No Shhing Here

So, in an earlier post, I lamented a mental block we faced when creating a new mission statement. I'm totally over that now, and four months later, I'm happy to report that we've crafted one that meets our requirements: it must be SHORT and it must in the spirit of a Learning Commons.  Here's our finished product after some additional tweaking and adjustment: Learners engaged in authentic experiences inquire, analyze, and create through shared learning to produce and communicate new knowledge. I have to give credit to Allison Zmuda for excellent guidance in creating this statement. As part of a Learning Commons series of workshops held by our local BOCES School Library System , we got to spend two days with her brainstorming and thinking about the Learning Commons model of school libraries.  Allison challenged us to create a mission statement with the following characteristics: Succinct Memorable Measurable Gives leverage to make substantive change What do...

We're incredibly lucky to have an amazing library secretary. Besides the fact that she's super intelligent, very self-directed, technology savvy, and fun, she's also CREATIVE. This is a fabulous combination for our library needs. My teaching schedule doesn't leave a lot of time for setting up displays and bulletin boards. Luckily, our secretary loves doing this. She goes out of her way to create visually interesting, diverse, and appropriate displays that change monthly. Without further ado, here's how the library's looking this month. Below: The circulation desk is decked out in conversation hearts. Students wrote their favorite book on heart cut-outs, which we plastered around the library. The books on display required very little thinking -- they're just the ones with pink and red covers - easy is never a bad thing! :) Below: More of the Valentine's Day display. This is "Sweethearts of Literature" -- match the famous couple to the cor...