Parents and Staff,

The students in 2nd-5th have been working on getting familiar with the library in the month of September.  They have learned how to do physical searches in the library and virtual searches on the computers in the computer lab. They have also been reading ebooks purchased by the library.  Students can access the ebooks using their library card login.  An example would be (username:  sissodav000) and the password would be the same. We have also been enjoying a great app on the ipads called "NewsOMatic" an on-line kid friendly newsmagazine.

In October students will be answering the question "What's Your Genre?"  They will be identifying 12 main fictional genres and 3 main non-fiction genres.  Examples would be fantasy, folktales, tall tales, realistic fiction, science fiction, fables, mysteries, horror, historical fiction, period fiction, fairytales, fractured fairytales, biographies, autobiographies and informational texts. Hopefully by the end of the month they will begin to discover what their favorite genre will be.

In kindergarten-1st the students have been discovering the difference between fiction and non fiction.

Below I've included a link to the Corral IMS Site and a link to the Corral Library site:

Corral IMS (Information Media Specialist) (Click Here)

Corral Library:  (Click Here)

If you have questions about what were doing during IMS time, please stop and see me in the library or call the number below.

Mr. Dave Sisson
Corral Information Media Specialist
394-6789

Ipads in Education Participants,

Having taken my first Ipad class, I'm wondering what to do next.  What's the next step. I want to first go back through these past 6 weeks. I want to see what I can expand upon and what I need to set aside.  Thinking about one teams project connecting qr codes to book reviews sounds like a great way to motivate students to read.  My book trailer project has a similar theme.  There both trying to encourage students to pick a book and read.  I like Jeff's idea of making it easy to get to and read ebooks.  On my phone I have a book going all the time.  I'm able to check out my favorite authors with that phone and easily find reviews.  For me I want to be able to pick the book easily, review it with a couple of sources, and read it easily and continuously.  Kids want to read but the process of picking out books and reading needs to be quick and easy.

My next  step will be to continue to learn and apply it in my life and in the life of the students and staff.  This summer I will continue learning by taking a self paced ipad class through TIE.  I hope to pass this learning on to others and evaluate how others receive it.

iPads in education class participants,

I just finished watching our video assignment.  I feel like one of the most important points he made was how a teacher can decide what technology to use for a given project.  Do we use 1. Social technology.  Do we need to communicate to a larger audience our ideas or creations.  Do we stress the 2. Mobile technology.  This of course is the idea that we want to be able to create our final product and have it viewed from various locations.  Do we stress that 3.  Visualization...creating with technology allows our abstract ideas to become more concrete.  Do we stress 4. Digital story telling.  This would be combining text, audio, video to tell a story.  Does our technology decision stress 5.  Educational gaming.   If we can answer which of these or which combination of these we should then    our instruction will be much moe effective.

I have done digital story telling for several years.  The students at Corral have created many fiction and non fiction book trailers.  One down fall of the projects is that an iPad will not play any of these since they are all wmv. Files.  Here is the link.    Book trailers.    A PC will run these.  This year I am having students create their own non fiction story.  I created a rubric that guides them.  Every 2nd - 5th grader has 1 power point slide with this rubric.  It covers the essentials of putting together a
nonfiction book.

 I had each of them create a bibliography first with instruction.  They learned what was available in our library and chose 2 non fiction books on the same topic.  All the  students received instruction then on how to evaluate web sites.  I used a great evaluation guide by Kathy Shrock.  After they selected their 2 internet sites on the same topic I showed them how to use easybib.com.  Having completed their bibliography the students began working on the cover page, title page, table of contents, body of the book, glossary and index.  I'm seeing students near the end of this process.  During this first part of the process they're learning lots about power point.  Once they complete this rubric I will have them import the slides into Animoto.   With Animoto they will record narration for the book.  They will also insert music  into each slide according to the mood of that slide.   As they complete the Animoto steps I will help them save it as a mov. file making it ready for the internet.  I will select those that have completed all of the above steps and put them on the internet.  Having them selected to be put on the internet is a huge incentive.  I'm seeing  some  near the end of the half way point and are visualizing the end product online for all to see.  I recommend you try digital story telling.  It has the potential to have teachers and students learn about many many aspects of technology.

