Mrs. Reedy & I really appreciate our awesome aides! There is no way we'd be able to start and finish the projects we do without the wonderful students who help us throughout the week. We celebrated the new year, thanked them for their hard work, filled our bellies, and had a little fun! Here they are:
We finally had our holiday party today! Our regularly schedule holiday party was cancelled due to the snow days we had right before Winter Break.
Mrs. Reedy & I really appreciate our awesome aides! There is no way we'd be able to start and finish the projects we do without the wonderful students who help us throughout the week. We celebrated the new year, thanked them for their hard work, filled our bellies, and had a little fun! Here they are:
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Happy New Year! It's so nice to be back with my Bunger family! One of my favorite parts of the day is when students make a point of telling me how much they like the book they just finished reading. It doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing. Students are so excited that they can't wait to talk to me. It usually goes like this: "Mrs. Rogers! This is really good book! Have you read it? You should read this book!" I decided to share those moments with a display. Here's what we came up with: We continued the book recommendations and added a winter theme with our "Curl Up with a Good Book" display. Mrs. Reedy, the student aides, and I all picked out a couple of our favorite books and wrote a marshmallow shaped recommendation. Come see the display and feel free to check out any of the books! We'll add our recommendations to our toasty mug of hot chocolate. :) We've been busy trying to spread a little Christmas cheer in the Media Center. Come see our "Homemade for the Holidays" display with books to inspire you to get creative this holiday season. Our aides have done some wonderful arts & crafts projects to help with our decorating. I'm really thankful for their help and hard work - come enjoy the decor and our holiday cheer. Finally, come see our book tree! It's made from books that we've weeded from our media center in the last year. We really like it and we're planning to decorate it for each holiday! On October 25th, students at Bunger participated in a Mock Presidential Election. Students came to the Media Center during their Social Studies classes. Student Council members and Media Center Aides checked in voters. Students used their new IDs for voting identification. Students then voted, using a Google web form, for president. We included all candidates that will be listed on the Iowa ballots. Finally, students participated in an exit polling question. They were asked to decided which issue was most important to the election. We tried to give students an idea of what it feels like to vote. It was a fun day and students seemed excited to have a chance to voice their opinions. Here are the results of the Bunger Mock Presidential Election: President Barack Obama (Democratic Party) - 79.90% Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (Republican Party) - 19.08% Former Congressman Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) - 0.25% James Harris (Socialist Workers Party) - 0.76% Former Governor Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) - 0.51% Peta Lindsay (Party of Socialism and Liberation) - 0.51% Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party) - 0.51% Here are the results of the exit polling quetions - "What do you think is the most important issue in this election?: Economy - 177 Environment - 22 National Security - 54 National Debt - 63 Education - 35 Social Issues - 42 We submitted our mock election results to OneVote, the ChannelOne voting initiative. A big thank you to Mr. Smeltzer for getting the ball rolling, Ms. Evanson for her support, and the awesome Student Council members and Media Center aides who made our mock election run smoothly! It was "Sock it to Drugs" spirit day so if you see some interesting dress, you've been warned! It's my favorite time of the year! Not football season or Christmas, but Book Fair time! We are just about finished with setting up and really looking forward to seeing students, parents, and staff enjoying the All-Star Book Fair! We will be open for student shopping on October 15th, 16th, 17th, & 22nd from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. We will also be open for conference shoping October 16th from 4:00 - 7:30 p.m. and October 18th from 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. We can accept cash, check, and credit cards for your tax exempt purchases. All proceeds go toward buying books for the Bunger Media Center. This year, our service project is called "All for Books." Donations of loose change or dollar bills will go toward purchasing books for the Evansdale Boys & Girl Club. Last year we raised over $100 dollars! There are also lots of opportunities for students and staff to earn raffle tickets for free books from the book fair. Students who complete a wish list by October 17th or donate money to "All for Books" will earn a raffle ticket. Staff who attend a book fair preview, fill out a classroom wish list, or donate money to "All for Books" will also earn a raffle ticket. Finally, we are thrilled to offer students the opportunity to pre-order a copy of "Diary of the Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel." Fill out a pre-order sheet, pay for your book at the fair, and them Mrs. Rogers will deliver your copy of "The Third Wheel" to you at Bunger in November when the book is released! Come share our excitement for books, say hello, and maybe even get a little holiday shoping done early! Jason scanning his classmate's QR code. After all the fun we had using tablets and QR codes during Media Center Orientations this fall, Mrs. Taylor and her 6th, 7th, & 8th grade ELP (Extended Learning Program) students approached me with an excellent idea. They wanted to know if they could share book reviews with QR codes. My answer was, of course, YES! And then we had to figure out how we were going to do it... Mrs. Taylor's students started by reading historical fiction novels and writing summaries. After summaries were written and revised, all the students and Mrs. Taylor joined me in the Media Center for our inaugural adventure into adding QR codes to the books. "Before" QR code labels. We spent two days completing our project. Day One: We started by uploading the student summaries to the Skydrive provided for each secondary student in our school district. We then talked about the different ways students can share their work with URLs (person with link can view, can edit, etc.) and how and why you would those links in different