Welcome to the Common Core-al, Pardner!

Like many of you, in Georgia we are transitioning to the Common Core State Standards this year. The challenge of the new standards is exciting but there are still many unanswered questions! To assist with the shift, my principal allowed an unused classroom to be designated as the Common Core training room. This space is reserved as a meeting place for teams who are viewing state webinars, planning new units, and storing materials. I teamed up with a couple of colleagues to make this classroom both fun and useful. We designated one corner for math standards and one wall for English/language arts curriculum maps. We used a Wild West theme to decorate the room. A banner over the Promethean board invites teachers in: "Welcome to the Common Core-al!" A butcher paper tombstone's epitaph reads "RIP GPS" (Georgia Performance Standards). Bulletin board space is designated for burning questions and vocabulary. We also have a bookcase stocked with a binder for each grade and various supplies for teachers to use. I hope this mix of form and function will help teachers wrangle the standards this year. Yippee ki-yay!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow ...

Ahhh ... the end is near! For those of us in upstate New York, we have only about a week left of school. As another school year draws to a close, I can't help but reflect on what a wonderful job that we school librarians have! As summer begins, we can throw out our alarm clocks, sip our coffee for a few extra minutes, hang out with a pile of books on our deck ... oh, but I digress.

Yes, summer is one of my favorite perks about my job, but we educators have such a unique opportunity.  We get the chance to end one chapter and begin another - EVERY ten months! There is something supremely satisfying about wrapping up a school year. I love seeing all of my books find there way back to my shelves. I love packing away my lesson plan book ... all marked up and sticky noted with ideas on how to improve certain lessons and projects. I love the boxes of new books in my office that are just begging to be unwrapped for next year. What a feeling! There isn't another job on Earth that allows you such closure.

I AM looking forward to summer ... dipping my toes in the pool, digging around in my flower beds, paddling my kayak ... oops, digressing again! But even more importantly, I am looking forward to next year, a brand new start!

I have three summer goals.

First, I want to read more intermediate fiction books than ever. I am on a mission to get a few chapter books on my top ten circulation list for next year! So, I am brewing on strategies that I can use to encourage my kids to read something other than Babymouse and Stone Rabbit. Do you all have any suggestions for me as "must reads" that I can add to my summer reading list?

Second, I am preparing some research projects that will tie directly to the Common Core. I want to tie in more web 2.0 tools as final project ideas. I have my work cut out for me, because my poor teachers are feeling the crunch of all the state assessments. I am hoping that some newly created projects will help them meet both Core and some of the assessment skills as well.

Finally, I want to spend some time networking with other school librarians ... virtually! I am a relatively new blogger over at The Library Patch and have been excited to "meet" some fellow librarian bloggers. There is so much to learn from everyone and I am looking forward to having some time to blogstalk and connect with others. A big "thank you" to Jo for creating this collaborative blog ... I definitely plan on hanging out here and hope to meet some new friends.

Summer Camp with a Techy Twist

Cari over at The Centered School Library blog is hosting a S'More Tech Summer Camp.  So much fun! 

S'More Tech Summer Camp

Each day of summer camp will have an assignment and by the end of camp, you will have a neat little PowerPoint  scrapbook.  Love it!  Day One's assignment was super easy and so much fun.  Here's what I made:

Looks interesting, right?  So if I've gotten your curiosity piqued, why not hop on over to Cari's blog and join in the fun?  Just click here to go to Day 1.

Celebrate...You Survived the Year!

Hopefully you are finshed or just about finished with your school year and all the fun that comes with doing the end of the year inventory.  I personally just finished up my inventory today. That got me in the mood to celebrate. 

It's been a long year, but a good one and now it's time to look back on the year and reflect as well as to give yourself a much deserved pat on the back.  It's not easy serving the whole school's reading needs, especially if you don't have the help of an assistant.  So give yourself a hand.  You survived the year!  And as reward for a job well done, please enjoy these library-related, bring-a-smile-to-your-face YouTube videos.  Enjoy!

