Reading Habits

This blog has been milling around my head for awhile... as in several months.  I was not for sure how to put it into words. I love reading.. I am a librarian. But, I was always reading the same kinds of things by the same kind of authors.  This is also a little bit more vulnerable blog in that I didn't realize how much I was stuck in certain reading ways.. and didn't realize how much I needed to GROW (my word of the year!) to be a better person and librarian.

Now, there is nothing wrong with that.. at all.. I tell kids ALL the time that reading is reading (I tell teachers that too!) I also work REALLY hard to make sure that students, staff, and community know that they belong, the library is for everyone, and that I believe in them. 

When the pandemic hit back in March- I got SUPER hooked on Crime Junkies as I have now listened to every episode.. and hopefully will soon be able to become a member of the fan club.  Then the Black Lives Matter movement really started.. and this changed my WHOLE reading habits. I know that sounds super strange.. but it did.. and here is why.  

I grew up in a small town, my parents are still married, I have a bachelors and I have 2 masters.  In other words- my upbringing and life don't always mirror the students that I work with. I needed to read outside my comfort zone (which is really weird that I even had a comfort zone and didn't realize it) Thanks to April Richmond I finally read All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely.  This book was an eye opener and an amazing read... and what I needed to read to become a better librarian and a better person.

My goal this year was to read 30 books... I know that sounds small because I am a librarian.. but.. I also run clubs, have 2 jobs, and do various programming.. and I do enjoy sleeping!  But thanks to SORA audiobooks, our amazing Irving Public Library, and having my friend April that would answer questions for me.. and also be my sounding board for different things.. I am now working on my 34th book for the year.  30 of those books were listened to or read since May 31st.

You can find my Goodreads account here

When I do any lesson, I try to be very transparent in my own reading styles- as in I LOVE having books read to me- reading magazines are great-a good graphic novel is AMAZING- and it is okay to read any type of book.  This year, my intro lessons also included the fact that I too was stuck in a reading rut, but because I read out of what I thought was a comfort zone I became a more avid reader.  I began to read more books that were windows rather than mirrors.  I also remind students that it is okay to put a book down.. now.. read more than 3 pages.. try 3-5 chapters.. but it happens. Sometimes a book just doesn't hit how we need it to at that moment. Just like any librarian- I also work really hard on finding those books for every type of reader.

Every lesson this year I end with this:
The more the read the more you know. The more you know and the better human being you become.  Guys we need as many good human beings as we can get! 

I am so thankful to have such a diverse reading community around me. I also appreciate that I can have conversations with people about different topics that I might not understand and not be judged because I am naïve or I don't have the same background knowledge.  

The world is a really hard place right now, for SO many reasons, but reading a good book can help transport you to a different location and time, help you better understand your surroundings, or just be a mirror into your own life.

Thank you April Richmond for helping me become a better librarian and inspiring me to read even more... and thank you for being such a great sounding board.

I can't always change the world, but what I can do is continue to try to "see" other people/customs/thoughts, continue to make sure that I have books for all types of readers and people, and continue to work on not judging a book by its cover.

Other things that helped me and my reading habits:
-Irving Public Library and their North Texas Teen Book Festival Present virtual panels- Go check out their website and their AMAZING virtual author panels- you won't be disappointed! 
-Recording Booktalks for my students- This year I began creating a TikTok a week for #booktalktuesday along with a Flipgrid for #booktalktuesday and #WAYRWednesday
-Having someone to talk to about what I was reading-at first it was mainly adults- but now I am able to chat even more with students!!
-Audiobooks (I also listen to my audiobooks a little faster)
-getting a better reading light for next to my bed
-following great people on Instagram/Twitter/TikTok and Facebook

Here's to new reading goals in 2021 and discovering even more amazing authors and illustrators.

