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Take the Reading Heroes Challenge

Starting Monday September 20th, a new reading challenge begins in the Barrow Media Center.  In honor of our upcoming book fair, “Here’s to Our Heroes: Reading Saves the Day”, we’re challenging all Barrow students, teachers, and parents to participate in a month long reading promotion called the Reading Heroes Challenge.  Each participant will set 3 important reading goals for the next 4 weeks.

Goal 1:  Heroes need to read a lot in order to become experts at what they do.  How many pages or books can you read before October 8th?

Goal 2:  Heroes need to spend a lot of time training to be good at what they do.  How many minutes can you read before October 8th?

Goal 3:  Heroes never know what kind of challenge they may face.  What book can you read that is outside your comfort zone?

Entry forms are coming in Monday’s purple folder or can be downloaded at Slideshare.  Set your goals.  Visit the Media Center for great books.  Keep track of your goals.  Turn in your completed sheets to the Media Center by October 8th.  Each completed entry will enter you into a drawing for a book fair gift certificate and your name will be displayed in our book fair decorations.

Are you up for a challenge?

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Raindrops are Falling on Our Heads

Usually on our blog, I share reflections on lessons, exciting new resources, or news of great books. Today, however, I share a leak. Over the summer, our media center experienced multiple leaks. These leaks were not new. In fact, they were leaks that we asked multiple times last year to be fixed. Each time they are “fixed” within a few hours they start again. They typically happen in the warmer months when the air conditioning is working overtime. Over the summer, the leaks damaged several books along with our ceiling above the circulation desk.

Upon our return to school, we started the year with no air conditioning. Then we learned that we needed to set the air at a high temperature in order to keep the leaks from starting, which was like not having air conditioning at all. Finally, even this stopped working, and now the air conditioner just leaks no matter what the temperature is. The worst area is in front of the Smartboard where we have increased the number of buckets on a daily basis. We have 14 buckets so far and even those aren’t catching all the water that has now made a wet ring on the carpet. Two ceiling tiles have been removed and one is on the verge of falling. Due to budget cuts, they can’t call HVAC repair services to come frequently to work on the problem and when they do come, they tell us there is no way to fix it.

So…we make the most out of it. I’ve invited students as they sit on the rug to take themselves to a swamp after a rainstorm and imagine the drops of water clinging to the Spanish moss before lightly plopping into the murky waters. I’ve invited students to imagine they are in the rain forest under a canopy of bright green trees enjoying a story from afar. We’ve welcomed the drops of water that hit us in the face and head during the lesson and are thankful for the cool, dirty drops of water that refresh us from the heat. We laugh when I trip over the buckets full of water and almost take my second bath of the day. We brainstorm ways we could use the water that is collecting in the buckets.

I have no idea when or if the leak will be fixed. I want it to be fixed so badly, but I try to be thankful for what we have. As the water drips, I think of the classroom I visited in Mexico where sunlight poured through the cracks in the tin sides of the building and rain water rushed across the dirt floor creating a muddy mess for the students and teacher. On this 5th anniversary of Katrina, I think of the many classrooms and libraries that lost everything and had to have classes in inconvenient places. I try to be thankful for what I have.

What physical obstacles do you face in your classrooms or libraries? How do you handle them?

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Monthly Report August 2010

This year, my goal is to do a monthly report that shows happenings and statistics in our media center. This is my first attempt at this, so I’m sure it will evolve as I move through the year. You can view our August Report here.

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What does it mean to read?

I recently got an email from one of our preK teachers, Ms. Kelly, asking if I would join her class during small group time for a library lesson.  She sensed that some of her students were feeling frustrated with reading books because they couldn’t read the words on the page.  Like many teachers, she wanted to model doing a “picture walk” for her students so that they could read the story from the pictures.  I happily agreed and the two of us did some ping pong collaboration via email where we batted our ideas back and forth until we had a plan.

Ms. Kelly’s observations made me start thinking about the many ways that we read, and I decided to open our lesson with these thoughts.  We started by learning about oral traditions and how people tell stories aloud and others read the story by listening to the storyteller.   We talked about reading the words in a book.  We also looked at a book called The Black Book of Colors and thought about how someone who is blind might read a story by feeling the pages of a Braille book.  We could have kept going and talked about e-readers and smart phones and more, but I left the ideas at that.  I wanted students to know that there wasn’t just one way to read a story.

With this seed of reading planted in the students’ minds, they selected a book from a selection of books in my cart around the theme of families, which was the topic Ms. Kelly is focusing on right now with her students.  They checked out with me at my laptop and returned to the floor.

Next was one of my favorite kinds of collaboration where each adult in the room takes a group of students and works with them in their own style using the same topic.  Ms. Kelly, Ms. Clarke (the parapro), a parent volunteer, and myself each took a small group of students.  Each of us shared picture walking in our own style.  In my group, we used the book Chalk, a wordless picture book, and practiced reading the pictures very slowly until we gleaned every detail we could before turning the page.  My hope was that students would notice this slow way of looking at the picture and replicate it in their own reading.  I quickly learned that they did notice the slowness, but many still flew through the pages without pausing to “read” what was there.  Next I worked with each student to picture walk slowly through a few pages of his or her book.

Ms. Kelly invited us all back to the floor and each group shared something that they noticed or learned about how to picture walk.  It was so much fun to support our youngest learners in the school with a strategy for reading.  It was also fun to get out of the library and interact with students in their own classroom environment.  Finally, it was such a treat to work with three other adults with different ideas and expertise.  I look forward to many other experiences where adults bring their expertise to support a classroom of students.  Thank you Ms. Kelly for this great idea and finding such wonderful adult support for your students.

