once per day. You can however vote from your work, your home computer and your smart phone as many days as you can!
You are also encouraged to vote for other nominees! We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support and encouragement of some of our favorite bloggers. They would love your support too.
Here is a listing of other nominees who have been very supportive of our blog. We encourage you to consider voting for them too!
Best Student Blog - BB’s Awesome Blog
Best Use of Educational Audio, Video or Podcast - Mr. Avery’s Classroom Blog
Best Group Blog - Our World Our Stories
Best Class Blog - Please spread out your vote! All of these teachers have helped us tremendously in the last year. Mr. Avery’s 6th grade class blog, 2KM and 2KJ, Mrs. Yollis’ 3rd grade class blog, Mr. Salsich’s Class, and Mrs. Watson’s 2/3 Class.
Best New Blog- Traveling with Mr. Davo Devil and Two Libraries/One Voice
Best Teacher Blog – Integrating Technology and Teaching Literacy in the Early Years
Lifetime Achievement Award – This is the most difficult category to choose because every person on the list deserves the award. Have fun choosing!
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Happy voting!
Leave us a comment and let us know who you voted for!
Unleash the Edublog Awards!
Nov 16th
I am so excited that it’s November!
Why is that you ask? Because November is when the Edublog Award nominations open! This is the time when educational bloggers can recognize the incredible work of other bloggers around the world. Our blog has been greatly influenced by the work of these amazing teachers and it’s our turn to say, “Thank you!” in nominating them for an award!
Here are the Bulldog Reader choices for 2011—-
Best educational use of audio/visual/podcast
Nobody makes classroom educational videos that help children learn about math better than Mr. Avery! Remember the Avery Bunch Fraction video? Mr. Avery has shown his students the power of videos and how they can help visual learners break a hard concept down into recognizable and understandable pieces! “Mr. Avery, You Rock!”
Best Individual Blog
Mrs. Morris maintains two blogs: one for her classroom in Australia, http://2kmand2kj.global2.vic.edu.au/ and one about how to integrate technology into the classroom. Whenever I have a question about educational blogging, Mrs. Morris has the answer. Nobody has taught me more about blogging that Mrs. Morris and she lives 8,000 miles away from Seattle! “Mrs. Morris, You Rock!”
Best Student Blog
BB and I have been blogging buddies since September 2010, when I discovered her awesome student blog when she was a student in Mrs. Morris’ class. Since then we have exchanged countless comments back and forth. Her ability to keep her posts fresh with new ideas always amazes me! She never forgets to reply to a comment on her blog and uses outstanding digital etiquette. “Bianca, You Rock!”
Best Library Blog
Far, far away at the American International School of Budapest, Hungary is a wonderful library blog maintained by Mrs. Ducharme. I discovered her blog in the spring of 2011 and love to visit it often to see what great new ideas she is trying in her library classroom. Her lessons and blog have a clear focus instilling the value and importance of reading. “Mrs. Ducharme, You Rock!”
Lifetime Achievement Award
Mrs. Yollis won the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, but I still think she deserves recognition this year too! Our students have Skyped with Mrs. Yollis and continually learn from her incredible work. I feel very fortunate to be able to call Mrs. Yollis my blogging friend. Down under in Australia, Mrs. Morris has been a constant influence on my learning and stateside, Mrs. Yollis is her counterpart! “Mrs. Yollis, You Rock!”
Best Teacher Blog
In the great state of Michigan is Mrs. Moore’s Techie Kids blog where she teaches over 450 students the skills they need in technology. Split between two schools this year, Mrs. Moore still manages to do quad blogging with three other classrooms and also take part in the Stories Around the World group blog. “Mrs. Moore, You Rock!”
Best Group Blog
This group blog only began a few weeks ago, but already it’s had over 1,800 visitors. Mrs. Morris & Miss Jordan, Mrs. Yollis, Mr. Salsich, Mrs. Watson, Miss Usher and Mrs. MacKenzie & Mrs. Webb share their stories and culture with each other and the world. International group blogs like this one truly show the meaning of flattening classroom walls. “Our World, Our Stories, You Rock!”
Don’t forget to nominate your choice too!
There are hundreds of quality blogs out there in the blogging world, so nominate them for the Edublog Awards for 2011! Go to the Edublogs Award site here and find out how you can submit your choices. Recognize someone you follow today! Voting for nominees begins soon!
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Have you ever visited or commented on any of our nominee blogs?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Our Leaf Man Connections
Nov 14th
Author Lois Ehlert at a book signing.
In kindergarten we have been doing an author study about Lois Ehlert. She writes wonderful stories that I love to read in the fall. After we read the books, we talk about the book-to-book connections we can make between the two books. Kindergarteners are great at making book links! They can tell you that both in both books, Lois Ehlert uses a cut-out technique. They can also tell you that she uses a collage technique in her illustrations.