Who doesn't love a good video montage?

Yes, you could interpret his song in the way the audience seems to, but a good librarian knows that the chorus of this song is really what being a librarian is all about.  Catchy tune, too!  =)

Ah!  I've experienced several days like this one this year.

I think I've found my new workout!  Of course I might have to try to find an old card catalog to really work those muscles.  I wonder if it's available in BETA?

And the other end of the spectrum.  Music, movies, and books...oh, my!  This one's for my public librarian peeps.

And who doesn't love those Old Spice commercials?

 ROTFL!

Happy Summer y'all!

Lunchroom Reading

This year, our Early Intervention Program teacher and I collaborated on a project to maximize learning time at school.  Her idea was to make books available in the cafeteria so that kids have access to them during lunch.  At out school, students have 30 minutes to eat but really only need five or ten.

We ordered book bins from Really Good Stuff and put them on book carts.  This made the books easy to retrieve and also to move around the cafeteria if needed.  We collected book donations from teachers and parents and sorted them by (approximate) grade level.  Labels on the book bins let kids know which bins were most appropriate for their grade.  One helper in each class was designated to pick up a book bin, put it at the end of the cafeteria table, and return it at the end of lunch each day.

On any day in our school cafeteria, kids are reading and talking about books.  Here are some pictures I recently took of a few of my first grade friends reading and eating Doritos at lunch.

Summer Reading Promotions

Hello!  My name is Jennifer Lewis, and I am a first year media specialist in Georgia.  I am so excited to be a part of Sharing the Shelves!

We have five days of school left (not that I'm counting!), and I have been searching for ways to promote summer reading among my students.  Our local public library came to school a couple of weeks back to promote their summer reading program.  In addition, I have found several companies that offer programs that encourage summer reading. Here's a quick list of some programs from major businesses, most of them involving free books or other fun rewards! 

Pottery Barn Kids Summer Reading
From May 17 to August 22, kids 10 years and under select one of the reading lists to read the books on it to earn a free book. Click here for more information, including the reading lists.

Pizza Hut Book It Summer Break Reading Challenge
From June 15 to August 15, kids who were in grades K through 6 during the 2011-2012 school year and who meet the challenge of reading five books will be eligible to enter for a chance to win a Diary of a Wimpy Kid summer fun prize package. Click here for more information and a form to download.

PBS Kids Summer Reading
Sign up now, and starting June 18, you will receive e-mails with literacy building tips and activities from experts at PBS. You’ll also get book suggestions, free downloads, and a daily chance to win $1,000. Click here for more information.

Scholastic Summer Challenge
From May 1 to August 31, participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards, enter sweepstakes to win prizes, and find great books to read. You can also log your minutes read and join with kids from all over to Read for the World Record. Click here for more information.

Chuck E. Cheese Summer Reading From now until December 31, 2012, kids earn ten free tokens for reading every day for two weeks. Click here for a form to download.

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading
Read eight books and receive a free book from Barnes and Noble. Visit a store for details.

Stamps.

Our school year is wrapping up and things are busy.... really busy. Do you give grades in Library Media?

Giving grades and having Library Media on the report card can translate to great advocacy for the library, but it has also left me trembling behind stacks of ungraded papers on more than one occasion. Lucky for me, a friend and colleague shared this idea when I visited her school a few years back. What a time-saver! (Not to mention a great investment!)

Three stamps and some ink is a cheap investment for such great payoff for library program advocacy.

Students in grades K-2 receive an "I" (Independent), "W" (With Assistance), or "N" (Needs Improvement) on their report cards for each subject. These stamps help me to communicate to the parents the level of support their child(ren) needed on each assignment.

Students in grades 3-5 receive letter grades, and so I stamp all graded assignments just to let parents know where the assignment was completed.

Purchase stamps online at RubberStamps.com or the like and make sure to buy some colored ink pads to help the stamps stand out on assignments.

You never know. It just may lead to some curious parents coming in to check out the cool things going down in Library Media!

- Matthew
busylibrarian.com