Blogging Challenge for School Librarians

Check out this blogging challenge for librarians! If you haven't started a blog for your library, this is a great way to get it kicked off nicely! 2014 is the year to come aboard the blogging train.

20-day Blogging Challenge for School Librarians

Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublog are all GREAT platforms for starting a blog. Comment here OR post to our Edmodo group or discussion forum if you want to try this and need help getting started!

McAdory Jacket Slam!

*Very special thanks to Pam Bullock at McAdory High for this post.

We held our first ever Jacket Slam the last Wednesday in April in honor of Poetry Month. This event began with a student who saw the promo for the Word Up event held in Bham. She decided that we needed to put together our own event and started a sign up sheet to see if there was enough interest from the student body.

Planning began in late February and she and a small committee of students promoted it by making posters. They created a form for students who wanted to participate and share their own original work. We included poems, short stories, rap/song, and skits. In the end we had 10 students perfom their work and each area was represented. We held the event in the library and had it set up like a cafe.

After each person performed the audience snapped their fingers to show their support (much like a beatnik). The library sold snacks to the audience during intermission as a small fundraiser, and the students who performed were able to have snacks after the event was over (for free of course).

I was very pleased with the poems performed and proud of the students who were willing to stand in front of their peers and share their personal work. The senior English teacher and I were the faculty sponsors and she was the MC while I videoed. One of our principals commended us on having the first McAdory Poetry event and has asked that we continue it next year in the fall and spring (hoping that it will empower other students to participate).

I truly loved seeing the students take control and plan and manage everything. We liked the intimacy of the library setting but would love for more students to be able to attend, so we may have to expand to the auditorium in the future.

CBS 42 One Class At a Time Grants

Are you in the market for a grant?

 

Alabama teachers can apply for a $1,000 grant for classroom supplies, software, or other "educational necessities online at CBS News online.

 

It is simple to fill out the application. It literally takes less than a planning period!

 

So, what do your students need to be successful? Good luck, everyone!

 

Need ideas?

 

Books for teen book clubs

 

Software for learning

 

Art Supplies

 

Technology

 

I-Pad or I-Pad mini

 

Digital Cameras

 

Easy Readers

 

Hip-Hop Genre Books

 

Common Core Books

 

 

 



Let the Games begin!

*This post is by Carla Crews, one of the school librarians at Shades Valley High School/JCIB/Shades Valley Technical Academies.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, movie adaptations of books give us a great opportunity to promote recreational reading. Our library recently invited teachers and students to participate in our own version of The Hunger Games, based on the popular series by Suzanne Collins. The movie release is March 23, and we wanted to encourage students to read the book first! We set up activity stations around the library, which included archery, rope tying, costume design, arm wrestling, trivia questions, online games, and a viewing station for the movie trailer. Several of the station activities offered students a chance to put their name into the “reaping.” Here we deviated slightly from the book, as contestants actually wanted their name in this drawing. Students were quite competitive when they learned that a local theater donated movie passes for the prize drawing!

We began with some brainstorming sessions (and the Internet). The following two resources were particularly helpful during our planning phase:

http://www.bethanymediacenter.com/hungergames.html

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=365

We gathered our supplies, only spending money on a bow, arrows, and rope. We created themed signage for the event and typed questions for the trivia station. The braided nylon rope was cut into 18” pieces, and instructions were placed at the station for tying various types of knots. Paper rabbits were set up as targets at the archery station. Due to some concerns about teenagers shooting a bow in the library, we used a child-size bow and ‘play’ arrows that had suction cup tips... no damaged walls or speared children! For the opening ceremony costume designs, we already had all the necessary supplies – paper, pencils, crayons/markers, and lots of books on fashion, costumes, and clothing design. We also included a list of the districts’ trades and industries for inspiration. The Scholastic website offers some exciting online games related to The Hunger Games series. These online games, along with The Hunger Games Wiki, were set up as desktop icons at the computer station. Students could scan a QR code at the viewing station to watch the movie trailer. Tributes showed off their strength as they conquered opponents at the arm wrestling station, our school-friendly alternative to the brutal combat of the actual Games.

If you’re looking around on the web for ideas related to The Hunger Games, check out the hashtag #THGyalsa on Twitter. This was a YALSA-sponsored tweet session during Teen Tech Week to discuss the movie release and library programming ideas. One librarian tweeted that she is planning a Wii Archery tournament. And should you decide to turn your library into a Hunger Games arena…  may the odds be ever in your favor.

Pinterest + Contest = Fun!

*Today's post was written by Meg Brooke, one of the school librarians at Shades Valley High School/JCIB. 

OK, all of you “Pinners” in the Jefcoed library world. We have a contest especially made for YOU!  Michelle wroteabout Pinterest on a blog post several weeks ago, and hopefully several of you have started using this tool for curating your ideas as well as others’ ideas on various boards. I know that several of you are Pinterest addicts because you follow me, and I, you!  It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve learned so much from you and others in the Pinterest world.

