Organizational Tip for i-Pads

Okay, you may already love this tip, but I can't live without it!

In the library I have one i-Pad that students can use to play learning games and use for research.

One organizational tool I can't live without is organizing the Apps into folders! I have learning games, entertainment, foreign language and the like! I love it! There are a couple of dozen in the learning/education folder, so this keeps kids highly entertained and learning!

That's my tip for the day - organize everything into folders. By lightly pulling on the screen from the top, you can search for anything you need.

Tech Tip for Managing My Library Visitors

Here is a tech tip I found to be very helpful in the library. Students drop in and out of the library all day long. Sometimes teachers even wonder where their students are if they take too long to come back and forth. That's partially why it is important to have a way to track library visitors.

Our library is lucky to have an i-Pad which is full of useful apps for math, science, English and Social Studies. DuoLingo is also loaded on the i-Pad for students to try out foreign language games.

To keep track of students, I loaded the app "Sign Up". The idea is not original and there are many different apps for students to sign in with. Sign Up works for quick data for me. There's also Sign In Lite and Please Sign In. My main preference is "free"!

Here is what it looks like - very simple! It's easy for middle school kids and it works for keeping track of names of visitors.

It could work for PTO moms as well if they are looking for parents to sign up for various things at school!

The Latest Library Effort Which You'll Soon See Everywhere!

All I have heard about lately is 3D printers and I want one! These printers can be used to print out things like spaceships that you snap together from plastic pieces printed out of the printer. If that doesn't sound exciting, I don't know what is!

Seriously! I see 3D printers as the next great way to get kids excited about learning. They can be connected to every subject and can turn the library into a great MakerSpace which is the latest buzzword in libraries.

Check out this website for lots of good ideas!

Time to be Thankful!

In this month when everyone is posting days and days of thankfulness, I thought I would join in the fun!

I am thankful for former Irondale Middle parents who - along with friends at work - shares the wealth of Box Tops! Thank you to every student, parent, and teacher who has helped in this effort this year of bringing them in.

Thanks for sharing! Stay tuned for other things to be thankful for and please share yours!

Setting up for Scholastic Book Fair with Awesome Kids!

Kids Can Never Get Enough of Diary of Wimpy Kid!

Some Irondale Middle classes will be joining in the fun of hearing a sneak peek about the latest in the Wimpy Kid series.

This event takes places November 4th at 1:00 p.m. central time.

It's Teen Read Week! And there's a Prize for that!

While Be A Champion and Read is ongoing until October 28th, the library is drawing prizes from those who have turned in their list of six books.

The books are all from Scholastic and here's the winning book today!

During Teen Read Week the library will be giving away a great book everyday! Logan, please stop by and get your prize. Thank you, Ms. Ward, for being a guest on the news and drawing the winner's name!

How a Federal Government Shutdown Affects Schools

Yesterday, as we all know by now, the Federal Government shut down. Federal Parks, some Washington monuments, and even the WIC (women, infants and children food distribution program) are being affected.

But did you know that your child's middle school (elementary, high, college) are also being affected?

Yesterday our Teen Living teacher came into the library from the computer lab and said that students could not access the website they were using for research. The 7th graders were researching the food pyramid on a .gov website. The teacher had spent several minutes troubleshooting the reasons the students could not get online.

So, the teacher had to quickly go to plan "B" and explain the Federal Government Shutdown. In the end, there was a lesson, but not the one the teacher had planned.

Alabama College and Career Ready Standard of the Week

This page (which you cannot see, but you can click on this link) is my new favorite section of the Alabama Department of Education. While there are naysayers for the Common Core Standards which are called College and Career Ready Standards in Alabama, you have to love that the State Department of Education is trying to get information out there about the Standards of Learning.
Some people are against College and Career Ready Standards because of the long period of testing while some people are against them because they aren't sure of what they are.
The Standard of the Week paints a clear picture of what Alabama's children need to be able to do and tugs at you emotionally as a parent that Yes! you do want your child to be able to write, be excellent at math, know history, and understand science.

Encouraging Your Kids to Read

Did you know that your children really can lead a better life if they read more? Their grades depend on it, success in middle school, high school and college depends it. The future of their own children depends on being able to read and deciphering the world we live in today. They need to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak - find the good websites versus the bad and the good literature versus the bad. The more they read, the better they will be at judging the usefulness of information!

One way they can help themselves as well as their school is to participate in the Be A Champion and Read contest. Students in grades K - 8 have an opportunity to win tickets to the Iron Bowl if they read six books by October 26!

One student will win for Auburn and one for Alabama. The lucky winner will be able to take two guests along to the Alabama / Auburn game, visit the hospitality suite for all the food and drink they can handle, and step onto the field for pre-game activities. Good luck to all students participating! We need 70% participation for the library to be in the running for $5,000. Please encourage your child to get involved!

Here's a Scholastic link about Kids and Reading. Please take a look! You might be surprised at what you find out...

Students Enjoying Speaker during Constitution Week

A number of students were able to participate in hearing Congressman Spencer Bachus' Field Representative Ethan Vice today.

He spoke about amendments to the Constitution; what it means when the flag is flying above the White House (that President Obama is at home); decorating the Oval Office and how the President gets to choose his desk. Obama choose John F. Kennedy's desk.

