Things I Like to Do

Recent happenings that make my job a definite joy:

We just started the Books Ahoy! Cart. This mobile book cart is visiting English classes upon request to allow students to check out books for reading pleasure. Because we are such a large school, not every student can make it into the the library during lunch. Therefore, only 210 students per day can access the library during lunch (often the same students), and there's not enough time between classes to come, browse, and check out a book if a student's classes are upstairs or in the CTE building. Students can email favorite authors, genres, or specific requests for nonfiction and fiction books in advance. Otherwise I have a selection of all genres of fiction books on the cart for their perusal. So far it's been fun with about one-third of each class choosing at least one book. The art teacher and I have plans for the cart's appearance with some reclaimed wood...be on the lookout!

On Thursday, the Foods classes had a guest speaker...a chef, naturally, from a culinary institute. At the end of her presentation and demonstration, one of the Pirate TV reporters challenged her to a pancake cook-off. If you're going to have a cook-off, what do you need? JUDGES! Well, I love to eat pancakes so I became a judge. So much fun. The chef made maple and cinnamon pancakes, using maple frosting in the batter as her secret ingredient. Ethan, the Pirate TV reporter, used chocolate chips as his secret ingredient. For presentation, the chef's experience showed, with her white icing drizzle. But her's was really, really sweet. I had to vote for chocolate!

I also got to share some great info with teachers as the high school DEN Ambassador. We have access to Discovery Education in our county, and there are so many resources other than the videos. It's always nice to show teachers things that will help them in their classrooms. The Spotlight on Strategies section should be in big, bold letters on the home page so teachers see it when they log in!

With my principal heralding the news, I was thrilled to learn I had been awarded an Ed Foundation grant for Live from American History and Silently Going Green Screen, a grant I wrote for expanding my green screen project in the US History and Theater Arts classes. With another iPad on the way and being able to install the Green Screen App and iMovie on all of our iPads (ours are old enough that it did not come pre-installed), greater things can happen with these projects!

The black and white photography is finally being printed as posters and framed to go above the computers just past the art gallery section. It took a year after my vision for the space for it to come to fruition, but thanks to Ethan (yes, the same Ethan who made pancakes!), we have six phenomenal and very large pieces ready to hang. These pieces show parts of student life without actually have students in them so they can be timeless. There are five more pictures to be taken (now that we have lambs in the barn and a greenhouse with plants in bloom...)

Fake News

Although teaching students how to evaluate sources is something I've always done, the fake news situation permeating social media is more difficult simply because it is EVERYWHERE. Before you have a chance to even start to evaluate a news article, it's viral. Sometimes, the mainstream media picks up on a story, adding to its "legitimacy" when, in fact, it's not real.

One story that I've used as an example of just that situation is the Twitter tale of a man on a airplane who is stuck on the tarmac and regaling his followers with the tale of a fellow passenger who is livid at the flight delay. He goes on and on about her action, complete with photos of notes he sends her and the airplane drinks he has the flight attendant deliver. The saga captures the minds of many people and the woman passenger is vilified by his followers as the story goes viral. It runs on the nightly news broadcast as an example of rage over flight delays during the holidays. Finally, the author admits he made the entire story up. All of it.

During the recent political campaign, election, and post-election events, stories abounded about things that happened only for it to be discovered that NONE of these viral stories were true. Some were made up by the "victims" and posted online. Others were "news stories" created by others to stir the controversies surrounding one of the candidates. None were vetted by police, reporters, or the people retweeting, reposting, or sharing on social media. And so the lies were spread world-wide over and over again.

How to stop this? It can't be stopped. How to fight it? Teach ways to question stories on social media with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Here are some articles and resources to help teach students about recognizing fake news:

School Library Journal Article on Fake News

Temple University Fake News Research Guide

Things that Make You Go Hmmmm....

Yes, I know. January is over. And yet, there were no blog posts. (Sigh) What can I say? Life happened and then there were...exams! (Not much happens in the library when exams begin except for, well, exams. Lots and lots of exams.

Now it's the beautiful month of February and we keep having unseasonably warm weather and we've moved onto a new semester! So what's happening now? Well...

1. Captain Corinth has returned from his adventures in England and Ireland! (Who is Captain Corinth? Good question! And one you will need to know for the Twitter Scavenger Hunt in March to get the bonus entry for the gift card!) Keep your eyes open in the library for a small Pirate and you might find him!)

2. Library Science classes have started again, with a new round of both Library Science I and II students. Censorship is a hot topic with the legislature recently making the rounds in the state of Virginia.

3. Biscuits and Books #2 is right around the corner! This great opportunity will show off the database links in Destiny Discover and how to use them in your teaching and research. SEVENTY-SIX resources all in one place with a free Bojangles biscuit. Sign up!

4. The Spring Reading Marathon is April 3-7. Read 4 of the 5 days during SMART lunch and you will be entered into the gift card drawings. Winners have the choice of Starbucks, iTunes and Sheetz gift cards.

