No Shhing Here

Like many schools, my district encourages us to let parents know when students are doing a great job. As a junior high librarian, it can be difficult to make these connections with parents - in the past, I haven't had reasons to call home with good OR bad news. I see students in short, two week chunks of time as they complete projects, and then when they're done with their projects, I have only casual, informal interactions with them. I'm not assigning grades, and they don't stick around long enough in the classroom to become discipline problems, so bad news phone calls to parents are never a necessity. I would, though, like to make an effort to let parents know when their child does something fantastic, even if I only get to know that student during a two-week project.  Although I haven't made an effort to do so in the past, it's great publicity for the library and way to build a base of parent advocates. I just needed a way to share the good news with pare...

My apologies for the lack of posts for the last month and half! I've been busy with this pregnancy thing, and not had much time to blog. Now that I'm full term, it's just a lot of waiting around for something to happen.  In the meantime, I've left my library in the hands of a long-term sub (it's a lot harder to let go than I thought!). Once the baby's born, I plan to take 12 weeks of maternity leave, which should put me back in action sometimes toward the end of February.  Until then, I'll try to squeeze in a few posts and some great project updates, but hang tight as the blogging decreases while I start this new adventure.  Enjoy your what's left of your short week and Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't know about you guys, but orientation is one my least favorite times of the year. I love meeting all the new kids, but I hate repeating the same thing over and over and over. With 5 eighth grade teachers, I do the same exact presentation almost 30 times each fall. Orientation requires a lot of talking - I have to convey loads of information, so even though I try to mix in other activities to keep everyone interested and intersperse some hands-on learning, I'm still exhausted by the end of the day. So, two years ago, I smartened up. My goal was to create a library orientation activity that didn't result in permanent laryngitis. I had a class set of iPods at my disposal, so I developed a library iPod tour. Using my iPhone and iMovie, I recorded 1-2 minute clips about each section of the library. Students move from station to station around the library. At each station, they watch the corresponding video on the iPod about that zone. After viewing the iPod video...

We seem to have an unusually high number of visually impaired students this year, so we've been working hard to help the classroom teachers meet their accommodations. Every 8th grader, including those with low-vision, needs to choose one of ten dystopian novels for an upcoming English project. The novels are all titles published in the last year or two, and I can't find enough ILL large-print versions to meet demand. So, to solve the problem, I've been buying digital versions of the books and putting them on our Kindles. The kids can change the text size on the Kindle, allowing them to view the page at whatever size is best for their eyes. Alone, this solution would be adequate, but this week Amazon released a fantastic tool called Whispersync for Voice. This awesome improvement allows me to start reading the Kindle version of the book and then pick up where I left off in the audio version of the book on a different (or same) device. That means I can stop reading at the ...

It's September, so I'm back at my computer with the old to-do list posted in front of me. How is my desk already this messy on the fourth day of school? Like most teachers, it's a little bit of a struggle to get back in the saddle after a couple months of vacation. This year, as an added bonus, I'm seven months pregnant, so everything I do seems to take just a tiny bit more effort than normal. Teaching requires physical endurance - I always forget how much energy I need to "perform" all day long. I always sound like a croaking, gasping frog the first few days until my voice and breath readjust to the routine. Here are my tips for getting back in the groove after summer vacation: * Don't wait until the night before school starts to re-do your routine. I find it a lot less stressful to ease into an earlier bedtime/wake-up schedule. If I've gotten up at 6:30 AM the last few days, I'm sleepier at a more "normal" time, and the shock ...

One more week and then it's back to school in New York State. I'm sitting in the lobby of my junior high pushing agendas and sketch pads from the school store during 8th Grade Orientation, so it's the perfect time to blog about setting the tone for a new year.   What is tone? It's the mood, attitude and atmosphere of a place and program. When it comes to the tone of my library, here's what I'm trying to convey: Inclusiveness - the library is a place for everyone. We're a safe, comforting, welcoming and accepting environment.  Creativity - this is a creative environment where you can explore and develop projects and ideas. Respect - I expect respect to go both ways in the library.  Information hub - it's one stop shopping for books, magazines, Internet resources, etc. If you're a student or teacher have questions, we've got answers. Academic success - to be a successful student or teacher you need the library and it's resources. ...

