Blessed to Teach and Read

Our county Media Specialist, Susan Grigsby , has asked us to post a "shelfie" of the books that we've read this summer.  I remembered that I could update my  Shelfari app, and since the books that I've finished to date all fit onto 3 shelves, I snapped a picture.  These same books are in the Shelfari to the right.  Just click through. ----> I was trying to start reading through this year's  Georgia Book Award Nominee Finalists for grades 4-8, but that was starting to get costly.  So, I looked at what books I could check out from my local Gwinnett County Public Library on my Overdrive app for iPad.   ALL of the books above are digital content downloads.   All of them .  Knowing that some of them would be returned as the days ticked down to the due date actually motivated me to finish reading some of them.   This naturally lead me to reflect on my Follett wish list for the upcoming school year.  Almost all the books...

Wow!  Another year in the books!  It was wonderful not to have to pack up a classroom, now that I'm in the library!  Finished up the 19,000+ book inventory, re-labeled over 125 books that were coming up incorrectly barcoded, inventoried and reorganized the teacher resources closet (Actual space to add more materials!), and reorganized the reference shelves to, hopefully, make them more usable next year. I did already see several projects that will need my attention in the fall, such as relabeling our 39 Clues books as a "series" to make them easier to find.  Will also need to re-label some reference book spines, and to try to help categorize the teacher resources mentor texts into usable topics for mini-lessons.  While we did just adopt Lucy Calkins writing materials, and I'm sure we'll be looking at ordering her mentor text suggestions, we can also still utilize the many books we have previously purchased.  I also found some great math and science ...

Well, what do you know?  A Facebook ad finally led me to something great!   How had I not heard about PBS Learning Media yet?  It's fantastic!  Our county had allowed us to preview a different great resource over the winter break called Teachingbooks.net .  Lots of great lessons for a media specialist like me, but this PBS resource appears to have just as many great lessons - for FREE!  Plus, I simply adore public broadcasting and support our local system, GPB , with a financial donation each month.  And, it seems much more user-friendly with searches for media specialist standards and content standards.  Looking forward to incorporating their lessons into my lessons this semester!!!  Very excited!  Hope it works at school!!  

Watch the video for The Wonderment  and you will likely fall in love with it as quickly as I did!  I hope we can use it at school this year.  Very cool!  It is a social platform for kids, but of course, warns that you need a parent or teacher to help you sign-up, if you are under the age of 13.  It's all about doing good, learning about others, and contributing to and connecting with the world in positive ways. I was excited to learn more about Listen Edition , which uses public radio broadcasts to teach.  (I've always thought about using an excerpt from " Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! " to help students learn to write with greater detail, as they have a segment in which they read three different stories, where two are completely false and one is true.  The guest has to guess which is the truthful story.  The false stories are so filled with details, statistics, and quotes, that they seem as plausible as the true story.  I've yet to find...

I'm only 9 months behind the times.  While sifting through my newest e-mails on my second day of summer vacation, I clicked on one from The Daily  GOOD  titled, 'The History and Future of Everything', because it caught my eye. (I found and purchased a subscription to GOOD waaaay back when it first started.  First place I saw infographics, and man, they've produced some great ones!  My subscription fee went to Room to Read .  Check out GOOD, if you don't currently subscribe!) Anyway, through that e-mail I found an article " Skype in the Classroom and the Extraordinary Lesson " by Shana Pearlman .  That link led me to " Classrooms in US and Mexico Bond Over Books " by Andrew Schmidt , which in turn led me to " Introducing Mystery Skype:  A Global Game That Makes Learning Fun !" also by Andrew Schmidt.  Lots of good reads.  I did find it interesting that the teacher in the Mystery Skype article works at The School at Columbia Un...

I don't typically make a New Year's resolution, but seeing as I have yet again lapsed in posting, when so many other teachers I follow are so good about keeping their blog posts current, I am making an end-of-the-school-year resolution to update my blog at least once every two weeks.  This should help me to read professional articles I've bookmarked in a more timely fashion. On a completely different note, I am shifting teaching gears a bit next year, as I will serve as part of a team in the media center!  I am SUPER excited about this new position.  Some are now calling a media specialist a teacher librarian, but whatever the name, I am SO happy that it is me!  Our school is very fortunate in having an Instructional Technology Specialist and a Paraprofessional in the media center too.  We will work together as a team to teach and support students next year, obviously integrating technology into our lessons. My position is a specials, or a fixed schedule ...

I am the PAGE representative for my elementary school.   PAGE is The Professional Association of Georgia Educators .  For those in other states, it is not a union.  It is access to legislative news, legal representation, should the need arise, and professional development. I receive their legislative updates as soon as our General Assembly legislation session starts.  Bill 717, written by Representative Holt from District 112 of Social Circle, GA, proposed that parental involvement be tracked and given a grade, A to F.  It also proposed that each child's parental involvement grade be used as a factor in our newest teacher evaluation system.  The new system is less than equitable, as it makes it next to impossible to earn "exemplary".  We have been told to expect "proficient" or "needs development".  It puts undue pressure on students to move in lock-step with their peers as opposed to just making progress on an individual basis.  Additio...