Past projects 2
Teacher at Sea: Books to Float Our Boat
Funded Jan 15, 2021An update on the Teacher at Sea experience: NOAA's current COVID-19 safety protocols involve placing only essential personnel on research cruises. They have notified me that it is highly unlikely, even if vaccinated, that they will be able to sail teachers in 2021. The program continues to hold a finalist spot for me in 2022. While the delay, of course, is disappointing, the extra time has only allowed me to plan ocean lessons and gather resources for students. Your contribution of ocean-themed books for our school is much appreciated. I have spent the past few months preparing them for the shelves. I apply barcodes, property stamps and call labels, then enter them into our library catalog. Before they hit the shelves, many need tape reinforcement or book jackets to prolong their shelf life.
As the school's Teacher Librarian I have been continuing to circulate library books during distance learning through our curbside pick-up program. While a small percentage of our population has transitioned to hybrid learning, the majority of our students remain learning at home. In addition to curbside pick-up, I reach students by seeing them in Zoom class once a week. I also post three lessons to our digital learning platform called Seesaw each week, one for K-1, one for 2-3, and one for 4-5. Over a three-week period (three classes) I am reading eight of the books you purchased for our collection. I read the book live during Zoom class and also record it and post it to Seesaw so students who cannot attend the Zoom meeting may listen to the story being read aloud. I provide background knowledge prior to reading and then ask students to respond to one or two related questions at the end of class or in Seesaw since we have a limited amount of time together in Zoom.
The student ocean drawings you see in the pictures are a variety of hand-drawn and digital creations produced from a prompt to thank you. While students have primarily enjoyed their new books via read-aloud at this point, they will be able to begin self-selecting and checking them out in the following school year, which we hope to be much more traditional than this year has been. One of the stories we read was about Inky, an octopus who escaped from a New Zealand aquarium down a drainpipe and back into the ocean. The kids were also fascinated by the fact that we have better pictures of Mars than of the bottom of the ocean and that 80% of it remains unexplored. We learned this from, Ocean! Waves for All, by Stacy McAnulty. One student asked, "How come we haven't explored very much?" This led to a brief discussion of the challenges of exploration, which we'll be focusing on this week in, Otis & Will Discover the Deep: The record-setting dive of the bathysphere, by Barb Rosenstock. When students were asked what they'd like to know about the deep ocean, I got fabulous questions that our books will help answer: How do submersibles work? How many deep-sea creatures do people predict are not yet discovered? How deep is the ocean? What kills sharks, or eats them? What types of dolphins are there?
Thank you for helping reveal the mysteries of the ocean to our students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gapp
Answer the Storytime Call. Space On Our Carpet For All!
Funded Jun 24, 2018When my students entered the library for the first time this year many made audible comments about the new rug like, "Ooh, look, it's colorful," and "It's bigger than the old one!" The old rug has been moved down the hall into the computer lab. Occasionally I have my K-1st students sit on the floor of the lab for instruction and now they have something more friendly than cold linoleum to sit on.
The rug that was funded by this project fits the storytime area perfectly. It has improved my classroom management capability in K-2nd. I have implemented assigned seating in these grades which has eliminated much of the jostling for space and disruption that can occur when students self-select their seat. It also allows for the incentive to earn choice seating as a class. I have successfully used the colored rows to improve transitions and to pair students for conversation as planned.
One Kinder boy has adorably memorized where all his classmates sit on the rug and he has become a spontaneous leader in helping others find their assigned spot. While 3rd-5th grade doesn't have the same structured seating as the younger grades it allows for the possibility should a particular class--or student--need it.
After learning about my rug our Principal--new to the building this year--purchased rugs for all the 1st and 2nd-grade homerooms. I was tickled that our rug served as a model for other classrooms. Our music teacher will be receiving a rug as well. Schools often struggle to maintain consistent procedures throughout the building. This project proved to be a ripple in the pond that benefited not only my classroom but others as well. Students now have cozy, structured spaces throughout the building thanks to your generosity that got the first rug rolled out!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gapp