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New Books September 2010

New Books September 2010.

We just got a shipment of over 300 new books in our library. Check them out starting tomorrow!

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Authors Unite in Decatur

This labor day weekend consider spending your time celebrating outstanding authors at the AJC Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, GA. Hundreds of authors for both adults and children will speak at multiple venues in downtown Decatur. There are also book-related vendors and many kid-friendly activities. There will be a parade for kids on both days: one parade for the author of Llama, Llama Red Pajama and one parade for the author of Ladybug Girl. There aren’t many opportunities like this to see so many award-winning authors in one place and it’s right in our backyard.

I’ve attended this event for the past 3 years, and it only gets better each year.  This year at the Target Children’s Stage you can meet National Book Award winner Jeanne Birdsall, National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles, Newbery Honor winner Ingrid Law, popular graphic novel artist/author DJ Steinberg, the author of Sisters Grimm and NERDS Michael Buckley, the author of Peter and the Starcatchers Ridley Pearson, and the list goes on and on.

There will even be an interactive scavenger hunt where festival goers can “check-in” using a mobile phone app.  The hunt will take players through many festival events and downtown Decatur landmarks.  You can learn more about the festival by visiting the festival website.  For a little taste of what the children’s stage is like you can view clips from past festivals here and here and here.

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Library on Wheels

Each year, just as I get the library up and running, classes in the routine of coming to the library for lessons & checkout, and kids excited about books, the library has to “close” for two weeks. For two weeks, our students are involved in Scantron testing. This testing provides valuable information to teachers about student strengths and weaknesses as they begin the year, but testing takes place in the media center. During testing, we are only open for checkout before school and from 2-2:30 at the end of the day. It always saddens me to see kids unable to come checkout books, so this year, I’m taking the library to them. Today I filled my rolling cart with books, got my laptop and scanner, and set off to classrooms. I did an impromptu lesson using the book My Librarian is a Camel and showed how children around the world get their library books in many unique ways. Then, I spread the books out on the floor.  Students looked at the books and decided if they wanted to keep their current library books or if they wanted to exchange for a new one.  The kids were so excited, and they didn’t even seem to mind the limited selection of books that I had to offer. Since today was a success, I think my next step is to see if there are genres of books that teachers would like me to focus on in my cart when I visit their room. My time to visit classrooms is limited because I have to help with the Scantron testing, but I was overjoyed to see books leaving our library and getting into student hands. It was a mini access enabler project, and what fun it was!

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Familiar Beginnings

Read my post for the Georgia Library Media Association.

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Checking the Stars

We are now two weeks into the school year, so it’s time for me to check the stars and see how we are doing with new initiatives.  This year we started something new:  star reviews (an idea inspired by School Library Journal).  When students read a book they love, they get to put a star sticker inside the book, display the book at the front of the media center, and share a book review in a variety of formats.

So far, six students have put stars in books, 5 students have put stars and written reviews, 3 students have shared their reviews on BTV, 1 student has audio-recorded a review, and an uncountable number of students said that they will be doing a star review soon.  I’ve tried getting students to write book reviews on their own in the past with little success.  I feel like we may have captured something here with this idea.  I see a willingness and an excitement for telling about books, especially from students who want to be on our morning broadcast.  It’s there chance to shine like a star on TV.

One student chose to record her voice for her star review, so you can listen to my conversation with her here.

We’re off to a steady start, and I hope that we can keep reaching for the stars with student involvement in the media center.

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Stars are Aligning!

It’s the start of a new year in the Barrow Media Center, and even with our leaky roof and broken air conditioner, the stars are aligning for a great year.  One of our goals for this year is to be a more participatory library.  Two exciting components of this are our star reviews and our leader librarians project.

For star reviews, students will be making recommendations of great books that they have read from the Barrow Media Center to other students in the school.  When students discover a fantastic book, they will place a foil star sticker on the inside cover of the book, and the book will be displayed in a special section at the front of the media center.  This section is decked out with star lights and a star poster.  Students will then have the option to do more with their favorite book.  They can share the book on our morning broadcast.  They can type a review for our Destiny card catalog and blog.  They can record a podcast book review to feature on our blog, website, and card catalog.  The seed for this idea came from a comic strip in the July 2010 issue of School Library Journal.  We hope that this new feature will get students excited about sharing great books in a variety of forums.

In leader librarians, a cross-section of students in grades 3-5 will be involved in a two 8-week projects funded partially by a Foundation for Excellence grant and book fair profits.  These students will survey reading interests from students in preK-5th grade.  They will use these reading interests to seek out vendors to purchase new books for the library and even meet with some vendor reps.  They will be given a budget.  They will examine selection criteria and carefully choose new books for the media center.  They will craft a marketing plan to publicize the new books to the whole school.  After doing a smaller scale project last year with a group of students who purchased books for the library, I’ve seen the power of student choice in the media center.  I’m committed to finding ways for the students of Barrow to be involved in making decisions about purchases for the media center.

In my 3 years in the media center, I have not had an overarching theme for the year, but this year we decided to give it a try.  Our theme is Reading Heroes.  Each mon

th we will feature different kinds of heroes from superheroes to animal heroes to everyday heroes to sports heroes and more.  We’ll have a hero day where students get to dress as their favorite hero.  We currently have a poll posted in the media center asking students who their favorite hero is.  We’re even going to tie heroes into our orientation lessons to the media center and see how heroes can be found in practically every section of the library.

These are just a few of the ideas that are coming together for this year, but I know many more are on their way, including several technology inquiry projects.  Stay tuned for more exciting things from the Barrow Media Center.