#NTTBF19

I have been home for about 3 hours, and my brain has been reeling from attending the North Texas Teen Book Festival (#NTTBF) This was my third one to attend, but my first to take a group of students.

I attended the first one with my friend McKennan.  She had asked if I wanted to go to a book festival that was down the street, so I said sure.. thinking it would only be a couple of hours. We ended up staying the whole day and getting books signed. Before #NTTBF15 I had already been talking to some of my librarian friends about becoming a librarian, but it was just talk and in the back of my mind.  During the session It's The End of the World as We Know It, I was so inspired by several of the authors, but especially Alex London. They talked about how powerful it is to share your work no matter if it is good or bad. That it is important to be rejected, because that it only makes you better.  As I sat there.. I realized how I want to give even more students the opportunities to listen to authors that are writing for them. You can find my blog about #NTTBF15 here.

I volunteered at #NTTBF last year not knowing that my path would soon change and I would get that chance to take students.  I got a late start preparing due to Destination ImagiNation.  But before spring break started.. I had the bus ordered, a list of students.. shirts ordered and was ready!

I met my students at Lamar (many had attended before with the previous amazing librarian!) this morning at 7:45am and we were on our way by 8:15am. We missed the wristbands that were given out (things to rethink about next year) To attend some of the sessions and specific authors, wristbands are required.  Did I mention the whole festival is FREE? It takes a ton of man power from the amazing people that organize it to the 100s of volunteers to make sure it runs smoothly.

Although there were so many panels I wanted to see, I did a TON of picture taking. I had the chance to provide pictures to the Visit Irving Texas Instagram feed. I enjoyed people watching as I saw so many excited readers meeting the authors of the characters and stories they had fallen in love with.

She drug me to the first one and I am so glad that she did!

Had to stop Alex London again and tell him thanks for inspiring me to become a librarian.

I finally got to meet Hope in person! She is doing AMAZING things.. and she used to be the librarian in the Lamar Library!

These ladies were the awesome chaperones with me!

Horizon Imprinting always does a great job for me. Our students looked fabulous (and were easier to spot!)

I did attend one session called Adventure Awaits. The panel was Holly Golberg Sloan, Daniel Older, Lisa McMann, Yoon Ha Lee, Sean Easley, and Soman Chainani. I think my favorite part is where they shared "Easter Eggs" that you might find in their books.  I enjoyed hearing how one of the characters from Sean Easley's book was from a kiddo that he knows that uses a wheelchair.  As librarians we are always looking for windows and mirrors to share, and I can't wait to share that one. I also loved what Holly Sloan said about her character Willow Chance.  Such a deep meaning for a name, and I hope that I am both will and chance for all the things I have done and who I am.

My Top 3 of #NTTB19
1. Having conversations with various students about what books they were reading, why they were in love with the characters and realizing I need to read SO much more!
2. Playing photographer! I know I just had my phone on my camera, but I loved nabbing all the different pictures (and I sort of loved getting some sneaky shots of some amazing authors!)

Signing for Tomi Adeyemi 

Signing lines for Raina Telgemeier and Angie Thomas

3. Taking a group of kids! Oh my goodness, I know it was only 23 students.. but I LOVED that I got to share NTTBF with them.

I can't wait until next year! Did you go to NTTBF? What was your favorite part?

Open House and Spring Break

Spring Break is almost over and I of course did not get as much done as I hoped. I did, however, spent lots of time catching up with friends, taking a trip to see my parents, and READING! It is now the last hours of break which means it is time to cram everything in.

The week before spring break is Texas Public School Week.  This means that it is also Open House.  I have not had a chance to do as many Late Night in the Library as I have wanted, but I was excited to have the library open for the evening. The weekend before I had spent camping with my Girl Scout troop, so I knew I needed something easy with a big impact.

NASA has several ready to print items and I printed several of this one and placed my buckets around the library.  I was super pleased that I had almost 50 people stop by the library, and all but 5 of them stayed for the activity.  (I have a clicker that I use for counting, but I have also started using a click counter app. ALL data is important! Now I know where I can try to increase next year... side note. I have been using the click counter app to help me with my weeding as well!)

Not all the rockets worked, but what I loved about this activity is the parents were actually working with their child (middle school people.. middle school!) Our awesome DLC (Digital Learning Coach Kara Noah) and our amazing VILS Coach (Verizon Innovative Learning Coach Alissa Womack ) had also set up a Flipgrid scavenger hunt which made it more enticing to stop by

I set up 3 different stations with all the materials. These buckets are a life saver! Easy to set up, keep filled and clean up. I was also smart this time and added small trashcans with each one.

Our launching pad to measure how far each one had gone.  

Finished rocket!

Obligatory open house pic. I am sort of in love with the fact my leggings have bees on them and my jacket says Hello Sunshine!

Over spring break I always have a ton of things I want to accomplish, and lets be real a ton that I don't! What I did get accomplished was some reading! Now, I know.. I am a librarian.. I should be reading all the time!! I do read.. I love reading, but I do the majority of my reading during the summer (now when I was in elementary school, my reading was huge.. picture books are just a little shorter than middle school books)  But, I am on a roll right now with some great books! I have finished one and over half way through 3 others.  We have one more day of spring break so I am hoping to get at least 1 more finished!

We have the North Texas Teen Book Festival coming up, and I have about 23 kids going (not as many as I wanted, but a start) If you are in the area.. they are still looking for volunteers.  It is an AMAZING day full of over 70 authors, panel discussions, books and so much more!

The book festival was the perfect jump start I needed to get some amazing books read. I of course love reading, but I need to get better at the book talk.  I got some great ideas from Rhonda Jenkins, Esther Storrie, and Lana Lozure along with all of the other great ideas on the various Facebook librarian groups I created my Book Talks.  I plan to make a slide of each book that I read, but you can look at what I am reading, various genres, and how to connect with me at Busy Bee Book Talks

Now to finish up some lesson plans, prepare for the next Girl Scout meeting, get ready for our end of the year Destination ImagiNation party.. and get ready for North Texas Teen Book Festival! Texas Librarian Association Annual Conference is just around the corner!