Library Web Pages for Elementary Schools

by Cara Cunha, Deborah Liberato, by Cara Cunha, Deborah Liberato, and Bosiljka Mijaljevic and Bosiljka Mijaljevic

Introduction

Cara Cunha - Roseland NJCara Cunha - Roseland NJ

Deborah Liberato - Newark, NJDeborah Liberato - Newark, NJ

Bosiljka Mijaljevic - Paterson, NJBosiljka Mijaljevic - Paterson, NJ

One-dimensional vs. Three-dimensional

Library Web sites should include resources for teachers, parents, and students.

Elementary students require knowledgeable parents and teachers to be successful.

Excellent opportunity to reach outside the walls of the library and enter the community.

Parents Teachers Students

Student Learning

How to Build a Web Site

• Host it yourself: tripod, scholastic, freewebs

• Use a program provided by your district – OnCourse Systems, Dream Weaver

• Level of technology - lean toward “WYSIWYG” if you are just beginning

Criteria• Accurate• Current• Reliable• No special software required• No fee, if possible• Information presented in a way easy

to understand and age appropriate manner

• Bilingual, if possible• Enjoyable for audience• Meets NJCCCS• Minimal advertisement, if any• Minimal hyperlinks

Aesthetics and Sounds

• Site should be appealing to audience

• Choose images, designs, and sounds that have Creative Commons Licensing.

• Free audio -Sound project

• Clip art – Microsoft

• Give credit where credit is due

Something Anyone Can Do

• If the technological resources are not available at school, you can create a Web site at home.

• You can assist students, parents, and teachers even when you are away from school.

Personalize It

• Include FAQ’s and contact information.

• Remember to include resources unique to your district and the needs of the teachers and parents.

• For example, if there is a high population of children with asthma, include links about asthma.

Update It

• Check for broken and outdated links

• Include content for holidays, observances, and current events.

Example Library Sites

• LPS Elementary

• GrandviewLibrary.org (archived)

• Grover Cleveland MS

• West Essex Middle School

Lexington SchoolLexington, MA

Web site contains wonderful information and links, but is not visually appealing.

Grandview Library (Archived)Monsey, NY

Grover Cleveland MSCaldwell, NJ

West Essex Middle SchoolNorth Caldwell, NJ

Teacher Section of Library Website

What Does a Teacher Need

• Know your colleagues• Been there – Needed This:

– Lesson Plan Ideas– Quick Forms– Technology Assistance– Professional Development– Ideas for Centers– Rubrics– Money and supplies– The perfect worksheet, etc. – Bulletin board ideas– A good laugh

Readymade PowerPoints

• Pete’s PowerPoint Station - Ready-made presentation for young students and sometimes by students http://www.pppst.com/index.html

• Interactive Quizzes and Games - game on Dewey - http://breitlinks.com/deweychallenge/

• Web Help - Dewey Browse assists teachers in searching the web based on the Dewey Decimal System http://www.deweybrowse.org/

• INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHEETS - Graphing exercise about school hours around the world: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/teachers/pdfs/2001F/011102WR1.pdf

Educators Helping Educators

• KATHY SCHROCK - http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/

• Subject Access: Grants, holidays, themes, news and magazines (done in lists)

• Search Tools: Different Search Engines besides Yahoo and Google

• Teacher helpers: Slide shows on creating Web page, rubrics (see also RubiStar), bulletin board ideas

• Sites of the School Days: ex: digital portfolios made easy. Each month several ideas to integrate technology (Glogster, Sumo image editor)

Educator to Educator

• John Thurlow Teacher Sites - http://www.johnthurlow.com/children/Teacher/teacher.html

• Curriculum Planner - http://www.johnthurlow.com/children/Teacher/Revolutionary%20Newspapers%20v2.pdf

• Tech Projects - http://www.johnthurlow.com/children/Teacher/Product%20Exemplars%20Master.pdf

• Companion Kids site - http://www.johnthurlow.com/children/Childrens_Home/children.htm

• Ideas to Inspire: http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/index.html#1

• Collaborative presentations from around the world broken into 4 sections: Curriculum Ideas: Ideas and resources linked to specific curriculum area 2 for art and 101 for geography

• Interesting Ways to Use ICT hardware: These presentations focus on one particular ICT hardware tool and suggest ways of using that tool in your classroom. Whiteboards, video cameras, webcams, gps and ipods

• Interesting ways to use ICT software and online tools. Google Earth, maps and docs, Wordle, Twitter, Prezi (similar to Illustrator), Wiki’s

• Another set of 'Interesting Ways' presentations which share classroom uses for a range of software and online tools. Voki (voice of inanimate instead of yours) Studywiz This section contains even more collaborative presentations, covering a range of topics.. Techy Tips for non-techy, projects, videos, support.