 IPads in Education Class participants,

I have received in the past 2 months 16 IPAD minis.  I was very busy with them when they first arrived in the library and excited as well.  Attempting to gain some direction I began using the app store.  I enjoyed looking at and interacting with many creative apps.  Getting them organized was a priority.  I learned how to put them into folders.  After creating a stockpile of apps I wondered how  I would get them onto the other 15 minis.  Hannah Baker from the IT office was able to push them out to all of the minis.  She asked if I wanted them pushed out by grade level.  I discovered that that would help me keep them more organized.  

As I began using the apps, I discovered some were more useful for big groups and some were more useful for small groups . One of the apps I'm using with a small group is called Doodle Buddy.  It's not an educational app.  I have been using it with some RTI behavior challenged students.  They love "doodling" with this app.  It's been fun to watch them use the tools on it to create a fun product.

This past week I challenged this small group to create a project based on a recent bullying assembly the whole school had attended.   Many of these same small group participants also heard a story in the library that was related to the assembly. The story is called "You Are Special" by Max  Lucado.

One of the RTI students had the idea to take  a selfie with the camera which then became the new background in their doodle buddy project.  With the built in text feature on doodle buddy, I had students type "You Are Special."  Then the students decorated their project. This week I will use the "reflector" app to show off their completed project on the promethean board.  

When we connected the fun doodle buddy app with an all school assembly and a related book from the library, the doodle buddy app and it's usefulness took on a whole new meaning.

Dear Parents and Staff,
The past few weeks have been very busy in the library and computer lab.  We have been learning about the non-fiction sections of the library including the Dewey Decimal System.  Students are checking out books of interest and next week we will be looking at on-line data bases to further their research on their topic of interest.  Please encourage your child or student to stick with one topic and become an "expert" at that one topic.  We will be using Power Point as a product for all of our research.  The product will look like their own non-fiction book with a collection of 3-4 resources from our library and 3-4 on-line data resources.  The 4th and 5th graders will be narrating their books, including background music and transitions.  I will be posting completed projects on-line.

Please email or phone me if you have questions.

Mr. David K. Sisson
Information Media Specialist
Corral Drive Elementary
Rapid City, SD 57702

dave.sisson@k12.sd.us
605-394-6789

Dear Staff and Parents,
This month all of the Corral Drive students are working on the "Elements of Fiction" (Plot, Character, Setting, Theme) during the Information Media (library/computer) time.  If you go to the internet and type RCAS on a google search then click on Elementary Schools.  Go to Corral Drive/Teacher Sites/ Mr. Sisson.  At that point you will be at the "Information Media Specialist" site.  Each grade level will be noted on the left side of the screen.  Click on your child's grade level.  Then click on the "blue atom for grade level resources.  Then look at the titles highlighted in blue.  That will be the area that grade level is working on.  Please click on the following 5th grade link as an example:  (Click Here)

Each week we work on a particular area under this link.  Kindergarten - 5th will be working on the same areas at a different pace. 

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Sisson (Information Media Specialist) at the number below.


Mr. David K. Sisson
Information Media Specialist
Corral Drive Elementary
Rapid City, South Dakota 57702

(605)394-6789

Staff and Parents,
This past month of September all students at Corral K-5 have been working on one basic "standard."  The standard was "Using the physical and virtual library to find books."  This standard is an on-going standard throughout their time at Corral.  They all have learned how to use Destiny to do a library search.  All of the 2nd-5th have learned how to log-in to "Destiny Quest" enabling them to put books on hold, put books in a personal list for future reading and to write short reviews of previous books they've read.  To log-in to Destiny Quest, our on-line library, the kids use their 5 + 3 + (000) in most cases. ex (sissodav000).  That would be repeated for their password allowing them the ability to do the above tasks.  The following link gets you straight to the Destiny Quest log-in site (Destiny Quest).  Ask your child/student how to get their from the RCAS site as well. This week we have worked on "storm stories."  Due to the recent storm I had students share their stories with me and I typed them into the following wikispaces site.  (Corral Elementary Storm Stories).  We have a few more grade levels to go so check back later.  Next week and for the next month we will be working on "genres."

If you have any questions, please call 394-6789.

Mr. David K. Sisson
Information Media Specialist
Corral Drive Elementary School

605-394-6789