Have you a little worrier?

Reta Moerike, District Area Counsellor, suggests the following video resource for potentially anxious children: "Parenting the Young Worrier: Tips and Strategies."  Approx. 1 hr long this video defines anxiety, lists common characteristics, and offers useful tips of how to help worriers.  I listened to it while cooking dinner!  The video ties nicely into Mr. Rainer Abramsik's, district counsellor, school parenting sessions.

At the site, go to "Care Services" (at top)
Then go to "Psychology"
Then go to "Parenting Videos"
You'll see the video in the list

The IWK Health Centre website not only offers this informative video, but also many other videos and resources about health, families, woman, youth, and parenting (a Maritime website).

Online Databases - What does this jargon mean?

World Book, EBSCO, netTrekker, ERAC what do these words and acronyms mean?  Well ERAC stands for Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium which is basically a buying group, aiming to decrease resource costs by buying on mass: "a cooperative member based organization. We work in partnership with our members, BC public school districts as well as independent schools. Our goal is to support quality education for public and independent K-12 students."  Their services include "evaluation, licensing and acquisition of print, software, and digital learning resources"

World Book & EBSCO are two of many products ERAC offers as resource bundles to their buyers.  World Book is the digital version of the go-to encyclopedias we all know well.  Encyclopedias are good starting points for most research as they offer basic information about mass topics.  The digital version, unlike the print 24 volume set, is updated daily, available 24/7, and offers special features such as video, suggested web links, interactive time lines, citation builders, dictionary definitions, and more.

EBSCO also offers encyclopedia articles and dictionary features but further offers quality resources such as magazines and academic journals.  These latter quality educational resources are acquired only through paid subscriptions - thus, information which is only part of the "hidden net.”  Thus remember the adage "you get what you pay for" - much of the internet's credible, accurate and current information exists only in the HIDDEN NET).

In contrast, NetTrekker offers educationally sound websites.  An American company founded in 1999, netTrekker offers over 300,000 Canadian curriculum-aligned digital resources hand-selected by expert educators to keep searches safe, focused, and relevant.  The websites offer credible, accurate, and current information as well as special features such as read-aloud support, reading levels, games, video, and “my portfolio” organizational potential (See Ms. Murrells to create individual accounts for this feature).  Try out this netTrekker Video for a 5 min overview.  For an example of a suggested netTrekker website try this informative and fun site on liquids, solids, and gases - a topic currently being studied by Ms. Quinton's class

Phew – that was a lot of information!

Try em out!

See District Teacher-Librarian help stickers front inside covers of agendas for user names and passwords.  Also, drop by or contact me for further information.  Together let’s test these resources out and critically think if they are worth spending decreasing budgets on.  Thanks for your time, Ms. Murrells.  smurrell@sd83.bc.ca , 250-836-2871 (Wed., Thurs).

Parent Presentation about Online databases

Parkview Parents - Tue., Jan. 17th, Leanne Kujat, Parkview CEA and Hillcrest PAC president, kindly invited me to show the Hillcrest PAC the wealth of online databases available to all district students, parents, & staff in our district.  While I probably overwhelmed the participants giving them an overview of 17+ databases (in 30 mins), they at least have a starting point for some rich elementary (& adult) resources to start dabbling with.  There are other digital landscapes to learn from besides Google! 

Parkview parents please experiement with theses databases too as we purchase them, so let's use them and decide whether to keep em or turf em.  Contact me if you would like assistance individually or as a group training session.  Best wishes to you, Shannon Murrells.

Primary Library Day, Tue., Jan. 18th, 2012

While Down's and Hooper's class were able to only do a book exchange today (due to goodbye assembly for Ms. Barraza), Ms Hyam's and Quinton's class learned about "Award Winning" books today and where they "live" in the library.  Ms. Peel's class reviewed where the dinosaur books live (567.9) & then moved onto domestic animals and pets - the 636's.  Using the Smart Board and 6 research computers, we put on our detective hats to discover what 636, 636.1, & 636.2 represent in Dewey Decimal language.  Any student that reads this blog message tonight and reports back to me tomorrow about what one or more of those numbers represents can choose a new book from my prizes stash!  I look forward to seeing you.

Also, tonight show your parents the online database choices from the "World of Information" site web mastered by our local district Teacher-Librarian Association.  Use your online database help stickers in your agenda to find the user names and passwords.  Wondrous reading to you!  Ms. Murrells.

Unplug and Play, Family Literacy Week, Jan. 23rd-29th, 2012

Why read?  Well, the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) revealed that students who spend more time for reading excel better in terms of reading, mathematics, and science* Make reading a priority every day, but especially enjoy the Family Literacy Week events coming up in Sicamous and Salmon Arm: donate books to "Heap the Honda Children's Book Drive (Piccadilly Mall), games night at the Salmon Arm Downtown Activity Centure and Piccadilly Mall public library, Play Again, film documentary (connecting children with nature), Parkview Elementary, 6-7pm (Tue., Jan. 24th), and much, much more!

Unplug and Play, Family Literacy Week

*Source School Libraries in Canada (17108535), 2009, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p29-32)

Technology Boost in the Library!

The Smart Board is finally working.  Thank you district technician Tom Hilton for your patience and determination in installing our first Smart Board and then patiently trouble shooting when it wouldn't work! Points West Audio Visual Ltd. (Kelowna) eventually decided we needed a new one, so by mid October I was finally able to test drive this amazing technology.

It works like a smart phone.  The board on the wall is like a computer monitor. It communicates with the main library computer but instead of using a keyboard, the user can use her hand or the provided smart board pens.  It's very similar to a computer projector, but has many more capabilities.

While I've known about Smart Boards for years, I'm new to using it, so still lots to learn.  Drop by and I'll take you for a test run.  See above for library hours.

Fall Action in the Library

Hmm, it's been a long time since my last post action of Sept., 24th, but today, Nov. 16th I'm determined to get a couple done.  It's been busy, busy, busy in library land!  Students have been learning about the difference between fiction and non-fiction, how to take care of books, and where these genres"live."  Parents ask your kids where the dinosaur books live and if those are "not fake" non-fiction books, or "fake" fiction books!  Further we've been exploring popular "easy" picture book authors, Canadian authors, child activists and humanitarians (Me to We is going strong in our school) Fall, Salmon, Remembrance Day and War, and we're just shifting into Winter themes.  Lastly, ask them to show you their moves for "Dewey Rap"! 

I must go pull those winter books ...