5. The warm-up to the Reading Marathon is our Twitter Scavanger Hunt. Stay tuned for the details, but our hashtag will be #Agree2Read. Everyone who finishes the hunt is in the drawing, but anyone who gets a picture with Captain Corinth gets their name in twice! (He is a such a publicity ham!)

Happy February Everyone!

Community Financial Literacy Night

Another event recently held in the library was our Community Financial Literacy Night.

Last year, in a conversation with a senior who was the first in her family to go to college, the student mentioned how she was planning to take the full amount of financial aid she was eligible to receive. To my astonishment, she was taking on this massive student loan to have money to "live on" (i.e.: go out to eat, buy clothes, etc.). When I asked her if she understood what a student loan's interest and repayment schedule meant, it turned out she didn't. We had a discussion about the number of loans (one per semester) and interest rates, compounded interest, and so on. At the end of the discussion, she planned to go home and talk to her parents about taking just enough money to cover tuition and books. But the entire conversation had me thinking about financial literacy and how little our teens know about loans, credit scores, retirement savings and other important topics unless they take the personal finance class.

Fast forward a little bit and....we have Financial Literacy Night! With the help of Pirate TV, morning announcements, social media, and a couple ConnectEd calls, the available slots for upperclassmen and their parents filled up. (We didn't want to surpass the fire code plus I needed a number to plan for the food.)

Our guest speaker, Paul Pittman, is the President and Managing Director of The Preferred Client Group. He is a Certified Financial Planner. Mr. Pittman's talk covered budgeting (pay yourself first!), credit scores, retirement planning (start now and you'll have the retirement you really want!), and the truth about student loan debt. His frank and humorous discussion also left time for questions and answers about a variety of topics of interest to the students and parents attending.

At the end of the night, We held a raffle ticket drawing for prom tickets! The three winners were Bryson Bland, Haydn Ledenyi, and Faith Johnson.

Oops! I Did It Again!

I missed a month! It's been awhile since that happened, but so much has been going on in the media center, I'm not surprised that the Hungry Bookshelf hasn't has time to be updated.

One of the most important events for the month of November, was the

Fall Reading Marathon!

Students received the yellow form with their reports cards at the beginning of the month. The rules were quite simple: read for 4 of the 5 days during marathon week at your SMART Lunch location (minus the gyms and DLL). What to read? ANYTHING! Why only four of the days? Well, with the Acing the ACT program, clubs, tutorials, and a DECA program going on the week of November 14-18, I didn't want students to have to choose between the reading marathon and other events. This gave them the opportunity to participate in multiple things.

The overall feedback was great, and over 70 students turned in finished entry forms on the 18th. Ten winners were drawn and given their choice of gift cards for Sheetz, iTunes, or Starbucks. The winners were: 

Ninth Graders: Samuel Thorpe, Edgar Alvarez, Kenli Esau, and Keelan Penson.

Tenth Graders: Chloe Roberson, Logan Richard, and Daisy Miller,  

Eleventh Graders: Leandra Russell and Tiffany Tant.

Twelfth Grader: Hunter Williams.

We are looking forward to the Spring Reading Marathon in March.

It's that time of year...

Can you write 50,000 words in 30 days? Sound impossible?

Well, how about look at it in another way: it's only 1,667 words per day. Still too much?

In an 9 hour day, you only have to write 209 words per hour!

Perhaps another thought is

WHY?

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and the purpose is to prove that you CAN write a novel. Maybe not one that's publisher ready (most publishers won't look at unsolicitied manuscripts from December through February because of NaNo...they know these novels haven't been edited nearly enough!), but a first draft is done!

Realistic fiction, mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasty, fan fiction...why not try your hand at creating that book you've always wanted to read? Come join me at this challenge this year!

New Books

Finally! They're here! New books!

To the relief of many (myself included) the big book order of the year has finally arrived...and processing has finished. Naturally, I have a few books that I read as processing was being done (thank goodness for being able to read 1-2 books in a night) and thoroughly enjoyed.

Book 1:

I've already enjoyed reading several of April Henry's mysteries, and this one is no different. Who you become at age 17 is influenced by the events of your life at age 3, 7, 8, and so on...so imagine being the witness to your mom's murder at age 3. Because of the circumstances surrounding her death, your father has been the chief suspect for the last 14 years but now everyone knows he didn't do it. Who did? 

Book 2:

This realistic fiction book covers such a wide range of social topics: date rape drugs, abortion, social media rumors, coming out, etc. that it's hard to realize the main character's focus in life is her small town's cheer-leading squad. Through the entire book, however, the author deals with the topics in a believable way.

Book 3:

This book blew up my Twitter feed all summer...so naturally I had to read it as soon as it came in! I was not disappointed. This historical novel explores the identity of Jack the Ripper from an entirely new perspective: a seventeen-year old girl who is secretly studying forensic science. Naturally the forensics of the time is limited, but the science was there.