The semester brings new things: new media assistants, new books, new staff, and more!
First, this semester I am teaching Library Science I! Such an exciting opportunity to share my love for the library/media center with students. The students applied for the class and in both sections will be learning about library administration and management, organization, effective research skills (in order to help others), as well as having genre projects and other activities related to books!
I am also instituting a library volunteer program during SMART lunches. These student volunteers are manning the circulation desk to give me more time to circulate among the students and to help students with projects and choosing books. My first set of volunteers are already lined up and excited to be working in the media center.
The National Honor Society will be working with me in the near future to establish two peer tutoring sessions during SMART lunch. One day per week will have a math tutorial for Math I and II (formerly known as Algebra I and II). We are also hoping to have a peer editing day for research papers on another day of the week. This will give the NHS members an opportunity for service hours and help students who are struggling a chance to improve their grades.
What new beginnings are you working on this semester?
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Friday, January 15, 2016
The Best Time of the Year
Guess what one of my favorite times of the year is?
No, I'm not talking about Christmas (although I do love it!).
No, it's not my birthday.
Give up?
It's the day the big shipment of books arrives!
This is, naturally, not a set day of the year. It sometimes even happens multiple days of the year, and it happened during this very long week of final exams. What a great way to start the new semester! All of the books will be processed and on display for students on the first day of the new semester!
So what do we have? Some highlights:
We have a new trilogy by Barry Lyga: I Hunt Killers is the first book in the series. Jazz's father is one of the most notorious serial killers of all time with 124 victims. He taught his son everything he knew before being caught. Now, however, bodies are beginning to appear. Can Jazz convince the cops a serial killer is on the loose? Or will he be blamed? A gripping look into the mind of serial killer.
Code of Honor by Alan Gratz: Imagine being a regular, all-American teenager. Football star. Excellent student. Homecoming king. About to follow in your older brother's footsteps and head to West Point. Now imagine that your brother has gone from being American hero and Army Ranger fighting in Afghanistan to suspected Al Qaeda terrorist making videos calling for the destruction of America. Only you hear the coded messages in the videos, and no one believes you. Is he a terrorist? What is the truth? Excellent read.
Don't worry! There's a lot more! For all my graphic novel aficionados, we expanded the four most popular series with 45 more books. We also have continued Madeleine Roux's Asylum series and the light-hearted How to Ruin... series by Simone Elkeles. The list of titles goes on! Stop by and check out the New Books section!
No, I'm not talking about Christmas (although I do love it!).
No, it's not my birthday.
Give up?
It's the day the big shipment of books arrives!
This is, naturally, not a set day of the year. It sometimes even happens multiple days of the year, and it happened during this very long week of final exams. What a great way to start the new semester! All of the books will be processed and on display for students on the first day of the new semester!
So what do we have? Some highlights:
We have a new trilogy by Barry Lyga: I Hunt Killers is the first book in the series. Jazz's father is one of the most notorious serial killers of all time with 124 victims. He taught his son everything he knew before being caught. Now, however, bodies are beginning to appear. Can Jazz convince the cops a serial killer is on the loose? Or will he be blamed? A gripping look into the mind of serial killer.
Code of Honor by Alan Gratz: Imagine being a regular, all-American teenager. Football star. Excellent student. Homecoming king. About to follow in your older brother's footsteps and head to West Point. Now imagine that your brother has gone from being American hero and Army Ranger fighting in Afghanistan to suspected Al Qaeda terrorist making videos calling for the destruction of America. Only you hear the coded messages in the videos, and no one believes you. Is he a terrorist? What is the truth? Excellent read.
Don't worry! There's a lot more! For all my graphic novel aficionados, we expanded the four most popular series with 45 more books. We also have continued Madeleine Roux's Asylum series and the light-hearted How to Ruin... series by Simone Elkeles. The list of titles goes on! Stop by and check out the New Books section!
Friday, December 18, 2015
When you want to build a snowman
Sometimes you simply take matters into your own hands!
If it's too warm for snow, and you cannot afford to travel to a wintery location:
Maybe you write a poem about snowmen.
Or paint a picture.
Create a sculpture.
Or, if stuck in an ugly boot after surgery:
If it's too warm for snow, and you cannot afford to travel to a wintery location:
Maybe you write a poem about snowmen.
Or paint a picture.
Create a sculpture.
Or, if stuck in an ugly boot after surgery:
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
It's Been Awhile
Sorry for the delay in postings, but December marks the end of the year as well as the end of the semester (not really, but since exams begin January 7th, all projects and research papers are due before our winter break!). That means multiple classes squeezing into the media center utilizing our cart of chromebooks and our desktop computers to meet the deadlines!
We have been in the spirit of the season with our decor. Inspired by the book trees posted all over social media, Ms. Cox and I, with the assistance of our first block TAs, used our discarded mini laptops to build our "Tech the Halls" display!
We have been in the spirit of the season with our decor. Inspired by the book trees posted all over social media, Ms. Cox and I, with the assistance of our first block TAs, used our discarded mini laptops to build our "Tech the Halls" display!
