How Do You Make Budgets Stretch in a Library

The 20-day blogging challenge post today is on making budgets stretch in a school library.

You'd be surprised what you can cobble together with bookfairs, grants, donations, and BoxTops. It's not a grant sum, but without it I feel I would have a library that's going nowhere toward improvement.

Since I have about 10 seconds to write this blogpost, I will simply list what I do:

• Two Scholastic BookFairs per year - Many times I only sell enough books to be awarded books in kind for the library, but every little bit helps and I am glad to have the latest publications from Scholastic.
• One Barnes and Noble in-store Bookfair that I promote mostly to teachers and get a giftcard to fluff the collection
• Our wonderful PTO donates $500 per year for my Book Club. Those books go into the collection
• Grants from our Board - I received a grant for a BrainPop subscription for the library
• Many different grants are available from ALA - I have won the American Bookshelf award before which added to my collection
• I work with my public library on grants
• I look for grants outside the box that I can coordinate for the school
• I enter contests to win books
• I've sold water bottles at our school carnival
• I also attend my neighborhood's library book sale and appeal to them through a letter to allow me to look through their leftovers. I have found many brand new books that way and have created my whole audio collection in this way.

It takes a lot of work and constant vigilance. You also have to apply year after year. Applying regularly helps grant-writing skills.

Common Sense Media Lessons and How to Teach Them

Since our school system adopted Common Sense Media in lieu of i-Safe, I have tried teaching it a couple of different ways. The website features videos on these and other topics:

1. Digital Citizenship
2. Cyber Bullying
3. Communicating Online
4. Digital Etiquette
5. Movie Reviews
6. Following Your Digital Trail

The first year I taught we all watched a couple of videos together, discussed them, and created group posters to hang in the hallways.

The next year I tried something different. I gave all of the students headphones and allowed them to select their own videos to watch with a partner at a computer. The students loved selecting their own videos, but they watched all sorts of videos on high school levels to elementary school so that it resulted in all of them having different experiences with online digital citizenship learning.

I love the variety in teaching and aiming to perfect a lesson. Here's what I will try next. We will all watch a video together (they are all only two to five minutes long) and then I will direct them to a choice of a about five videos. Now, a few might stray a watch some of the enticing high school videos, but they can also log on at home and watch. I'll let you know how it goes!

How to Engage in Social Media for Professional Learning

These days if you're in education and don't engage in social media, you might be missing out!

Social media not only allows you to connect and learn from other educators, but it helps in making you feel that you are not alone out there. No matter what kind of classroom you teach in, most of the time you are the ONLY adult in a room of (sometimes) screaming kids - and it can get lonely waiting for that 20-minute lunch period to connect with other adults.

So, get out there and get social!

Twitter - learn how to search for what you need and learn how to use hashtags. I have learned about so many websites and tech trends that I can hardly use them all. You can often hear about new trends here in the tech world and "meet" people doing the same thing that you are. Find out about scheduled chats and professional development that you can become involved in. It's a lot of fun and definitely doesn't feel like work!

Facebook - I have used Facebook to ask for donors for projects that can be crowd-sourced like donors choose.org

Donors Choose - This relatively new website allows teachers to dream up projects and ask the world - and  friends - to donor to your personal pet project. I have one out there right now for a 3D printer from MakerBot.

Pinterest - Almost every field of education is represented out there now on these pin boards. It's a great place to get new ideas and really cute ideas for all ages of student. A lot of teachers out there have better ideas than you do, but they would feel the same about you! So, get pinning and sharing!

Where Books and Technology Meet: 20 Day Blog Challenge - Librarian Version!!

Where Books and Technology Meet: 20 Day Blog Challenge - Librarian Version!!: If you are like me, you have LOTS to share with the world.  You crave collaboration with others in your professional realm.  You look forwar...



One new trend in libraries is the idea of Makerspaces. Public libraries already have embraced this trend for the most part with lots of make-and-take activities. As a school librarian, I am ready to join the makerspace movement by making it work with our school curriculum.



One example of that would be getting a 3D printer and show students how to use an engineering program like OpenSCAD. This type of learning could combine with art, science, math, English and Social Studies. Designing and bringing something to life is enlightening and exciting for students. It's part of what makes learning fun. Students love being able to hold something in their hand and show it off-just like kindergarten...

Books | Chris Morphew

Books | Chris Morphew Here is more information about the author coming to visit us on Wednesday.

Author Visit at IMS!

Author Christopher Morphew will be visiting Irondale Middle School on January 22!

Here is a link to a librarian interviewing Morphew. He is the author of The Phoenix Files and hails from Australia. We can't wait to hear what he has to say about Australia, his books and the writing process. Since it is summer in Australia right now, let's hold out hope for good weather next week - one thing that Alabama is known for!

Books will be for sale at the school that day and will be signed by the author.

Book That Has Had an Impact on Me Professionally

One book - out of many that I will write about later - that has had an impact on me is Steven L. Layne's Igniting A Passion For Reading.

This book is full of lists, charts, and ideas. One list is called the Someday Book List on page 79. This list is part of a whole section on "Shopping" which was on a Twitter Chat last night as well. The great thing about reading professional books is that you're always ready to contribute to the conversation not to mention getting great ideas for your library/school.

Before "shopping" for a book, the author discusses how she previews a book (p 77-8):

Title
Author/Illustrator
Dedication
Front Jacket Flap
Cover
CIP Page
Back Jacket
Chapter Titles
Interior Graphics

I love this section and I would add my own "flip to the middle of the book" preview. I can tell a lot about a book and whether I will like it from the pace of the reading.

Layne's book features a "Books to Consider" list and where those ideas come from like:

From Shopping
From Book Chats
From Recommendations
From Read Arounds

Every time I flip through this book I find another idea that I have either forgotten about or have never tried.

Here's another chart from the book:

Self-Assessment Chart

Kids love being asked questions about themselves and they will fill out this self-assessment in a flash. 

If you don't where to start to self-assess, this book has the answers! It has at times made me realize what I am not doing!

There is no one thing that makes this book a career-turning one - it's just real and practical. One anecdote the author describes is as a 6th grade teacher some parents came in for a conference and berated their son for basically not being perfect and making straight As.The author says he buys books when he's upset and he immediately went to Barnes and Noble to buy books for the boy. He describes the conference that all teachers have experienced in one way or another - so it feels like you are speaking to a teacher friend and mentor who has the same ideas about teaching reading that you do.