I ran across Joyce Valenza’s blog post today, and got really excited when I saw that it pertained to Pinterest.  Say the word, and I’m all about reading anything Pinterest related. Rather than recap her post, I’ve copied and pasted it below so that you can read it and see if the contest is something that would interest you. If so, the contest rules link is at the bottom of Joyce’s post.

You can also view her original post here: http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/2012/03/07/syracuse-poses-a-pinterest-contest/

Good luck, and happy pinning!

 Syracuse poses a Pinterest challenge

from NeverEndingSearch by joycevalenza

I am beginning to love Pinterest as a tool for searching, exploring, and curating visual content.  Teachers and librarians are currently settling this visual territory with their boards of professional content.

In the spirit of Pinterest Challenges, the iSchool at Syracuse University just announced a forward-thinking, library-flavored Pinterest challenge.  Participants are invited to share their new library vision on Pinterest, the highly popular, visual (and pretty) curation network.

The Pinterest Contest for the New Librarianship is a search for a a few good boards that define and illustrate the future of our profession.

But, well beyond the contest itself, the resulting boards should demonstrate the value of this tool for creating communities of practice and visual professional sharing.  I am hoping it will create beautiful inspiration for us all.

Kelly Lux, Executive Editor of Information Space and Social Media Strategist and Community Manager for the iSchool, writes of the Pinterest platform,

"communities revolving around shared interests are creating dialogue that transcends borders. Librarians are using it as a way to build a collection of resources, organize display ideas and facilitate collaboration. The Pinterest community is a reflection of your local community—members include Moms swapping recipes, lifelong educators and professionals networking and making their experience a resource for others, young people building their careers and defining their lives, artists and entrepreneurs sharing their products and services."

Lux shares the example of librarian Joe Murphy’s boards

Source: learningtimesevents.org via Joe on Pinterest

To enter the Pinterest Contest for the New Librarianship challenge, submit your Pinterest Board URLs in any of these three ways:

• Tweet the @iSchoolSU using the hashtag #NewLibPinterest
• Leave a comment on their Facebook page under the contest post
• Share via your comment in the blog post announcing the event

Winners will receive a copy of David Lankes’ ground-breaking and provocative Atlas of New Librarianship.

Entries will be accepted through March 19th.  So start pinning your library future right now!

Are You Game?

The week that Alabama is celebrating Digital Learning is the same week that I am offering old-fashioned board games during our Basic Skills classes in the library. How ironic is that?! The three gaming days are meant to reward students for doing well in Basic Skills (reading and math remediation) and to offer them a different type of learning.

It thrills my heart to see students learn to play checkers, chess, and Scrabble. They have learned how to spell a few words and they have learned about strategy. One student asked, "Is this (foney) how to spell phony?" and many times throughout the twice daily gaming sessions they have asked, "Is this a word?" So, yes, it has been worthwhile and lots of fun!

Students Enjoying Scrabble

Signage for the Event

How it was planned:

• Permission from the principal - explaining the purpose and audience

• A survey was sent to teachers with three questions (inquiring whether they would support the endeavor)
• E-news was sent home to parents asking for small prize donations (Airheads and mechanical pencils)
• Gather the games: Teachers donated games from the Dollar Store
• Teachers brought in games to borrow - one teacher had nine Scrabble games
• Tablecloths (leftover from Scholastic Bookfairs) were set out for the games
• Student Aides made signage
• A schedule was sent to teachers & sign up sheets were placed on the library counter

Many articles are available on Google Scholar regarding gaming supporting learning.

BLS Spring Fling

Burrow Library Services is having their annual Spring Fling on April 23, 2012 at the Bessemer Civic Center. Included in the day's events will be a luncheon with author Mike Thaler (of the famous Black Lagoon series)!

Contact Burrow Library Services ASAP to reserve your spot. Space is limited! 

We bid you adieu...

Our entire state has felt tremendous aftershocks of the recent increases in insurance, etc. for public employees due to the state of the economy. One effect we have experienced as school librarians is the loss of some of our dearest colleagues.

• After nearly 23 years of service in a variety of school libraries, Marcia Amason has retired from Shades Valley High School/Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School. She has been a wonderful asset to our district and though we will miss her dearly, we wish her all the best that her new life in retirement has to offer!

• Lisa Boyd has retired as Supervisor of Technology for our district. Throughout her 30 years of service to our county's teachers, parents, students, and administrators, Lisa's expertise in instructional technology has and will continue to hold an impact on the teachers and students of our district for generations to come. We hope that she enjoys all the time she now has to spend on her family (and continuing to learn about new technology tools, if we know Lisa!).

• Deb Cordell has retired from Snow Rogers Elementary School, after a total of 33 years of service to children in everywhere from Jasper to Athens College to Brookville...whew! Deb has been a dear friend to many and we wish her well in her newest adventures. Wherever she goes, we know she will be helping children love to read!

• Gloria Dennard has served in Jefferson County as a teacher, high school librarian, and the Director of Library Media Services for 24 years. She has won numerous awards in the field on library media, and our district will simply not be the same without her. We wish her many years of joy and happiness...and endless stacks of books!

Each of these ladies has brought their unique gifts and talents to the service of the children in our district. We are so grateful for their time and the devotion they have given as librarians. We love and appreciate you all!