And, of course, this will not involve reshelving 800-1000 books when we take down the display!
We've also been able to display some new art, thanks to Mr. Brown's art classes. This time, we've added some sculptural art that includes body casting.
And, yes, that last picture has lights! The lights also blink if that setting is chosen.
More art!
And, finally, there is one more piece of "art" that is getting into the holiday spirit (or at least attempting to make something that is quite ugly and bulky look as good as possible...which I have yet to determine if it is possible...). Introducing Rudy the Boot! He has aspirations for being a Reindeer!
Happy Holidays!
Friday, November 20, 2015
The Legend of the Thousand Cranes and Other Media Matters
"Would you like these?" a sophomore asks, showing me 3 origami paper cranes he has made at the end of SMART lunch.
"Why, thank you! I'll display them here at the circulation desk. Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Thousand Cranes?" A discussion of Japanese folklore ensues.
"I made you more. I'm going to make a thousand cranes. Where should I put this set of 100?"
And so began the collection of 1000 beautiful origami cranes in the media center. At first they sat on one window ledge behind the circulation desk (moved there after several students attempted to take a few on their way out the door), visible to all. Then they took up a second window ledge. And a third. And the fourth. And the area of the circulation desk by the printer.
I brought in clear glass vases, but each only held 50-60! They did make for beautiful displays. Finally I hot glued the cranes to a piece of 32' x 42' black foam board in a random pattern. It made for a beautiful piece of artwork, allows me to dust the windowsills, and the cranes are more visible to all in the media center! (Now the student is making another set of 1000 in order to create a new display board for an art contest!!!!) The small vase next to the picture is filled with metallic origami cranes.
The next "project" in the media center involved the shifting of the shelves. Many of our shelves (a few nonfiction, but mainly fiction) had reached their carrying capacity. This made it difficult to fit new titles in some areas which is NEVER a good thing in my media center so...with the aid of my ready and somewhat-willing media assistants we utilized some shorter shelves at the end of the nonfiction stacks, moved around part of the nonfiction, one shelf at a time while leaving a few strategically placed shelves empty for growth, and then were able to open up quite a few of the fiction shelves. This task was finished today to the joy of the assistants (and the media coordinator!).
My final project this week has involved the "installation" of my faux bulletin board. The design of this room does not lend itself easily to a bulletin board on the wall, which makes it more challenging for some of the displays I would love to do. Therefore I used one short shelf that is not in use (it used to hold graphic novels, but the collection grew too large and now is in a new area) to display student art and my "bulletin board". The tree was created by a student in an art class is made using magazine pages. Although there is one part not finished utilizing QR codes and book trailers, this is it so far:
"Why, thank you! I'll display them here at the circulation desk. Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Thousand Cranes?" A discussion of Japanese folklore ensues.
.....24 hours later.....
"I made you more. I'm going to make a thousand cranes. Where should I put this set of 100?"
And so began the collection of 1000 beautiful origami cranes in the media center. At first they sat on one window ledge behind the circulation desk (moved there after several students attempted to take a few on their way out the door), visible to all. Then they took up a second window ledge. And a third. And the fourth. And the area of the circulation desk by the printer.
I brought in clear glass vases, but each only held 50-60! They did make for beautiful displays. Finally I hot glued the cranes to a piece of 32' x 42' black foam board in a random pattern. It made for a beautiful piece of artwork, allows me to dust the windowsills, and the cranes are more visible to all in the media center! (Now the student is making another set of 1000 in order to create a new display board for an art contest!!!!) The small vase next to the picture is filled with metallic origami cranes.
The next "project" in the media center involved the shifting of the shelves. Many of our shelves (a few nonfiction, but mainly fiction) had reached their carrying capacity. This made it difficult to fit new titles in some areas which is NEVER a good thing in my media center so...with the aid of my ready and somewhat-willing media assistants we utilized some shorter shelves at the end of the nonfiction stacks, moved around part of the nonfiction, one shelf at a time while leaving a few strategically placed shelves empty for growth, and then were able to open up quite a few of the fiction shelves. This task was finished today to the joy of the assistants (and the media coordinator!).
My final project this week has involved the "installation" of my faux bulletin board. The design of this room does not lend itself easily to a bulletin board on the wall, which makes it more challenging for some of the displays I would love to do. Therefore I used one short shelf that is not in use (it used to hold graphic novels, but the collection grew too large and now is in a new area) to display student art and my "bulletin board". The tree was created by a student in an art class is made using magazine pages. Although there is one part not finished utilizing QR codes and book trailers, this is it so far:
Friday, November 6, 2015
Post Conference Highlights...Part II
One of the most anticipated sessions (for me, anyway), was the Poetry Slam session. Why? Well, I've always enjoyed poetry, reading and writing it, and I like performance arts. Pair the two together and....Poetry Slam!
The presenter works at a small K-8 school in Pitt County. Although she didn't believe anyone present would know the name of her school, I not only knew the name, but I have actually been to the school itself! While her ideas work well at a tiny school, they can definitely be adapted for our very large population.
