Coding Club

Last week we started our next session of after school clubs and I am doing a coding club.  I have 14 third through fifth graders meeting me in the lab after school on Thursdays. We have started out using the K-8 intro to computer science course available for free at code.org. This course is great and shows the students lots of different coding activities they can work through at their own pace.  This is good for them, but bad for me! Well, not really bad for me but our club meets once a week for an hour and we only have 8 sessions.  Since this is a 20 hour course, and they were so excited the first day, I said it was okay for them to log in at home and work on it if they wanted.  Well, a few of them are almost through the entire thing and we a haven’t even met the for the second session!

I’m sure I will be able to set these go-getters free to do some other coding activities if they finish early. I for sure didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm.  I’m only partway through the second activity so will have to work some before next Thursday to catch up with them.

Be sure to check out code.org, it is a great site!


Code.org

Happy coding!

 

Reflect Connect Obsess

Winter break is a time to rest, relax and spend time with family. It is also time to reflect, connect and obsess about how to make your program better for your students!

 

Reflect:

I spent time thinking and pondering about my program and what I can do to help my students.  Reading different blogs gave me much to think about, especially  the wonderful Jennifer LaGarde’s, Adventures of Library Girl.  Her recent post, 11 Questions (About Libraries) That Need Answers made by brain hurt!  They are questions that can’t help but make you a better school librarian by just thinking about them.  I am still working on my answers and will post them when I get them sorted out.

 

 

TL Virtual Cafe is tomorrow night and Library Girl, Jennifer LaGarde along with Jennifer Northrup, The Candid Librarian will be on.  Another one of my fav bloggers Matthew Winner, The Busy Librarian will be host.  I can’t wait to listen in and learn from these great librarians.

I also spent time during the break trying to catch up on my professional reading, I got some great ideas to put into motion when I get back.

 

prof-reading

 

Connect:

I spent some time meeting up with some of my librarian peeps for some book store browsing, fun to have time to talk books.  We even helped a few customers find good books to read!

 

prof-peeps

 

Obsess (and Connect):

I have already started obsessing about World Read Aloud Day, which isn’t until March 5th!  I plan to celebrate all week at school and have made 11 (and counting) connections for my students during that week.   It is always exciting to reach out and connect with other students in different schools and states.  The kids love it and I get to develop lasting professional contacts.

More obsessing, I am close to implementing my Lunch Bunch Book Brag.  I just need to work out the last few kinks.  I put signs up in the library and have already had some students ask about so when I launch the program I don’t think I will have any trouble getting some takers.

 

So from my house to yours I hope you have a great Winter Break and are ready for a fun 2014!

Christmas Eve Pajamas

Christmas Eve Pajamas

 

Happy Reading!