I'm very happy that, even though our school day schedule was changed dramatically this year, our principal kept an SSR time built into the day. You would think that having the administrator stamp of approval on SSR would protect this time, but alas I must defend it each year. There are some teachers that think it is a waste of time and try to make up tests, make students complete missed homework or just continue class time during these precious moments.
In a faculty meeting before school started we were all given a moment to talk about how our subject area changed this year and how we were addressing the new standards. I took that opportunity to share a few facts about why SSR is important. I also sent out an email with a list of ways SSR benefits students. You can see some of the things I shared here.
After the success of the all boy book club, the principal and one of our ELA teacher leaders wanted to implement something similar for each grade in the classrooms. The boys that came to me showed large gains in benchmark testing for reading after coming to me all year and reading together. This year the teachers are surveying the students and organizing a male and female group that will go to a classroom for a read aloud each day during SSR. Our hopes is that this time will target those that we suspect might just be staring at the page instead of reading. I know read alouds work so I'm looking forward to seeing how this program benefits our students.
To kick start the program the teachers will be using books that I already have on Playaway so that they can connect it to the SmartBoard speakers. From my collection we selected three or four choices for each grade. I put together a playlist of the book or movie trailers to the books so that students could vote on the book they wanted to hear first.
Does your school have SSR? Are you involved with SSR implementation?
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Getting the Library Gussied Up
If you're not fortunate enough to live in the South you may not know what it means to "get gussied up". Basically it means to clean up and make yourself pretty. I've been busy getting the library ready for school just like many of you.
I'm always impressed with Mr. Schu's library decorations and appreciate him sharing pictures so I thought it would be worth sharing what I have on display in my library this year.
On my board in the hallway I have the beautiful "50 States of Middle Grade Lit" created by Monique and several book related eCards from Pinterest.
In the library I have a poster size print out of Jennifer LaGarde's Declaration of Students' Rights to School Libraries and My Reading Life poster. This poster is a great way to showcase all the types of reading I do and start conversations with my students.
On the bulletin boards in my library I have three other posters created by Monique: Newberry Buzz, ALA Youth Media Awards and our state Junior Book Award Nominees.
Monique, Kristen and I are working on our middle grade literature trend posters. This is our post from last year. We'll share when the new ones are ready.
I have Loo reviews of our Junior Book Award nominees ready to hang in the bathrooms.
And I have SC JBA fliers in the mousepads. You can find picture mousepads on Amazon and put whatever you want in them.
I'm really excited about my new "How many books have you read?" board inspired by Jillian Heise. I've read 7 novels in the two weeks we've been back and I've already had lots of conversations with students about the board.
I'm working on getting a #bookshelfie from each of my library helpers and I'm going to put them on display soon. Here's mine.
I've had first visits with my 7th and 8th graders. They know the library policies so we go straight to book talks and book trailers. Here is the playlist of trailers I put together. I varied which trailers we watched each class so that the teachers and I wouldn't get bored. The favorites were 52 Reasons to Hate My Father and The Fifth Wave.
What new bulletin boards and posters do you have on display?
I'm always impressed with Mr. Schu's library decorations and appreciate him sharing pictures so I thought it would be worth sharing what I have on display in my library this year.
On my board in the hallway I have the beautiful "50 States of Middle Grade Lit" created by Monique and several book related eCards from Pinterest.
In the library I have a poster size print out of Jennifer LaGarde's Declaration of Students' Rights to School Libraries and My Reading Life poster. This poster is a great way to showcase all the types of reading I do and start conversations with my students.
On the bulletin boards in my library I have three other posters created by Monique: Newberry Buzz, ALA Youth Media Awards and our state Junior Book Award Nominees.
Monique, Kristen and I are working on our middle grade literature trend posters. This is our post from last year. We'll share when the new ones are ready.
I have Loo reviews of our Junior Book Award nominees ready to hang in the bathrooms.
And I have SC JBA fliers in the mousepads. You can find picture mousepads on Amazon and put whatever you want in them.
I'm really excited about my new "How many books have you read?" board inspired by Jillian Heise. I've read 7 novels in the two weeks we've been back and I've already had lots of conversations with students about the board.
I'm working on getting a #bookshelfie from each of my library helpers and I'm going to put them on display soon. Here's mine.
I've had first visits with my 7th and 8th graders. They know the library policies so we go straight to book talks and book trailers. Here is the playlist of trailers I put together. I varied which trailers we watched each class so that the teachers and I wouldn't get bored. The favorites were 52 Reasons to Hate My Father and The Fifth Wave.
