No Shhing Here

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...