Top 5 of #TXLA19

The Texas Library Association Conference ended on Thursday, and I am still processing all of the amazing things I learned. The conference was Monday-Thursday, and I used ALL of my time learning, connecting and taking it all in.  You can check out all my sketchnotes from the various sessions at my Beeinthebookends Instagram. I learned more than 5 things while at the conference, but these were by far the things that stood out to me.

Top 5 of  #TXLA19
1- Mindfulness 101 with James Butler and Rachelle Finck out of all the sessions I went to, this was the one that I needed the most.  Living with someone that has mental health issues, I understand the importance of needing to teach children (and adults) mindfulness.  Working in a middle school I have also seen first hand how students need help in learning different coping skills to help them through life and middle school (middle school is hard!)  I was so excited to be one of the first people in line to purchase James new book Mindful Classrooms as I plan to incorporate some of these ideas in the library next year.

2-Listening to Sylvia Acevedo keynote the first general session.  I have talked about her before as she is the CEO of Girl Scouts.  She shares such a powerful story of her own journey of being very poor to being a rocket scientist.

3-The general session with Scott Pelley.  I could have listened to him speak all day! His book Truth Worth Telling will be coming out in May. TXLA19 was his first book event, and what a masterful story teller he is.  Before he shared some of the stories that have changed his life, he mentioned that so often we are trying to find the meaning of life.  We are asking the wrong question.  We should not be asking the meaning of life, but what is the meaning of you.  In my bag.. I had packed everything I needed but Kleenexes!

4- Connecting with librarians!  Being a librarian is one of the best but also hardest job that I have ever had.  I work on a great campus, but I am still the only librarian on the campus.. so sometimes it gets a little lonely.  During the conference I was able to connect with not only Irving librarians, but also librarians from across the state that are doing some amazing things.  In having conversations, it also helped me realize that I am doing pretty cool things too.

5- The authors and illustrators. I know that these authors and illustrators realize that they are going to be bombarded by crazy librarians wanting autographs, pictures, and conversations. But that just makes them even more awesome for being so patient and listening.

Dawn and I went to watch the bats and ran into AMAZING Illustrator Chris Hsu.  He is the illustrator for The Boo Boos that Changed the World

When I found out that there was going to be a Comic book day on Wednesday, I was super excited to become Vera from Be Prepared. Even better, the author Vera Brosgol was going to be signing books!

I have now had a chance to see this guy twice! Sean Easley is the author of the Hotel Between Series. 

 6- My bonus takeaway! I feel as if I do social media pretty well, but I really enjoyed going to Steven Vrooman over social media.  I look forward to telling my library story even better next year!

I am sure that you have noticed by now, one of my favorite things to do is take selfies! I LOVED that TXLA captured this one of me taking a selfie of the Comic Day Group.

On our way out of town, we also stopped at the new Austin Public Library Central Location. All I can say.. is wow!! There were so many more selfies, so many more people, and so much more learning that happened. I can't WAIT to go back and rethink some of things that I am doing, tweak other things, and evaluate those programs that I am doing.

Did you attend #TXLA19? What were your favorite sessions?

Rocking Around the Library Books

December brings a super busy month in most areas.. and the Lamar Middle School Library was super active this month! I LOVE working in middle school, but I am still learning the things that interest students. I am a member of several Librarian Facebook groups, and I love this idea that Jennifer Warren shared on Learning Librarians about Cardboard Gingerbread House competition!
I took her ideas and created a Canva document that I could then put into Library Aware and promote the picture through Twitter and Instagram. I only had 6 entries.. BUT.. I love each and every one of them! I already have students asking me when I am doing the next contest.

Rules that I adapted from Jennifer Warren

 Because there were only 6 entries, I am rewarding all entries with 1st place prizes.. and did a Peoples Choice Award for an extra gift certificate.

This month I also had a chance to pair up with our art teacher and read Silent Night. Students in her art class then created silhouettes that I used to decorate the library.

