Read Across America

Read Across America is coming up, and like many librarians, I am working on programming.

If you are new to my blog- a little background about my school.

I am a middle school librarian for a campus that is a hybrid model.  We have grades 6th-8th, about 900 students, one-to-one devices, and about 400 on-campus face to face.  

Next week is not only Read Across America- but it is also North Texas Teen Book Festival which is a FREE event that is virtual.  So, what better way to celebrate Read Across America than adding in North Texas Teen Book Festival.

Each day we have a different hashtag and prompt. I will be posting this on our Library Canvas page with a link for students to fill out a Google Form.  Do you want your own copy-click this link and this will force copy

Currently, on Mondays and Fridays, I already have time on Zoom from 8am-8:15am where I read.  Mondays-we are reading a book and Fridays I do #FirstChapterFridays My First Chapter Fridays are currently books that are on the North Texas Teen Book Festival Link.  This has been a plus of being hybrid and using Zoom.  Often times I would only see ELAR classes, but with Zoom- ALL classes are able to hop on.  I am working with my amazing DEAN April Richmond who always helps me with my ideas. 

Next week we will be sharing a book each morning via Zoom from 8:00am-8:15am.  I send calendar invites to teachers, but students also have the ability to login on their own (we have 2 people monitoring students as they come in)  The book and information also get posted into the Library Canvas classroom daily. Despite what middle schoolers think- they do love a picture book (and picture books are AMAZING!)

The thing I am MOST excited about sharing is- Read Across America-North Texas Teen Book Festival. Jillian Heise posted this AMAZING blog about actually Reading Across America.   Although this is amazing, I needed something more middle school.  With the help of Donald Cummings and Hope Krum we created a Read Across America with the stories from the places that happen in the books from authors with the North Texas Teen Book Festival. 

Each book that is shared is linked to information from Teachingbooks.net  We also linked to the panel that that author will be presenting.  This will be a changing document (thank goodness for Google!)

You can find the presentation here (know that we are still adding to it) Thank you Jillian for the GREAT idea!

What are you doing for Read Across America? Are you marking your calendar for North Texas Teen Book Festival? 

Want a copy of my March calendar- click this link and it will force a copy

CANVAS and the Library

During the summer our district moved from Google Classroom to CANVAS for our course management system.
Background on my district
-3 early childhood schools
-20 elementary schools (k-5)
-8 middle schools (6-8)
-5 high schools (9-12)
We have over 33000 students. 
Lower-grade levels use Seesaw with CANVAS usage beginning in 2nd or 3rd grade. 
I am a middle school librarian and our school is in a hybrid model right now as students have the opportunity to be in person or virtual and can change that every six weeks. 

My Top 3 Favorite things about using CANVAS:

1- It keeps all of my information in one place (and I love that I can pull data from that- I love having data to share with my admin and also my patrons) I do still update our website as well

2- I can post passwords because it is protected

3- I feel like I am reaching more students, and I think some students feel more comfortable asking questions through email than face to face (middle schoolers) I also love that I can set up announcements- more information on that below.

There are so many ways to use CANVAS- how I do it is just one.  I have one CANVAS course for the school and added all of our students to the class.

Landing Page- I used my Bitmoji/Canva/Picmonkey to make the buttons- but there are so many free ones that are available. Each button either leads to our Lamar Library Website, a different website, or a Google Slide with interactive links.

First Row

Each of these buttons leads to a specific Google slide that gives more information on our different resources.  The Lamar Library button leads to our library page.

For the Google Slides- I published them to the web so students can click on the different links (much like Google classroom)

-although I get data information on how much students are interacting with CANVAS, I did change all my links to bit.ly so I can see how often they were actually clicked.

This is what one of the Google slides looks like- what you can't see is at the bottom of each of these I have the passwords listed or how to login to them. Although.. many of our items are now in Classlink which I LOVE! One less step for signing in!

Second Row

This row has links to my different activities that I do. 
Literary Lions
Every Monday I have Literary Lions- where I am reading a book that students chose- I think that I am going to change this up a bit. It is from 8am-8:15am every Monday morning.  Remote students can log in, but I also send calendar invites to teachers so they can join as a class while students are eating breakfast.

Monthly Calendar

I started creating these in October using Canva, but I realized it was so much easier through Google Slides (and easier to copy and paste) I get the ideas for dates from BrownieLocks and link back to our databases for students to access. 
-Another reason I love CANVAS- is I can schedule announcements. So, although this is a button for students to click on, I also make it a daily announcement and set it for 8:15am when school begins (and encourage my teachers to have students interact with my page.  

-Want a copy of the March calendar? Click on this link and it will copy the Google Slide (there are no links- you will have to add your own.

First Chapter Friday

Every Friday from 8am-8:15am I have a First Chapter Friday. Much like Literary Lions on Monday I invite students and classrooms to join in (and I love that I have Band and Science joining me too!)

I cam currently doing a First Chapter from authors that will be at the North Texas Teen Book Festival (which is FREE and VIRTUAL this year!!) Each book is also linked back to our system so a student can place it on hold.

Third Row

This is just a spot where students can learn more about me and check out our Library social media.

I also a FlipGrid where I post a #BookTalkTuesday every Tuesday (I do this through TikTok as well) and a #WAYRWednesday (What are you Reading Wednesday) every week.  This way students can go back and look at book talks.  The Events button leads to a Google Slide that has all the monthly challenges and events that are happening or I am hosting.

Overall

In reality- database usage, book check out, and digital book usage has declined.  Not everyone participates in my different activities.. but I feel successful if even one person does because that student probably needed it.  Students, teachers, and librarians are learning how to navigate during this crazy time.  

BUT-I have also noticed an increase in databases since I started posting the daily announcements and engagement with the page has also increased.

I am always looking for ways to grow and reach ALL of my students, teachers, and community. I like having the CANVAS data and the bit.ly data to show what students are interacting with. I also like that I can still have a "safe" space in CANVAS. One of my favorite things about being a librarian is being able to have a space and different opportunities for students.  

How do you use CANVAS for your library?

Each Six Weeks

I take a look at my data every six weeks and create a Piktochart to share with admin and patrons as to what has been going on in the library.  Much like everyone- we are shifting/growing/changing.. and not everything works.

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