Educator to Educator

Department of Education

• New Jersey Department of Education– NJCCCS– NETS– CIP– Other standards

• Other States have great sites too

• Federal Government

Corporate Assistance

Thinkfinity: http://www.thinkfinity.org/• Lesson Plans, Interactive Learning Tools• Webinar, Online safety resources• Widgets, Blogs, Podcasts• Calendar of Historic Events – click on date and it will send to

article, resources and lesson plan ideas

National Geographic XPeditions: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/ Maps, activities, Lesson Plans, Education Letters, Daily News, Current NG projects, Kids section

PBS:http://www.pbs.org/teachers Audio/Video (Newspaper in Digital Age), Lesson Plans,

Discussions, Media Infusion Blogs, Webinars, Professional Development, Innovation Awards and Activity Widgets

Web Page Idea• Don’t forget amazon, and other sites that promote authors for

example Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Wind-Greg-Mortenson/dp/0803730586/ref=pd_sim_b_1 Has an author video for the book Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson. It is a companion book to, Three Cups of Tea.

• Podcast link: Read aloud of book and several connected books. Reader can be anyone, not just you.

• Additional Books for Kids: Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams; Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter; Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier;  One Hen - How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway ;  The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter

• Additional Read for Adults: Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Education by Greg Mortenson

• Add a link to http://www.freerice.com/ • Link to lesson plan ideas:

http://www.unco.edu/english/docs/3CT/DuringREADING/ChapterReview_StudyGuide.doc (Social Studies) and http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/penniesforpeacetoolkit/downloads/PfP_4-8_CurriculumResourceGuide.pdf (Language Arts)

• Power Point Presentation, worksheets, games http://themes.pppst.com/internationalschools.html

• CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html

Other Sites for Author Videos

• Scholastic - http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748896

• Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews

• Author’s personal Web site -http://www.wimpykid.com/

So Many Sites, So Little Time

• Read Write Think - http://www.readwritethink.org/ Interactive learning such as Comic generator

• Edutopia Green - http://www.edutopia.org/go-green Curriculum, field trips, projects, lesson plans on various Green topics

• Science Links - http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/ Not just the traditional. Includes social and behavioral sciences so used for Native American Heritage Month as easilty as Rocket Includes Lesson Plans, Tools, Resources and Benchmarks

Read Aloud to Kids:• http://podcast.denverlibrary.org/

• Book synopsis, read-alouds and extras - http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/folk.html

• Videos of stories learn about strangers - http://www.berenstainbears.com/theater.html

• Youtube: Good Night Moon narrated by Susan Sarandon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F97is-K4n8&feature=related

• Read aloud: authors studio

Podcasts for Teachers

• High school: Joyce Kasman Valenza www.sdst.org/shs/library

• http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/default

.htm

• Ann Blanche Smith School Library– http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Pod

casting– http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Pod

casting– http://www.hopkintonschools.org/hhs/library/po

dcast.html

Wikis and Blogs for Teachers

• Educblog.org

• Blogspot

• Wiki.com

• http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-empowered-teacher

SMARTboard Sites

• SMARTboard not required, just a projector – www.smarttech.com

• http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/

Technology

• Tech helpful: Pod-o-matic to make a podcast

• Teacher session - integrating tech (wordle, tagle, quest garden, teach-nology, smarttech.com, sketchup, deweybrowse.org, Zunal to create Webquests

• Comics - Pixton, • Free clip art sites:

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/ All 3

Forms

• Forms - http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listthedeweli.html#cat2

• HELPERS - http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

• rubistar.4teachers.org

• Freeology.com: graphic organizers

Librarian Help

• Dewey Decimal hotlist for Librarians http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listthedeweli.html

• Assignment Calculator - http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/date.php?monthone=11&dayone=5&yearone=2010&monthtwo=11&daytwo=18&yeartwo=2010&SubjectID=5

• XMARKS - http://www.xmarks.com/site/similar/2/www.thinkfinity.org/EducatorHome.aspx?created=all

Last Minute Reminders

• Remind teachers to look at the sites for students since they can include these in integrating technology into their lesson plans.

