We are now into our second month of school and boy is time flying! Here, in the HMC, our upper grade students have gone through their library orientation scavenger hunt, been learning how to be safe and effective digital citizens and getting excited about reading.
In December 2017, we introduced an online social networking site called Biblionasium to our 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students. This is a safe and restricted site that operates via our Destiny Online Catalog. It allows our KES students to log reading time, create reading goals, write book reviews and share recommendations with their classmates. Students can also participate in contests and earn badges for reading, which is something they totally love doing! Consider it the GoodReads for kids.
This year we have started using Biblionasium early! All of our 4th and 5th graders have been trained and are now using this resource weekly – logging, reading and recommending books. A new feature we are trying out this year is the reading challenges! Yes, being that most of our students are highly competitive by nature, they can now challenge each other to read a wider range and quantity of books! I, too, have joined in on the challenge. I created a challenging reading goal for myself: Read 200 books by the end of the school year and challenged the students, collectively as a class and individually, to beat me. Classes that do, will receive a special reward. Individual students who do will get their own special prize. So, now, the challenge is on and I am looking forward to getting my socks knocked off!
In addition to our regular classes, this year many of the specialist teachers in grades 4 and 6 are teaching elective courses as part of our La Noʻonoʻo rotational days. In the HMC, my 6th grade course is the KES Yearbook. Yes, this year our yearbook will be student created! Currently, 21 students are enrolled and learning all things Yearbook. They have started looking at previous yearbook editions and are interviewing students from across the different grade levels to get feedback on what they want their yearbook to look like. They have many new and creative ideas so get ready – a change is coming!