Blessed to Teach and Read

I'm doing it!  I'm posting before it's been 6 months! Haha!   I've been posting new books to our school's #SharonStrong as often as I can, to promote the new books we have purchased.   Through promoting our new books, author Ame Dyckman, saw one of my posts, contacted me, and sent our school enough "Misunderstood Shark" bookmarks and stickers, so that each child at school got both!  I posted her letters up next to our bulletin board.  The kids LOVED them, and continue to love reading her stories! And, before our county subscription to TeachingBooks.net ended, I entered a book contest and won this book for our school!  It's going into our Professional Library, since it's a paperback.   C.A.S.T.L.E. (Collaborative and Social Technology Learning Environment, also known as the library) Apprentices, or 5th grade helpers, have started working to create our monthly bulletin board and shelf display.  They're doing a...

I can’t hardly believe it, but it’s my 5th year as a librarian! I’ve decided to dial back my expectations on myself this year.  Over the summer, I read Susan Cain’s “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”, and it really brought me a sense of peace about being myself; not pushing myself to be more extroverted than I am.  To keep following my passions, but to do so at a pace that doesn’t leave me feeling exhausted and depleted. :D For this new school year, I used the Avery template for file folder labels to update the nonfiction shelf labels.  And, though the pictures turned out tiny, they really help to give a visual cue to students who don't look in the media catalog before going to the shelves.  I also divided up the sports section into major sports, so that it's MUCH easier to keep them organized.  :) My professional goal this year is to work on promoting reading through a variety of outlets.  One is by creating an EC...

I am currently plowing through one of the most interesting books I’ve read in quite a while, thanks to one of my 2018 resolutions to read more books that are of personal interest, and not just juvenile literature, like I did last year.  (Thanks also goes to Goodreads’ book goal email-50 novels for the year, and The Gwinnett Public Library for having such a wide variety of eBooks.) The book is  The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.  Lots of awesome insights, based on scientific studies, into how people’s habits drive them and how they can change those habits.  It also discusses the role of groups in creating culture. I’m only halfway through the book, but I started it yesterday and had two semi-final, college football games to watch last night. :D #RollTide This 2017-2018 school year, our administration and school put forth a culture of #BeTheChange, in which we not only enacted purposeful times to do good within our schoo...

Wow.  I cannot believe that this year went by so quickly!  I also can't believe, though I shouldn't be surprised, that I haven't posted ANYTHING since October 2016!  Here's a quick, catch-up of relevant events with captions.  :) Third grade's CultureGrams projects turned out really well.  They worked feverishly, even when we were displaced into the multi-purpose room. They loved learning about a different country and its similarities and differences with their own.   Second grade finished learning about the different periods of the Dewey Decimal system, and shared some of their work for our library bulletin board. Fun bulletin board idea from Pinterest for the start of second semester Kindergarten through fourth graders then listened to me read aloud 20 different Georgia Picture Book Award Nominees, over many weeks, so that they would be able to vote for their one favorite book.  I worked in "28 Days:  Moments in Blac...

We enjoyed a rather summery October this year with highs in the mid-80s.  Whew!  Hot! However, I went ahead and pulled all the fall books and eventually sipped on a pumpkin spiced latte.  :)   Our "Fall" display of books, made its way into the window, since we'd been running out of space on top of our book shelves.  I had to turn down 5th grade for displaying their Civil War projects, because PTA's Reflections (student art) were already going to be using the space. I made some new shelf labels to replace old ones and to help students locate books on their own.  These also assist me when I shelve books during my classes.  After 3 years, I've almost memorized where everything is located, but these visual clues are quite helpful. (On my "to-do" list are visual clues for the "E" and Non-fiction sections.) I did do a fiction lesson with first grade on different series found within the "E" fo...