Tag Archives: blogging

Take Two Kid Lit Blog Hop

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Welcome to the 48th Kid Lit Blog Hop where we continue to develop a dynamic and engaged community of children’s books bloggers, authors, publishers, and publicists. So, you are always more than welcome to join us by popping in a post and hopping around to meet some of your fellow Kid Lit bloggers and authors!

Check out this next short paragraph… I’m mentioned, as a co-host!

“We are pleased to be welcoming two fabulous co-hosts this week: Kimbra, the blogger behind The Barefoot Librarian and Tiffiny from the blog, Spark and Pook. Big welcome to Kimbra and Tiffiny!”

Isn’t that exciting???

Happy Hopping everyone and enjoy the Hop!

Kid Lit Blog Hop
Kid Lit Blog Hop

 

Kid Lit Blog Hop Rules *Please Read*

1. We ask that you kindly follow your hosts. You can follow us any way you choose  and we’ve added our preferences below. If you could just give us a quick “follow” or “like” that would be much appreciated! Make sure to leave us a message if you are following us (i.e., on Twitter or Facebook or on our websites) and we will be sure to follow you back. Thanks! 🙂

Hostesses:

Renee @ Mother Daughter Book Reviews Facebook * Twitter

Katie @ Youth Literature Reviews Twitter * Facebook

Julie Grasso, Author/ Blogger Twitter * Facebook

Cheryl Carpinello, Author / Blogger Twitter * Facebook

Reshama @ Stacking Books Twitter * Facebook

Stacie @ BeachBoundBooks Twitter * Facebook

Mia @ Pragmatic Mom Twitter * Facebook

Maria@ Music Teaching and Parenting Twitter * Facebook

Stanley & Katrina, Pawthors Twitter * Facebook

Co-Hosts:

Kimbra @ The Barefoot Librarian Twitter * Google+

Tiffiny @ Spark and Pook Twitter * Facebook

2. Link up any Kid Lit related post. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.

* Don’t link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post.*

* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one. Please link unique posts each time ~ no repeats please. *

* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*

* Feel free to link more than one post.*

3. Please visit AT LEAST the TWO LINKS directly ahead of your own and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you!

4. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you’re linking up. If you’d prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links!

5. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!

Interested in co-hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop? If you’ve joined us before, you are welcome to join us again! Please email renee @ motherdaughterbookreviews (dot) com and put Co-Hosting Blog Hop in the subject line.

Happy Hopping!

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Am I ready to start blogging again?

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Hi Readers

When I was a fifth grade classroom teacher, another lifetime ago, I discovered blogging…Well, the whole world did! I don’t mean that I personally discovered blogging, I mean I discovered that I liked to blog, I loved to reach out, and share what I was doing with anyone who took the time to check in with me and see what I’d posted. I’ve always been a show off; I was proud of what I was doing, and wanted people to know about it.

I changed paths a year ago and became the Elementary Librarian of Shanghai American School and when I did that, I knew that blogging was going to be a fantastic way to reach an even wider audience sharing one of my passions=books! However, for reasons I’m just beginning to grasp after 6 weeks of relaxation… the blogging never really took off in my first year as a librarian. I’m realizing that as a homeroom teacher I had an automatic audience of parents and students who checked in almost daily to see what I was posting… however in my new role I didn’t feel that pressure/urgency, so that is probably the main reason my blogging dropped off… way off. Another reason (excuse?) was that I was so much busier in the first year than I thought I’d be… in so many different ways than I’d ever imagined. Every way was a wonderful way, busy ordering books (what joy?) busy learning to manage wonderful staff (how lucky am I?) busy navigating budgets and finance departments and spread sheets (not my favorite part of the job, but again, I know I am fortunate to have such a wonderful budget to work with) busy recommending books to students. I was too busy to blog about my job, because I was DOING my job, and it was all new, and everything was for the first time and and and…

I didn’t think I could be busier in this role than I had been in my homeroom teacher role, but I’d underestimated the multitude of demands faced on a daily basis when you’re on call for over 40 teachers and around 400 students, oh and did I mention the parents? Like I mentioned, it was all good busy…GREAT busy in fact. I was relishing the book talk, the camaraderie developed in the heart of the school; the main thoroughfare of our bustling community and the new networks being created; however, something was missing, and that was blogging and reaching a wider audience, and MORE importantly, sharing all of the new knowledge with those I was catering too every day in a more formal way.

So… a goal for this school year, a SMART goal, a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) is to blog twice a week (at least).
I hope to develop some book lists, some recommended reading lists, and improve on my blogroll. I learn from so many others around the world, I’d like to share their words, and not recreate the wheel. Starting now!
Following is a post geared to elementary teachers, from a blog I believe my good friend and close colleague, Amy Hossack recommended to me, Imagination Soup. So now readers, I recommend it to you and hope you enjoy what it has to offer, including this post on the best back to school books, nearly all of which are on our shelves, ready to be checked out by YOU! Melissa Taylor (Imagination Soup) also has plenty of great ideas for older readers such as this post on new chapter books for bigger kids.

I look forward to being proud of this blog, being able to recommend it to my students, teachers and parents and the world beyond as being current, informative and dynamic.