Parent Section of Library Website

Why Parents?

• Community link for librarians

• Helps parents to help kids

• Helps parents to help teachers

• Makes your site the go to site

• Completes the circle for student learning

Your Local Area

• Create links to:– district Web site– town or city Web site– city public library– PTA – HSA– School report card– NJ Dept of Education:

www.njdoe.org

• Know your district !

Local Area and Beyond

• Sites to look at with your kids:– Google earth:

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

– Weather bug: http://ww2.weatherbug.com/aff/default.asp?zcode=z6162

Library Wish List

List what you need, you never know when someone is willing to give.

•The necessary items

•The luxury items

•Don’t be shy!

Library Events

• The book fair

• The guest author

• Back to school night

• Author’s birthday

• New books

• Advertise the library!!!!!

Internet Safety

• Internet safety– Safe kids:

http://www.safekids.com/– McGruff: http://www.mcgruff.org/

Bullying

• Cyber-bullying – Anti-bullying network:

www.antibullying.net\– Stop bullying now:

http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/

– Cyber-bullying : http://www.cyberbullying.org/

– Wired kids: http://www.wiredkids.org/

Bullying

• http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html• http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html • http://www.wiredkids.org/wiredkids_org.html• http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/wa

_teachers/safe_passage_teachers/risks_bullying.cfm

• http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/tacklingbullying/

• http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/taphealth.html• http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/tap3.htm • http://eduscapes.com/arch/evaluate/archschool.html• http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html• http://teachertidbytes.com/

http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/•

Assorted Needs

• Parenting Magazine: http://www.parenting.com/

• Parenting news: http://www.parent.net/

• Working Mother: http://www.workingmother.com/?service=vpage/106

• Nutrition: http://www.mypyramid.gov/

Student Section of the Library Web site

Search Engines

• Google searches websites, images, maps, and file types.

More appropriate sites for elementary students.• Yippy displays results in clusters and groups similar

results together.• KidsClick guides by a group of librarians to guide

their young users to valuable and age appropriate web sites.

• Awesome Library for Kids organizes the Web with 37,000 carefully reviewed resources, including the top 5 percent in education. Also available in different languages.

• Nettrekker subscription search engine that has educators review and approve sites.

Fun Sites

• Fun Brain -- Math and reading games• Virtual Jigsaw• Hangout NJ -- Discover trivia and interesting facts

about NJ for kids• Free Rice -- This organization donates a grain of rice

to the poor for every correct answer to a vocabulary question.

• Make Beliefs Comix - Create your own comic strips online.

• Educational Games and Activities Kaboose PBS Kids Funbrain Coolmath

• http://artsalive.ca/en/mus/ - create your own music• National Geographic Kids• Discovery Kids

General Reference

• RefDesk.com - Great source for ALL kinds of information: An onlinereference library.

• Dewey Browse - Hundreds of web sites, organized by Dewey numbers.

• Librarians Index to the Internet - searchable and annotated subject directory of Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness.

• Information Please Almanac - Web version of the print almanac plus a dictionary.

• CIA World Factbook - provides information on countries

• Ology - website American Museum of Natural History

Research

• Bibliographies – Noodletools.com

• Copyright information – CopyrightKids.org

• Evaluation – Kathy Schrock’s Evaluation Survey

• The Big 6 for kids

• Local library Web site

• Pathfinders

• Links to teachers’ Web sites and projects

Homework Help

• Kids World Homework Help - This site will link you to internet resources selected by reference librarians. A great place to find information on many subjects.

• KidInfo – provides Web site directory by subject

Typing/Computer Skills

• Teach students to be resourceful and not waste time reinventing the wheel. – Microsoft.com - templates

• Allow students to complete work efficiently. – Freetypinggames.net– Powertyping.com

Internet Safety and Cyberbullying

• Topic that should be investigated with teachers or parents to avoid the feeling of isolation and open a dialogue.

• See parent slides

Thank you to the professors at

New Jersey City University in the Educational Technology Department for inspiring us and

encouraging us to succeed.

Questions?

E-mail Cara Cunhaccunha@lestercnoecker.org