Books Beyond Borders with Google Plus Hangout

We love connecting with other kiddos in schools in other cities and states. Our sister library is  Central Middle School of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and we had a great time the other day chatting with them about books!
Our friend & my librarian mentee Mrs. Tiffany Whitehead was being filmed for a local news segment about Making a Difference and she wanted to show off our long distance cooperative relationship and cool tech with a Google Plus Hangout! And though the segment says Washington, DC we know we’re Laurel and just part of the DC Metro area! Thanks to Mrs. Krieger for jumping on board with this cutting edge conversation! It was lots of fun!

View the actual segment on the WBRZ Baton Rouge, Louisiana site – you can catch a quick glimpse of our class!
Mr. Wasilewski even Tweeted about our class!


What’s Up with Wattpad?

We also learned from Stephanie about Wattpad – a fan fiction open forum for writers and readers!

Or as Wikipedia says it’s “a writing community in which users are able to post articles, stories, and poems about anything either online or through the Wattpad app. The content includes work by undiscovered and published writers. Users are able to comment and like stories or join groups associated with the website. Around half of the users are U.S. based; most users also come from the U.K., Canada, the Philippines, Australia, and more.[3]”

Let’s look at the Wattpad stats!

  • 85 percent of its traffic and usage comes from mobile devices
  • 25 million unique visitors per month
  • over 1,000 story uploads per day

For more information about this App read: What’s Up With Wattpad? | David Gaughran

Google Hangout TIPS:

• Practice beforehand!

• Make sure your plugins & browsers are updated & use Chrome!

• Sign in early

• Consider recording via YouTube it to embed or view later

• I added clip-on TV Studio lights nearby to improve the camera shot

• Have kids talking sit close to the laptop for better sound quality

• Practice with your kiddos speaking slowly & loudly – consider recording with a flip camera & previewing their performance

Google+ Hang Out with QR Codes

We had an exciting day last Friday when we used Google+ to hang out with the 2nd grade gifted inclusion kids at Ms. Mensing’s class from Sonoran Sky Elementary in Scottsdale, Arizona! Whew! That’s a mouthful! But these kids were AWEsome! I taught a brief lesson on QR Codes in the Classroom (and Library!) all about where QR Codes came from, how they are different than regular bar codes, and how they are being used all over the world to transmit information like Text Messages, Video, and URL Web links via Mobile Media!

Say What!?
After that my 6th graders in Ms. Torsani’s Math class held up to the camera special QR Voice audio codes & written messages they composed for the kids!  QR Code Voice is a really cool new resource! You just type in a short message (100 Characters) and click and Voila! You get a QR Code that when scanned reads out in a robotic voice your message! Scan the QR code on the left to see what it says! (Download the FREE QR Code APP i-nigma for both iPhone & Android! Click link or search on the App store for i nigma QR)
Ms. Mensing’s kids scanned the codes using both iPod touch generaton 4’s (like we have here at the MHMS Daring School Library!) and iPad 2’s! (we don’t have any of those yet, but I brought mine in!) they were very engaged with the learning and it was a lot of fun!
Ms. Mensing and I became friends when we were both at the Google Teacher Academy this past summer in Seattle Washington.   That’s her next to me & Miss Critter Sharpe (and another teacher friend) She’s the one with the long blonde hair & fabulous pearls! I’m peeking out from behind the sign – NINJA Style! We had a great time learning together and I’m so glad we could use Google+ to hang out with our kids.
Then…this week I got the BEST PRESENT EVER in the mail! A big envelope of drawings & letters from Ms. Mensing’s class! SQUEE!
See ALL the cool pics here!Most were taken by Mrs. Mensing, Thank you for your permission to use them, hon!
Thank you Ms. Mensing & Ms. Torsani for an amazing video chat adventure! We’re gonna have to do that again! Hmmmm next time MATH!???