Tiger Library Update
August/September 2014
NEW YEAR, NEW WEB DESIGN!
In an effort to make resources more accessable to BVHS staff and students, we worked hard over the summer to re-vamp our library web page. The new resource includes easy access to course libguides, databases, district and building links, the online catalog, tech tools, and much more! We've had great feedback so far, and we look forward to sharing it with more classes as the year progresses.
Tech tools in the BVHS Library this month:
Google Drive
More classes than ever are using Google Drive to create and collaborate. Teachers are also going paperless by providing feedback and evaluation directly into these documents. We are excited to support this growing trend in BVHS classrooms!
Google Tour Builder
Tour Builder is a great resource to use as an instuctional tool, introducing a text or subject by taking students on a tour of the globe, or as a presentation tool for kids. It's easy to use, web-based, and has plenty of useful features.
Padlet
ELA 9 used Padlet's virtual "cork board" to discuss web sources during a lesson on web credibility. It is a great web tool for in-class or remote discussion and collaboration, as well as formative assessment.
BVH library Collaboration:
ELA 12 Google Tour Builder Projects
This September we collaborated with ELA 12 students as they completed research over the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Each group was assigned a specific audience to reach out to, using the background information they found on their audience and the epidemic to shape their presentation. Then, groups used Google Tour Builder to present information to the class in a multimedia format.
Government Term Papers
This semester Brian Mowry's Government classes will complete a large research paper over a topic of their choice. The classes came to the library to work through the preliminary research process in order to narrow down their topics, form good questions and search terms, and identify potential stakeholders. Next, we plan on using EasyBib to help students organize thier notes over the sources they found into a useful outline.
U.S. History Multimedia Presentations
We have collaborated with Keil Pittman and all US History classes on a group project where each student is responsible for teaching his/her classmates about a specific topic during the Progressive Era. Students shared work and ideas using Google Drive, researching topics and determining learning targets for the class. Then, they created a multimedia presentation using a tool of their choice (Prezi, Present.me, Screencast-o-matic, or Voicethreads) and uploaded it onto their teacher's website. The members of the class viewed these presentations individually and took notes over the material.
Honors Biology Year-Long Project
We have been so fortunate to have worked more closely than ever with the HBio team on the year-long research project. One portion of the project is a literature review where students gather and synthesize information on their topic. We have supported these students from the beginning with direct instruction on forming a topic, finding background information, brainstorming search terms, using advanced searches in databases, and taking notes. We've also worked on paraphrasing and note-taking techniques, and we recently introduced EasyBib's Notebook feature so that students can create outlines before they begin drafting. Our final steps will be introducing APA formatting and using Turnitin.com to check students' originality reports to avoid plagiarism and over-quoting sources.
Spanish 3.5 "Vacociones Involviable" Project
We began a new project with Tina Martinat’s Spanish 3.5 classes, helping to take their presentation assessment to a new level. We introduced Google Tour Builder to the classes; they were then given the option of using it to supplement their 6-minute verbal presentation on a vacation trip (all in Spanish – no English). Feedback from Tina was extremely positive! She reported that their depth in presentation increased. And, the students that did not use Tour Builder “up-ed their game” when they saw how other students were using this new technology. This unit will be used again next year.