Library & Classroom Listening Centers

 Library  & Classroom Listening Centers

Tammy Cummings

Library Media Specialist Binghamton City Schools

    I remember a time when the library had racks of bags with plastic hooks at the top.  They were filled with listening center items.  A Cassette tape and a book.  Some schools and public libraries still have these.  Teachers and students got to check them out to listen to.  Then schools started to switch to audiobooks with MP3 files.  Tried with MP3 players and Kindle tablets to make it work.  Sora is now the go to in the schools that I am familiar with but it just isn't the same.  So I started to think and look online to what I could get for the library to bring back that feeling you would get listening to a book on tape with the book to follow along.

    In my online search I found an article comparing the different options that were currently available. Storypod.  I also talked to other librarians in a couple Facebook groups.  After all this I decided on Tonies I can't help but pronounce it as Toonies.  They are fun and portable.  I decided to purchase 4 starter sets for each of my two school libraries.  I am lucky to have a great support person at BOCES to help me get the orders processed.  I was able to pick out the color Tunies I wanted.  I went with Green and Purple but purple was out of stock so I am trying Green and Red.  The green ones have arrived.  I also ordered about 30 character figures to use with the speakers.

    Yes I took a risk.  No one in my district that I know of has tried these before.  I did listen to some cautious tales about issues.  I was forewarned and had an idea of a work around thanks to my online librarian friends.

PROS:

1. Small, light, & Portable

2. Only needs internet when downloading content

3. Around 200 characters can be downloaded (so my 30 characters are no problem)

4. Classroom use - no set up required.  Just charge the device every other day.  Charger provided.

5. Students cannot bring Tonies from home because they wont work.  Only Library Tonies will work.

6. There are creative Tonies so students can record themselves reading a story or singing a song.  Then I will upload and download it to the figure & device.  They can listen over and over to their creation. 

7.  You can use and iPad app or a website to manage the devices.  Nice flexibility

8. So easy to use my Kindergarteners were able to figure it out without any prompting.  After a little experimenting I did go over FAQ and expectations.

CONS:

1. I had trouble connecting them to the internet for the setup.  I had left my laptop at the other school library that day.  So I decided to take one home and set it up.  I have not gone back yet to finish setting up the others but I'm positive I can get it to work at school.  I'm just too impatient at times.

2.  You have to leave the character on to download no quick switches.  Double figures you still had to put each on to download.  Probably has to do with the microchip identification. So that takes up 2 spots instead of one.  But I did want them to be able to use it on any of the speakers.

3. barcodes!  Marking the items as library property!  This is the current challenge I am working on.  I have all cataloged now.   I did them individually since I wanted teachers to be able to select the story figures themselves.  The base kit will have a Tonies bag with a charger, speaker, and a place for up to 6 figures, but I have to decide where to put the barcode on this.

4. How do I attach the barcodes?  My current thinking is laminated pouches and zip ties for the characters.  As long as this is out of the way of the magnet in the base of the figure it should work.

5. Worried about students stealing them.

6.  Worried about spending my own money on the figures when I see them in stores.  This is a huge worry for me since I love to collect things.

So far I am feeling good about my decision to get the Tonies.  I have a lot of work to do yet before I can loan them out to the classrooms.  I need to figure out the labeling and get it done.  To promote this I am showing each of the classes the devices and playing them when we line up to wait for their teacher to pick up the class. I will be having 4th and 5th graders record themselves reading a story with sound effects or music for the younger grades to listen to.  That is part of our storytelling unit.

I was thinking I could create character cards for each figure and I need to print and laminate the simple directions just as a precaution.  Each figure has multiple tracks and I thought it would be good to know what tracks are on each figure for the listening station.  Still need to figure this out and print them out.

The last thing that is missing from the old cassette listening centers is the physical book.  I have many of the stories already in the collection and I can purchase copies of the ones that I don't.  I need to figure out a way to connect to the options.  Do I purchase a copy just to go with the Tonies or do I make an entry in the catalog saying don't forget to check out the book too?

So much to do but this will be worth it.  Each year it will be easier to add new Tonies to the collection.  Hope this inspires another to give this a try.  I will update as I come up with solutions to the cons listed and the unknown that I run into.

A Look at Book Checkouts!

 A Look at Book Checkouts!

I have spent the last two years categorizing the picture book and reader book sections of my two libraries.  I have switched away from having the readers mixed in with picture books and NF books.  I moved them to their own section called Readers.  Both the reader section and the picture book sections are now sorted into categories.  I used the same categories for both sections.  The Readers have the Letter R added to the category label.  More about this in another post.

