Just finished my 20th first week of school with students and I had forgotten how tired the first week of school tired is!
The first week of school was all about badges and books! I saw 36 classes for about 20 minutes each where I took badge pictures and checked out books.
This week the focus will be our digital resources and checking out books again. Thanks to our fabulous other Middle School Librarians I am sharing this presentation with teachers to put as a small group assignment during their ELAR block.
Official library orientation is coming up. With this last year, I have 7th graders who haven't been in a library since 5th grade!
For orientation, I have a short slide show where we will go over some basics, and then I will be sending them on Google Digital Breakout to find different items throughout the library. This orientation slide and digital breakout should only take about 25ish minutes altogether so the rest of the class periods students can find books.
The last slide in the orientation has a Link or a QR code to our Lamar Library Escape Room. I got the idea for the Escape room from Donnie and Hope (I just tweaked it a little.. have I mentioned how thankful I am for the various librarians I learn from??)
I don't know how this year is going to go- but I do know that I am excited to see students in real life and in the library again!
Can we also talk about these uber-cute shirts and how much my new clerk Suzanne is making things happen? Thanks, Arielle for the awesome library shirts!
The first day of school is just around the corner, and I can't believe I am about to begin my 20th year with students. Our librarians have been back since July 26th.
This next week begins in-service for teachers. So, of course, I have some challenges ready to go to entice the teachers to use the library and all of its services.
I created a menu of services in Canva (you can find the template here) If you have not signed up for a free Canva educator account, I would highly recommend it. I saved it as an image and put it 4 to a page in Google Slides and printed them off in color. I then had my amazing clerk Suzanne Lautaret cut them apart and laminate them to use as bookmarks. During one of our staff training this upcoming week, I plan to pass out the bookmarks and share with staff the interactive menu I created using the image and Genially. You can check out my finished product here
It is that time for a Library Back To School Challenge! The
challenge will officially run August 9th-August 13th with
9 winners are being announced on Monday, August 16th!
*SPECIAL PRIZE!* for Monday, August 9th!!!
$10 Giftcard to Starbucks AND $50 to spend at the Fall Book Fair!!
Monday, August 9th is #NationalBookLoversDay you
can get 2 entries for this *Special Prize!*
Tweet your favorite book
or author and tag @lmslionsread #irvingreads and #NationalBookLoversDay
Join in on some TikTok
Fun! Find a middle school-appropriate book and let me film you! All you
have to do is pretend to be reading and look up from the book.. or find a
book in a random location and wave at the camera (look up #fullhousetheme)
You must find me on Monday to do this challenge.
These entries MUST be done on Monday, August 9th!
But you have time to find that book!!
Library Back to School Challenge- up for
grabs- 5 $5 Gift Cards to Sonic 5 $10 Gift Cards to the Fall BookFair.
This year is all rainbows, unicorns, and magic! You can find
the challenge is attached, but here is also the entries
There are 7 possible entries for each staff member (names
will be entered into a drawing and randomly selected!)
Recommend-Head
to the Library, find a book you would recommend to a student or staff member,
write a sticky note why and we will display it Online
Database- Share one Irving online database or resource that you are excited to
try or use through twitter-Tag @lmslionsread and #irvingreads You
Decide-email me with one way that the library can support you and your content Give
an online book shout-out- Share your favorite read or author on Twitter and tag
@lmslionsread and #irvingreads Booksnap-Create
a #booksnap and share on and tag @lmslionsread and #irvingreads Investigate-the
other Materials that the library has to offer-email Keller something you found Visit
the Library on Friday, August 13th for a treat and to see our new books
Prize information- I am using Scholastic dollars.. and out of pocket. I am also baking a ton of Cakies on Thursday and individually wrapping them for staff to come to grab on Friday.
Back to school also means creating new goals. I use the program Piktochart to create mine and send 6 weeks updates to admin and share online. You can find the goals here
We have meet the teacher on Tuesday and I plan to have a photobooth and activity going on in the library.
On the first day of school, I also get to school super early and take the first day of school pics for teachers and students with a letterboard. It is one of my favorite things to do!
Please enjoy my latest TikTok if a Librarian was kidnapped back to school addition.
Here's to year 20. I don't know how it is going to look or what is going to happen but with my trusty trapper keeper and great friends, it is going to be a GREAT year!
Next up- planning for orientation. What do you do to get ready for staff and the first day of school? I am also SUPER pumped because I had 2 sessions accepted to TLA and to TCEA (which is #22 on my #50by50 goal list!)
We have made it to the summer!! Well- I am doing summer school.. but I consider it's summertime! Summer means more time for reading books, hanging by the pool, and catching up on life.
I love all the programming that our public library does (You can check out Irving Public Library Here) and this year the theme is Tails and Tales. Since I am doing k-2 early enrichment I chose to go along with the same theme.
I used Canva to create this image
I had a chance to plan with the 3 other librarians (Christine, Ericka, and Wendy) and we came up with several ideas.