Who doesn't love summer vacation? It means my mornings can start like this: And my afternoons can look like this: Summer vacation is essential for fostering healthy, happy teachers. It's a much needed opportunity to relax, recharge, and reevaluate. Some of my best ideas are generated over summer vacation when my brain has a chance to truly wonder - and I actually have time to follow those tangents. Summer vacation also is a perfect opportunity for Professional Development. I co-hosted a fantastic workshop yesterday presented by the YA nonfiction author Marc Aronson and library system director Sue Bartle. It was an awesome immersion into the Common Core and informational texts. Can't wait to share all of their great insight and ideas with you! If you're on summer vacation, I hope you're enjoying it!

The end of the year means circulation statistics. Image from here. This time around, I've delved deeper into specifics, and I think I know a lot more about my user population and their reading habits. This week I learned the following: Ninth grade boys don't very read much. I didn't realize that their circulation numbers were so abysmal compared to everyone else until I broke it down this spring. I **think** it's because most of my 9th grader ELA teachers don't require classroom novels, and fifteen year old boys just aren't that anxious to read for fun. 8th graders and 9th graders read very different things. Books popular at the 8th level don't even break into the top ten at the 9th grade level. This could be because 8th graders are exploring titles that weren't available in the middle school library, while most 9th graders read these books the previous year. Blockbusters, like Hunger Games , are popular with EVERYONE. New books aren't al...

Better late than never, right? For May, our book displays celebrated National Bike Month. If your school sponsors a "bike to school" day, this kind of showcase is a great way to promote it. Because I was late taking photos this month, certain parts of our display are looking a little weary. Not everything we come up with is a home run - check out our sad "bike tires" - repurposed trufella tree trunks. Though, the bike was a hit - kids loved ringing the bell on the handle bars. Eventually we scraped the "tires" and just moved the signs to the columns on either side of the desk. We used tricycles and scooter type toys on the display shelves, along with Fourth of July table decorations. We used the theme to display books that in some way deal with wheels, including NASCAR, skateboarding, and cards. We REALLY wanted to include a couple of stationary bikes, so kids could pedal as they read, but we couldn't find any, so we scrapped that id...

Over the weekend, I presented at the 2012 NYLA/SSL conference . It's New York's state level school librarian conference. I got to listen to some great speakers, including Joyce Valenza and David Wiesner. I presented with my librarian co-worker (and neighbor), Leslie, on using apps for instructional purposes - our workshop title was App-ealing Instructional Practices - aren't we creative? :) At the presentation, we handed out bookmarks featuring the apps we used. Here's Leslie's suggestions for elementary apps:  And here are my suggestions for secondary apps. If you follow my blog, many of these probably sound familiar.  I've covered Doodle Buddy, Index Card and Book Creator in this post , Explain Everything in this post , SimpleMind+ for note taking , and Evernote as part of our listening skills unit . Also, I did a guest post for the SLJ blog Touch and Go . I talk about applications for many of the above apps - check it out here. Do you have a ...

Are you sick of hearing about note taking yet? If so, you're not alone - our students are right there with you. We've finally wrapped up our study skills unit, and had the kids take a survey to assess the experience. We needed to know what was successful and what was unsuccessful. So we asked. When you ask a 9th grader to list the ways in which you bombed as a teacher, be prepared, 'cause they aren't afraid to tell you exactly what they think. Here are a few of my favorite gems from their survey: "The entire system of SimpleMind [a concept mapping app] was, in my opinion, superfluous at best, and a waste of technological resources and time." "...Grading the cornell notes on a RUBRIC is RIDICULOUS...I found that totally ridiculous, stupid, and unnecessary. like seriously, who grades notes?" "Most students simply don't like doing the extra work that goes into study skills, so even though you taught us the information we will probably...