Cool Library Ideas at Singapore American School

Friday on my Mind

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Good Morning 5KP thrill-seekers…

Did you all do your morning jobs??? Or were you all too excited once you saw the instructions on the board? If so, GET BACK TO THOSE JOBS, hand those forms in and get ORGANIZED!

Here are your instructions for after you are ready for the day, PAY SOMEONE A COMPLIMENT NOW, yes, NOW, as soon as you are reading this, call out (politely) to someone else in the room and tell them something nice, DO IT!

Then…

Make sure you have saved your work in the ‘For Mrs Power’ folder, save it in word if you are having any difficulty and remember to save as “Final Narrative Kimbra” Carl B, Patricia, keep typing please, do not go on to the tasks below until that document is IN MY FOLDER, that goes for all of you!

Then…

Open the front and back end of your blog. Go into your ‘Nicholas’ entry to edit it. Open a new tab, google ‘Nicholas’ and find a picture of the book cover, or any of the covers or something relevant to the book. Copy by right clicking and saying ‘copy image location’ then go back to your back end and click on ‘add media’. If you are stuck now, ask someone for help, I know some of you know how to do this already.

When you have done that. Go to add a new post. Take out your reader’s notebook and choose one of the entries I have written comments in for you. Type up that entry under the heading ‘Reader’s Notebook’ and make sure you add any improvements or suggestions I have made and that you correct all errors.

Now, go to this site, http://www.overhereoverthere.com/ and I want all the falcons and dolphins in the class (if you are not sure which you are check here) to comment on a post Sydney has written, and all of the bears and pumas to comment on a post Hannah has written. Be positive and maybe suggest something else you would like them to write about. These girls are 4th graders now but they are friends that have known each other since pre-k 4 and have remained friends even though they now live half way around the world from each other; be supportive and encouraging and check your spelling before you hit ‘comment’.

IF you have done all of that, and only then, you may have some free blogging time, if you HAVE NOT finished, please do so over the weekend.

Maddie, don’t forget to take Shadow home today in the small cage, clean it out first and I have put a small zip-lock bag of food in there for him and you can also give him some vegetables etc, but not too much. The most important thing is water. You can take the ball home but please bring it back (and Shadow, on Monday.) Ask Patricia, Claire or Ingrid if you need any help and Carl B and Mike have also got ‘hamster experience’. Good Luck!

Have a great donut/brownie eating experience today and a wonderful weekend. Be good for Mr B please, very very good!

Happy Birthday to Claire and Thomas for the weekend.

Congratulations

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Well done to the 15 students who completed a blog post  last night. Of those 15, 13 students completed the homework task set to write about the field trip yesterday. Of the students who did not complete the work, 1 had no blog yet as he was new, 1 was absent due to having her appendix out and 1 had forgotten his password…so all in all I am thrilled with the efforts the class are putting in with their blogging. The homework on the art museum was not even due today, it was for any day this week so thanks again for your diligence.

Well done to Jordan who also added another post as well. Great job! The idea is that the students can use this blog for a whole variety of writing and it should not just be used when I set them a task in class. They can be writing about books read, movies viewed, places visited, projects they are working on, ideas they have…really, it is limitless. I just ask them to remember to keep in mind that once what they have said is out there, anyone can see it and so they always want to put their best work forward.

Parents, any time you want to check out your child’s blog, or any other student in the class, you do so by double-clicking on their name under my blogroll down the right sidebar on this page. We would love it if you would take some time to read, reflect and comment upon your child’s writing. I will be discussing with the class this week that it is not appropriate etiquette to correct spelling on your someones blog via a comment. For one thing, they will go back, edit their work and correct the mistake, and then your comment will be out of place. Rest assured that we will attempt some editing ourselves soon enough but at the moment the idea is to get the students engaged and confident with the process. A great way to comment is to focus on a key point they have written about and ask them to elaborate on it in another post, give some praise and make some suggestions for further entries. You can always tell bloggers about their sloppy spelling or punctuation in person or via e mail.

If you were the teacher for a week…

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Hi 5KP, I have enjoyed getting to know you over the first week of school this year. I feel like we have made a good solid start to the year and have gotten to know each other a little better. We have established some guidelines for behavioral expectations in the classroom and discussed what we like and dislike about school.

Your task now is to have a think about what YOU would do if you had been the teacher for this first week of school.

How would you have done things differently?

Would you have done some things the same way? What and why or why not?

How would you make new students feel welcome in our school?

What sort of ‘getting to know you’ activities would you have led?

What sort of homework would you have set?

After you have had a think about the above questions, go to the ‘comment’ section of this post, it is linked below in blue. Write down your answers to the questions in as much detail as you can, they should be in paragraph form. Over the weekend, check back on this post and see what your classmates have said in their comments. Try and have a discussion about what they have said by adding more comments to the post in reply to what your friends have said. Make sure you use their name in your comment if you are responding to something they have said.
Mr Howitt’s class have already done a similar activity so check out his blog by clicking on the link at the start of this sentence and you may have a better idea about what I mean.

I look forward to seeing your comments adding up to some interesting and thoughtful discussion. Remember, the whole world can see what you are writing so make sure you make a good impression the first time around and maintain a responsible attitude when you are posting.