I have been spending time learning how to use Google Looker Studio.  It used to be called Data Studio which I was familiar with and I wrote several blog posts about that journey.  I decided to create a Library Impact Dashboard after seeing one at a conference and a virtual training session held during my Thanksgiving break.  It was worth the time!

I wanted to expand on this dashboard so I started researching what else Google Looker was being used for.  Two items stood out to me.  One a Mini Credentials board and a digital reading log.  Let’s talk about the reading log.

In both of my schools students are expected to read independently outside of school at least 15 minutes a day and some up to 20 Minutes a day.  They turn in reading logs.  I found an awesome example online.  I started to build my Google form to collect the data and the Google form to display the results.  I am worried about getting teachers to buy into this.  With Looker studio you need data to build your dashboards.  I will need to create some fake entries to get the board set up.  I’m not really into fake data so I have set this aside for a moment. Good news is that once it is set up I can delete the fake data and start collecting real data without damaging the dashboard.

Where else can I get data?  I looked at my Library Catalog and see a report for Loaned Items…… Now this report would have to be run each week or for me at the end of my 6 day rotation.  This is the biggest drawback of this report. If you don't pull the report each week you will loose out on data. All other reports that I have use so far you can pull at any time and even years later.

OPALS does not keep this information past the book being returned.  I learned about why in one of my Master Library Classes and its a good reason.  When I pull this report I will need to ensure student information is left out for this very reason. I do not want to do an end run around keeping a history of what students borrowed form the library.  OPALS has an option to leave out student information when running this report.  This report does give me some great information that I can create a dashboard with.

1. A list of books loaned out with no user information.

2. The Author names

3. Location of the books

1. Special Locations (Short Chapter books/series picture books & Reader categories)

2. The next two sections - the location field is blank and it is easy to add these after the report is pulled. 

1. Dewey - All the Nonfiction Books

2. Fiction - Novels - the longer ones - shorter ones are in Chapter Baskets

   

This gives me a look at the most popular authors & the sections of the library that get looked at the most.

1. Now to start asking questions

1. Why is an author more popular than others?  Is it the number of their books that I have?  Is it just because the author is popular?  What else can it be?

2. Which sections are seeing the most use?  Do I need to weed these sections or purchase more books for them?

The best reason to create a dashboard is to look at the data and ask questions.  The report looking nice is great but you want it to lead to questions.  I will be adding this report to the Library Impact Dashboard as a second and third page of the report.

Picture Book Genre

 Picture Book Genre

UPDATE:  I have also sorted the Reader section for students into the same groups.  I used the same stickers but added the letter R to identify the section to shelve in.

Many libraries have added Genres to their fiction collections and there are tons of resources online to help you complete this task.  There are however not many resources online for adding Genre to the Picture Book section of the library.  I started my journey at https://obxlibrarian.weebly.com/blog/easy-picture-book-genrefication  I was sad to see students just wandering around the picture book section when it was sorted by author only and spine out all the time.  Once I started to switch over to Genre topics for picture books I saw a change in the students when looking for books.  They took the time to flip through the front facing books to see what was in that section.  It was amazing!

1. The first step is to go through your picture books and pull out board books and step into reading type readers.  They make it difficult to shelve books because their size is so different from most picture books.  I created their own sections for these books.

2. You will need to select the topics (genre) that will work best with your collection and your students.  Here is a list of the topics I went with.

1.  ABC’s

2. Adventures

3. Animals (wild/zoo)

4. Author

5. Bears

6. Bugs

7. Career

8. 123’s

9. Dragons & Dinos

10. Farm

11. Friends and family

12. USA/Government

13. Pet Stories

14. Princess/Prince

15. Scary

16. School/Books

17. Sea life

18. Silly Stories

19. Sports

20. Holiday

21. Superhero

22. Trucks & Equipment

23. Video Games

The highlighted topics can be large sections.  I am looking into breaking them down into smaller sections.

Author sticker means to shelve by the author’s name.

3. I created stickers with the above labels on them along with clipart to match. I printed these on blank spine labels.  I placed the stickers on the top right corner of the book cover.  Choose what works best for you.

4. Now the work comes in.  Sort the picture books into piles based on the topics.  Then place the stickers on them.

5. How will you shelve the books now that they have stickers on them?

1. Spine out?  I do this for the large sections

2. Bins on the shelf.  I do this with small topics.  I prefer front facing books as much as possible

3. Larger bins on the floor to highlight a section/topic of the collection.

6. Holiday books have a spine label and shelved out of the way but still accessible to students.

NOTE:  I do end up with some overfull bins but that is only at the start and end of the year.  All other times the bins are half empty.

