Tuesday, February 28, 2017

BooksMakeADifference.Com

BooksMakeADifference.com is another website that I just discovered and am anxious to dive in and  check out its content.   The site is run by a team of women who believe in the power of books.  So they have complied this site that explores books, authors, and readers. There are many interesting looking articles on books , and authors, libraries, and different programs that libraries have. This is an online magazine  that also encourages readers to write their stories. They also have a Facebook and Twitter connection so that could be fun too. When you subscribe you can also enter their giveaways - I am going to check that out!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Middle Web- great for Middle school professionals

 https://www.middleweb.com/


   This site called Middleweb is an astonishing collection of informative and interesting articles about middle school teaching for grades 4-8. There are some great articles on good questioning techniques which caught my eye. Also there are articles on teaching strategies, writing, and assignment assessment, Articles on most subjects are covered.

  The site focus is on teaching and learning. There are also news clips  and book reviews. There is also a collection of resources which I want to check out.  An additional newsletter  can be received  by signing up. If you are a middle school person ,teacher , librarian, or administrator you need to check this out,

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

March Bulletin Boards

  I am thinking about March  ( hoping it gets here soon).     There are several special reasons to highlight different days in March on your bulletin boards. So let's see what we can do.

 Spring into Reading- Flowers, insects, book jackets with titles of spring like books,

 St. Patricks Day- Every Day is a lucky day for reading.
                              Reading is Golden
                              Books to Treasure


Fly high With Reading- kites with book titles blowing in the sky

 Catch the reading Bug!

March- Women's History Month

Dr. Seuss- Read Across America

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Weekly Reading - Winter Street Trilogy

     I read all three in this series and I wish  there would be more! They were in order Winter 
Street, Winter Stroll, and Winter Storm.  Elin Hilderbrand's stories are magical and brings you right in with the characters and the setting.
    The focus is on the Quinn family and most of all it members have their own issues and problems. There are twists and turns  in this family saga. Head of the family is Kellely Quinn and his second wife Mitzi, not to be outdone by the Margaret Quinn , his first wife and mother to the first three grown children. Kellely and Mitzi run an Inn on Nantucket Island .Their son is Bart.
     You'll just have to read this engaging family story- you 'll want to read all of them if you like family stories. Now I am going to seek out some more of Hilderbrand's books  because I am believing they will be just as good.


Winter Stroll (Winter Street)

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Livebinders

  The previous MS librarian( she is now in the HS, our Dept Chair) developed livebinders which are on our library webpage for several of the projects that the teachers needed resources for. Putting them on the webpage makes it really easy for students  when doing these projects.

  The livebinders  and the sites that are included on them  are determined by age level, topic and what the teachers want the students to find out or what information the students need
They can go to the livebinders and get the information they need for the task at hand.

  I have also developed  a few new livebinders  for newer projects  that teachers have asked  me for I will continue doing this as it helps students focus on information needed. It also helps them see what a reliable source looks like.

See my post on livebinders from  5/23/2013. Wired Wednesday- Tech Tools

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Weekly Reading- Fever

   Fever  by L.H.Anderson is another winner in my book. In fact, it appears on many award lists . Ms Anderson won the Margaret A Edwards award in 2009 . This award is given by the ALA for Historical fiction for teens and YA's

   Mattie Cook lives and works at her families coffee shop with her mother and grandfather in the late 1790''s. When the yellow fever breaks out, Mattie's world becomes more intense. Her mother falls ill, so Mattie is sent away  from the city. Her mother does not want her to get the fever.

  She and her grandfather go to the country but the fever is everywhere. MAttie is thrown into being  more grownup and resources in order to survive both her and her grandfathers sickness. She just wants to go back to the city and find her mother.

  Based on real events, Ms, Anderson brings the year 1794 and the epidemic in Philadelphia to life.  You can put yourself in Mattie's shoes as she travels back to the city to open the coffee shop and find out what happens to  bring her life back to almost normal,


Product Details

Friday, February 3, 2017

Teaching Databases

    When is the best time to teach students how to use databases? Last year I had fixed classes and I taught the databases  in isolation.( when there is not a specific purpose the use)  This year I am teaching the databases in an as needed basis. When the students have a research project or something they need to find out for their content teacher, I work with the class  and determine when to introduce/ review the ease of use of the databases that we have available.

    For example, at the beginning of the year I worked with the FACS teacher ( Home Ec in my day) to  develop  a major unit on researching a possible career. I placed the career resources on the library web page, There was a career survey , and specific sites that she wanted them to use. These were not actually databases but government sites  that we wanted them to use. 

   The language teachers did  research projects . So I showed the student  the Culture Gram database . This database madd their project extremely easy.

    I find that teaching students  databases when the are needed  for a project much more effective  for students  to actually leann about them and then USE them in their search for information.