This time after we read the stories, the kindergarteners got to do something really special in art class with Mrs. Lustgarten! They made library to art connections by making their own leaf men!
They also learned a new words like called ”frottage”!
Frottage is when you take a piece of paper and a crayon and rub over a textured plate.
Here are their awesome kindergarten Leaf Men!
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Have you ever read a Lois Ehlert book?
What do you think about our kindergarten leaf art?
Have you ever used the collage or frottage technique in art?
Blazing Books are Here
Nov 9th
Thanks to a generous grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation, our library has
118 new, blazing hot books!
- The non-fiction Blazing Books Grant shelf
If you are a younger reader, you are going to love, love, love these books! Every new non-fiction book had to pass Mrs. Hembree strict wow criteria questions.
Is it a fun book to read?
Is it an exciting book to read?
Is it action packed?
Here are the new car books to select from. No boring books in this group!
To go along with our math focus at school, some of the new books are math related.
“Crunch, crunch! The farm’s horse loves munching apples.
Can you predict which color of apple the horse will eat next?
The horse has six red apples and two green apples.
Is it more or less likely she will pick a green apple?”
So, what do you think the answer is? Find out inside the book Pigs, Cows, and Probability!
I know a lot our students love joke books, so I added more to our collection! Here’s a sample from the Jokes about Bugs:
“What did the bug say after it hit the window?
If I had the guts, I would do it again.
I also bought a new series called Easy Magic Tricks. These books teach you how to perform magic tricks with playing cards, coins, straws, balloons, and more! There are plenty of ideas here to challenge our budding magicians!
Not all of the books are fact or non-fiction books. We also have some new everybody picture books for our younger readers. They are housed on a special shelf too!
It seems like there are never enough Star Wars books in our library, so look at the new ones we’ve added!
This group of books includes early chapter books that are both fun to read and a little bit longer than the usual picture book. These are perfect for our readers who are ready to read chapter books.
Ten more Backpack Buddies have been added to our expanding Backpack Buddy collection. Inside each backpack is a book, a matching puppet, a journal and instructions on what to do. They are a super fun way to practice reading at home!
If you check out one of these books from our Bulldog Library, I hope you will let me know what you think about them! You can leave a comment on the blog or you can tell me in person! I am even hoping some people what to give me a review on film with our new Flip cameras! Imagine that….YOU can be a Bulldog Reader Star!
Our LWSF grant is also featured on the Lake Washington Schools Foundation Spotlight page! You can read the full article here.
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What do you think about our new books?
Which ones do you want to check out?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Celebrate Picture Book Month!
Nov 2nd
Picture Book Month officially began yesterday, November 1st!
Picture Book Month is according to their website, “an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books. Founder, Dianne de Las Casas (author & storyteller) storyconnection.net, and Co-Founders, Katie Davis (author/illustrator) katiedavis.com, Elizabeth O. Dulemba (author/illustrator) www.dulemba.com, Tara Lazar (author) taralazar.
Why designate a month to picture books?
You may be wondering why devote a month to picture books. Don’t we all love picture books already? The answer is simple. With the birth of eBooks, iPads, Kindles, Nooks and other online reading devices, many feel traditional printed picture books may be on the way out.
Founder Dianne de Las Casa decided it was time to celebrate picture books in their printed format so she created an initiative to designate November as “Picture Book Month”. A number of authors, librarians and leaders in the literature community came on board and spread the word. Every day in November, there will be a new post from a picture book champion explaining why he/she thinks picture books are important. You can visit the website from the link here.
Let’s celebrate the beauty of picture books!
Everyday in November, we will read a picture book in the Bulldog Library! We love picture books already, and this is just an extra incentive to remember and share why we love them.
To launch the month, yesterday I read Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types by Sharon Werner. This book is an illustrated alphabet book for early readers that composes images of animals using only the first letter of its name.
I am using this text with our first graders as they learn how the Everybody section of our library is set up in ABC order by the author’s last name.
The kindergarten students will celebrate our fall colors with the picture books by Lois Ehlert! Every fall we do an author study of Lois Ehlert and how she uses cut-outs in her books! In addition, Mrs. Lustgarten, our art leader has planned an art project so go with our fall leaf picture book unit!
I hope all of our readers will pledge to read a picture book a day for the month of November and beyond! I know I will be enjoying immersing myself in the books that transformed my reading experience from when I was a very young child. I hope you will join me!
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What is your favorite picture book?
