Who’s going to the Hunger Games Movie? Me, me, me, meeeeeee!

Nothing will work unless you do.– Maya Angelou

According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a strong work ethic is rated as one of the

three “most important” skills needed in the workforce.  School Librarians help students develop self –direction and work ethic, increasing motivation by developing projects that are personally relevant and focused on students’ passions & interests.

Recent projects at the East Middle School library have included the 7th grade Passion Project, where librarian Becky Johnson and the 7th grade literacy teachers Mrs. McFarlin and Mr. Mantlo helped students explore and research hobbies and interests that they are passionate about.  School Librarians also help students use technology to organize and track their assignments, showcase their work, and reflect on their own learning. At EMS, students use Google Apps to organize their work and Web 2.0 technologies like blogs, Animoto and Wikispaces to showcase and publish their learning.

Source: Source: Partnership for 21st Century Skills publication -Are They Really Ready to Work? p21.org

Students in Mr. Warner's class sharing lab data

 Can it really be almost October?  Wow, this school year has started off with a bang!  One of the coolest things to happen this year has been the Google Apps for Education pilot in the 8th grade.  We are excited to offer Google Apps as it represents an important step towards developing a 21st century approach to teaching and learning.
What are the benefits of Google Apps and what’s included?

• Anytime, anywhere access – Google Apps works in any browser on any computer, which means you can access your email, calendars, and documents from school or at home.
• No flash drives required with documents and files stored in Google Docs.
• Students can easily collaborate with students from other classes, buildings, schools, districts or even different countries, working together on group projects.
• Teachers can be involved throughout the whole assignment process providing comments and feedback directly in the documents.
• Students can develop an e-portfolio of work throughout their years at the school.
• Through websites, calendars, and email, parents can stay informed about the latest assignments and activities.

So far this year, we have found some great ways to use Google Apps in class.  Students in Mr. Warner’s Science classes used a Google Docs spreadsheet to share data from their Motion and Forces lab.  In American History, students collaborated in Google presentations to create a slideshow illustrating the goals for the United States put forth in the preamble of the United States Constitution.  Mr. Mason has been using the chat function in Google Apps to provide answers to student questions as they are working on their writing in Engish Language Arts.  I’m sure we will see even more amazing ways to use Google Power in the future!

Love books?  I LOVE books.  I love reading books and I love reading about books.  So I was very excited when EMS student  Anqi e-mailed a link to a great new blog, Ink,  that she and three friends have started devoted to great reads.  The four friends, known as The KAJA (for  Kaylin, Abby, Jada, and Anqi) have created an AMAZING blog of book reviews, book trailers and book news.  Their blog also comes with an invitation to join their literature community with reviews of your own!  So join the literary conversation.  Read the reviews and comment.  Submit your own reviews.  Above all, READ!

EMS is starting National Poetry Month in style. Mr. Mason’s 8th grade Literacy students did a great job with their Blackout Poetry;  students voted for the top 5 poems and they are outstanding!  Enjoy:

Here at East, we are celebrating the wonderful spirit of giving and P.R.I.D.E that was exhibited by our awesome students!  Camren made a short video about the success of the EMS canned food drive. We collected over 1,000 cans, which were greatly appreciated by the Food Bank of the Rockies.  Yay, Cheetahs!

I’ve been experimenting with different free tech tools for creating book trailers.  PhotoPeach is great, but unless you pay for the pro version you are limited to their music selection.  I love Animoto, but the free version is limited to 30 second videos.  I just discovered a fabulous new video maker called Flixtime.  Similar to Animoto, it renders your pictures,  music and text with great transitions and cool effects.  The advantage is that the free version of Flixtime lets you make a 60 second video and allows you to put text captions on your pics.  I just finished the wonderful book, Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd and decided to use my newly discovered cool tool to make a trailer.  Here it is: