March 3, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge Week 4: Raising Our Voices with Flipgrid

I’m participating in the World Read Aloud Day blogging challenge. Each week, I will respond to a question along with many other bloggers participating in this global celebration of reading aloud. Our students, teachers, and families will also be involved with these questions each week as I invite them to respond through Flipgrids, Thinglinks, and more.

For the final week, I’m asking students, teachers, and families to raise their voices by reading aloud parts of their favorite books. We are using a Flipgrid to capture these read alouds because it gives students 90 seconds to read aloud. To get them ready, I made a Youtube video of myself reading my favorite part of this year’s Newbery-winning book, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuninated Adventures.

Kate DiCamillo’s writing speaks to me in so many ways, but this particular part of Flora & Ulysses has proven to be inspiration for our whole school this year as well as our library. We are expecting the miraculous every day!

Visit our Flipgrid to hear more readers share their favorite stories, and feel free to try out Flipgrid by adding your own.

http://flipgrid.com/#f4ad9b3e

For more information on World Read Aloud Day visit http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

To connect with other libraries and classrooms, visit our shared Google Doc.

February 28, 2014 by plemmonsa

Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day 2014 is Here!

Wow! I am so excited that Read Across America and World Read Aloud Day is here. Some miraculous things have happened since planning for this week started in December.

The shared Google Doc that Shannon Miller and I created has been very busy and growing every day.

I’ve been having countless conversations on Twitter, Facebook, and email to connect our teachers and students with authors and classrooms around the world. The global collaboration that has gone into this week is energizing, inspiring, and exhausting! I can’t wait to see all of the planning come to life next week. I know that there will be so many moments that will inspire and surprise us during the week. I’m also thinking back to last year and how the weather changed our plans! I’m hoping for global great weather next week so that all of our connections happen.

Here’s a look at our week!

On Monday, we will have about 50 guest readers from the community reading Dr. Seuss books in every classroom.

These are a few of the books we will share with libraries, classrooms, and authors around the world during the rest of the week.

On Monday we will connect with:

Okle Miller and her students in Florida
Crystal Hendrix and her students in North Carolina
Wendy Garland and her students in Massachusetts
Jennifer Reed and her students in Massachusetts along with author, Peter Reynolds
Jenny Lussier and her students in Connecticut along with author, Ame Dyckman
Nancy Edwards and her students in Seattle, WA
Shannon Miller and her students in Iowa
Kathy Schmidt and her students in Gwinnett County, GA

On Tuesday, we will connect with:

Erika Victor and her students in Berlin, Germany!
Jennifer Reed and her students in Massachusetts
Heather Temske and her students in Roswell, GA
Laura D’Elia and her students in Massachusetts
Christy Brennan and her students in Pennsylvania
Shannon Miller and her students in Iowa along with author, Deborah Freedman

On Wednesday (the official World Read Aloud Day), we will connect with:

Donna MacDonald and her students in Vermont
Matthew Winner and his students in Maryland
Anne Marie Pace, author
Kate DiCamillo, Newbery-winning author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Sherry Gick and her students in Indiana along with author, Barbara O’Connor
Shannon Miller and her students in Iowa along with author, Jenny Sue Kostecki Shaw
Tanya Lee Stone, author

On Thursday, we will connect with:

Edie Crook and her students in North Carolina
Okle Miller and her students in Florida
Cherie Smeltzer and her students in New Hampshire
Shawna Ford and her students in Texas
Jenny Lussier and her students in Connecticut
Wendy Garland and her students in Massachusetts
Shannon Miller and her students in Iowa

On Friday, we will connect with:

Meghan Nels and her students in Massachusetts
Shannon Miller (Iowa), Matthew Winner (Maryland), and Jesse Klausmier
Cathy Potter and her students in Maine
Shawn Ford (Texas) and Shannon Hyman (Virginia) and their students
Stacy Ford and his students in Texas
Randie Groden and her students in Massachusetts
Shannon Miller and her students in Iowa with author, Tom Angleberger

Whew! It will truly be an amazing week!

We are going to attempt to document our week as much as possible through pictures and videos. We are also going to work on a map of our virtual travels using Google Tour Builder. During each Skype, we will make sure to ask where are guests are specifically located. Then, after the Skype, I will pull up our Google Tour and we’ll add pins and details to the map. By the end of the week, I can’t wait to look at the whole tour and remember our travels.

February 24, 2014 by plemmonsa

Honoring Student Voices through Student Book Budgets with Capstone Press

For the past several years, I have reserved a portion of our library funding to be completely controlled by students. Over time, I’ve seen student-selected books be among some of the most popular books in the collection. The library collection is mainly for our students, so why not let their voice be heard in the collection development process. Part of our library funding comes from the state, and another part comes from fundraisers such as our fall and spring book fair. Since students and their families shop at our book fairs to build their home libraries while supporting our school library, I see student book budgets as being one small way of giving back to our community.

This year, our book budget process has gone through some changes. In order to involve a few more students at various stages, I broke the process into parts. Part 1 was to gather data from the school. Every Tuesday and Thursday I have a group of five 5th grade boys who work in the library as a service project. Together, we developed a Google form to gather information from the school. We wanted to track the number of students we surveyed at each grade level, the number of boys and girls, specific reading interests, and specific requests.

Once the survey was created, we generated a QR code so that they could quickly scan the code and go out into the school to survey students with iPads. This was mainly needed with our youngest students. For older students, I emailed the survey to them to fill out.

Each year, we tend to see similar results with our data, but I told the students that we can’t assume that we know what people are wanting in the library because it can change. Here’s a look at the main data they collected.

Next, I blocked off some library time during 4th and 5th grade’s recess time and asked for students who would like to participate in an alternative recess for a few days to spend money on books. I’ve tried doing this during lunch and it is just too complicated to juggle food, catalogs, vendor websites, etc. I didn’t get as big of a response from students this year, so we’ll see if we return to this model next year.

On day 1, the 4th and 5th grade book budget students came to look at the survey results. They made some decisions to inform how much money should be dedicated to various categories. I printed the specific requests of students and Savannah and Isaiah spent time highlighting some specific titles that students were asking for. It was a tedious process for them! The even got down to searching the library catalog to see how many copies of books we had like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and discussing if there was justification to order even more copies of existing titles. We finally all agreed on some overall categories of: Comics/Graphic novels, sports, humor, scary, world records, and action/adventure.

Even on this 1st day, they started having some tough conversation. For example, they saw that World Records was a highly requested category, but from experience, they know that students are mostly talking about Guinness World Records. They decided that instead of dividing the budget and giving this category several hundred dollars, they would just buy 2 new copies of the 2014 World Records for about $60. It’s always fascinating to see how quickly students realize how a budget works and how hard it is to make decisions for the library. One of them said, “Mr. Plemmons, I know this is only a small part of your job, but it sure is hard!”

On day 2, we welcomed Jim Boon, Capstone Press Sales Rep. I love working with Jim because he treats the students like young professionals. I also love that Jim listens to what students are asking for and tailors his talk and display to the goals that they have. He setup displays of books that matched their goal categories with a few books that connected to their themes in different ways. He gave every student a new Capstone catalog and a pen. As he proceeded to show students various books, he invited students to turn through the catalog, circle books of interest, and fold down the corners of pages. After he shared some specific books, students came up and started browsing through the books on display. Jim and I proceeded to have individual conversations with students about the books in the catalogs and help them see where prices could be found. We also mentioned to students that Capstone offers Capstone Rewards and various incentives. For example, if we spend $1750 on our order, we get 30% back in Capstone Rewards, but if we spend less than that we get 10% back. I love the math that comes into this project each year because it is real world application of an important life skill.

I also love that in our individual conversations there are stories that emerge. Jim had a great conversation with one of our students, Ember. She consistently asked Jim about the prices of every book. The budget was weighing heavy on her mind and she was thinking hard about how to get the most books for our money. In their conversations, there were a few books that Ember desperately wanted in our collection, and I loved that Jim made sure to leave one of those books that she requested for us to add to our collection! I know Ember will greatly appreciate it.

Students were having so much fun that they decided to take their catalogs with them to continue marking titles of interest. I’m a little scared of seeing what they come back with! It’s such a hard process to cross books off of the wish list, but it is an important process to choose the very best books for our collection at the current time with the funds that we have.

This process is beneficial to me as the librarian too because I get to see books that students are getting excited about. For the purposes of the project, I remind students to focus on their goals and only purchase what matches the requests. However, I’m over to the side writing down titles to put on my own ordering list for this year or the beginning of next year knowing that the titles already have a group of readers waiting on them.

Thank you to Capstone Press for your tremendous customer service, your professional relationship with all of your users including students, and for giving our students a voice in collection development. You are superstars!

Our next step will be to look at one more vendor to fill in some holes in our wish list, and the we will start the tedious process of cutting books from our list until we have our final order.

February 24, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge #3: Snapshot of My Reading Life

For week 3, I’m asking students, teachers, and families to take pictures of their reading lives. They will send these photos to our Flickr account via email. Those photos will appear in the Flickr stream on our blog,

but I’ll also use them to create a slideshow of our reading lives.

Here’s a little snapshot of my reading life. It was hard to take just one picture, so I cheated and took a few!

My bookshelf

This is my bookshelf in our living room at home. Looks messy doesn’t it? That’s because my kids are constantly putting things on it and pulling things off. At the very top of the shelf you’ll find a few of my autographed books. I have so many that I had to put some in a boxes. Many more are sprinkled throughout the books on my son and daughter’s shelves. You’ll find books by Kate DiCamillo, Barbara O’Connor, Patricia Polacco, Jerry Pinkney, Aaron Becker, and Carmen Deedy (just to name a few). I love reading books aloud that have been signed by the author because I somehow feel a connection with the author knowing that their pen has actually touched the pages I’m reading. The signatures and dedications also hold stories of their own. When I hold an autographed book, I’m reminded of the story connected with meeting and hearing from that author.

My daughter, Alora, with her autographed copy of Mercy Watson

About 4 years ago, I met Kate DiCamillo at the Decatur Book Festival. My wife and I were expecting our first child in December of that year and we wanted to get a special book signed to her. At the time no one knew the name that we had chosen for our daughter. As I handed Kate DiCamillo a copy of Mercy Watson, I said Alora’s name to another person besides my wife for the very first time. The name became very real at that point. Kate DiCamillo stared at the name on the yellow post-it note and said, “Tell Alora what a beautiful name she has and welcome to the world.” When Alora was reading this book the other day, she saw that her name was on the title page. I shared the story of getting the book signed and what Kate DiCamillo said, and Alora said, “Wow! Thank you! That is so kind of her.” I love how our reading lives are filled with wonderful stories, but that those wonderful stories lead us to memories and stories of our own.

Alora’s bookshelf, age 4

This is my daughter’s bookshelf. It is filled with books about Disney princesses and Dora the Explorer, but it also has so much more. I love that we can share these Disney favorites with one another, but that we can also sit down and read books together like Creepy Carrots, Epossumondas, and Mercy Watson. Seeing stories come alive through her eyes makes me enjoy and appreciate them even more. Most of my reading life is spent reading picture books to my kids or reading books to share with students at school.

Anderson’s bookshelf (age 20 months)

Books often make their way from Alora’s room to my son Anderson’s room and back. Right now, I read with Anderson every night while my wife Denise reads with Alora or tells stories aloud. Anderson loves nursery rhymes like Hey Diddle Diddle and Jack & Jill. He also loves Goodnight Moon and Babies. Any books that are short, repetitive, with lots of pictures are the ones he likes to read. We often spend time reading the same book over and over each night until he moves on to something new. He has also stretched me to tune up my singing voice because he loves books that are songs. We are still reading/singing Little Drummer Boy, It’s a Small World, and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands several nights each week.

Our school library is filled with so many different kinds of books, and this is another very important part of my reading life. It’s impossible for me to read every book on these shelves myself, but students bring these books to life for me in my own reading life by sharing what they are reading and enjoying.

A few books that our Barrow kids enjoyed!

I love that every day I spend time reading with someone whether it’s my own children or my children at school.

For more information on World Read Aloud Day visit http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

To connect with other libraries and classrooms, visit our shared Google Doc.

February 20, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge #2 (Part 2): Student Voices

The challenge for Week 2 is to have conversations between adults and children. To give my students, teachers, and families a voice, I created a Google Form to respond to this week’s question. Each Barrow student who fills out the form will have a chance to win a new book to read aloud to someone!

My students and teachers have been responding to these questions throughout this week, so I wanted to share some of their voices with you.

Lucy R., 3rd grade

I think everyone should read….Love Stargirl

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…Frederick Douglass

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Ramona from the Ramona books

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…realistic fiction

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…not being able to stop reading

Savannah M., 5th grade

I think everyone should read….The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…George Washington

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…the victim in the story

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Lemony Snicket

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…you can sound like someone else, not just who you really are. Ex: I never thought I would say “I got a booboo!”, when I was in fifth grade, but when I was reading, I did!

Isabella B. J., 4th grade

I think everyone should read….Big Nate just because it has something for everyone in it it’s not my favorite book though

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…a librarian

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Loralie from smells like dog

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…fiction adventures and fantasy

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…I get to hear how people really say it like with passion and expressions

Michael R., 4th grade

I think everyone should read….Harry Potter

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…J K Rowling

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Ron Weasley

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…J K Rowling

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…the voices.

Treasa M., 4th grade

I think everyone should read….books about helping the Earth and making it a better place.

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…My Mom / anyone in my family

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Yoko (Yoko’s Paper Cranes) or Kitten (from Kitten’s first Full Moon)

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Animal books and fictional books.

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…Listening to all of the characters doing things, fitting pieces of the story together, and spending time with whoever is reading to me.

Lily M. 4th grade

I think everyone should read….Wonder

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…my mom

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…the mean guys

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Bonnie Briant

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…

Marie Boyle, Barrow Kindergarten Teacher

I think everyone should read….The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…Maya Angelou

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…any animal character

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Mystery or Fiction

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…Sounding like the characters

Jan Mullins, Barrow Spectrum Teacher

I think everyone should read….The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…Ms. Cross

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Kenny (Watson)

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…history or biography

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…bringing characters to life and seeing kids’ eyes light up with real literature

Beth Selleck, Barrow 5th Grade Teacher

I think everyone should read….Absolutely!

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…My daughter

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…The bear from Jamberry

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…historical fiction

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…sharing the time with others

Alanna J, 2nd grade

I think everyone should read….Jazz baby

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…Mom

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…My dad

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Eric Carle

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…I get to talk.

Yerahm H., 4th grade

I think everyone should read….Owly

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…Great!

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Owly

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…I guess it’s Andy Runton.

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…when you just listen

Tamara S., 4th grade

I think everyone should read….chapter books

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…my mom

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…me and the charcter

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…chapter books

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…the books

Bo S., 2nd grade

I think everyone should read….Diary of a wimpy kid

If I could listen to anyone in the world read to me it would be…My mom

When I read aloud, my favorite character to sound like is…Greg Heffly

The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is…Horrible Harry

My favorite part about reading aloud or being read aloud to is…Getting to read and listen to fun books

For more information on World Read Aloud Day visit http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

To connect with other libraries and classrooms, visit our shared Google Doc.

February 17, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge #2: Adult & Child

Last week, the students and I, along with students from Van Meter Iowa & Okle Miller in Tampla FL, added to a Flipgrid to share our favorite read aloud memories. You can watch and listen to those here: http://flipgrid.com/#ae0e8232

Because of the icy week we had last week, I spent a lot of time at home. I took time to have a conversation about these questions with my 4 year old daughter, Alora. I’ve expanded on my answers a bit in this post, but these are the topics that Alora and I discussed together.

Daddy & Daughter

1. I think everyone in the world should read…

Me: books that speak to their hearts. I think that we all have common connections to why we all read, but I love that we all enjoy different kinds of books. We don’t all have to love Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Harry Potter or Princess books, but each of those books speaks to different readers in different ways. It’s no secret that my favorite author is Kate DiCamillo, but the reason she is my favorite author is that there’s something about her voice in her writing that connects with my heart. From a little girl befriending a dog and hearing the stories of a community to a rabbit trying to find his way home to a tiny mouse looking for the light in the world to a miraculous superhero squirrel, Kate DiCamillo’s books are filled with words that seem like magic on a page to me.

Child: Peter Pan and princesses because I like those. I like princesses and Tinker Bell. Everybody likes princess books.

2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be…

Me: It’s hard to pick just one! My second grade teacher Mrs. DeLoach (whose name has changed to Mrs. McKinney) would be one. She brought the characters of the Uncle Remus stories to life and a beautiful southern accent. Those voices were ones that I wanted to imitate in my own reading. Now, I love to hear Carmen Agra Deedy read stories and tell stories. The tones, rhythms, movements, and volumes of her voice keep me hooked into every detail of the story. I think I could listen to her tell stories for hours.

Child: Mommy and Daddy because I don’t know how to read until I get bigger.

3. When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is…

Me: So many people love to hear me read southern stories and create the voices for those characters. I love to make the voices for the characters in Epossumondas. Both Mama and Eppossumondas are such fun to bring to life. I also love to hear how the voices that I create are different that the voices that other readers create for those same characters.

Child: Tinker Bell because she just rings a bell and doesn’t say anything.

4. The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf (or e-reader) is…

Me: Books by Kate DiCamillo. I have every book that she has written and most of them are signed. Of course now they aren’t all in one place on the bookshelf because they are spread between the living room and both kids’ rooms. That’s a good sign of being well-loved.

Child: Fairytales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio….Dora went to a fairytale one time too.

5. My favorite part about reading aloud or being read to is…

Me: It allows me to escape into the story in a different way than if I was reading it myself. When a story is read aloud, the words seem to transform the space around everyone listening to the story. For just a few moments, the busy world disappears and I get to step into a time machine that allows me to escape and experience the world through different eyes. When I’m read aloud to, I don’t have to think about saying the words just right. I can just listen and imagine.

Child: hearing the different voices that you and Mommy make.

For more information on World Read Aloud Day visit http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

To connect with other libraries and classrooms, visit our shared Google Doc.

February 10, 2014 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge #1: Read Aloud Memories

For the next 3 weeks, I’m participating in the World Read Aloud Day blogging challenge. Each week, I will respond to a question along with many other bloggers participating in this global celebration of reading aloud. Our students, teachers, and families will also be involved with these questions each week as I invite them to respond through Flipgrids, Thinglinks, and more. For week 1, I’ve created a Flipgrid. You are welcome to add your own response to week 1’s question along with our students and families by visiting http://flipgrid.com/#ae0e8232 We will be adding to this grid throughout this week.

The Question for week 1

“What is your earliest or fondest memory in which someone read aloud to you?”

My Mom

When I was little, my mom took me every week to the public library in our rural community of Blue Ridge, GA. I vividly remember climbing the steps, walking up the ramp, pulling open the heavy doors, breathing in the smell of the used books for sale in the entryway, and being greeted by name by the public librarian. The children’s section was small, but I had no problem getting an armload of books to take home each week.

My Mammaw

My mom and I would sit in my bed at night and read aloud stories together. Even more than reading aloud the words, we spent time imagining and creating our own stories about the pictures. I remember looking at the characters circling the back of every Little Golden Book and how we would pause at each character and tell a story about that one character. This shared storytelling experience was a foundation of my love for reading. On this same note, my grandmother, “Mammaw”, would look at pictures with me and ask me what was beyond what we could see in the picture. She had a talent for imagining what was beyond the edges of the illustration and telling it in a way that was fact. “There’s a little barn with a man sitting on a stool milking a cow. Do you see it?” Whatever she said I believed. Mammaw would also take to me to yard sales and used book stores to buy books for my own library and we would spend time sharing those stories and talking about them together while my parents were at work.

Those experiences led me to imagine and create stories on my own. Magnets on the refrigerator, porcelain figures lining the shelves, miniature figures, and more all became characters in my own stories and just about anything and everything in the house became a stage. My Mammaw even used a tape recorder (if you know what that is) to record me sharing my made-up stories.

I hope that when I read aloud stories with students whether it’s print, digital, or oral storytelling that I somehow unleash a bit of imagination that will lead to students creating their own story experiences in their lives.

This year, World Read Aloud Day will be a grand experience in our library. Here’s a glimpse at what our week will look like. On March 3rd, we’ll kick off the week with in-person guest readers from our community. These readers will share favorite Dr. Seuss books in every classroom in our school. Immediately following this, our World Read Aloud connections will begin.

Across the week, we have at least 36 connections planned with libraries and classrooms in Florida, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Vermont, Maryland, Indiana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas, Maine, and Germany!

We’ll also connect with authors like Tanya Lee Stone, Barbara O’Connor, Laurel Snyder, Anne Marie Pace, Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, and Jesse Klausmeier!

Each session will be a bit different, but they will have some common elements too.

We’ll greet one another and tell them where we are located.
We’ll read aloud across the miles. Sometimes this will be students reading to students. Other times, the adults might take turns reading pages from the same book or select characters to portray. Authors will read from their own books or favorite books and take time to allow kids to ask questions about their writing.
To close, students will have a chance to make some connections between the 2 locations. Students often like to find out what the weather is like or what kids like to do for fun in different states. These closing moments build connections between us as a human race.
In some cases, we will collaborate with classes on some type of project. For example, we might create a Padlet or a Flipgrid to share written and video responses to the books we read.
We also take time to look at a Google map and chart the distance between the two connecting schools. It’s really fun when there’s more than one school or author on the Skype call and you can connect multiple dots on a map to see how our voices are uniting across the miles.

I hope that you will plan your own World Read Aloud Day activities. There’s a wealth of resources that can be found at http://litworld.org/worldreadaloudday

March 6, 2013 by plemmonsa

World Read Aloud Day 2013

Wow! Even though a major snowstorm was making its way across the country, we celebrated World Read Aloud Day with multiple authors and classrooms around the country. Educators around the world have been orchestrating this day for quite some time through multiple social networks. Through Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Skype in the Classroom, and Kate Messner’s excellent author website we have planned day-long and even week-long reading events for our students.

Twitter was buzzing this morning with authors and librarians having to reschedule due to the snow, but here at Barrow most of our scheduled stayed secure. Matthew Winner had to cancel due to snow impacting his flight to NC, so Kathy Schmidt and her students stepped in for us. Anne Marie Pace, author of Vamperina Ballerina, had to reschedule since the Virginia snow shut off her power. It’s pretty amazing that we were able to pull off so many connections even with bad weather.

Highlights from the day included:

Okle Miller, librarian in Tampa Florida, and I read We Are In A Book. Okle was Piggie and I was Elephant. Kindergarten students loved it! We tried to play into the cameras in order to look at our audiences.
Kathy Schmidt in Gwinnett County, GA had students listen to me read Same, Same but Different and talk about what was the same and different about living just 48 miles from each other.
The amazing Laurel Snyder shared a favorite picture book with 2 fourth grade classes and then gave them a sneak peak of a new chapter book.
Jesse Klausmeier, author of Open This Little Book, skyped with our students and Shannon Miller’s students in Van Meter, IA at the same time. A favorite question from one of our students for Jesse was “Did it make your family happy when you wrote your book?” We all almost teared up. So sweet!
I shared a favorite story by Colleen Sally called Epposumondas Saves the Day with Mary Priske’s 4th grade in Mt. Vernon, IA and Mrs. Griffith’s 3rd grade joined in too. Students in both states chanted “sody, sody, sody sallyratus” as I read.
Laura D’Elia, librarian in Massachusetts, and I read Same, Same but Different and compared living in GA with living in Massachusetts. Students in Massachusetts had 1:1 iPads while we have 1:1 netbooks.
Lisa Waggett at GoForth Elementary in League City, TX and I read Same Same but Different to 1st grade classes and compared our 2 states.
Mrs. Brink & Mrs. Ramseyer’s 2nd grade students read poems in 2 voices with Jeff McHugh’s 4th grade students in Arlington Heights, IL. Our students had a lot of energy and it was fun to combine our voices across the miles to read poetry.
Jody Feldman, author of the Gollywhopper Games, read aloud to our 5th graders and allowed them to ask questions. She also gave them a preview of the sequel.

What a packed day filled with releasing words into the air across the country. Skype is such a powerful tool to connect us beyond the walls of our school. It was so interesting to see how much our students don’t know about beyond the boundaries of Athens. I predict that the work that we did today will lead to many long-distance collaborations with libraries around the country. Let’s continue to share the power of reading, connect our students, and understand what it truly means to be part of a global community!

January 31, 2013 by plemmonsa

Books are like a Box of Chocolates

blind date

About a week ago, I saw this picture on twitter and Facebook. It was getting tons of attention and it made me very curious about the impact this sort of mystery might have on readers. So…..I shared the picture on our Barrow Media Center Facebook page, and a few fans had some great ideas about connecting this to Valentine’s Day or to a box of chocolates since elementary students don’t really go on blind dates.

I took these ideas and passed them off to our wonderful library volunteers, Leslye Queen, Jen McDowell, and Hester Meyers who got the pieces in place. Leslye pulled books that were new or hadn’t circulated in awhile, wrapped the books in butcher and construction paper, wrote the barcode numbers on the back of the wrapping, and made a master list of the books that had been wrapped. Jen cutout hearts in preparation for a student creation area. Hester continued wrapping books and labeling the back. I found short blurbs for each of the books, printed them out, and glued them to the wrapping. I also made a small poster explaining the promotion.

All day today, the wrapped books have been sitting on top of a bookshelf and all day students have been asking what they are. I’ve just responded with “Listen to BTV tomorrow morning”. This has peaked their curiosity even more and they’ve started begging me to tell them why the books are wrapped. I love it!

Just look at how these students were acting!

Tomorrow on BTV, I will let them know the details.

Each book is wrapped with only a blurb about it.
Students are invited to check out a wrapped book and give it a taste because books are like a box of chocolates….you never know what you’re going to get. They will check out the books by typing in the barcode on the back.
If they love the book, they should consider doing a review for the book so that it gets more promotion.
If they know of a book in the library that should be wrapped, they are invited to wrap it, put a blurb on the book, add it to the master list, and put it on the shelf. There will be a “making station” available for them which will include paper, hearts cut-outs, glue, scissors, crayons, and markers.

I’m hoping that this catches on and becomes something that the students manage themselves. It offers one more way for students to connect with and participate in their library. It also brings attention to books that are new or haven’t been checked out while also challenging our tendency to choose books based on the cover or popularity. I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow!

May 2, 2012 by plemmonsa

Save Our Paraprofessionals

In the current CCSD budget that was tentatively approved in April 2012, all first grade and media paraprofessionals are going to be eliminated in the 2012-13 school year. All paraprofessionals serve a vital role in the education of our students. Tough economic times have forced our district to cut millions of dollars from the budget, but it has resulted in critical supports for student learning to be cut. These cuts will greatly impact the kinds of instruction that teachers and media specialists will be able to offer as attempt to move into the Common Core Standards and 21st Century Learning. Below, I am sharing the letter that I sent to all district leaders and our board of education. I invite you to talk to the media specialists and teachers in the district to learn more about the role of the paraprofessional in the lives of our students and programs. I also invite you to attend one of the public hearings and express your concerns and solutions to the board. Our community has amazing ideas for how the budget cuts can be met without cutting the meaningful, 21st century instruction for our students, but it takes speaking up to create change.

Board Hearings are as follows:

Tuesday – May 15, 2012 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at Alps Road Elementary

Tuesday – May 22, 2012 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at Gaines Elementary

Thursday – May 24, 2012 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at BOE office on Mitchell Bridge Rd

Dear CCSD Board Members, District Leaders, and Families:

For just a few moments, I invite you to suspend any stereotypes that you might have about libraries, those where libraries are very quiet spaces closely guarded by a shushing librarian with a bun and glasses.

Instead, I invite you to think of a library as a productively, buzzing place with multiple lessons taking place simultaneously as individual students come to research, checkout books, read, and meet with mentors. It’s a space where multiple kinds of adults lead lessons from the media specialist to classroom teachers to the media paraprofessional. It’s a space where students become creators of information and story rather than just consumers. It looks something like this:
http://www.schooltube.com/video/29b463bcb37c4365ba49/ & http://www.schooltube.com/video/10fe2a659eea4ea6b727

Our media center is the hub of the school. We serve all students, teachers, and families in PreK-5th grade. In the current school year, we have seen in excess of 45,000 students, checked out more than 24,000 books, and engaged in collaborative, innovative projects with every grade level in the school multiple times. Here’s just a snippet of the standards-based projects we have offered this year:

PreK students used studio equipment to write and film their own weather forecasts
Kindergarten (and other early grades) used the PebbleGo database to research various topics and write informational reports.

First grade created movies about the four seasons through a collaboration with the art teacher and media specialist
Third grade used databases and pathfinders to research plants and animals of Georgia before designing a new state park inhabited by native plants and animals.
Fourth grade students worked in collaborative groups to study the works of specific authors. They used Glogster and Animoto to create interactive posters and book trailers advertising their authors to rising fourth graders.
In collaborative groups, fifth grade students used databases and pathfinders to explore standards from 3 massive social studies units. They created Glogster interactive posters to teach the other fifth grade students the social studies standards.
A group of second-fifth graders used a budget and goals to purchase new books for the media center.

In the upcoming years, our district has plans to move toward having 1 to 1 technology as well as becoming a model for 21st century learning. These plans do not include additional support for technology infrastructure, professional learning, or professional support. On top of this, our state is rolling out the Common Core Curriculum, which our current budget does not support. Our media center programs could be one of the primary leaders of this new endeavor if they are nurtured with trained media specialists and media paraprofessionals who engage in professional dialogue and collaboration with one another and other teachers.

As the library media specialist, teaching is one of my major roles. I rarely shelve, catalog, or checkout books. Instead, I collaborate, teach, enrich, and support. I offer professional learning to teachers on the latest technology. I attend district meetings to contribute to the discussion of 21st century learning. I know every grade’s curriculum. Even though our district has instructional technology specialists and technology technicians, they are spread between multiple buildings making it difficult to support the amount of technology related projects needed at each school. I am the primary person who models and works alongside teachers in using technology with students. Because of these things, our school is recognized as being an exemplar for 21st century learning.

At Barrow, our library media program has received the top honor in the state of Georgia: Exemplary Elementary Library Media Program. As the media specialist, I have received Library Media Specialist of the Year for Northeast Georgia, the Foundation for Excellence Instructional Leadership Award, and was named a district finalist for Teacher of the Year. In the past year, I’ve presented at the American Association for School Librarians National Conference and the School Library Journal Leadership Summit in Washington DC. Our media center blog (https://barrowmediacenter.wordpress.com) is internationally read. The GA DOE has invited us to use their 21st Century Model Classroom to teach and film an exemplar lesson that can be used in professional learning. My library is not the only one in the district to receive prestigious honors. Clarke Middle has also been named an Exemplary Library Program and Burney Harris will very likely be named Exemplary soon after being named Exceptional two years ago.

CCSD has some of the best library programs in the state. 21st Century instruction is already being modeled in our libraries throughout many of the schools in the district. Instead of celebrating these programs and asking “what can we do to help you excel?”, our district recognizes our programs by cutting one of the most vital pieces, our media paraprofessionals. Cutting paraprofessionals will leave a gaping wound in our library programs that cannot simply be fixed with the band-aid of parent volunteers. Relying on parent volunteers to fulfill a paraprofessional’s role is asking them to assist students in locating materials and research, pull resources for teachers based on standards, lead instructional centers during lessons, shelve hundreds of books per day, assist students with self checkout, catalog all books, run multiple kinds of reports, run the media center each time the librarian is at a collaborative meeting or fixing technology, weed outdated materials, reorganize the library for better patron use, and more. What’s also disturbing, is that even though our paraprofessionals work with students, teachers, and families everyday in a variety of ways, they are not considered the same as classroom paraprofessionals and have no opportunity to find another job within the district if they are indeed cut.

Cutting paraprofessionals forces every library in our district to make difficult decisions about our programs. Do we quit collaborating with teachers on standards-based, innovative lessons incorporating technology? Do we quit fixing broken technology? Do we tell students that they can only checkout books during certain hours of the day? Do we quit offering professional learning for teachers and parents on 21st century tools and skills? Do we quit offering reading incentives and special programs? Do we close the media center every time we have to be away for planning, meetings, and events? The list goes on and on. We can’t realistically continue to offer the programs that we currently offer. I fear that our libraries will slip into some of the stereotypes that we have worked so hard to break.

I know that we are in extremely tough budget times, but how can you justify cutting a program that has done so much for our students, our teachers, our families, and our district? How can you cut a program that serves every stakeholder in the school?

I hope you will look at the many suggestions offered through the forums, Myra Blackmon’s collection, and other letters to closely consider alternatives to cutting paraprofessionals. Even though Dr. Lanoue has said that professional learning will not be cut, I ask you to closely look at how much our district spends on professional learning. Do we really need to spend thousands of dollars to hire outside consultants to offer professional learning? Why don’t we look at the exemplary work taking place within our own district and learn from one another for free? Why not harness the power of social media and teach our teachers how to develop their own professional learning network tailored to what they actually need to learn about? Rather than have instructional technology specialists that are spread between multiple schools, could we look to our media specialists as leaders in technology within each building and support them each with a full-time paraprofessional? Could our current technology specialists be a primary source of professional learning for our district rather than bringing in technology consultants such as the UGA ETC? Could our instructional coaches be the primary professional learning for common core?

If you make this cut, I fear that next year, the district will continue to cut our library programs until there’s nothing left but a room full of books and computer checkout stations. Students will enter the room without the support of a trained professional who can help them navigate and evaluate the overwhelming abyss of digital and print information. I fear that we will have a plethora of technology for our students to use but no true model or support in how to use it. We will have lost the heart of the school. Please save our paraprofessionals and our school libraries.

Sincerely,

Andy Plemmons

Media Specialist

David C. Barrow Elementary