The following are examples of the genre stickers I created using clipart.  I am not claiming this artwork as my own.  Please use your own artwork or clipart.

It has been awhile since I posted!

Let's Keep Going!

Hello Everyone:

    It has been a busy couple of years.  The last time I posted it was my first year at my two school libraries in Binghamton City School District.  I was unboxing and weeding two elementary school libraries with lots of help from my fellow librarians.  I survived! 

    I have been working on a new Google Site to hold my lesson plans and all things I need to track as a professional librarian. :)  You can view my work here, but many things you won't be able to view until I am ready for them to be public.  Don't worry I won't keep them a secret for long.

I was happy to see that Data Studio is now Google Looker Studio.  I did a 4 part post about creating reading logs using Data Studio.  Now I am back creating new reading logs and even more important Library Impact Dashboards.  View here.  Since I have two school libraries I have two dashboards but I have created a blended dashboard to combine the stats to view the totals of both schools.  There is a limit to the number of blends you can create in Google Looker Studio.  I believe it is 5 but I have had issues after 4 blends.

I would love some feedback.

Tammy Cummings

Librarian

Before School B

 

The Before Photos

What did I walk into? School B

    Before the school year even started I was already exhausted just with school A.  Luckily or unluckily the second school library some books were shelved and the boxes put in another room.  This meant the boxes are even more mixed up.  In addition I felt pressure to sort through the boxes quickly so the band teacher could have the room back.  I don't have pictures of the HUGE pile of boxes for this school.  Most of the boxes were overpacked and breaking open.  This library went through a complete renovation and looks wonderful but unfortunately the number of shelves was greatly reduced!

    

    So I begin the process of getting through the boxes in the band room by weeding as I unbox.  Forget about doing it in any sort of order.  I could barely move these boxes.  I ended up weeding and discarding  2000+ books.  These books were in bad shape and or outdated.  I hauled by book cart the books I selected back to the library.

    Here are the before pictures without the band room pile.

    The tables and chairs will be replace they are just temporary till the order comes in.  The space looks great but has been a challenge.  I had to start teaching with the first day of school so no time to shelve books.  It has been a slow process but the band room is clear of library boxes.  I was able to put some picture books out for students to check out.  I have had to make decisions on the go.  I decided to put the holiday books in the cabinet you see in the last photo.  I have a cart that I will be putting books to highlight the season and holidays.  I didn't want to use shelving space for the holiday books that are used once a year.  These two cabinets are also the only storage space in the library.

    The school is a K-5 elementary and I gave students a chance to provide feedback on the library.  They loved the space but did not like how the books were shelved so far.  Now I needed to make more decisions faster.  This meant moving the books already on the shelves and reorganizing.

    I can't wait to get the last section finished and the last of the non library items out of the library.  The Non-Fiction sections are finished, had to create a section of each non-fiction for the youngest grades.  Bonus is that with these books seperated I don't have books falling behind other books.  Fiction (long) and Fiction (short) sections are finished.  Graphic novels are finished.  The reader section of books is on the shelf and I will come back to that to organize it better.  

    The last section is the one I am tackling now and that's the picture book section.  I have seen students at both schools use the picture book section.  They wander aimlessly and pull random books off the shelf that makes a mess.  Plus students are not really getting books they want to read.  I have decided to sort the picture books not by author but by topic.  I have sorted a couple bins of books and the students are enjoying selecting from these sections.  So I know I am on the right track.

The Before Photos What did I walk into? School A

The Before Photos

What did I walk into? School A

    Before the school year even started I was already exhausted.  School A the week before school was to start and all the books are still in boxes and the shelves still to be assembled.  I ended up with 3 days to unbox and shelve everything!  I have a great group of fellow librarians in the district.  They came and helped get the work done.  There is no way that I would have even come close to being done without their help.

    Boxes had to be moved and sorted into the correct order for unboxing.  They had to be moved so we could get to the shelves to put the books on them.  Looking at the photos now it doesn't seem that bad, but it was!  The boxes were moved several times and each time they were tossed and mixed up.  Even though the books are on the shelves the work is not done.  I am still working on better organization to make it easier for students to find books. 

    The shelves were set up in a good layout but the circulation desk was not.  It was put where the last librarians thought would be a good spot.  The desk was split in two.  One was put over by where the smart board will be.  I call this the classroom area.  You can see the other half in the last picture.  The desk has the backside of the desk facing the door and I don't like my back to the door. Plus you can see the mess that usually accumulates in the desk area.  To top that off there is no power outlet and no ethernet port on that side of the room.  So I tried wireless internet and that is not reliable plus running an extension cord to get power to the computer.  This is just not working.  The desk it useless and is now piled with books.  Some to discard and a bunch to figure out a location to put them.  I have been unsuccessful at getting the desk rotated to the other wall.  It's not far to go but the desk is too heavy to move.

