Books Ahoy, Week 2

This year the Books Ahoy Mobile Library Cart is travelling to every English class over the course of two days. (Up to seven classes on Thursday and up to seven on Friday each block.) This is really helping get my FitBit steps on those two days!

It's a bit of a long haul out to the last two classes each block on Fridays since they are in the very first ( which means FARTHEST away) cabana (a.k.a. mobile classroom). Sidewalks would help, but the cart is managing to survive the bumpy boardwalk. It's easier with two people. However, sometimes I will be by myself when seniors are busy with meetings, senior trips, etc. (Building muscles!)

My question becomes the organization on the cart. All books on the cart are labeled with the new genre label. Should I separate and cluster each genre together, or should I just keep them randomized on the cart? I am trying to determine which would increase circulation and student interest the most.

Although some classes are a bit of a hard sell on checking out a book to read, circulation numbers are increasing. I am looking forward to that trend continuing through both the cart and when the fiction section is genrefied.

On another note, Mr. Wall, the Tech facilitator with whom I share an office, is on the senior trip today. That leaves me to "put out technology fires" in what I sincerely hope is a figurative sense...like the invasion of minions last year, technology fires seem to ignite when Mr. Wall is away....By 7:30 this morning, the fires appeared somewhat manageable as you can see by the fire extinguisher I attempted to use. Hopefully that continues all day.

Let the Genrefication Games Begin

Now that our labels are here, the first task has begun!

Our first task at moving the fiction section into genres is to place transparent colored labels on the existing spine label. The colors correspond to different genres.

Our color codes will be:
Green: Historical Fiction
Orange: Action/Adventure
Purple: Mystery/Suspense
Red: Horror/Thriller
White: Sports Fiction
Aqua: Paranormal
Blue: Realistic Fiction
Fluorescent Pink: Romance
Fluorescent Yellow: Fantasy
Gray: Dystopian
Burgundy: Science Fiction

Students are using the existing catalog to look for the genre. Some MARC records, however, don't list it. Our backup plan had been GoodReads...Naturally, we discovered that GoodReads will not load correctly on a chromebook. Not a big problem, but making a few books a little more difficult to label.

My library assistants are currently working on A-Dec...the center library shelves. When those are done, we'll begin on the tall shelves at the back of the library. This step will take a little while!

Breakout

In June I decided to revamp some of the ways my Library Science classes will cover different subjects. One of my new strategies became using a breakout box.

(For those that are unfamiliar with breakouts, you have a box with multiple locks of varying types  keeping it closed. Students are given a "story" and tasks/clues to lead to the combination of the locks. These tasks/clues should be instructional, academic, skill-based, and/or review in nature.)

Now when I went to the week-long DENSI conference, I attended a session on how to create your own breakout. One of the suggestions was to have a clue lead to another clue and then to the combination of a lock.

Well.....

Although I felt the 13 tasks were fairly straight-forward, there was one important thing I forgot to anticipate and take into account:

MY STUDENTS ALL TEND TO OVER-ANALYZE EVERYTHING.

That's right, they made it more difficult than it really was! For example, one clue said to "skip over just a bit and see what your rights are." The book the clue was found in was in the 347's of the Dewey Decimal System. Five books away on the same shelf is a book titled, What Are My Right?. The students were looking at shelves above, below, and two/three shelves away because "Due Process," court cases, and the judicial system all "deal with my rights."

Finally, I had to give them hints. "It's on the same shelf." Well, that led to them looking at almost every book EXCEPT the correct one. "Whose rights?" (answer: my rights. "Yes, now remember that.") Still, no luck. Finally, I just chuckled and told them they would all be smacking their own foreheads when they saw what the correct answer was....and they all did.

We haven't gotten through the entire box's clue. One class did get one extra lock opened compared to the other classes so I am giving them 30 minutes today to move forward. Hopefully they will have learned that I am not making this into rocket science...

To Weed or Not to Weed

This is a very important question! We have some obvious choices: books that, although brand new in appearance, are actually quite old. These books were part of the "school start-up package" and would not have been individually selected. (Louis L'Amour anyone?) However, that's where the easy part ends.

