Honor Flight

Honor Flight is a non-profit organization that transports vets to Washington, DC to visit the memorials that have been constructed in honor of their service to our country.  As you might expect Honor Flight's priority is our eldest vets -- WWII vets.  Here is a short video explaining Honor Flight.

Our Middle School librarian, Eric Hanson, owns and operates a company that restores vintage vehicles and specializes in Jeeps.  He was recently asked to bring one of his WWII Jeeps to an Honor Flight gathering outside of DC.  He was accompanied by, Butch Maisel, an Upper School history teacher and military historian.

Eric wrote about his experience in a blog post on his company's blog, Hanson Mechanical.  His words, pictures, thoughts, and deeds are all touching and do us proud.  Thanks to Eric and Butch!

Read about it here:  Hanson Mechanical: Honor Flight

Hi! My Name is Melvil Dewey!

The fourth grade has been learning about the Dewey Decimal System.  We kicked off our unit with this engaging rap about the Dewey Decimal System. 

A word to the wise:  This rap will echo through your head all day..."Hi! My Name is Melvil Dewey!"

Kindergarten in the Library

The Kindergarteners love books and coming to the library.  They love being read to, delight in finding books on a multitude of topics -- tornadoes, motorcycles, superheros being hot topics, and they love to read.  Part of what I love about working with Kindergarteners is the joy and wonder they have when the discover something new. Today it was Mo Willems's Cat the Cat and the library's floor chairs.  Both were huge hits. 

Clickers

I love teaching with my SmartBoard.  I use it at every opportunity and whenever I'm in a classroom or a lab without one I miss it more than ever.  I've dabbled with using the SmartResponse system that is also available for the SmartBoard.

The most of boys LOVE using the clickers.  There are some who are a bit unnerved by the technology -- a surprise to me.  They especially love seeing the immediate feedback.  There is a surprising bit of learning how to respond while using the clicker that must happen before really getting any meaningful feedback.

We used it for an assessment for the first time last week.  I think the assessment took longer to complete using the clickers.  There also seemed to be a lot of waiting, especially since we can only move forward as fast as the slowest student.  I'm not too sure I liked that.

I'm hoping that with regular use we will all be better at using the clickers and this new technology with be clicking with us!

Good Morning Boys' Latin!!

The library is open in the mornings before school.  The boys can play games, read books, chat with friends.  It's a great way to start the day!

Ode to Librarians

Have you ever wondered what a librarian does in this digital age?  Here's a short video from FlocabularyYT that about says it all.

Library King

 Every summer I host the Library King Challenge.  It came into existence when I noticed some of our avid readers weren't recording their summer reading.  After speaking with them, I learned that it was the writing piece that prevented them from recording the extent of their reading.  In response to this I created the Library King Challenge.  It is optional and any 4th or 5th grader who reads more pages than I do is in the running to be the Library King.  Titles and page numbers are kept on a Google spreadsheet that all of the boys have access to so the participants can keep track of my reading and what their peers are also reading.

This year four boys read more than I did.  I read 11 books for a total of 2702 pages.  The boy who won the challenge and will be returning to reign as Library King read 27 books for 9716, pages up from last year's 5456 pages!!

Summer Reading Challenge

We do summer reading a bit differently in my school.  All 4th and 5th graders participate in the Summer Reading Challenge as their summer reading program.  It's accessible online through Moodle, our learning management system.  The challenge consists of 15 tasks.  The boys select a task, read a book that meets the requirement of the task, and then write about the book.  Completing a task will earn the boy 5 points with occasional opportunities for bonus points.  As a bare minimum the boys must complete two tasks which would tally to 10 points.  The challenge ends on the first day of school. 

The results of this year's challenge are in.  This year's top scorer completed every challenge and earned all possible bonus points.  He scored a 95 on the challenge.  The second place finisher completed all but one task. Well done gentlemen!