Battle of the Books- Team Posters!

Tomorrow we announce the first round of the Battle of the books. We will be holding it on March 28, 2012. We will be setting up in a large room where the students can sit on the floor in their teams. Last year we held the first round in the library and it was a little packed. So I wanted more room to spread out. The students will be working on their team posters. Each poster can be done on an 11 by 18 poster board or construction paper. The team name is to be in the center and can then be decorated with team players names and other drawings or clip art around the team name. The signs are helpful when we are keeping track of points at both the first and second round of the challenge.

Don't forget to post or join up!

February giveway time is ending soon! Don't forget to post a comment or join the blog!

Focus on School Libraries

This is an excellent article on the importance of school libraries and librarians. I am using it with my administration and union president. Budget meetings are being held and they are discussing all possibilities of what can and can't be cut. Check out this article if you need some arguments for the role of the school librarian.

ALA Presidential Task Force: Focus on School Libraries

Nomination?

I got this email the other day. I am not sure what the catch is. But I am posting. Just to see.

Hi there,

An article you wrote in 2012 titled The Organized Librarian- lesson planning has earned your blog a nomination for a Fascination Award: 2012's Most Fascinating Librarian blog.

The comments posted in response to your post prove that your content not only inspires your audience, but it also creates discussion around your posts, both of which are requirements for the nomination of a Fascination award.

As a nominee of this award, you have full permission to display the "Nominated" emblem on your website. To learn more about the contest, the rules, or the prizes, click here: 2012 Fascination Awards Rules & Prizes.

To get started:

Accept your nomination by replying to this email by Thursday February 24th (11:59 PM EST).
Claim your "Nominated" badge to display on your blog: Nominated Badge


Voting begins February 27th at 12:01 AM (EST). The blog with the most votes by March 5th at 11:59 PM (EST) will win the grand prize, a $200 restaurant gift card.

Good luck and thank you for your participation!

Matthew Pelletier
Director of Public Relations
Accelerated Degree Programs









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Extra Snowday! -- School Library Monthly

We are enjoying a"snowday" today. It is cold but sunny here in NE Pa. I am thinking about reading some library articles that I brought home with me. I have a new professional Journal that I love It is School Library Monthly!
Check it out- it has great articles about a variety of topics of course all related to our work as librarians. There are lesson ideas, and columns about books. Also there are information about library professionalism, and great ideas for connecting students and books. I also like the back two pages where they have ideas for bulletin board and great ideas for special days and author birthdays for each month.
Check it out - Look at their website for details on ordering.

School Library Monthly

Battle of the Books & Power Point

Tomorrow I will begin the power point for the first round of this year's battle.
What I do is look at the questions and select the ones I want from the first two rounds. Each question is typed on a slide. The next slide the answer is typed- both title and author.
For the second round I go to the questions on the third and fourth pages.This year we are tentatively going to 'Battle" against a neighboring school who is also doing a school battle.

Gathering Grid- For research

If you go to this site- which is actually excellent. We received information on this at our Library Council meeting. Go down to the section that says Research and then follow by clicking on graphic organizers you will see the gathering grid. I tried to copy and paste but for some reason that didn't work.

Great Sourceiwrite

Student Research- class lesson

My fourth grade classes are doing research projects so I want to do some classes on the steps to research . I have used The Big 6 in the past and also the KWL chart. I just found another type of chart that looks good . It is called a Gathering Grid. Down one side is the subject and three questions and along the top are three columns with Source 1 , Source 2, and Source 3. Students write the questions in the question area and then find the answers .

Does anyone every use one like this?

When I find the link to the Gathering Grid I will post it here. This grid just looks like a little less work while encouraging students to use multiple resources. I think it would go along with the Big 6 model also.

Don't Forget to post or follow for the February Giveaway!

Blogging Ideas

Students in our 4-6 grades will be blogging soon!. One of our reading teachers started a lunch time book club for students- asked by Administration as part of her position. Each group selects a book and then reads and discusses it. These are kids who volunteered to be in this group. The teacher asked to help her set up a blog for the students to respond to the books and some questions she might have . We set up her blog the same as my school blog. She introduced it to the students- I was present during just one meeting. Any way the students are getting into it, and hopefully they will also go over on the library blog and write some comments in their.

New Facebook Page

I just began a new Organized Librarian FaceBook page. You will see some new content and also some of the similar posts you see here. I am hoping for more conversations and ideas!

February Giveaway!!

The book I have chosen for the February Giveaway is Collaborative Library Lessons for the Primary Grades. This book has many excellent lessons that can be adapted for students in grades K-3 depending on the lesson and the skill. Many of these lessons I have also used with 4th and 5th graders with just a few tweaks. Everything is there for you to use- standards, objectives, prep of materials and steps to the lesson and skill sheets.I would highly recommend this book to any librarian who teaches these grades( and grades 4-6) To be in the running for this book, simply do one or the other.: Follow The Oragnized Librarian, or leave a comment on any day in February! Hope to Chat with you!