Getting to know our students is possibly the most important part of our job. How can we recommend books to our kids if we don't know what they like, so I created a reading interest survey.
Interest Survey
Blog
Musings on School Library Design
Library: Otto Middle School Population: 1200 students Library design seems like it would be a fun thing to do given enough time and money. We read an article in which a librarian is working on a library redesign (Foote, 2019). To gather data and ideas, her Library Advisory Committee visited other libraries with a rubric … Continue reading Musings on School Library Design
Curation Tools for Teachers
What is Curation? I read in an article here and it mentioned curation vs. just dumping. That really struck me. Curation implies careful thought. What tools are good for curating, not just dumping? It is not just thought, but connections (Valenza, 2017). When you curate information you analyze the information, synthesize and categorize it. "When … Continue reading Curation Tools for Teachers
Interview: Professional Goals
Promote Literacy I can promote literacy through book talks, book displays, and book fairs. I would like to create student driven book clubs. I would like to write a grant each year to build a book club collection. Students can help me choose books for this book club collection. Students will meet periodically in small groups to discuss the books they read. I would like to have authors visit the school. Collaboration
Shifting Non-Fiction!
WOW! Today Karen Harmon and I shifted the ENTIRE non-fiction section. That is about 20,000 books that we moved about 1 row over. We did that to make room for the ever growing graphic novel section. Yeah for graphic novels! It also gave us the opportunity for reorganizing some of the shelves. Some of them were split in strange places. I also suggested that for shelves that held high interest topic, we add labels for easy perusing.
School Library Design Assignment Discussion
Which of the 6 active learning spaces does the library have? Large group area for presentations/ Community Area (we will have an author visit next year which will be held in the Cafeteria because there is a stage with sound and etc. Technology area of 10 computers (desktop) Quiet areas- at the end of many rows of books we have a single seat for students to sit and read a book. Makerspaces- Not a designated area really. We have 1 week per 9 weeks in which Makerspaces take over the whole library. (keeps it fresh and exciting) Small group areas- we have 20 square tables that can be moved around into groups for projects and discussion.
Reflections on Research in Academic Journals
What is the process for selecting and publishing manuscripts for each journal? School Library Research: The editorial board members (15 members) review the articles and consult on the policies and guidelines for the review process. One of these members is UNT’s very own Dr. Smith! Evidence Based Library and Information Practice: This journal is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. The purpose of this journal is for an open discussion, so members can sign in and comment on the articles within. They publish original research and literature reviews. EBLIP has 8 board members, 5 editorial advisors, a communications officer, an indexing support person, 11 copyeditors, an evidence summary team, writing assistance team, and dozens of peer reviewers. This journal appears much larger. This journal editorial team includes people not just in the US but from around the world, including Canada, Czech Republic, and the UK.
Summer School Library Time!
Yesterday and Today I had the privilege of working at the Plano West Senior High Library again. These were summer school classes which is interesting to see at the high school level. One of the highlights was speaking to a former student at my school.
Elementary School
I went to Barron Elementary today to earn some more mentor hours. I really enjoyed my time there. It was hard work but very helpful. I really liked working with the librarian here, Ellen Peralta. She has a teacher-ness about her. You can really tell she loves teaching. She made me feel relaxed. I was nervous about covering the book with a Mylar cover.
Student Achievement Plan Assignment
The Google Doc for this assignment is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sftx6UKL-FtJvXJEyhuqEHt4D2BUoC2kqiu0Tj7P6kk/edit The website I created as a teacher resource is here: https://sites.google.com/view/positive-persuasion-inquiry/home?authuser=0 Here is the narrative portion of this assignment. For the remainder of the tables and such please open the Google Doc linked above. Narrative: This Middle School earned 5 Distinction Designations for 2018-2019. (Reading, Science, … Continue reading Student Achievement Plan Assignment
Book Wyrm Pages 