Next post the before photos of School B.

 

 New School Year New Schools

Tammy Cummings Library Media Specialist Binghamton, NY

    Well this year has already been full of adventures.  Just over a year ago I switched school districts.  This meant working in two school libraries and moving to a new area.  Binghamton NY is now my home.  I've officially settled down or at least I had thought I settled down.  The district hired another librarian (or rehired one) and switched up who was working at which schools.  This meant two new schools and two new collections.

    Last year was the chaos of the pandemic and teaching asynchronously for part of the school year. Plus getting to know two new library collections. One school had over 700+ books that needed to be sorted through and cataloged.  Luckily I had help with that from Library aids and School Library Services.  Then having to make space for Covid testing in the library for part of the year and push into classrooms at both schools.  Towards the end of the school year I was finally able to have classes in the library!  I survived the school year, but then they sprung on us the switch up of locations!

    Start of this school year I found myself assigned to two different schools both of which the school library had undergone renovations!  All the books were in boxes at both schools!  Luckily at one school (School A) I had the help of other librarians in the district to unbox the books.  Managed to get this done before school started but it was still organized chaos.  Unfortunately at the other School (School B) I didn't have help unboxing the books until after the school year started, but the boxes were out of sight and I could start teaching right away.

    School A is a great space but the smart board is not up so I cannot project anything!  I do have two monitors so I use the second larger one to show students videos and such.  I only lost a little bit of shelving in the renovation at school A.  The collection is in desperate need of weeding.  About 900 books have been weeded as we were shelving.  The picture book section still needs to be weeded. 

    School B is an awesome space but shelving is very limited!  That has been the biggest issue with school B.  Very little was done before the school year started, but what was done the students did not like.  The principal had older tables put in the library so students had a place to sit to work.  At some point this school year the library will get new tables and chairs.  Learned the hard way that the projector does not work for the smart board and I am waiting on it being repaired.  Luckily there is a smart TV in the library and I use that instead.  The boxes of books were stored erratically in the band room.  I felt bad about taking up this teachers space and pushed myself to sort and weed fast!  Total so far of weeded books at School B is around 2000.  But all those books really needed to be weeded.  I still have my book budget for this year and need to get the orders placed.  Now I am am down to the books that really should stay.  I have almost completed the Non-Fiction (Informational Text) part of the collection, the biography section, readers, graphic novels and Fiction sections of the collection.  That leaves the picture books to get shelved.  Not enough room to shelve them plus I need to decide on how to shelve them.  Thankfully I do have help now with completing this library.

Things that I learned during this process:

1. Librarians don't get to pack boxes up at their pace and many non librarians will pitch in to get the work done!

2.  Boxes once packed will be moved an mixed up during the renovations!

3.  Librarians most likely won't get a say in the renovation.  You will be asked to spend a ton of time planning it but then the decision is not in your hands.

4.  Take care of yourself.  I pushed myself too hard and ended up sick for almost a week.

5.  Principals will say take your time and take care of yourself but they really want it done as quickly as possible.

This is the end for today.  I will start my next post about the decisions that I had to make and share some before and after photos of the progress so far.

Rocket Books Customizing

Customizing your Rocket Book

Written by Ms. Cummings

CiTi Library Media Specialist

What are some of the best ways to customize your Rocket Book?

Plus a couple tips for working with the Rocket Book.

What is a Rocket Book?  A Rocket Book is a reusable notebook that you wipe away the writing/drawing with water.  I prefer the Everlast Letter size version and the NEW Fusion is terrific. I found a letter-size portfolio to hold my book and supplies.  I even have a place to put my Rocket Book Beacons!  Never know when you want to scan something on the go.  It's summer so I hope I run across some sidewalk chalk drawings and just plop down the beacons and scan away and email it lickety-split.  Also, upload to my Google Drive to share with students and add to my maker space lesson plans.

Rocket Book Fusion in a 

"What is the Rocket Book Everlast?

The Everlast notebook provides a classic pen and paper experience, yet is built for the digital age. Although it feels like a traditional notebook, the Everlast is endlessly reusable and connected to all of your favorite cloud services. ... The Everlast notebook is compatible with the Rocketbook app."

I remember when I was in High School using erasable pens and it just left smudges everywhere.  Technology has come a long way and the Frixion pens and fine tip markers are terrific.  I find I not only use them with the Rocket Books but also on regular paper all day long.