The reason for switching fiction to genrefied is simple: connect students with the books they want to read! If a student enjoys mysteries, having all the mysteries together allows the student to find new authors in the genre of choice. We have so many great books that are somewhat "lost" because a student who would enjoy it might not look at that particular shelf when browsing.

So the question becomes" "Would this book be enjoyed once in a genre location?" This was easy to answer for some non-circulating books, but not so easy for others. Why not leave the books and see? Well, moving to a genre organized collection is a lot of work. The more books, the more work you have to do. Each book is labeled by genre, then genres are separated to new shelves. Finally, each book must have a sublocation created in the library program to help students find them from the online catalog and to aid in inventory at the end of the year. This means weeding the collection in advance is a time-saver in the long run.

New Beginnings

Yes! The 2018-19 school year has arrived with a....hmmm...don't like bang. Maybe a bunch of virtual balloons?

What's happening in the library?

To start the year with some fun, I created a GooseChase scavenger hunt for teachers...It ends tomorrow, so there is still time to win that Starbucks gift card!!!!!

For students, this year there are 3 blocks with Library Science I classes. Hooray! Classes have multiple students in them and are going well. Tomorrow they get to learn how to use the green screen and film their first assignment on it.

A CCP (College and Career Promise) class is meeting Mondays and Wednesdays 1st block in the our back classroom area. It's a FULL class with 42 students. A few of those students hang out Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays since they don't have class. Other CCP students are finding the library a great place to be when their classes don't meet so the new Google Sign-in form is in use quite a bit.

This year, the Books Ahoy cart will travel to every English class on either Thursday or Friday. I'm excited to provide students the opportunity to check out a book and return it through their classes. We've got a bunch of new and high interest books on the cart, ready for it to begin once we are on a regular bell schedule.

New signage is calling attention to different genres this year. I've started with Zombies, Realistic Fiction, Science Fiction, and Murder Mysteries/Thrillers.

Finally, a great deal of weeding has begun because we are going to GENREFY this year! This year-long process will involve weeding books, labeling every book with a colored spine label to indicate it's main genre, moving the books into genre areas, and the changing the sublocation in the computer for every book.....I'm tired just thinking about it! One step at a time, though, and it should be done by the end of May.

DENSI2018

First, it's pronounced Den-s-i. Not Den-c. I know, it might take a little getting used to that extra syllable.

Back in the early spring, I applied to attend the Discovery Education Network Summer Institute because it would be held in Wilmington at UNC-W. As a DEN Ambassador and DEN STAR who trains teachers and others about how to best utilize this great resource, I felt this would be a wonderful way to receive more training myself, network with others from around the world, and find ways to help the teachers at CHHS use Discovery Ed.

Fortunately for me, I was accepted.

Starting yesterday, July 15, I have been at DENSI. Although living on campus is taking a little getting used to, not to mention walking all over a campus again, so far this has been a marvelous experience. I have already learned ways to work with students who need the written words of the videos on Discovery Ed, leveled texts within the site, more strategies for teachers to use...IT'S ONLY BEEN ONE DAY AND A SESSION ON SUNDAY!

Talk about feeling a bit overwhelmed! I try to keep notes but can't always keep up. Fortunately we are being given so many great resources. Tomorrow we have a field trip to help us learn more, and, of course, the best resource so far has been...

...my Discovery Channel Shark Week Hat! (as modeled here with my fellow teammate, Miguel from Miami!)

Captain is also enjoying himself:

 Wearing the fin!

 (He's a bear. A bear's gotta eat.)

 With new friends, Jonathan from London and Diego from Mexico.

 Getting ready to use DE for World Emoji Day!

 More ways to differentiate with DE!

Whose plate belongs to whom?

 Virtual Reality

 Seahawk Popcorn!

 Merge Cubes for 3-D experiences

 Engineering contest!

 Mohamed Ali from Egypt!

 Motto to remember!!!!!

Recap

Somehow time disappeared, and I appear to be missing a few months. NO, I don't want them back. That would mean recalling all seniors and everyone retaking exams...

Here's a recap:

The foot is mostly fine and Da Boot is gone.

The school year finished as it normally does: inventory, inventory, inventory! Shelf order, cleaning, exams, etc.

Other than that, what else to say about the missing months?

I spent 2 weeks in June in professional development. More on that later.

Feel caught up? Good!