In the Media Center (Week 1)

Elementary Media Center

In the Media Center is going to be a new regularly appearing post from me. I plan to talk about what my students and I did the past week during their media classes. I am a K-12 media specialist who spends half days at the Elementary building and half days at the Middle School/High School building in our district of approximately 1300 students.

This semester I am starting my days at the Elementary building and seeing fifth graders and third graders on a four day rotation (50 minute classes) and traditional first and second graders on an alternate day rotation (25 minute classes). Our elementary school has a fixed schedule where all students in a grade level attend "specials" (art, media, music, and phy. ed.) at the same time so that their teachers have a common preparation time. 

Fifth Grade:

This year our fifth graders have individual network user names and passwords for the first time. They are also being introduced to Google Apps for Education. So during our first classes this week I had a tech person with me as the students tried out their new user names and passwords and got logged in to their new Google Accounts. 

Once everyone had working user names and passwords, we talked about responsible use of email and each student sent me and their classroom teacher an email telling us three things they liked and three things they disliked. We talked about addresses, subjects, using a proper greeting and closing. 

Most of my fifth graders did not already have personal email accounts. So I spend some time talking about appropriate and inappropriate uses for this account. The focus was that this is their business email and should be used mostly for school related reasons. 

Our New Lab

Third Grade:

Our first project in third grade was teaching the students how to log in to the computers. K-4 students use a generic log in but they have seldom actually had to be the ones to log in. With new computers in the lab using Windows 7, I had to show them how to switch users and how to log in using our user name and passwords.

Third Grade is also the year that students in our school begin Accelerated Reader. Today we also had to log in to Renaissance Place using their user name and password to take the STAR test. 

That's two sets of user names and passwords that our third graders have to learn!

Story Area

Since I see K-2 students on an alternate day rotation, I set up a schedule for our weekly activities. On the first two days of the week, we have a story and time for the students to check out books. On the last two days of the week, we use the computer lab and work on our technology skills. Wednesdays are our "something else" days. We might have watch a video or do a project or visit the computer lab. This year we have late starts every Wednesday to accommodate Professional Learning Teams which means that each class is reduced by five minutes. 

Second Grade:

This week the story I chose to share with my second graders was First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and Judith Love. They were surprised to discover that even teachers are nervous before the first day of school. After the story, kids had a chance to check out three library books. 

For our computer lab activity this week, we had to learn how to find our programs in the lab. We learned about clicking the Computer icon, choosing the lab drive, and opening the Second Grade folder to find our programs. This week I had all the students playing Arthur Games at PBS kids. 

First Grade:

This week the story that I chose to share with my First Graders was Arthur's Back to School Surprise by Marc Brown. We talked about getting ready for school and we enjoyed watching DW trick her older brother. First Graders were excited to find out that they could check out three books this year and rushed to find their favorites during check out time.

For our computer lab activity this week, we had to learn how to find our programs in the lab. We learned about clicking the Computer icon, choosing the lab drive, and opening the Second Grade folder to find our programs. This week I had all the students playing Arthur Games at PBS kids. 

And that's how Week 1 went in the Elementary Media Center.