December in the Library 2020

 I have to say I am glad that this is the last post of 2020! I just know that 2021 has to be a better year and I am hopeful for things to come. Despite the challenges, we have had a wonderful month in the library. Check it out below!

Our students continue to do amazing things with myON!

The library was all decorated for Christmas!

I love putting character names on the stockings!

My aide and I recorded a Christmas read aloud for the virtual literacy night. 

I so enjoyed working with 5th graders to complete their hour of code during Computer Science Week.

Ms. Plote has made our shelves look awesome!

She has been working hard to organize nonfiction books by topic so they are easy to find.

We had a great turnout at our live read alouds this month. 

Students from a local high school even popped in as guest readers. 

I wrote some Twitter challenges for the 12 days of school left before break. It was fun to do and we filled Twitter up with images of books!

I also participated in #GISDChat which was all about different tech tools like this drawing you can do in PearDeck. 

Students in 3rd grade loving asking our guest author questions during their virtual visit.

We appreciate Bobbie Pyron's time as she shared about writing her book Stay. 

Books are my favorite thing to give and this one went to a teacher  (Mrs. Valdez) who is always willing to partner with me on my ideas!

We are having dress up days as we wrap up this crazy semester. I am Rudolph today, but not quite this elaborate. Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you have a safe, relaxing holiday season! See you in 2021!!

November in the Library 2020

 November is always a fast month, but also a busy one. We fit in lots of exciting activities and events into three weeks. December starts tomorrow and the weather has finally decided to act like it is winter.

We wrapped up October with a pumpkin decorating contest. I took photos of each pumpkin and created a Google form for voting. This is was one of my favorites obviously and the winner for prek-2nd grade!

It was a big election year so these new books came just in time!

November is Picture Book Month so staff members contributed to a display about their favorite books.

Here are a few more of the selections.

I assisted with a schoolwide project to elect the best cookie. I helped the 5th grade representatives do a speech and a debate. Then, I created a Google Form for voting. Chocolate chip was the winner!

Pizza vs. Taco was a great election week read aloud!

I also enjoyed reading this one to the younger students to discuss elections.

We had a virtual Veterans Day Program this year that I created with Adobe Spark. It was great to combine photos of veterans along with songs and facts by the students.

For PLC this month, we read How to Catch a Turkey and created turkey traps.

Here is one of the amazing traps.

Don't worry, no turkeys were harmed in the book or the trap creations!

Bradfield won the district's myON challenge for this month. I am so proud!

Our district hosted a day to celebrate all things Google. I am so happy to be a Google trainer and share the Googly things when I can!

I binge-watched all the things over Thanksgiving break so I am looking forward to the Christmas break to do some reading. My TBR pile is getting pretty large!

September/October in the Library

 I was halfway through October before realizing I never blogged for September so I decided to combine the two. We have had several first days of school this year and welcome back students almost daily so it has all just become a blur. I am loving having readers back in the library as our year starts to feel a little more normal, if possible. 

We celebrated Dot Day for several weeks in PLC time. Here are some first graders coloring their 3D Quaver Dots. They loved seeing them come to life!

Fourth graders created amazing 3D dots as well. 

The Tweet Fairy has been busy since our staff has been sharing all the wonderful things going on in their classrooms and around the school. 

Our students rocked myON during September and I cannot wait to check the October report.

This year, students are trying to earn levels by reading minutes in myON...we will see who becomes a Jedi Master!

My best buddy at work flew the nest as she works towards her future. I will miss our prek aide Ms. Aquilera so much!

With so many things we cannot do this year, I was excited that we can continue the Braum's Book Buddy program.

I finally got around to cataloging some of the books I got in Louisville at the AASL Conference. They had been at home in a bag while school was all virtual.

I participated in our district's #GISDChat Big Share event and curated the tweets into a Wakelet for the staff. I also attended several Canvas trainings and an i3 kickoff. It has been a techy year so far, but all great for our students and the opportunities they have!

The library is decked out for fall and we displayed many of our Halloween and horror books.

One of the best days of the year occurred when our big book delivery happened. We had 10 boxes of awesome new books to enjoy!

I unpacked the boxes and sorted them so I could get them on the shelves as soon as possible. 

I was so happy to get this grant from the Garland Education Foundation so that we can do a story walk that will benefit our face to face and virtual learners who live nearby. It will be a socially distanced way to enjoy a great story!

We had dress up days for Bullying Prevention Week and I used PLC time this month to discuss being nice to each other despite our differences.

A sweet, random surprise from a coworker always brightens a day!

This series on myON made our Live storytimes even more spooky!

I read this one pretty quickly...keeps you on the edge of your seat!

I loved being able to connect with students during these storytimes!

Red Ribbon Week brought dress up days and a pumpkin decorating contest. It was so fun to create the voting form and see the results!

Our new library aide Ms. Plote started this week and we are so excited to have her!

Even though the weather thinks it is January...November is on the way and always goes so quickly!

July/August 2020 in the Library

 The blog is back! So, during the spring, I took a blog hiatus because...well, life and a pandemic happened. I am glad to be able to share the awesome library things happening so far this school year. 

I attended a two day training about myON in July. I learned tons about projects and reports. I am looking forward to sharing this information with students and staff. 

I also attended our yearly webmaster training to get a refresher on how the website should work.

Our district switched to Canvas so I spent a little of my summer learning about Canvas so I could have my virtual library ready. 

It was fun to blend the real library and the virtual Bitmoji one together. Sadly, all of this furniture and the displays are packed away for this year. 

This became a very important place to look as I supported librarians and teachers through the transition to Canvas. I am so proud of how everyone has stepped up to the challenge of learning a new way to teach in a short amount of time. 

I presented at the Region 10 Library EdCampMashUp about virtual visits. This is going to be such strange year and it will be tricky to find ways to connect, but virtual visits are a great way to do that.

The staff started back in person in early August with a review of our mission and vision statements. Through the tough days we have to remember why we are here. 

My beautiful library is a little less beautiful this year, but still full of books for the students to check out.

The view is different, but this too shall pass. The library is OPEN!

Our remote learners have been requesting books and doing curbside check out. It has been fun to be a personal shopper for books. 

Our students were all virtual learners in August so our Canvas library course became a focus. We have weekly read alouds posted for students to enjoy.

There is a discussion area for students to share about what they are reading.

Our virtual library is open 24/7 for students and staff to find resources and reading materials.

GISD librarians are aiming to be R2V2 this year. That may include a lot of "non-library" jobs, but we are all in to help however we can.

When the world changed, so did how we teach. Being an i3 is going to be a much more important role this year and I am excited to see what the future holds. I always learn so much and am eager to share it with our campus. 

Some of the students are coming back in September and I cannot wait to see them. I am excited to continue sharing literacy with both our remote learners and the face to face ones.