Learning About Coral Reefs with the Kinders

One of the best parts of my week is when I get visited by our K1 and K2 classes for storytime.  They've been working hard with Morah Yaffa learning all about oceans and sea life.  After a conversation with a kinder during morning care who talked about his upcoming vacation to a place that has a coral reef, I decided it was the perfect topic for our next storytime.

The book we read, Coral Reefs by Jason Chin, is gorgeously illustrated and talks about both the science and the importance of reefs to the ocean.  The kinders were fascinated by the illustrations and asked lots of questions and shared some of their own knowledge on oceans and on food chains, which was quite impressive.

They then had a chance to examine real coral and see the tiny polyps that comprise coral.  They were very into it and we had so much fun exploring this topic.  Can't wait for next week!

The OJCS has read over 2170 books so far!

The OJCS Reading Challenge is in full swing and every class is doing an incredible job.  Books are flying off the shelves in the library.  I've never seen students so excited about reading and sharing about what they've been reading.  Students have been posting book reviews on our catalogue and also sharing flipgrid videos.  

There has been a tangible shift in reading culture at the school and everyone is working hard to continuously motivate the kids.  The kids are also working hard to motivate each other.

Each grade is reading books that are appropriate for their age and grade level, so of course, the older the kids, the bigger the books and the longer they take to finish.  Here are our numbers so far...

Grade 8 - 26

Grade 7 - 68

Grade 6 - 72

Grade 5 - 56

Grade 4 - 330

Grade 3 - 945

Grade 2 - 261

Grade 1 - 397

K - 15 +

These numbers are enough to bring tears of joy to a librarian's heart.  I need a tissue.

Understanding Keywords with Grades 3 and 4

Today grades 3 and 4 learned all about strategies for effective internet searching.  Students tend to type long questions into the search bar of search engines and click on the very first site that comes up, regardless of the quality or relevance of the site.  Over the past few years I've been trying to convey to students the importance of selecting a few important words from their questions (keywords) and using those to bring in targeted results.  I have also been trying to get students to use some of the many excellent kid-friendly search engines to narrow their searches to results that are geared to their grade level.

Kidrex is https://www.alarms.org/kidrex/

Kiddle is https://www.kiddle.co/

Students worked through some research questions and experimented with keywords to find good results.  For example, with the question: How many teeth does an adult dog have?  The keywords were teeth and adult dog.  After a bit of practice they picked up finding keywords very quickly.  The keyword worksheets are available through the marvelous resource Common Sense Education.

Ms. Bennett and Ms. Mellenthin are going to practice this each day in the classroom.  I think it will have a really positive impact on the quality of student research.

Student Recommended Reads

This month's in-library book display is a chance for students to share their favourite books with other students.

Since The OJCS Reading Challenge kicked off the number of books read has increased exponentially!  My desk is now constantly covered in returned books.  More work for me but work I couldn't be happier to be doing!

Here are a few of my favourite books and comments so far:

Reimagining the Library as Learning Centre

It's Spring cleaning in December!

I have started clearing out rows of books no longer in use since the Hillel days to create more space for student work areas, more computers, new movable furniture, whiteboards, etc.  I'd really like to see the library become even more of a learning centre; a place where small groups of students are sent throughout the day by their teachers to collaborate, research, complete projects, or when they just need some time outside the classroom environment to complete their work according to their specific learning needs.

I want the library to act as a work hub for students from all grades and become a place that is accessible not just during their recess library times or during their once-a-week  class visit, but as an extension of classroom space.

To aid this, I am envisioning a system based on one I read about in at Big Walnut School in Ohio where students are given a prescription from their teacher that would look much like this;

This prescription would act as a directive for both me and the students as to what they should be using their time in the library for and to keep them on track lest they be sent back to class prematurely.

This space has so much potential.  I am eager to see how it all unfolds in the coming year.  

"I Didn't Do My Homework Because..." Fun Creative Writing

One of my favourite picture book artists right now is French artist Benjamin Chaud who worked with author Davide Cali to create a hilarious series of books about excuses.  The one I read with our grade 3 and 4 students is called I Didn't Do My Homework Because...

After reading the book to students I set them to create their own silly excuses and doodles in just 10 minutes. 

They then got the opportunity to share their excuses with the class, which they were all very excited to do.  

They had so much fun with this activity and it was so easy to pull off.  Their amazing excuses are on display in the hall downstairs.  Make sure to check them out so you don't get fooled when you hear them in class.

Well-Being Book Series with Shannon

I got the opportunity to collaborate with our wonderful school counselor Shannon for a Well-Being Book Series session for our Kindergarten to grade 4 classes.  It was Kindness Week at the OJCS and the focus today was empathy.  Our students got to learn a very valuable lesson about the meaning of empathy and how it feels to 'stand in someone else's shoes.'

