District Wide Information

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller

This summer I heard about The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, then read the book in a couple of days and was energized.  This, along with Camp Read-a-lot (a program through the MELSA libraries in the Cities) helped me to decide how I wanted to change the High School Reading Incentive Program.  In essence, Donalyn is a 6th grade teacher that requires her students to read up to 40 books in a school year. She encourages her students, but does not penalize them if they do not read 40 books.  She has a gift to help her readers develop a love of reading.  Her students pass the Texas state reading test.  As our district continues to work together to help students grow as readers and increase achievement test scores, students and teachers need to read, read, read.  Teachers need to read too so a conversation begins to develop as well as a culture of excitement in sharing what you and your students are reading.  This helps students develop a list of what books they want to read next.  It is important for students to make a list of what they read throughout the year to help them realize that they do read a lot!

If you are interested in reading this book, each school library media center has a copy in the professional collection.  Contact the media assistant to check out the copy in your building.

District Wide Information

Welcome back to school!

This is my third year posting weekly on the Marshall Media Info Bits blog.  I use this as a way to share information and new ideas to use in the classroom.  I post every Sunday night and send out an email remainder to check out my new posting.

This week I will be adding new teacher names to the digital video library that the district subscribes to called Learn360.  I will send more information via email to new teachers about this terrific resource.

Digital Storytelling
http://prezi.com/wjf0n4to97ck/digital-storytelling-for-communities/
Digital Storytelling is a way to combine telling a story with photos, background music and technology to present a short 3-5 minute video.  This sounds like a great way for students to share with their parents and our community the exciting learning opportunities happening in classrooms.  It is also a great way for students to share individually or in small groups what they are learning.  If you are interested in exploring digital storytelling let me know if you would like me to work with you!