LHRIC Tech Expo

I was fortunate to attend the LHRIC Tech Expo last Friday. The morning keynote speaker was Sarah Robbins. She shared relevant facts about today's young learners (e.g., this is the first year that 99% of students will have had internet access their entire school career.) She made really interesting connections between gaming and learning. This is not a new topic to librarians, yet her comments led me to a great discussion with my eight year-old son about how he learns a new game on his Nintendo! She addressed the "prosumer" component of the web, as consumers participate in creating new content (example: 12 year-old Kevin Lin' s Youtube video of video special effects). She reminded us to facilitate, not "teach"; to "grow" our students in a garden instead of a flowerpot. And most impressively: she's completed requirements for her PhD while being mom to young triplets!

Marco Torres gave the afternoon keynote. His enthusiasm and love for his students and instruction were completely contagious. He showed how through digital storytelling, he teaches students to organize and classify their ideas. (His 4 P's: Plan, Produce, Present and Pheedback.) This is a lifelong skill; I use visual graphic organizers with my primary students to plan their writing. They get it. I asked him about video projects for the little ones, and he shared a project where third graders created a superhero story with illustrations and high schoolers animated the film. It was a beautiful collaboration. (He also mentioned that he prefers the quality of the Kodak Zi6 to the Flip camera.) After showing how technology supports the challenging work his students do in school, he closed with a hilarious segment on how technology is often used to support the teacher rather than student learning. Marco Torres reminded us to concentrate on the verbs, not the nouns.

Quick tip from Heidi Lappi, science teacher from Clarkstown: create a form in Google docs for students to input their collected data. Embed the spreadsheet in your wiki and they will see updated results as they continue their research projects.

Overall, a great day with wonderful ideas, large and small.

Thinking of Poetry

National Poetry Month is around the corner, though I believe in celebrating poetry throughout the year. Kindergartners loved Touch the Poem by Arnold Adoff. I look forward to Eloise Greenfield's recent book, Brothers & Sisters.


If you choose to begin with Mother Goose, take a look at The Real Mother Goose. Find ideas for a Poem in Your Pocket Day at NYC Bd of Ed's page here. First graders loved listening to Kristine O'Connell George reading her short and touching dog poems. Hear Charles R. Smith, Jr. reading from Perfect Harmony, his magnificent collection about the Boys Choir of Harlem. Naomi Shihab Nye's poems for teens are amazing; for elementary, try Come With Me: Poems for a Journey. Enjoy children's poet laureate Mary Ann Hoberman. Don't wait until April!