We started off the session by reading each group a book.  For our K and 1 groups we read 'When I Care About Others' by Cornelia Maude Spelman.  It is a very simple book but a valuable teaching tool for younger students.  

For our grade 2 to 4s we read a beautiful book called 'The Three Questions' by Jon J. Muth about a boy who is trying to answer three important questions;

1. When is the best time to do things?
2. Who is the most important one?
3. What is the right thing to do?

After reading the story Shannon discussed the word 'Empathy' with the students and then did an exercise where they had to take turns standing on a pair of shoe prints and imagining what others would feel in made-up scenarios. 

The kids loved the exercise and the stories.  I am really looking forward to working more with Shannon on this book series and can't wait to choose books for our next session!

Let the OJCS Reading Challenge Begin!

This week we launch our school-wide reading challenge! 

Each teacher will decide on the number of books they want their class to aim to read from Nov 19th to May 1st as a group sum total.  This number should be a challenge but still very much attainable.

There is a list of categories that will be handed out to help direct student choices across a wide range of genres.  Each student (and teacher) will contribute to this class total, and when a book is finished, that student will post a brief book review on the school’s new library website (if the book was a library book.)  https://theojcs.booksys.net/opac/ojcs/

The prize is an end-of-year pizza party where there is the optional component that students can come to school dressed as their favourite literary character.  The second piece of this is that the students who meet or exceed reading from all of the categories will be recognized for their hard work and contribution to the class at an end-of-year assembly. 

We are so excited to get going!

Gaming Their Way to Good Digital Citizenship

This week and next week the library is running workshops on online safety and good digital citizenship.  The kids have been loving these workshops because the way they are learning these lessons is through an amazing Google game called 'Interland'.  This game is designed to guide students through four levels, each dealing with a particular issue.

The worlds are;

1. Mindful Mountain - Share with Care - students are asked to determine who they should share certain types of information with.
2. Reality River - Don't Fall For Fake - this game poses questions about how to protect yourself from phishing and other scams.
3. Tower of Treasure - Secure Your Secrets - this level is about protecting private information and creating secure passwords
4. Kind Kingdom - It's Cool to Be Kind - this level is about the importance of being kind online and standing against cyber bullying

The kids enjoyed the game so much they were asking to stay over recess and continue.  Our discussions before the game indicated that the children knew very little about how to protect themselves online.  But they took away so much from the game that our discussion after playing it was very rich.  I will be sharing this link with other grades and parents as I think this is a great tool for educating any student, not just the young ones.

Information Credibility

The library has kicked off this year's middle school research skills workshop series with a lesson on credible websites vs. non-credible websites and identifying fake news.  The students were asked to be detectives and jot down some of the ways you can identify which sites and articles are real and which are fakes.

Developing critical thinking is a skill that needs more attention than it gets.  Forbes reports that 75% of adults are fooled by fake news.

I had students looking at websites about explorers.  One of them was completely fake.  What I found interesting was that even information that seems very obviously ridiculous to an adult, such as a claim that Samuel de Champlain went to Disney World to celebrate winning 'Best Fort of the Year' from 'Better Forts and Ramparts Magazine', caused students to actually need to look up how long Disney World has been open because they weren't sure if this could actually be a possibility.
On our fake news exercise, some students weren't sure if Justin Trudeau was building a wall or not.  That is why it is so important to follow the rule of three and always compare three sources of information.

Is Justin Trudeau building a wall? The kids don't know!

These videos show a few clever teams who immediately went to the 'About' page on the news article or website they suspected was fake to learn more about the source.  It is important that they learn to look outside of the site to find out more as well.

I think it is also important not to take for granted when you are working with kids that something that seems very obvious to an adult is not very obvious to students in a time where when information is presented in a way that looks legitimate it is taken seriously.

My favourite part of this activity was showing the students the fake website Pets or Food where you can buy exotic animals either alive or dead.  It is scary just how realistic this site is and that's what makes it such a great example.


I think we all had fun and it was very eye-opening; from my perspective as an observer of this exercise to see how much work we need to do, and their perspective when they came to see how easily they could be duped.  This workshop series will tie in nicely to future topics such as being safe online.

Our Library Catalogue Is Online!

We are so excited to announce that the OJCS Library catalogue is now online!  Students and teachers will have access to browse our collection from their classrooms, home, or even on your device as there is an app available for download.

Please check out the new site, formal training is coming very soon!
https://theojcs.booksys.net/opac/ojcs/

If you are too eager to wait for the training session, Log Ins for students and staff are uniform: first letter of first name, a period, then last name.  Password is books.
So for example mine would be:
Username: b.ruel
Password: books
Here is an example of what a full record in the new system looks like...

Teachers will have the ability to create book lists for their students and students will be able to write book reviews!

I can't wait to show you more, but for now I will leave it here.  Have fun exploring!

