TIE Group Updates

3rd Day: October 4, 2010

Students were given maps based on the books they read from the previous week.  They used an online database to look up information about that country and then locate it on the world map.  After finishing, they regrouped with their partner from the previous week and presented their information and pie charts to the class.  

We had a guest speaker come to class.  She is a friend of mine that spent several months in Nairobi in Africa where she volunteered her time at an orphanage. She presented a power point with pictures and music from her trip. She shared her experience and answered questions.  They kids enjoyed her visit.

After that everyone came up with questions that they thought were important to know for their creation of, “If Schenectady Were A Village. Using those questions, we created a survey that will go out to our students at King.

2nd Day: September 27,2010
Students were put into groups where they filled out a brief questionnaire to get to know each other. They shared that information within their small group and then each student shared one new fact that they learned with the rest of their classmates. We learned interesting facts about our new friends.

I introduced “If America Were a Village” to the class and played an audio recording of the author explaining how he came up with the idea to write this book.  Students were put into pairs and were each given a page to read from “If the World Were a Village.”  They were asked to read the page and make connections to the text. Each pair then entered their information into Excel spreadsheets & made pie charts based on the data they entered.  As a group we discussed living conditions in America versus the living conditions in other countries.

The students were put into pairs again and were given a book to read that was about life in another culture.  Upon finishing the book, each student walked around the library and answered one question at each station (this was to illustrate the various types of learners that exist).

TIE Group Updates

1st Day: September 9/20/10
Well we had our first meeting for TIE at MLK. today!   We discussed responsible use of computers & reviewed the district’s acceptable use policy.  Our goal was to have all of our students set up with Google accounts but we ran into a gliche with that.  For the time being the Google accounts are on hold.  We reviewed what we would cover during the school year and each student wrote a note home highlighting the main points.  I enjoyed working with your students and look forward to seeing them next week.

New Titles Have Just Been Added to Our Collection!

Thanks to a monetary donation from our PTO, we were able to purchase some new titles for our middle level students!!  In addition to that, we have had some book donations from individuals for both our elementary and our middle level students.  Thank you to all of you!

To check out our NEW ITEMS LIST, click on this link:  http://snk.scsd.opalsinfo.net/bin/newitems

Inspired Students Do Their Own Research

Ms. Hernandez's class came to the library. By reading one book (& doing a KWL), the class decided they wanted to learn more about spiders!  And so they did. . . . . .

New York Public Library

http://nypl.org

I was just reminded of a great resource, the New York Public Library!  From the Home Page, check out "NYPL for Kids."  There is a section called "Tumble Books" where you will find, online books (in foreign languages too), games, etc.

OPALS

OPALS is our new online catalog.   You can search for a title anywhere internet access is available.
http://snk.scsd.opalsinfo.net