school settings. Next, we used a free QR code creator and then students added their name, book title, author and corresponding QR code to a google document. It was awesome to listen and see students react to using a live google document for the first time! There were lots of wide eyes and "Hey, so-and-so took my spot!" or "I was typing there first!" being said. This sequed nicely into talking about etiquitte for working together electronically and brainstorming new digital citizenship strategies. Matthew cutting carefully. Day Two: Students started by carefully cutting out their QR codes. Then, they used clear labels to affix the QR codes to the back inside cover of the book they read. Next, they used iPads to confirm that their QR codes linked to their summaries. We also added a "QR" label to the very top of the spine of the book so that students and teachers will know which books have a QR code when they are searching for books on the shelves. Finally (and perhaps my favorite part!), the students got to scan the new QR codes & read each other's summaries. We discussed how to provide meaningful critiques (saying "This is stupid." isn't nearly as helpful as "Your summary is not in chronological order, so it was hard for me to understand.") and then asked students to write on sticky notes and post their feedback on posters. Check out the pictures below: After all the students left (and the Media Center got considerably more quiet), Mrs. Reedy and I created a display to showcase the books. They have been pretty popular for checkout. I'm looking forward to adding more QR codes - both book trailers & student summaries - to books in the near future. Kerris, one of the 6th grade students, purposed that every book should have a student summary via QR code before she's done at Bunger. With 18,000 titles, it may not be a realistic goal but it speaks volumes about the value of the project for students! :) Pro tip (for Media Specialist): I had already been planning to add QR codes with links to book trailers this school year. I decided that the best place to put the QR codes was at the bottom right corner of the inside back cover of the books for a variety of reasons. First, we have date due slips in front of our books. Second, the back bottom corner doesn't usually have the publisher's summary or author's information so I felt like we could avoid covering up information students would need access to.
*Throughout the year, I will feature guest blogs from my awesome Media Center Aides. I'm really excited to offer them the opportunity to practice their skills and to share their talents with you! Today's post is by 8th grader Sam J. Sam was a MC aide last year. She continues to be one our leaders, a strong student, and an all-around neat kid!* On Wednesday, September 12th students in grades 6 through 8 gathered in the gym for the annual kickoff of the Cookie Dough Fundraiser. The funds go towards the school to enhance out PBIS program, field trips, and to reward students with high achievement and positive behavior. The sale started, September 12 and forms are due Wednesday, September 26. Orders can be picked up Tuesday, October 16 during conferences (4:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.). Money is to be collected up front with the order and checks can be made out to Bunger Middle School. Students are encouraged to go door-to-door only accompanied by an adult! There is a large variety of cookie dough this year: Chocolate Chunk, Snickerdoodle, M&M, Cinnamon Roll, Holiday Sugar Cookie cut-outs, Monster, and many more! Cookie dough can come in either tub or pre-proportioned form. Of course, we have what every student is excited for, the prizes! The prize theme this year is Chill Factor. Prizes include an ice cream maker, flying penguin with sound, inflatable stereo chair, and a mini warming/cooling fridge, to name a few. We hope to see a lot of sales this year, even more than last! Good luck to the students! by Student Blogger Sam J. *Also - Check out the photo slideshow below. The slideshow was created by more of the awesome student aides! Look for their names in the credits!* I set goals for myself at the beginning of every school year. This year, I am going to focus on drawing students and staff into the Media Center with inspiring and interactive displays in and out of the MC (you know, the Media Center). I owe a HUGE thank you to my Professional Learning Network (or PLN) on Pinterest for more inspiration and ideas than I could have hoped to discover! So far, we've got a display of series you might like if you liked the Hunger Games, a display with QR codes linking to book trailers inspired by Carly Rae Jespen, and two displays with strategies to help students pick "good fit" books. We are no longer using AR (Accelerated Reader) at Bunger, so we're ready with lots of different ways for students to find a great book instead of looking for the colored dots. I want thank Mrs. Yancey for sharing her time and talent with us! She drew the large yellow hand for our "5 Finger Tips" display in no time flat. I also want to thank Mrs. Reedy for bringing her Cricut from home and showing me how to use it. It's awesome and so is Mrs. Reedy for sharing! Check out our displays below: I am also going to update my blog regularly. Like, once a week. That's another one of my goals. I feel like it's only fair that I create and publish content, especially since I'm getting so much from the blogs and other feeds (Pinterest, Twitter, etc.) I follow. I'm counting on my Bunger family of students, staff, and parents to hold me accountable. I'll award students who mention reading my blog or remind me to post with smarties! (Hint, Hint!)
It's hard to believe that we're back to school already! I hope that you've all had a safe & relaxing summer and you're ready for a successful year of learning and fun at Bunger. We've finished Media Center Orientation but it looked a little different this year. Students participated in a QR (Quick Response) code scavenger hunt around the Media Center to learn the rules and expectations instead of sitting and listening to Mrs. Rogers & Mrs. Reedy telling them all the blah, blah, blah... Students & Staff were excited about getting to discover the Media Center in small groups and getting some practice with the iPad 2 tablets that we were able to borrow from the AEA & Mr. Morlan.
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Mrs. HindersMedia Specialist. Teacher. Technology nerd. Hawkeye fan. Book lover. Sarcasm expert. Good ReadsRecently Read
This was a tough read--brutal violence against others and characters who bring out both love and hatred. Beautifully done, but heartbreakingly so.
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