Some of the finished products

 I also had several activities available for teachers. With the 7 days of Holiday Programming that I was able to help organize, I had 2 crafts available in the library and festive photo booths.

Selfie station where participants stood behind the glass and became an Elf.

Painted wood blocks for snowmen and books for book trees

 I was able to have some great decorations!  Every week I have the 18+3C program come in and help me with various activities in the library. This includes finding books, deleting books, organizing books and creating bulletin boards. The 18+3C program is a work based program that helps train students that have various disabilities to get jobs after high school. I LOVE working with these guys!

 I also have some wonderful Library LINKS students.  These are 8th grade students that spend a class period with me daily doing all different items and they created this beautiful book tree this year!

Finished book tree

One of my goals this year was to have 2 Late Night in the Library events.  I was going for one in the fall and one in the spring.  With middle schoolers being a little different in their needs and expectations, I scheduled it for after school-6pm.  I was going to have ornament making, card making, a coding activity, the public library would be there and photo booth.  About a week before the event was to take place, I was volunteering at our feeder elementary school (of course it is also my FAVORITE elementary school.. because it is Elliott) Several middle schoolers were also volunteering and mentioned how they wanted to do a Breakfast with Santa too.  After chatting with them, I realized I needed to add a Santa.

I put it out to Facebook that I needed a Santa and I had Lee and Lisa step up! I also had my awesome friend Rachel volunteer her time!

 The Idea:
1 Have stations set up that were fairly self sufficient
2 Have Rachel at the photo stations to help maneuver people through
3 Have another volunteer at the hot chocolate and cookie station
4 I would continue to walk around monitor all students

I did not ask for volunteers this time, as I had NO idea how many students would come (my hope is always at least 4) and I also had to see how it would run (I LOVE volunteers, but sometimes for the first time around.. it is a little more work because I have to train them!)

I created all my station signs in Canva and set up stations. Keep reading for the reality.

The Reality:

1- The stations were fairly self sufficient.  The one where paint was involved did require me to use my teacher voice and explain how to take care of items (as in.. we had to close down part of this station) Let me preface this with- I am totally fine with various craft/messy items in the library.. well except glitter! So, I had no problem with paint. Students were doing fine until several chose to make poor decisions.

2- GREAT idea to have another adult volunteer at the photo booth station.  It was an extra set of eyes.

3- SO glad I had a volunteer at the hot chocolate station!!! I filled up a 60 cup percolator 2 times, and we had 2 other pitchers of hot water available. We went through 120 cookies and that much hot chocolate.  

4-I did monitor students, but I am thankful that I had some teachers come up and help monitor as well.  

I of course always hope for at least 4 kids. I didn't know how this event would run. I had over 120 students show up!

What I would do different:

-Volunteers- although we have some great student council/NJHS students on campus- when I do this again, I am going to ask for high school volunteers.  They can get hours, and I can have extra eyes on stations to help keep things going and restock.

-Time- Since Late Night in the Library is a come and go event, I don't think I will have it until 6pm.  By 5:30pm, most everything had been gone through.

-Backpacks- Since kids were coming in right after school, we had a ton of backpacks that I didn't even think about planning for.

Late Night in the Library in elementary I really focused on parents working with their students.  I know there are a TON of great parents out there of middle schoolers.. but I have also found that middle schoolers don't always want to be seen with their parents.  So, this Late Night in the Library was really focused on the students.  I did have a few families show up.

Things coming in the new year:

Reaching parents- I am going to try a Toddler Time and also a crafting/creating time

Focusing on siblings- I am beginning to see the drop of books checked out.. so I am going to focus on students reading to their younger siblings

Another Late Night in the Library

A couple of more contests

Sleep?

What activities do you do in your library to bring in students?

SO thankful for this lady right here!!

For Ugly Sweater I was the resident Elf on the Bookshelf.  You can't really see, but the elf is playing a ukulele and there are books on the tshirt bookshelf.  Each book is labeled with a different club/organization I am involved in.