Naturally, however, this creates a to-do list that will have to be put off until the spring semester. (Why put off anything that late? Well....next week alone is Early Release, Veteran's Day, and the ASVAB test. In 2 weeks is Thanksgiving. A few weeks after that? Christmas. We come back in January and jump into exams. Not a lot of time to get anything ready on the parts of the students or any staff members helping (plus there are the winter concerts and other events already underway!).
What could there possibly be to do? Well, when planning a slam, it helps to have the students introduced to poetry. This is most easily done in English classes, but not everyone takes English in the fall semester. If it could be introduced (it doesn't have to be in depth) at the beginning of the spring semester, that could give all interested students the opportunity to be thinking about poetry in preparation for an April slam. Then the following tasks are needed for a successful event:
The presenter works at a small K-8 school in Pitt County. Although she didn't believe anyone present would know the name of her school, I not only knew the name, but I have actually been to the school itself! While her ideas work well at a tiny school, they can definitely be adapted for our very large population.
Naturally, however, this creates a to-do list that will have to be put off until the spring semester. (Why put off anything that late? Well....next week alone is Early Release, Veteran's Day, and the ASVAB test. In 2 weeks is Thanksgiving. A few weeks after that? Christmas. We come back in January and jump into exams. Not a lot of time to get anything ready on the parts of the students or any staff members helping (plus there are the winter concerts and other events already underway!).
What could there possibly be to do? Well, when planning a slam, it helps to have the students introduced to poetry. This is most easily done in English classes, but not everyone takes English in the fall semester. If it could be introduced (it doesn't have to be in depth) at the beginning of the spring semester, that could give all interested students the opportunity to be thinking about poetry in preparation for an April slam. Then the following tasks are needed for a successful event:
- Set date
- Reserve space
- Have video equipment, spotlight, stool for performers (if necessary), audience seating, etc. - this would not be a problem since we have an auditorium, but we would have to work around spring performance schedules!
- Invite speaker/poet/headliner if planning to do so
- Get donated prizes if desired
- Promote early!!!!!
- Get 3-5 judges
- Get staff members to be the scorekeeper, timekeeper, photographer, videographer, slideshow tech, run sound/music, lighting, set up/tear down (students can do the last 6)
- Create you tube channel if planning to show video of slam
- Create google hangout if planning to stream live
- Create slideshow to randomly introduce performers
- Have google form for performers to fill out to use to create slideshow
- Have something to entertain audience during transition moments between performers
- Have M.C.
Now, the rules for a slam can be tailored for your school, but in general they would be something like:
- It must be an original poem.
- It must be memorized.
- Your performance (emotion, enthusiasm, gestures) is important.
- Two-minute time limit.
- No props, costumes, offensive language, or other person's poetry.
- Group poetry is okay but it must have parts performed in unison and must be written together.
- Poetry is judged by effectiveness, emotion, and performance.
Often if you have 5 judges, it can have an Olympic type scoring where the highest and lowest scores are dropped.
My thoughts on this? It can be fun, It might have to be done during a SMART lunch in some way, and it is not something to do solo...this is an activity that will be a lot of fun when shared with other people!
Friday, October 30, 2015
We Take A Break from Your Regularly Scheduled Blog Post......
...To Remind You of the Doodle 4 Google Contest!
Every year Google holds a really cool national contest for students in grades K-12. You SHOULD enter online, download, or print the entry form here.
You can create your doodle using a variety of materials which means it can be 3-dimensional if you would like! If it's not created on a computer, you will need to scan or take a picture of your doodle to enter it. Write a 50-word description of your doodle, and make sure you submit your doodle by December 7, 2015!
If your doodle wins, it will be featured on the doodle homepage for a day! You will also receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 Google for Education grant for your school.
(Corinth Holders High School Pirates:
you are all incredibly creative....that's
why we're creating our library art wall!
You can win this!)
You will also get to travel to Google HQ in California to meet the Google Doodlers and nominate a teacher to come on the trip. (No, it doesn't have to be me!) You also receive a Chromebook, an Android tablet, AND a t-shirt featuring your doodle!
There are also 4 National Finalists. If that happens to be you, then you will get to have your doodle in the Doodle 4 Google gallery, a $5000 college scholarship, a trip to Google HQ, an Android tablet, and a t-shirt with your doodle on it!
FINALLY, the remaining state and US territory winners will receive an Android tablet, a t-shirt featuring his/her doodle, and get to be in the Doodle 4 Google gallery.
Of course, all of the above winners also get a life time of.....
BRAGGING RIGHTS!
If you aren't motivated yet, check out our GoAnimate commercial, created by Mrs. Cox and me, featured on the October 30th Pirate TV episode!
Doodle 4 Google by Stephanie Rous on GoAnimate
NOW GET OFF THIS BLOG
AND GET BUSY DOODLING!
(Then go read a book!)
I'm a librarian. I need to say that.
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