Will you join the pledge to read a picture book a day in November?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Family Tech Night
Nov 1st
Last week Mrs. Adair, Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Hembree hosted our first ever Bulldog Family Tech Night!
Families had the opportunity to use the Netbooks at Tech Night!
To keep a completely technology format AND to save paper, all invitations and reservation confirmations were delivered via email. Then on our Tech Night families came to the library to learn about educational blogging.
Educational benefits of classroom blogging
After we talked about how blogging helps students academically, we watched Mr. Avery’s Fraction video that he made last year. This is an excellent example of how technology can enhance learning. Mr. Avery is a 6th grade teacher in Plympton, MA. You can view his fraction video here.
Then it was time to learn about the blogs we have here at school. We have 7 active classroom blogs and more on the way. We reviewed the rules for making comments on a blog.
Posts and comments are like peanut butter and jelly. Both are okay by themselves, but much better served together!
Learning how to fill in the boxes when submitting a comment.
Commenting on the blog is easy and fun! It’s just like writing a friendly letter. The key is to compliment and use your best digital etiquette. Our audience is world-wide!
The Bulldog Readers are urged to spend time with their families at home writing comments. It’s a great way to learn new skills and spend quality time together.
Remember to copy your comment before you submit!
How do you keep up with the blogs? An easy way to keep up with any of the blogs is to subscribe via email or RSS feed. Then every time there is a new post, an email is generated and goes directly to your email. It keeps you updated, without having to waste time looking to see if there is a new post. Look on the sidebar for Subscribe by email to enroll.
If you weren’t able to attend this Family Tech Night, don’t worry! We will host another one in the winter months.
In the meantime, if you would like more information about blogging, Kathleen Morris and Kelly Jorndan, two teachers in Victoria, Australia, and moderators of the 2KM and 2KJ blog have made a wonderful video about blogging with their second grade classes. I highly recommend you take time to watch this at home.
In addition, Mrs. Yollis’s third grade class in the Los Angeles area has also made a great video explaining how to make a comment. You can view that video here.
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What did you think about our Family Tech Night?
Have you ever left a comment on another blog?
How do you use technology at home?
Leave us a comment and let us know!
Digital Citizenship and Commenting
Oct 24th
This fall we are concentrating our intermediate library lessons on the themes of digital citizenship. In 2007 the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) published their National Educational Technology Standards for Students.
These are basic rules for using technology appropriately (Etiquette), communicating effectively (Communication), and protecting student safety (Rights and Responsibilities).
We watched a video published by CommonSenseMedia about the importance of person’s digital footprint. The vital lesson to be learned is that a person’s digital footprint LASTS! It’s important to be thoughtful when writing anything online or posting pictures because they could be permanent.
Some rights reserved by kyteacher
Our next lesson is going to focus on YAPPY and commenting. These are elements of communicating, connecting with others, and student safety.
What is YAPPY you ask?
This acronym is a trick to remember what to NEVER post online.
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Y = Your full name
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A = Address P
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P = Phone number
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P = Passwords
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Y = Your plans
All of these apply to commenting as well. We never use our full name or personal information in comments. In addition, we follow basic rules in our comments. Comments are written in a letter writing format.
- Start off a comment with Dear __________,
- A compliment to the writer or acknowledge the writer in some way.
- Share an opinion or add to the conversation.
- Be polite and use the Golden Rule of Etiquette!
- Check your spelling.
- Adding a question at the end often invites more conversation.
- Close the letter From, _______
More details about the steps to writing a comment are listed in greater detail on our Writing Comments page. Often at the end of a post, the writer will include questions that give you commenting ideas. They are a jumping off point to get you started! Use them! That’s what they are there for.
The Techie Kids have written also written an awesome post about how to write comments on their blog. They have also included videos from some of our blogging friends around the world. Click on TechieKids blog to view.
Let’s Get Started!
We are going to use this post as a comment starter. Below you will see a photograph I have taken of a basket of books here in the library. Your job when you comment is to guess how many books are in the basket.
Make sure you use the letter writing format in your comment. You can also add the conversation in some creative way. Read over what others have written, so you don’t say the same thing as everyone else! Have fun!
Did I mention the prize? There will be a prize for the student/students who come closest to the correct answer. You might be tempted to just count the books in the basket in the library. However, I added bunches of extra books for the photograph, so counting won’t help! Take a guess and have fun!
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How many books do you think are in the basket?
Why do you think I put the lobstering book in the front?
What book would you put in my basket?
What do you think the prize will be?
Blog Action Day- Food
Oct 16th
Sunday, October 16th is Blog Action Day! Bloggers around the world blog about the same topic on the same day! The topic this year is FOOD, which coincides with World Food Day! The goal is to have bloggers around the world raise awareness of important topics.
