TinyTap - An Easy Game Creator for Kids, Parents, and Teachers

TinyTap is an easy to use game creating app for iPads.  You upload or take a photo.  You can also draw your own pictures using the cup full of brushes, pencils, and pens.  Then, record questions that can be answered by tapping part of the photo.  Finally, trace the answer.  You can record a personalized message that plays when the player taps the correct or incorrect part of the picture.   

I downloaded it last school year, but am just getting around to using it in a lesson this year.  I created a lesson for kindergarten to identify the parts of a book.  I can also see this being used to create lessons on labeling parts of a plant, identifying states on a map, identifying parts of speech in sentences.  It's very easy to use and would be ideal for letting students create games on their own to share with each other.

Here's a link to my Parts of a Book game from my Twitter page.  You have to have TinyTap downloaded on your iPad to play.

SafeShare.TV Makes YouTube Kid Friendly

I am lucky enough to be in a school system that doesn't block YouTube.  When I want to make videos available to students, however, I'd like to be able to avoid exposing them to any inappropriate comments or related videos that sometimes appear within otherwise age-appropriate YouTube videos. That's why I was thrilled to find SafeShare.TV.  I simply copy the URL for the YouTube video and paste it into SafeShare.TV.  A new URL with just the video is created.  It does still include pop-up advertising at the bottom, but I only had to minimize it once. Days later, when I opened the link, the ads were still hidden.

I used SafeShare.TV to create this link to a Mr. Bean video that I want to show my upper grade students.   [Aside: I am going to ask students to list the things Mr. Bean does right and the things he does wrong. There are a lot of good lessons in this 5 minute video:  book care, taking responsibility, and not being afraid to let the librarian know when you've accidentally damaged a book]

Getting Ready for School

I want to make books easier to find and more attractive to my students this year.  So, I've made some changes to the shelves.

First, I rearranged fiction.  The popular series have been moved to separate shelves (still working on signage for that area).  The rest of the fiction is organized by genre and then A-Z by author's last name.  Students have a hard time looking at a wall of book spines and knowing how to find something that will interest them in the short amount of time they are allowed to browse for books in the library.  I do have to teach lessons!  Here's a picture of a one of the new genre labels on my fiction shelves:

Due to some minimal weeding and moving series out of the main fiction wall, I now have free room at the end of my shelves to feature books.  I borrowed these shelf talkers from the Risking Failure blog.  I'm also going to let students write short book trailers to advertise their favorite books throughout the year.  Here are my shelf talkers:

I didn't have time to weed non-fiction, so it is still packed. I've broken up the spaces with some subject/topic markers.  They aren't too pretty, but I hope they will help students find the area where their favorite books are located.

Book Hospital

Book care is one of the first library lessons of the year.  Students seem to love looking at all the gross, damaged books and marveling over what might have caused the damage.  I created this book hospital box to facilitate the lesson this year, but given the condition of some of those books I show in the lesson, a book morgue might be more appropriate. 

Redecorating Progress

The library is getting a facelift this year.  The bright yellow has been a hit with everyone since the old pale, grayish pink made everything look dingy. 

This is a picture of the nonfiction wall.  My goal is to have a visual Dewey Decimal system on the top shelf.  I need to design some interesting labels so that students understand why the objects are up there.

A much less popular change happened in the storytime area.  We used to have a large stage area with three 18" steps against the back wall.  It wasn't functional for my storytime since the steps were too high for the little ones to sit on and they faced out toward the rest of the library.  That, as my wise mentor told me, is a recipe for attention problems.  The carpet was also tearing on the steps which led students to pick and pull at them constantly.  Who can resist pulling a loose thread? 

So, when the operations manager suggested removing the stairs when they repainted the library, I did not object.  Now, it is up to me to find some way to make this corner magical again.  We've got a start with the blocked carpeting.  I love this for keeping students seated in their own area.  Plus, no more smashed fingers due to shifting in metal chairs.  Again, how can they avoid moving around in their chairs?  Now they won't have to worry about it.  I've got some ideas.  I just need to find some resources and talented help to put them into action!

Shapeways for 3D Printing

Recently, I've read some interesting articles about libraries becoming more interactive research and maker spaces.  For example, large video walls at college libraries that allow viewers to interact with research projects.  The Fayetteville Free Library in New York created a Fab Lab that includes 3D printers and  programming classes to support creating in the library.  I like the idea of the library as a collaborative, creative learning space as opposed to the solitary, quiet, stuffy environment that many think of when they think of libraries.

The interactive video wall is still being fine tuned and 3D printers are expensive though.  But, I learned about Shapeways at ISTE last month.  They are a company in Sweden that takes your model design and will produce the object using the material you specify with their 3D printer.  Cool!  You can even sell it to other people from their site.  That could be a fantastic fundraiser for a school.