Students had lots of questions about the safety of the White House, what's underneath the White House, and how long a person can serve as President.
They also each received a pocket-size version of the Constitution of the United States. Hopefully our speaker will join us again in the spring so more students can enjoy hearing about our government!

The Best Thing about Tuesday and Thursdays...

is The Tutors!

Remember, tutors are here from 7:20 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. to help with every subject. And it's not just for struggling students - tutoring is for all levels of students. That's just one way students get smarter - by working with smart kids who've been there, done that in middle school.

So, join us in the library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for talk about math, history, science, social studies, ideas about papers and projects.

We hope to see you soon!

 

Tutors on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

If your student needs help with any subject, send him/her to the library for tutoring help. IB tutors come on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 a.m.

Our hallway sign reminds students to stop by for tutoring.

Swirling Solo!

Well, this is the first year of flying solo or "swirling solo" which rolls off my tongue in a way that's a bit more fun!

In the middle school setting swirling solo means I'll have a lot more student aides swirling around and I'll be swirling a lot more myself around the school and back to the library before a flurry of e-mails sends me to the next task! I am looking at this transition in a positive way.

At first I did not see working alone in the Library Media Center as a good thing. I only saw more tasks ahead of me and wondered how I would get it all done.

What I have found instead is lots of teachers pitching in to help other teachers on their hall with setting up technology and a lot more teachers stopping by the library to talk about future collaborations.

So, I am excited about this! Here is how I will handle some of the housekeeping issues:

1. Create self-checkout for students in Atrium.
2. Allow students to take on an ownership role in creating huge dsiplays in our very large display case.
3. Allow students to take on a bigger role in management of Nooks - counting them and making sure they stay charged.
4. Demonstrate to students how to troubleshoot issues on teacher laptops and send them out to take care of it (The Fn (function) key being the largest of these issues). Perhaps I'll create a laminated sheet of various problem-solving tips or let "guided inquiry" take over! Many times the techie student can figure it out on his/her own.
5. Allow students to assist teachers with pulling books and assist students with software, hardware, and website issues.
6. Bounce ideas off students for grants and contests.
7. Provide a student chair and rules for being behind the desk.
8. Students with the best handwriting will be able to abbreviate the genres in the fiction collection - since my library is genre-fied.

All in all it's going to be a more student-centered and student-led Library Media Center. No, there is nothing earth-shattering and very new here, but I think it's going to work. I am ready to swirl! If this is the case for you, have a great year and leave a comment about how you will manage the year.

Our former library aide, Mrs. Barker, working one of our many bookfairs. Have a great year at your new school, Mrs. Barker!

 

Artwork Outside the Library

Take a look at the beautiful student artwork outside the halls of the library.

This past week the art department and library teamed up to host a family night. Parents and students browsed the gallery halls and shopped the bookfair.
Thank you to those who joined us!

Research Projects in the Library

Students in 7th and 8th grade are busy researching using one of the Alabama Virtual Library's databases - Ebsco host. They are becoming experts, too! They have learned to click on full text articles and not just look at the abstracts and they have learned what "hyperlinks" are. We tirelessly try to add to their technology vocabulary in the IMS library.

Here are just a few of their projects:

7th graders - Research on a problem in an African county and at least three causes of the "problem"

• They have learned about infant mortality and what that means in so many African countries
• They have learned about HIV Aids and the serious consequences of the causes of that disease (poverty, war migration, etc.)
• They have learned about illiteracy in other countries and compared it to Alabama's literacy rate
• They have learned about poverty and its causes

8th graders - Research on CNN heroes mostly done on the CNN website

• These students have learned what goodness can come out of tragedy, such as The Josh Project that sprang out of a woman's grief for her son who drowned - www.cnn.com
• They have learned that one person can make a huge difference in the life of a community
• If they had started this Monday, they would surely be reading about all of the heroes in Boston...

Student Wins Scholastic Writing Award!

Congratulations to Debra McGrew for winning an Honorable Mention for her poetry in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2013.

We are very proud of you!

Scholastic is a great company that not only promotes reading, but just about everything that students can get involved in! Math, science, the arts, history, and scholarships are all areas that students can benefit from with Scholastic.

A Great Website for Writing!

Purdue Online Writing Lab is a frequently used spot for students to find out information on MLA (Modern Language Association) format. I have been using it for close to 20 years!

Here is an example of the information that can be found on the site:

What are the differences among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing?

These three ways of incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differ according to the closeness of your writing to the source writing.
Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.
Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.
Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/01/

Check it out!

Can*Teen Career Exploration - Interactive Game

Students are having a great time in the library before school and any chance they get exploring the questions on Can*Teen.

This CD was made available from The American Association of School Librarians and its purpose is to show teenage girls various careers available to them in science and engineering.

Its cool pictures and reactions to kids' answers keeps students coming back to try and answer the questions.

After this week when lots of students have had exposure to the CD and know that it's available, it will be ready for overnight check-out!

Thank you for Donations from Public Libraries!

Public libraries sometimes donate their books and books on CDs to communities and schools that can use them.

This is a public shout out to Emmet O' Neal library for sharing books and CDs with us! These items are a real perk for our collection at IMS. Take a look below!

Thank you for sharing some great materials with us like The Fast and the Furriest  by Andy Behrens, Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar, and Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm.

If you need help selecting a book, please let us know!