Have I mentioned that I wouldn't be able to do any of this without some amazing support from my team, my administrators.. and my awesome clerk?  Not only that.. but being a first year middle school librarian I am SUPER thankful for my middle school librarian team, librarian mentors both in district and out of district, and the previous librarian Cindi Rockett for already creating such a great program for me to walk into! I know I have lots of growing to do, and I know I surround myself with the best.

Fall Festival and Book Preview for Teachers

I love being involved and on the go, and this last week was one busy week.. and one where I had a booked calendar. Along with all the after school things there was still regular library schedule.
October 26th- Set up the book fair
October 27th- I participated in the North Texas Library Expo. It was a great day of learning! I shared 2 presentations.  U is for Uke...Beyond the Book Club and co-presented Keeping It All Together.
October 29th- Girl Scout Meeting.  This meeting we learned about the Teal Pumpkin Project
October 31st- Destination ImagiNation meeting
November 1st- Uke Can Do It Club Meeting and our schools fall festival
November 2nd- took down the book fair and had goodies for teachers.. and then met my Girl Scout troop for an overnight at ATT Stadium in Arlington.  (I did finally win a workweek fitbit challenge this week!)
This weekend I have slept!

I do love to stay busy, but I also like to be successful.  In order for me to be successful I am a planner!
Fall Festival
The idea behind the fall festival was to create an event where parents and students could learn about the different content areas, learn about what our school has to offer, do activities, shop the book fair, and earn a free dress day in the process.  Each content area was asked to create a tri-fold board that showcased their content (guys.. these boards that the content teams created looked AWESOME!) Each content area was also asked to host a game.  Now.. remember.. I am in a middle school now.  I like things that are easy set up.. easy clean up.. and also fun for students and teachers.  I created this editable Google spreadsheet for departments to sign up for station and then disperse the duties.  There were some GREAT treats for staff that helped.

I know how busy teachers are.. so I tried to have everything together and ready to go for them. I created another Google Spreadsheet that included the time, area, needs, materials, set up and clean up. I also printed this off and taped to the back of the station signs I created. 

A program that I use a ton is Canva.  All my materials for the Fall Festival were created in Canva and used the free features. I also created all of the flyers and images in Canva to use for promotions.

One of the station signs

Punch card for students to turn in

Book Fair promotion. Using Canva and Bitmoji

Student council station

Overall I feel like the Fall Festival was a success. It was my first one to work on in a new school. One thing I know about myself... I LOVE planning these things.. but man.. I get so overwhelmed! I cried at least 4 times on Thursday.  I also am always worried about what people will think and if they will still like me when I come up with these crazy ideas.  I know I can't do things on my own.. and I know I need help.  I had lots of nightmares leading up to this event (almost like the first day of school)
Things for next year:
-Training Student volunteers better
-Having people to help direct traffic better
-Stagger which way people are going. Some places got super packed super fast!
-Promote more for parents to come

This is the back of a sign that includes the station breakdown

The Public Library even had a station!

On Friday we had a PLC day.  I also just finished receiving all my new books to add to the library this year.  So, I decided that on Friday, I would have goodies for the teachers! I used Piktochart (my other favorite product!) to create these.  I put notes in teachers boxes and invited them to come at any point during Friday for a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) and teacake cookies and to take a look at all of the new books that are about to be added!

I loved that I even saw some educators that don't always make it up to the library!
I ended the week spending the night with my Girl Scout troop at ATT Stadium.

I am forever grateful the people that go along with my crazy ideas and let me be me.  I love what I do.. and I am a super happy person, but real talk guys.. I am one that has a ton of self doubt and anxiety.  I know I am quirky.. but I am always afraid I am too quirky and too needy.  I love programming and planning because I feel as it is a way to prove to myself and others that I am successful.

What whole school programming have you done in middle school? I am always looking for ideas!