What new bulletin boards and posters do you have on display?
Saturday, July 20, 2013
50 States of Middle Grade Lit
You may remember the spectacular map created by Epic Reads showing the United States of YA. Inspired by their map I asked my middle grade lit readers to recommend titles for each state that would be appropriate for middle school. Here is the original post.
Several people gave suggestions and every state was quickly represented.
The fabulous Monique German has put the map together and it is so beautiful. Please go to her blog and check it out.
I know that I'll be printing this in poster size and hanging it up in my library. Will you?
Thanks to all of those that contributed titles and a special shout out to Monique for her hard work creating the map. I love it.
And I love the first two lines of her blog post:)
Several people gave suggestions and every state was quickly represented.
The fabulous Monique German has put the map together and it is so beautiful. Please go to her blog and check it out.
I know that I'll be printing this in poster size and hanging it up in my library. Will you?
Thanks to all of those that contributed titles and a special shout out to Monique for her hard work creating the map. I love it.
And I love the first two lines of her blog post:)
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Upstate Technology Conference 2013
This week I presented at one of my favorite conferences, the Upstate Technology Conference, organized by Greenville County School District.
With such a young baby at home I could not commit to being there all day both days but I did present two sessions each day.
The first day I was excited to present with my favorite special education teacher, Candace. She teaches the profoundly mentally disabled students in our district. We work together very well and collaborate often. After a conversation about how few technology sessions there are for special ed I convinced her to present some of our projects. She is a genius at adapting lessons and tech tools for her students. We had a fun time presenting together and had lots to talk about with the teachers that came to our sessions.
The second day I shared ways that I've utilized infographics with our students. The sessions were well attended and I was able to chat with a few of the book boot camp participants. We even had a mini Twitter lesson between sessions. Thanks Keri, Carmen and Kathy for introducing yourselves and talking with me.
I missed being able to talk to my friends at lunch and missing out on sessions, but I was happy that I was able to still participate this year. Even if it was for a shorter time.
Now I'm looking forward to the first ever Edcamp SC and the Edtech conference this fall.
With such a young baby at home I could not commit to being there all day both days but I did present two sessions each day.
The first day I was excited to present with my favorite special education teacher, Candace. She teaches the profoundly mentally disabled students in our district. We work together very well and collaborate often. After a conversation about how few technology sessions there are for special ed I convinced her to present some of our projects. She is a genius at adapting lessons and tech tools for her students. We had a fun time presenting together and had lots to talk about with the teachers that came to our sessions.
The second day I shared ways that I've utilized infographics with our students. The sessions were well attended and I was able to chat with a few of the book boot camp participants. We even had a mini Twitter lesson between sessions. Thanks Keri, Carmen and Kathy for introducing yourselves and talking with me.
I missed being able to talk to my friends at lunch and missing out on sessions, but I was happy that I was able to still participate this year. Even if it was for a shorter time.
Now I'm looking forward to the first ever Edcamp SC and the Edtech conference this fall.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Happy Trails to Tennessee
I was honored to be asked to present at the Tennessee Association of School Librarian's summer conference.
The two presentations I shared are Learn to Love Nonfiction and PD With a Twist.
Pd with a twist from bibliogerman
You can see Monique's presentations on her blog.
The three of us presented the keynote: The Care and Feeding of Your Administrators.
After our research, we decided to focus on these four rules: recognize what we have in common, communicate and build strong relationships, seek out principal's concerns and find out how to help, and let go of misconceptions and stereotypes.
We shared our efforts to find common ground with our principals and communicate to build that relationship. Try to keep communication positive, share what's happening in the library and be aware of nonverbal communication like dress, signs, and body language.
The portion of the presentation that I shared was to seek out principal's concerns and find out how to involve the library program. If you don't know what your principal's priorities are, find out and then determine how the library program can help meet those goals. Even if they are not obviously connected try to find common ground. For example, my principal focuses on reaching our students in poverty so I've done reading and research on the topic and I have library policies and programs that serve those students. For many principals the Common Core standards are a priority so we discussed some of our strategies for helping our schools and districts prepare for the new standards. No matter what the issue, there are ways that the library can be involved in the mission of the school.
We shared the results of our administrator survey and the top five priorities of administrators. We asked the librarians to think about where they spend most of the time and energy compared to what the administrators value. Do you spend most of your time checking in, organizing and purchasing books? Notice that none of those tasks are on the top five list. Of course, it is part of our job, but we need to be sure we spend effort and energy where it will be noticed.
