Library Advisory Team – My Partners in Literacy

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So thrilled to have my 2013-2014 Library Advisory Team in place!

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I can best keep the lines of communication open with the teachers in my school, and I believe that an advocacy team will be the most effective way to do that.

I shared my main reading goals for the year in a previous post, and next Monday I’ll be discussing some of those plans with my new team so that we can decide on the best ways to implement (or modify) them.

Thank You!Thinking about starting your own advisory group?  Click here for more details about my program.

I’d love to hear how you are working with teachers in your school.  Please leave a note in the comments sharing your advocacy program!

p.s. There were codes inside the bags of candy bars I bought to enter online so that the candy company will make a donation to RIF!  How cool is it that?!

 

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Pinterest Updates

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PinterestHave you ever gone to Pinterest to look for a specific idea, and then two hours later looked up from your computer screen wondering where the time went?  Of course you have!  That’s what Pinterest does to people!  It sucks them into a beautiful fantasy world where anything is possible if you only have the right kind of glue.

Well, this year I’m getting the right kind of glue, and I’m putting some of these fabulous ideas to work in my library!  I spent some time yesterday creating a new Pinterest account solely for my professional pins using the name LibraryLoriJune, which is also my  Twitter handle, and made a new board for each type of pin I’ve saved.  Categories include Library Management, Book Extenders, Book Displays, Tech Tools, and (as of this writing) fourteen others.

I have been using Delicious for over five years to organize websites (2,312 links as of this morning!), and it’s still my go-to bookmarking resource, mainly because 1) I can assign searchable tags to my bookmarks and 2) Delicious is not blocked at school by our extremely tight filters.  But Delicious does not have the visual appeal of Pinterest, nor is it as widely used by the kinds of people I want to get ideas from, so now that Pinterest has been unblocked for teachers in my district (yay!) I want to start using it more.

Are you on Pinterest?  If so, please leave a link to your boards in the comments so that I can follow you!

 

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Reading Plans for the New School Year!

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It’s that time again when I begin to feel a tingly excitement about the all the possibilities of a brand new school year!

Last year, with the support of my principal and a new flexible library schedule, I focused heavily on collaborating with teachers and supporting them in implementing the Common Core curriculum.  I will certainly continue that this year, but I also want to spend devote more time and effort to building a school-wide culture of reading.  One of my most important roles as a school librarian is to be a “reading cheerleader” and I have several new ideas for doing that.

I have already noted a variety of local, national, and international reading events on my school library calendar (you will see them in red), and I will spend the next two weeks rounding up teacher and parent volunteers to help with planning and execution of these programs.  Ideas that aren’t scheduled yet but that I’m working on creating include:cocky reading express

 

  • a visit from Cocky’s Reading Express (“Cocky” is the University of South Carolina mascot.  He travels around the state with USC students who read to school kids and share the importance of reading.)
  • a Teacher Book Club that involves reading and discussing chapter books that would make good classroom readalouds
  • a Family Reading Night that allows children and parents to enjoy reading activities together
  • a Reading Partnership program between our students and students from the middle school next door
  • Bedtime Stories at the Library for our Kindergarten students (and possibly a separate night for 1st graders)
  • Wee Bee Reading – a monthly story time for the 2-3 year-old siblings of our students (the name comes from the fact that our school mascot is the Busy Bee)
  • mandatory “sustained silent reading” time in the classroom each day to provide students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in pleasure reading

book buzz new logoI also want to encourage students to participate more in online book discussions via my Book Buzz blog.  I’m thinking about asking students to write guest posts for the blog to talk about their favorite books and authors.  I’d also like to see more teacher participation in the blog, so maybe I’ll ask for some guest posts from them too.

What innovative ideas are you using to build excitement for reading at your school?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

 

 

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Back to School #TLElem Chat August 5th

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Calling all elementary librarians to join a Live Twitter Chat on Monday, August 5, 9:00 pm EST!

Our topic is Back To School, and we want to hear your best ideas for getting the new year off to a good start!

Our chat will focus on:

  • making your library a dynamic and inviting place to visit
  • preparing for Back to School night
  • student orientation and beginning-of-the-year lesson plans
  • ways you can support teachers and administrators as they begin the new year
  • anything else you want to discuss!

Newbies are always welcome at our chats; be sure to introduce yourself and make some new friends!  Those of you who are experienced chatters know that Twitter is all about SHOW and tell, so I expect you to have your photos and web links ready to share!

Remember to use the hashtag #tlelem for your tweets.  I have registered this hashtag at Twubs in the hopes that it will make it easier for participants to follow the chat, and to archive the tweets.  If you have never used Twubs, you may want to take a look at it ahead of time.

See you Monday!

 

p.s.  You can find archives of this and all our past chats at the TLElem Wiki.

 

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#TLElem Chat Leaves Me Breathless!

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The tweets were flying thick and fast last night at the #TLElem Twitter Chat!  Between trying to read, reply, locate sites, and send tweets myself I was exhausted (but exhilerated!) by the end of the chat!

The focus of our discussion was supposed to be Library Centers, but in addition to that we bird-walked through poetry, library pets, funding resources for libraries, book promotion, and much more before it was all said and done.

I’ll be adding all those interesting and innovative ideas for centers to my newly-created Library Centers wiki this week, so keep checking it for TL-tested ways to add a little independent student learning to your library!

Did you miss the chat?  You should:

  • Take a look at the archive of last night’s tweets, hosted at the TLElem Wiki.  (Thanks to @cktechtl for getting it up so quickly!)
  • Follow #TLElem on Twitter and become a part of a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, generous, hard-working, creative PLN!
  • Join us for our next #TLElem chat on Monday, April 15, 9:00 pm EST, and spread the word to your friends and colleagues
  • Add your suggestions for future chat topics to the TLElem Brainstorm
  • Share a little about the centers you’re using in your Library by leaving a comment here or tweeting #TLElem to me @LibraryLoriJune

Thanks again to everyone who participated last night!  If only all professional development was this much fun!

 

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TLElem Twitter Chat Tonight: Library Centers

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Please join us for our #TLElem Chat tonight
on Twitter as we discuss Library Centers!

Monday, March 18, 9:00 pm EST

Be ready to share your favorite ideas, photos, inspiration sites, printables, Pinterest boards, etc. as we discuss ways to incorporate different types of centers in the library!  Use the hashtag #tlelem for your tweets.

Did you miss our first #TLElem chat?  View the archived tweets (over 500 of them!) at the TLElem Wiki.

 

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#TLElem Off to a Great Start!

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500 tweets in one hour!

I’m so glad I saw Joyce Valenza’s Feb 16 blog post at Neverending Search titled #TLELEM: Starting a New Conversation.  In it she explains that the graduate course she’s currently teaching is made up of mainly elementary education students, and they suggested the #TLElem hashtag as a way to connect with other Twitter users who serve the elementary population.

The first #TLElem Live Chat was scheduled for Feb 19, and I think it succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams!  Many thanks to Laurren Kresge (@librarianmissk) and Caitlin Kordek (@cktechtl), the students who facilitated the discussion and who have archived the tweets here.  And no, that was not a misprint in the title sentence!

 

 

If you are working at the elementary level and you Tweet, I hope you’ll leave a comment with your Twitter handle so that I can start following you.  You can follow me @LibraryLoriJune

 

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