During the school year, I've chronicles my efforts to teach study skills to 150 AP World History students. At some points, note taking was kind of like eating brussel sprouts , and but we improved from there . This week, we switched gears a little bit to talk about listening skills. Specifically, we focused on 8 habits of bad listeners and how to ID the important stuff in a lecture. Bad habits we covered included:   We also talked about signal words - cues and clues that help the listener understand where they are in a lecture. Following my 20 minute mini-lesson, the teacher delivered a lecture on Chinese dynasties. This was the FIRST TIME most students had ever taken notes purely from listening, without the help of a cloze or fill-in-the-blank activity (What's up with getting to April of your 9th grade year without taking lecture notes?!? Why did we phase that out - it's such a great critical thinking/listening activity?!?). To help s...

At the junior high we're loving an iPad app called Explain Everything . It's $2.99 for a single copy, and the price drops to $1.49 when you buy 20 copies or more. Explain Everything allows students to create a narrated slide show. In addition to recording the student's voice, the app also records any action that happens on the iPad screen. So, for example, if a student draws an arrow while they're narrating, the app records the arrow being drawn. A 9th grade global studies class recently used Explain Everything to create vocabulary projects for 6th graders. Their format was pretty basic, and I think it translates well enough to work with vocabulary words in any subject area: Slide 1: Provide a visual image of the vocabulary word, and ask the 6th grader to predict the word's meaning Slide 2: Provide a definition of the vocabulary word Slide 3: Explain a simile comparing the vocabulary word to a more familiar object or idea Slide 4: Ask the 6th graders to wr...

I'm always looking for little activities - AKA "bellringers" - to kick off a class period -- something for the kids to do while they wait for their classmates to log on, papers to be handed out, etc. Bellringers help ease the transition from the hallways to instructional time.  The best bellringers: Require little or no instruction Have directions that can be posted on the SmartBoard Are engaging (a game, competitive challenge, relevant to teens, etc) Reinforce information literacy skills (DUH!) Recently, Google provided the EXACT thing to fit the bill. It's called " A Google a Day. " Thanks, Geek Dad , for introducing it to me (I'm neither male, nor a parent, but I still dig the blog). Google provides a daily question, and challenges users to find the answer. Users playing along search via a special interface that filters out results designed to specifically answer the Google-A-Day question. Google says, "to keep the game interesting for ever...

 April displays are up! Once again Deb, our fabulous secretary, has taken creativity to new heights. This month's theme is The Library: Your Shelter from the Storm .We thought it was appropriate because, for many students, the library provides a refuge from all different kinds of storms, like bullying, overcrowded cafeterias, and bad days. Above: The main circulation desk We have no concerns about open umbrellas bringing bad luck, so we suspended them from the ceiling and hung rain drops stitched together along with 3D clouds - both inspired by Pintrest .  Open umbrellas and stitched paper raindrop chains  Here's another shot that shows off the open umbrellas from afar.  A different view of the umbrellas. And here's our nod to School Library Week. I know it's not much, but the sign's on the circulation desk where every kid can see it, so hopefully it makes a little impact. What are you April displays like?

We're in creation mode and gearing up to switch out our Read Across America hoopla with our April displays.This month's theme is "Rainy Days are for Reading." (Imagine the image below rotated 90 degrees - darn Blogger!)  We're loving our Pintrest inspiration images, so here's the one that got our creative juices flowing:   Image via Pintrest from Etsy This one also sparked a few ideas: Image from Pintrest Here's a peak at some of the things that are piling-up in our back room. Our main display involves many, many, colorful umbrellas. Obviously we don't buy into the idea that opening an umbrella indoors brings bad luck -- but we'll let you know in May if we see an uptick in uncooperative studyhall visitors. :) An up close look at some of the separate elements. The clouds are multiple layers folded and stitched together on a sewing machine. Raindrop chains were also made by stitching paper cutouts together with a machine. The...