Learning By Heart

Learning By Heart

I spent some time reading the book 'Learning by Heart' by Roland S. Barth over the Summer.  The experience began with a certain amount of confusion as I came to realize that this book wasn't by the more famous French Roland Barthes who I studied quite a bit in University Communications courses.  Nope, this was Roland S. Barth, a Harvard Professor and famous educator, NOT the world's most famous semiotician.  I will admit I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't embarking on some radical and hyper complex read, but in the end I learned quite a bit anyway.

As I read the book I felt a lot of pride in knowing that the OJCS is travelling full tilt in the direction that Barth outlines.  Some examples that spring to mind are teachers taking the role of school leaders in a variety of areas, from student life to creating exciting prototype projects that will change the culture of the school in a really positive way.  One that I am personally involved in right now is creating outlets in the school for students to share their voices.  That is something Barth cites as critical to transforming a school culture for the better.

Another big one area that the OJCS is succeeding in is that staff and teachers have been offered more and more outlets to share 'craft knowledge' with one another, that is, our experiences of exciting classroom projects or ways to engage students, as well as things that don't work or haven't worked.

What really stood out for me in this book however, was the idea that the old-fashioned transmission-of-knowledge model, what Barth refers to as "Sit n' Git" i.e. students sitting quietly while teachers lecture, doesn't work.  Information retention was seen to be extremely low when anything is taught this way.  He suggests the ratio should look more like 15% teacher talk and 85% something else.  That something else is elaborated upon in subsequent chapters on Experiential Learning.  Barth states;

"I believe it is possible to create a school culture that is hospitable to human learning if we turn the tuning knob to stations that invite students and adults to take risks with a safety net, engage in novel and surprising experiences, enjoy a sense of adventure and purposefulness, share leadership with others, pose and solve problems for themselves, find the joy and freedom that comes with hard work, assume responsibility not only for their own lives but for the lives of others, and make a contribution to others."

Whew, a tall order!  But one that I would love to fill as I approach the 2018/2019 school year.  This year I will be leading students in every grade through workshops on research skills and media literacy.  Sometimes students walk through the library door for a Research Skills workshop and have already decided that it will be a snoozefest just based on the topic.  It is my responsibility to ensure that the kind of work we'll be doing in the library this year is deserving of eagerness and anticipation.

I will be sharing lots of pictures and videos here this year about the work we do in these workshops so keep checking in to see how we put into practice the excellent advice of the famous EDUCATOR Mr. Roland Barth.     

Summer Reads

Students and teachers alike are already VERY ready for Summer Break, but we all need to do our part to encourage students to read over the break so as to prevent the dreaded "Summer Slide."

Infographic from biguniverse.com

I have compiled summer reading lists for grades 1 through 8 to support teachers in creating their own lists.  It is a nice idea to share suggested reading lists with parents so that they can encourage their children to keep learning over the summer months.  Teachers or parents offering incentives or prizes for reading over the summer is also something that could act as a tremendous motivator for our students.

Grade 1                                                                   

1. Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty    
2. The Princess in Black by LeUyen Pham
3. Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
4. Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo
5. We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen

Grade 2

1. Ivy & Bean by Annie Barrows
2. Canadian Flyer Adventures by Frieda Wishinsky
3. Jake Drake, Bully Buster by Andrew Clements
4. The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey
5. Galaxy Zack by Ray O'Ryan

Grade 3

1. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
2. Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville
3. Nancy Drew and The Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene
4. Who Was/Who Is series
5. Nighty-Nightmare by James Howe
6. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
7. Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
8. Bad Kitty for President by Nick Bruel
9. Murder on the Canadian by Eric Wilson
10. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Grade 4 

1. Holes by Louis Sachar
2. Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater
3. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
4. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
5. The Fire Eaters by David Almond
6. Superfudge by Judy Blume
7. Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
8. Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
9. Boy by Roald Dahl
10. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle

Grade 5

1. No More Dead Dogs by Gordan Korman
2. Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
3. Kate by Jean Little
4. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
5. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
6. Bridge to Terebithia by Katerine Paterson
7. Dear Dumb Diary by Jamie Kelly
8. Hereville - How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutch
9. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
10. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Grade 6

1. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer
4. Ignatius Macfarland: Frequenaut! by Paul Feig
5. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
6. The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn
7. Rules by Cynthia Lord
8. Smile by Raina Telgemeier
9. The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson
10. Birdland by Tracy Mack

Grade 7

1. Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi
2. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
3. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
4. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
5. Pendragon by D.J. Machale
6. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
7. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
8. The Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen
9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
10. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

Grade 8

1. I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
2. Black and White by Eric Walters
3. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
4. School's Out Forever by James Patterson
5. The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan
6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams
8. The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow
9. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
10. The Walled City by Ryan Graudin