Get the library in the palm of your hands with JES Library app!
Get quick access to JES Destiny, our library catalog page that includes student appropriate links; Events so you can register your students for things like Minecraft and after school maker events, YouTube channel of unlisted student videos, as well as social media.
Access the app by going to http//h.theapp.mobi/jeslibrary or scan the QR code using a QR code reader. Learn how to save the link to your home screen [here].
See an overview of how to use it below, and if you have any questions just email me (email address below).
40 Book Challenge
After having the great pleasure of hearing teaching/reading guru Donalyn Miller speak last summer and after reading her book, The Book Whisperer, I was inspired to challenge our 1st-5th grade Johnson students to read 40 independent books this year.
In her book, Miller points to a meta-analysis of research conducted by Stephen Krashen and published in The Power of Reading, which revealed that "no single literacy activity has a more positive effect on students' comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, spelling, writing ability, and the overall academic achievement than free voluntary reading" (Miller 51).
Miller encourages her students to take books with them and to read everywhere. She models for her students how to read during "wait time" so that they can fill extra minutes, and the greater majority of her students read 40 or more books in a school year. As a result of all of the independent reading her students do, Miller notes that she has not had one student "fail the state assessment in four year, and an average of 85% of [her] students score in the 90th percentile" (Miller 1).
My own real goal is that kids just read more than they did last year. I have asked the kids to make up their own goal for what they realistically think they can read this school year. I have told them also that they can read anything - picture books, chapter, nonfiction, short or long - it doesn't matter as long as they're reading.
To keep track of their reading, kids can fill in the form through the Reading Log link on our app, or they can go to [this] page on our library web page.
Accelerated Reader (AR)
If you are new to AR, it is a reading incentive program that encourages students to read and take quizzes over books. Students earn points for each quiz based on their correct number of answers, and then can cash in their points at our PTO sponsored AR stores.
You can track your students progress through AR Home Connect using their school username and password, and even set up the program to automatically email you each time your student takes a quiz. Find links for Home Connect and AR Book Finder, a tool you can use to find out if a book has an AR quiz [here]. In the folder, there are instructional videos if you need help getting things set up.
Minecraft Mornings
Our first Minecraft Morning will be Monday, September 14, 2015. (Registration opens September 11).
Registration opens every Friday through Eventbrite for our Monday event starting at 4:00 pm. Try refreshing your screen if you get on right at 4, and it's not showing active.
You can see the links for registration on our app under the "Events" icon or [here].
K-5 are welcome!
Butterfly Garden
We need your help! Look for registration to be coming out soon for students to stay after school to help us fill raised beds with dirt and plant milkweed.
We hope to also use our raised bed garden to for classroom science projects and some real world problem solving throughout the year.
If you would like to make a donation of materials or time we would love some help! We will need to build the raised beds before our after school event. Contact me or Julie Dashley here at Johnson for more information!