Rocket Book offers PDF files and I used these to test out my templates when I created them and to see how they worked when used.  This is an important step don't skip it!  The custom pages so far with more to come:

• my monthly calendar
• Purchase Order submissions
• Library Collaboration form
• Unit lesson Planner
• Library Lesson form

Using Vinyl to customize

How did I actually get these onto my rocket book pages?  I have a Cricut machine that I have cut the individual items out of vinyl but I found they peeled off after a while.  It's the fine lines that tend to peal while larger letters and images stay put.  I will be using the iron Cricut material to add details to the portfolio to make it easier to find and vinyl can be used on the cover of the Rocket Book itself.

Taking apart the Rocket Book

The best way that I found to Customize the Rocket Book is to take apart the Rocket Book.  This is not for the faint of heart.  I did ruin several pages when I was trying this out due to my own mistakes, but I learn from my mistakes.

I took a pair of plyers and gently unbent the top spiral.  I did not have to do that to the bottom one but did have to push it over to the other side so it would untwist.  I twisted the spiral right off.  Now the pages are loose and I can customize them and put them in any order that I want.  I recommend printing on the dot pages and not the lined pages.  Lined pages are harder to match up when printing.

Warning: I have found the silver spiral to be a bit brittle.  Becareful when bending this one.  The black spirals are pretty flexible and I had no trouble taking it apart several times with no issues.

Creating customized pages to print on the Rocket Book Pages

In Adobe editor I took pdf of the letter size dot page and I clicked on edit pdf.  Let the software do its job.  I used PowerPoint to create the color sections of the tables and added them to Adobe. I was then able to add in any words that I wanted on the page and line them up.  I then removed the background image of the rocket book page.  This left me with only what needed to be printed on the page.  I used the office laser printer/copier and passed the pages through the paper bypass tray.  

1. Don't fill the page with tons of images.  My first mistake was putting a table with a colored background.  First, it curled the page as it went through the copier.  It did eventually flatten but the colored areas did not scan well.  So keep it to a minimum on the solid objects.
2. Only use the bypass tray and do it when the secretary isn't there to "gasp" at what you are about to do. :)
3. The pages will temporarily curl a little bit or have waves but it does flatten out quickly especially after putting the notebook back together.

Here are some images of what I customized:  
You will notice that I started out at the top of the page with the start of the auto file naming.  This way I can write in what I want the specific file name to be each month without having to type the file name in each time.  It works!

Monthly Calendar

Monthly Purchase Order Tracking

Library Collaboration Page

Library Unit Lesson Planning

Library Lesson plan template

Graphic Organizers

I am testing graphic organizers this next school year.  I have them created using the pdf files Rocket Book makes available.  Once I have tested them with a class or two I will then make any necessary changes and then print them on Rocket Book Pages.  I plan to have a class set of Rocket Books with Customized pages and regular pages for note-taking.  I have not tested the graphic organizers enough yet to actually print the class set.

Putting the Rocket Book back together

One final step is to put the Rocket Book back together.  Organize your pages in the order you prefer.  I put a regular page in between my custom pages for easy access to those pages.  I put them basically in places where I need extra writing space.  Once the pages are in order and put the covers in place and line up the holes and twist the spiral back on starting at the bottom.  Once you have twisted it up you will need to push the bottom of the spiral over to the other side.  Then at the top use the plyers to bend the last part back into place carefully.

As I promised here are a few tips for working with the Rocket Books!

• Go to the makeup area in a store like Walmart or Dollar Tree!

• Pick up a package of the triangle makeup sponges and a small plastic container to put one or two in.  This way you can keep them by your desk to wipe away errors.  I know they say to use a spray bottle but that is great for erasing a whole page and not a partial page.  The makeup sponge gives you more control.  Then use the cloth to dry the page before writing on it again.

• My favorite makeup sponge is the green one in the photo below.  I keep this available for when I need to remove a small area or one letter.  No more licking your finger to erase that pesky mistake.

• The last is the water bottle shown in the photo.  It has a mechanism on top that you press down to release a few drops of water.  See second image below.  Much easier to use than spraying the whole page.

Dollar Tree Items to use with the Rocket Books.

A bottle that has a plunger.

I will leave off with my favorite Fixion Pens/Markers

NOTE (Disclaimer): This blog post shares my experiences with the Rocket Book and customizing mine.  I do not know for sure what will happen when/if you try this with your own Rocket Book and laser printer/copier.  Do this at your own risk.  I did ruin a couple pages but it was worth it.  Mine turned out and the pages are still writable, erasable, and scannable with the app.

#rocketbook #gokaitiaki