We really wanted to emphasize that librarians have to be leaders in their school. Be bold and don't wait on them to ask. Step up and volunteer. We hope that we inspired them to think about how they can work on that relationship next year.
If you want to read even more about working with administrators please read this post from Doug Johnson.
We had a great time meeting the Tennessee librarians. Big thanks to Karen for inviting us and all of the TASL members that made our visit run so smoothly.
You can see Monique's presentations on her blog.
The three of us presented the keynote: The Care and Feeding of Your Administrators.
After our research, we decided to focus on these four rules: recognize what we have in common, communicate and build strong relationships, seek out principal's concerns and find out how to help, and let go of misconceptions and stereotypes.
We shared our efforts to find common ground with our principals and communicate to build that relationship. Try to keep communication positive, share what's happening in the library and be aware of nonverbal communication like dress, signs, and body language.
The portion of the presentation that I shared was to seek out principal's concerns and find out how to involve the library program. If you don't know what your principal's priorities are, find out and then determine how the library program can help meet those goals. Even if they are not obviously connected try to find common ground. For example, my principal focuses on reaching our students in poverty so I've done reading and research on the topic and I have library policies and programs that serve those students. For many principals the Common Core standards are a priority so we discussed some of our strategies for helping our schools and districts prepare for the new standards. No matter what the issue, there are ways that the library can be involved in the mission of the school.
We shared the results of our administrator survey and the top five priorities of administrators. We asked the librarians to think about where they spend most of the time and energy compared to what the administrators value. Do you spend most of your time checking in, organizing and purchasing books? Notice that none of those tasks are on the top five list. Of course, it is part of our job, but we need to be sure we spend effort and energy where it will be noticed.
We really wanted to emphasize that librarians have to be leaders in their school. Be bold and don't wait on them to ask. Step up and volunteer. We hope that we inspired them to think about how they can work on that relationship next year.
If you want to read even more about working with administrators please read this post from Doug Johnson.
We had a great time meeting the Tennessee librarians. Big thanks to Karen for inviting us and all of the TASL members that made our visit run so smoothly.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
My Fav Graphic Novels for Book Boot Camp
My reading has been mainly focused on graphic novels to prepare for our first Twitter chat and Book Boot Camp challenge in July. There are so many graphic novels for boot campers to chose from that I thought it might be helpful if I shared a list of my favorites (so far).
To see the three lists for July's graphic novel challenge visit our Book Boot Camp wiki.
I have to say that you can't go wrong with any of the choices from this Top 10 List from School Library Journal, but my top three choices would have to be:
Drama by Raina Telgemeier (You must buy and read Smile and if you were a fan of The Babysitter's club like me then you have to check out her graphic novel versions)
Cardboard by Doug TenNapel (be sure to read his other books Bad Island and Ghostopolis)
Giants Beware by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre. It was the May selection for the SharpSchu book club.
I recommend that you consider purchasing books from both the 6-8 and 3-5 categories on this core collection list.
A few favorites of mine from the 3-5 list are: Babymouse, Bake Sale, Explorer: The Mystery Boxes, Lunch Lady Series, Sidekicks and Zita the Space Girl. You should also purchase the Amulet series if you don't have it already. You may feel these are too young for middle school, but my boys and special education students LOVE them.
My top picks on the 6-8 list for purchase and reading are:
(Friends With Boys and Coraline are similar to Anya's Ghost)
A few new graphic novels I'm excited about:
Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe
Primates by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks. Jane Goodall is my hero so I can't wait to read this!
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks
If you want to see all the books I read for this challenge be my friend on Goodreads and look at my Book Boot Camp lists. I hope these suggestions help you decide which books you would like to read for our July challenge.
If you have read a graphic novel and would like to write a review for our blog, please leave a comment with your contact info. We would love to hear from you!
Monday, May 6, 2013
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 5/6/13
I've been trying to read as many graphic novels as I can to prepare for our upcoming Book Coot Camp. The titles that I've finished in the last few days are: Foiled by Jane Yolen, Hereville by Barry Deutsch, Little White Duck by Na Liu, The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, Big Bad Ironclad by Nathan Hale and my favorite, Giants Beware by Jorge Aguirre.
I'm looking forward to joining in the Sharp Schu Book Club discussion of this title in May. Read all about it here.
I've got lots more graphic novels in a stack by my chair so I hope to continue to read those and pick my favorites for the Book Boot Camp short list. We would love for you to enlist and join us. Teacher, librarian, parent, high school, middle school, elementary school, anyone!
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