Author's Last Name Starts with "K-I-N"

I just entered an online contest for classrooms and libraries to win a viewing of the new movie based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I could also win a class set of books which would be nice also. We have 2 hardback copies of each title in the DOWK series and multiple(5-6) paperbacks that I get from the Book Fair each year. The copies of these books are always checked out and they are the most often requested books. Until I read the first book I didn't fully appreciate the appeal of Jeff Kinney's characters. The format of the book--well, yes I saw the appeal of a font that looked handwritten with lots of doodle-like drawings. But until I read and laughed out loud I did not grasp the popularity. The way Kinney writes about relationships between siblings is so true that it is funny: laugh-out-loud-funny even for an old lady like me! Because of the daily requests for this book I have developed a strategy for encouraging kids to use the online catalog to find the book on the shelves.

Scenario #1:
Student: Are there any green Wimpy Kid books?
Me: Did you check the the shelf?
Student: No
Me: (I start walking towards Fiction shelves--most of the time they follow) Last name of author is Kinney---Fiction Section, K-I-N shelf...here are books with authors whose last name starts with K...read the spine...etc.

Scenario #2:
Student: Do you have any Wimpy Kid books?
Me: I don't know. (I really do know because I can glance at the spot on the "K" shelf where the books are if they are available) Have you looked it up in Destiny?
Student: No
Me: Well then, lets go look it up...last name of author starts with K-I-N...

Do I ever just go grab the book that I saw laying on the top of the shelves waiting for re-shelving and hand it to the student? Honestly--yes. But I try to do the "teacher" thing and seize the teachable moment. Thanks Jeff Kinney! I hope I win that contest.

For The Youngest of Researchers--Where's The Info?

My mantra this past week has been an old one in the teaching profession, "Monitor and Adjust". My lesson with 1st graders doing research on animals was monitored and adjusted every day after each first grade class. I realized in retrospect that I went a little overboard with expectations for this lesson---thought we'd even get to a "wall-wisher" at the end of the lesson. (big-sigh) The first big ah-ah moment came Monday afternoon with the first of the 1st-grade classes when it was quite apparent that they cannot read yet. They are learning to read Mrs. Bell! Why didn't you remember that? I was briefly waylaid by the bells & whistles of technology and forgot to start at the beginning especially with beginners. My database of choice for animal research was Encyclopedia Britannica via SC DISCUS. It has an "Animal Kingdom" option that has the most user-friendly search I could find. It still was to hard for more than 75% of the first graders. Coincidentally a discussion on the SCASL Listserv last week was about animal research for young students. This led me to a resource that I'd never heard of before called PebbleGo Animal Database. I immediately signed up for a free trial (https://www.pebblego.com/UserLogin.aspx) and thought it would be great for my 1st graders. I didn't get the trial to work for multiple users though and am looking into the yearly subscription. (pretty reasonable $) Back to EB for the first graders and I changed my lesson to focus on finding pictures of animals to start with---learning what the words "images & media" meant and how to navigate the web page. That worked better, but it was still a struggle because the students became frustrated very quickly when things didn't work quickly or easily. Another insight...problem-solving is a technology skill as is patience and perserverence.