Our first week of summer enrichment was short: *We chose to have all classes come into the library to check out books (1 class at a time in increments of 20 minutes) *We put up a Tall Wall- this was an area where we invited students to compare their height to those of different animals. For each animal was a picture of the animal (from one of our digital databases) and a QR code that led the students to a Pebble Go article.
*We had a pawprint Scavenger Hunt. We put pawprints up at the nurse's office, cafeteria, art room, PE room, and library. These sheets had a pawprint picture, QR code that led to Pebble Go and a Picture of the animal. In hindsight- I wish I had clues and the picture rather than the name and picture of the animal.
--both Tall Wall and Pawprints were created in Google Slides *We invited staff to dress up as if they were going on an adventure the first day. I found some cute binoculars from Wal-Mart for $5, a hat from Party City and threw on a pair of khakis and dark green shirt (I of course also created a TikTok
Lesson Ideas:
To go along with the Tails and Tales I chose a book for each week.
I will see each class for about 25 minutes every week where I do a lesson and check out books. Teachers also have the option to sign up for another time during the week to check out books.
This week we looked at the words Tails and Tales and talked about the differences and what they meant. We then shared different animals that had tails.
After some collaboration, we also created a Summer Reading Bingo. This Bingo board was created in Google Docs and invites students to use our Summer Reading Website, go on virtual field trips, check out all the things that our local library has to offer, and more. Click this link to make a copy of your own.
My personal goal is to read 10 books this summer. I had a chance to read 2 over this last weekend while I was on the road to visit family.
What are you doing to promote summer reading? I hope to also do some things with my middle school students- more to come!
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!)
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.
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.
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.
Friday (12/18/20) I finished my first official semester of being a librarian during a pandemic. Wow what a semester it has been! There have been many downs, but also many ups. I have a reflection blog coming up, but I wanted to share my 5 Top Favorite Things of this first semester.
School background: We are a middle school hybrid model. We have virtual and in-person students and our student enrollment is about 850.
Nearpod is my absolute FAVORITE app to use for lesson planning and creating!
Our school is a Nearpod school, but it is a platform I would be happy to pay for because of how amazing it is. It is a platform that allows for interactive lessons, games, and ways to embed items. Students can access Nearpod through a web browser or an app on various devices.
How I use it: -I create slides directly in Nearpod or use one of the many thousands of lessons already created and tailor it for myself -I embed activities to keep students engaged such as Time To Climb, Matching, and videos -Sometimes I just use it as slides while teaching -I can give the teachers the embed code so they can embed into their Canvas course or give them the student link so the asynchronous learners can have access to the lesson as well
Canva Being mostly virtual I love that I can use Canva for social media posts, flyers, and my monthly calendars. There is an option to embed and also share through links. Back in October I created my first calendar, and have loved making them ever since. I also currently use the free version, but have put in an application for the educator account.
How I use it: -social media posts (there is even animation available) -the phone app is pretty good for ideas on the go -monthly calendars that have hyperlinked ideas
-embed items into my Canvas course
I will be honest, there are not many things I pay for when it comes to apps (I do pay extra for Google storage), but I do pay for Piktochart- and it is the BEST money I spend a year. Piktochart is fantastic for creating infographics, flyers, and other digital content. There is an educator discount that I use. There are plenty of templates, but it is also easy to start from scratch.
How I use it: -Each six weeks I create an infographic of all that happened in the library -Each month I create an "Installment" which is a newsletter that goes in all the staff bathrooms -I share the links to the different infographics through social media outlets along with downloading PDF (which has clickable links) -I also love how interactive it is when looking at the PDF and website (and I can keep track of how many times it was viewed) My second six weeks infographic for the library
Flipgrid Flipgrid is a platform that offers video discussions. Once a topic is created students/staff can add videos to enrich the conversation, share their own information, or record a response
How I use it: -I have a Book Talk Tuesday topic and a What are you Reading Wednesday Topic where I post weekly book talks (it is also open to students to respond) -I have a Staff Recommendation Topic for teachers to share their reads -I have topics for Try It Tuesdays where students can share what they have tried I like that I can see how many views these have and how I can easily share it to Twitter. I also like that I can control who posts and who sees videos
I want to get books in kids hands, but that has been a little tougher than usual lately. Our district (and our public library) use Sora (which is under the Overdrive app) Because of Sora I have read and listened to SO many more books (but that too is for another blog on how my reading habits changed because of the pandemic)
How I use it: -I use it personally- audiobooks for my walks and in the car and eBooks for my Kindle (I don't have the self control to read on my phone) -promoting to our students- all of our students have iPads- although it works in the browser- the app is amazing!
I know that 2021 is probably not going to be much easier, but I am jumping for joy that I can check 2020 off my list!
What are your top 5? I know that there are several other items that I use on a regular basis, but these have gotten me through this semester.