Bloggers from over 80 countries are joining this worldwide event, including some of our blogging buddies. You can read about 2KM & 2KJ’s post about FOOD. One of their student’s Jarrod is also participating in the event. Go to Jarrod’s Awesome Blog and read how he is participating!
So, how does a library blog participate in a Blog Action Day on the topic of Food? That’s easy!
We can talk about international cooking!
Our students come from over 25 different countries. On any day, you can hear students or parents conversing in numerous languages from every continent in the world! We have students from Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, North America and Australia/Pacifica.
What do they have in common?
FOOD!
Where do they come for new recipes to cook at home?
The Library!
Look inside lunch boxes around our campus and you will find a huge variety of international style lunches! While one person might be having a peanut butter sandwich, the person sitting next to them might be eating a tortilla or using chopsticks to eat rice. Nobody thinks twice about the international flavor of our lunches here.
It’s also why our cooking section of the library is such a well-loved shelf!
Stop by sometime and check out our cookbooks!
And don’t forget, sometimes cooking is Out of This World!
Josa cooks with R2D2!
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Do you ever cook international food?
What do you think about being part of a worldwide event?
What kind of cookbook should we add to our collection?
Our Readers Meet Rick Riordan
Oct 11th
Some of our current and former Bulldog Readers had the opportunity of their lives on Sunday, when they met the author Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the new Heroes of Olympus series! He has over 30 million books in print and his books have been translated into over 37 languages in 36 countries.
- Elizabeth, Julia and Bridget attend the book signing event in Olympia.
“The gods may live on Mt. Olympus, but they vacation in Olympia,” declares the tagline of the winning proposal by the Tumwater Timberland Library.
Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia was part of a week long tour promoting the second book, Son of Neptune, launch in the Heroes of Olympus series. He only made seven stops in the US and Canada on his book tour.
Hundreds of proposals were submitted to Disney Publishing Worldwide for the Olympia Week contest. The proposal title “Poseidon’s Fish Market” developed and written by Joella Peterson, was chosen for its creative ideas in planning activities to celebrate the series and love of reading.
Riordan arrived by yacht and then spoke to his audience before signing books. The audience members could participate in any of the activity booths available while they waited for their time to meet Mr. Riordan.
Rick Riordan's arrival to Olympia, WA.
Elizabeth, Julia and Bridget were able to make it down to Olympia to be part of this amazing day. They got their books signed and one for our library too!
It's book signing time! That one is going in the library!
On Monday, I had a chance to get Julia’s thoughts about here experience meeting Mr. Riordan.
How did you find out about Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia?
How I found out about Rick Riordan’s visit to Olympia was from one of my best friends, Elizabeth. Her aunt, Linda, works at the Tumwater Timberlake Library; the library that sponsored this event. The event was held at the Port of Olympia and was called Poseidon’s Fish Market.
How did you get the tickets?
My mom and dad drove us to Tumwater Library a week ago where we got the tickets. I was kind of let down when I was told I was the 750th person to get their book, but at the event, I got my books signed within an hour!
What was it like? Tell us about the experience there? Lots of people? Did you listen to him talk?
The event was crowded. At first, I was one of about a hundred people. In the next 45 minutes, I was probably one of two thousand people. In was fun in the beginning though. Elizabeth was working at the Fish Facts and Barnacle Bubbles station and I helped her with the crosswords and word searches that kids got to fill out. The prizes for completing the word search was either a poster of The Son of Neptune or a golden drachma key chain. Other booths were about fishing, face-painting, and information about the sea’s environment. When Rick Riordan arrived by yacht, I got pictures of him coming off the boat, he and his family were waving from the boat. He got off, answered questions about his latest book and then went to his book-signing booth.
What were the best parts of the experience?
The best parts about “Poseidon’s Fish Market” were Rick Riordan arriving, because the crowd suddenly went quiet when they saw him and then the kids and parents started screaming their guts out. Also, finding out about the books he’s planning to write in the future. The third book in the Kane Chronicles is coming out in May 2012 and then Rick Riordan is planning to write a series about Norse mythology after he completes the Heroes of Olympus series.
Bridget also filmed Rick Riordan’s entire talk in Olympia! If you wish you had been there, but couldn’t go, here is the next best thing!
If you want to learn more about Rick Riordan and his books, visit his website www.rickriordan.com Many thanks to Bridget, Julia, and their parents, Elizabeth and to the Timberland Regional Library for sharing their photos, film, and background information for this blog post. ************
We now have two copies of Son of Neptune in our Bulldog Library. Stop by and put a reserve slip in to reserve your place in line to read it!Have you ever been to a book signing?
Who would you like to meet?
Please leave us a comment and let us know!