For the last couple of years, we've been using a PowerPoint Facebook page as a final product for a research unit. When we used the template last year, my students were quick to point out that the template was "old school" - Facebook has made major tweaks to the layout and design of its site, which weren't reflected in this version. This year, I finally got around to updating the template to reflect Facebook's current look. Click here to download the  new template for PowerPoint 2010 . No, it doesn't have the timeline interface (I'm not using it yet on my own personal Facebook page, so I don't feel comfortable enough trying to recreate it), but otherwise it reflects many of the recent design changes. It is hyperlinked, so when you're in "View Show" mode, you can click on "Wall," "Info," and "Pictures," and go directly to those parts of the PowerPoint - making it behaving like a traditional Facebook page. ...

I just hosted my first ever Poetry Celebration in the library. I can't claim any credit for it - it was totally the brainchild of a fabulous English teacher I work with. Her 8th grade classes just completed their poetry unit - they learned about different styles, different literary devices, completed a poetry scavenger hunt, and wrote four poems. To celebrate the conclusion of the unit, she decided to hold a poetry event. Here's what we learned to make it go smoothly: Close the library. Kids are shy enough as it about getting up in front of their peers. An extra audience of 20 noisy, distracting study hall students doesn't improve their self esteem or willingness to participate.  Review proper etiquette before the event begins. The teacher reminded the students to be respectful of their peers, and also taught them to snap when they liked something the poet was saying or at the end of the poem instead of applauding. Serve snacks. It helps the event feel more festive a...

Some of the best ideas for our book displays come from non-library sources. This month was no exception. Image from here. The inspiration? J. Crew's current window featuring accordion pleated circles. I'm digging it 'cause it's festive and special, but it's not overly sicky-sweet and cutesy. Here's our interpretation of the display:  It was a great way to use up back issues of magazines, and we had an assembly line going with study hall kids. There's a small frame on the right side of the desk (made out of rolled up magazines) with a sign that reads: Books We <3. The books we picked were just ones with pink and red covers. Here's another view: For our secondary display I found inspiration on Pintres t. I've been meaning to make paper garlands like these for my Christmas tree. Pin from this Etsy store. Here's how my version looks: It was an easy project to cut out a bunch of paper hearts and then stitch them together with my sew...

Our January library displays are up. Our "Healthy Apps" Display for the month of January In our school, January is Wellness Month. To celebrate, the library hosts WiiFit Fridays, where students can play WiiSports or Just Dance! during study hall and lunch. (If you squint, you can just make out the Wii action in the background of the above photo.) (Imagine this is rotated 90 degrees) Fooducate pillar in the library.  In addition to our Wii activities, we have a display on Healthy Apps.   Fooducate , a fantastic app that helps you make healthier food choices, is totally worth checking out if you're unfamiliar with it. Above: Our "grocery store" in the library. We installed the app on our library iPads and iPods, and students used it to scan barcodes on all kinds of different food. We definitely feel like we're running a grocery store with all these items on our shelves! The app gives each food a letter grade and provides suggestions for he...

Have you heard about The 2012 Project? The Teen Librarian's Toolbox is spearheading this fantastic endeavor.  The goal is to promote the idea that teens LOVE libraries. To demonstrate this visually, TLT is going to collect 2012 photos of teens using libraries. Librarians and teens are asked to tweet their photos to @TLT16 or post them to the TLT Facebook wall.  To reach this goal, TLT needs six photos a day. Get snapping!

For all my problems with the Common Core standards, I'm loving their emphasis on nonfiction. My English teachers weren't originally feeling the romance, but now some of them are ready to flirt with the idea that nonfiction can be fantastic and engaging.  A nonfiction display for the unit Today, for the first time, we had classes in the library for a nonfiction book selection. Because these kids have never picked a nonfiction book "for fun," they needed a little instruction in what to look for. I invented arbitrary nonfiction categories for my collection: reference books, research books, coffee table books, biographies, and literary/narrative nonfiction, and provided examples from each category. The kids were asked to choose books that were either biographies or literary/narrative nonfiction. What nonfiction topics do 14-year-olds gravitate towards? Ghosts Sports stories (think the Blind Side ) Memoirs (esp. drug addiction stories) Nonfiction books def...