Buncee Love

My new favorite tech tool is Buncee. If you haven't tried it yet, then you need to jump on board. I love this tool. I've been using it with my students since October of 2017 and have just recently decided to apply to be a Buncee Ambassador. I love it that much!

I began slowly with my students. I first introduced it to my 1st through 4th grade classes by having the students create Halloween Buncees. We were also experimenting with Google Classroom, so I put the link to Buncee in Classroom so students could easily gain access. Because I have the .edu version, I can sync my Google Classroom with Buncee. Win: I didn't have to create classes in Buncee. Here are some samples of our first Buncees:

We kept it simple with just backgrounds and stickers. The next month we made Thanksgiving Buncees, and I also dabbled in the Assignment feature with my 3rd and 4th grade classes. I made a Poetry Summary assignment with an example. Students read a poem and created a Buncee to summarize it. Once finished, they submitted their assignments which I was able to grade within Buncee. I exported the grades to an Excel sheet (just the click of a button in Buncee) which I gave to their ELA teachers. I used the clip and stitch tools in Buncee to create a slide presentation of the assignment and some of the students' work. Click the link to view the presentation: https://bisd.edu.buncee.com/buncee/70e48e516fd142a1920b03fe092b598d . I taught the students how to insert text boxes for this assignment, but some students are so creative and tech savvy that they discovered how to add animation, links, and other multi-media on their own. Proud teacher moment!

For February, we are expressing love through Buncees. My 1st and 2nd grade classes made Valentine Buncees in which they used text boxes, stickers, and animations.

                   

My 3rd and 4th grade classes are showing their love of reading by creating #BookSnaps.

These are still in progress, but students will be posting them to my #BunceeBoard to share their favorite books. A few have already been posted. Check them out!

There are many ways to use Buncee in your library or classroom. I have used it to make signs for library displays, as a venue to give my students voice, and as a creative medium for publishing final products. One librarian friend had her students create Buncees to publish their research. Other lesson ideas are to create a story map, a vocabulary study, or a graphing assignment. What will you create with your first Buncee?

Spooky or not spooky? Should I have to ask?

I just finished reading Followers by Anna Davies. It is the story of a young girl trying to define herself through theater at her private school. Briana Beland is certain she nailed her audition for the school's winter play, Hamlet, and is hoping to get a good part, if not the lead. She is devastated to learn that she did not make the cast at all and is then asked to be the play's social media director. Soon a mysterious Twitter account is leaving cryptic posts and students start dying. (Sounds scary, doesn't it?!) It's a good book, but it is not spooky. Or maybe it is not spooky enough for my tastes. Don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of horror and gore, but I do enjoy a good, spine-tingling spooky novel. I was disappointed, therefore, that my spine did not tingle nor were there any goosebumps or hair raising. The book had a slow start. It felt more like the beginning of a teen romance instead of a thriller. When the mystery finally began to unfold, the drama played out too quickly. I wanted more lurking in the shadows, suspense, and sleuthing. However, this book would make a good introduction for students (grades 6-10) who are interested in the spooky/scary/mystery/thriller genre but are not quite ready to have the hair on the back of their necks stand up.

If your students are looking for a more spine-tingling thriller, here are few I love:

• Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
• All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn 
• Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

(Okay, I admit it. I love all of Mary Downing Hahn's ghost stories. She is amazing!)

If you have any spooky title suggestions, I would love to hear from you.

New Beginnings

I began an exciting adventure this school year: a dual role as the library media specialist and the digital learning coach for my elementary campus. I love that I have this opportunity to combine two of my favorite things, books and technology. So here you will find the story of Ogg Library integrating technology, enjoying great literature, and developing life-long learners.

As you may know, we had a hurricane and flooding along the Gulf Coast of Texas just after school started this year, so I am jumping to October. We started the month off with an author visit. H. J. Ralles, author of The Ghosts of Malhado, The Ghosts of Orozimbo, and The Keeper series (science fiction), came for her annual visit to T. W. Ogg Elementary School. She taught our third graders about personal narrative writing and our fourth graders about expository writing. The students engaged in a hands-on writing workshop where they learned techniques to improve their writing. For our third graders she also presented her new book Come Travel With Me, which demonstrates her personal narrative writing; and for our fourth graders she did a presentation of her research on Cabeza de Vaca, which was used to write The Ghosts of Malhaldo.

H. J. Ralles helps students with their prewriting.

H. J. Ralles teaches the students how she comes up with ideas for her books.

Students are working on their personal narrative prewriting activity.

Mr. Salazar helps his students find magazine clippings for their expository writing project.

Mrs. Sciba walks her students through finding a catchy title.

Next we participated in Digital Citizenship Week. Thanks to resources in BrainPop, ABCya, and Common Sense Media, I taught my students what it means to be a good digital citizen and how to stay safe online. Then I had my first and second graders record videos of what it means to be a good digital citizen using FlipGrid. My students accessed the grid by a link I posted in Google Classroom. We recorded a few videos at a time to cut down on background noise. You can get a free FlipGrid One account where you get one grid and can post unlimited topics. If you want more grids, you can upgrade for a price to FlipGrid Classroom. You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play, or you can access it via the web at https://info.flipgrid.com/. I love this tool for giving my students voice.

My 3rd and 4th graders extended their learning about digital citizenship by playing Google's Interland-Be Internet Awesome. Here is a description from Google: "Interland is a free, web-based game that makes learning the ways of the web a fun, engaging and hands-on experience. Kids are invited to play their way to Internet Awesome and become fearless explorers of the online world in a quest to deny hackers, sink phishers, one-up cyberbullies and outsmart oversharers." My students were engaged in learning about internet safety and had fun, too.

One of my favorite October activities is our annual Star Wars Reads event. We had the Brazosport Astronomy Club come again this year with their huge telescopes for some amazing star gazing. We were able to see the Summer Triangle which includes the stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair; and we got a good look at Saturn. And let's not forget the Star Wars fun: marshmallow robot creation station, lightsaber station, Star Wars coloring pages station, Lego space station building station, and origami station. We had a blast creating, building, playing, and star gazing!

 

So this is how the Ogg Library has started the 2017-2018 school year. The adventures have just begun. Tune in later for more Books and Bytes in the Ogg Library.