Next Year! New challenges!

      Next year I am told  that I will not be doing all day 7th grade all day. So I will be a 'real " librarian.  So my first challenge will be  getting teachers to collaborate  with me  during the following year.  I know several of the teachers will be glad to work with me. 
      For instance , the music teacher always does several projects requiring  research  on famous   musicians.  I am trying to also remember  if there was another project that he did.  We already  have a whole packet worked up for this project.

       Both of  The 7th  grade science teachers also  do at least one project on endangered species that require  the students to do research on an animal.  So I am quite sure that they will also work with me,

      The one 8th grade social studies class does  a  project on Immigration and also I think another on Washington DC before their trip in the spring.  

   So I will springboard off of these and work on getting other  teachers to work with me on different projects.

It's June! End of year!

     I'm getting ready for the end of school! It's been a long  and interesting year!  7th grade has been a challenge to say the least! I think having the centers was a good idea and I will prepare some  more for next year to have set up for when students visit.   As far as I know, I will not be having 7th grade classes but will be working more closely with the teachers doing student based projects!!  So excited about that!!

      Over the summer I will be checking out some ideas  to get the teachers prepared to collaborate with me when they are doing their projects. This is really the way to run a library and have the students really learn how to use the resources that they need to use.

      I will write more about this over the summer . But I am looking for ideas on how to get teachers to collaborate so please  join in the conversation  of your ideas and suggestions, and what you do if you are in a situation where you have a flexible schedule  for student teacher collaboration.

   Some ideas for you for your June Bulletin Boards::  It's the end of the year so get ready for lots to do!



  Summer Read- Feature covers of student favorites . Use names and say" Jeanne recommends"

  Get Carried away with Books- Balloons or hot air balloons. If you want - add titles to balloons.

   Hot Days- Cool Books- summer scene-  reading on the beach

  Photos of students  reading their favorite books in their favorite places.

  Dive Deep  Into Reading- under the ocean, fish, sharks, water plants.


Special Days:
Fathers Day
Flag Day
Summer

Elementary Librarian- lesson plan resource

  Even though I teach 7th grade Inofrmation Literacy skills, I find that /ElementaryLibrarian.com  is very useful in many cases and also adaptable. Although I am not a subscriber to the entire service, I most likely would be if I were at the elementary level where I had to  plan weekly lessons for   5 or 6 grades.  I did sign  up for their monthly emails , and they come with links to  lessons and the resources needed to go with them.  

  I have used some of the lessons without adapting and some I have changed  just slightly.  The extra resources are printables and also some have power points.     Having just discovered this  I find it very helpful when doing my planning of lessons and it gives me great ideas for things I could include in my lesson rotation.

Netsmartz.org _Parent site for NSTeens

       Netsmartz.org    is the 'parent ' site from the one that I talked about last week. This has lots of  links , ideas, videos, etc for parents and educators   to help  children and students learn more about the safe use of the internet.
  NetSmartz is an interactive and educational program of the National Center for Missing and Exploited children.  It consists of age appropriate resources  for students 5 to 17 to be used by parents, and educators.  There are  many resources here  which include videos, games, lesson plans, activity cards, and presentations.
     The programs are  both educational and entertaining. My students love the NS teens and go back  to replay the games and look at the comics.  If you poke around you will find something you can use with your own children or students.

   Did anyone  find anything similar?  I am constantly on the look out for more sites like this that have excellent content for use with the students.

Recent lessons- April

    During Information Literacy we have been stepping back and doing some literacy type of activities.  Students  listened to the book , The Witches ( Dahl) and  demonstrated their comprehension by  drawing/ writing  about the different components of the story( plot, characters, story arc,)  Students enjoyed this activity and it gave them  a little bit of break from the other activities we had been doing previously.

   Some of the classes  were listening. reading 12 Angry Men (Rose  ) and were  rewriting different scenes  into a play.   We also  wrote some poems for poetry month which most of the students enjoyed.

  This was a little break from the research and information skills that we had been doing .

Great Website for digital media- Middle & High School

     I am using Nsteens  in my Information Literacy classes . Actually what I did was put up several links to some of the items on this site on my Google classroom for the students to do - some as part of a class activity when we were in the computer lab, and some to do when they were done with their assigned work.

    Anyway , the students  seem to think that this is a very cool site .  They enjoy and go back to several of the games.   The purpose of NS Teens  is to make students aware of the issues  about using different internet sources , internet safety, & social media.   The programs are designed to think about what are posting and doing online.  Hopefully they will stop and think about  what they are doing  online and if it inappropriate.

   Along the top of them main page you will see the different items available!
 First there are videos related to  digital citizenship. Here is a quick listing of just a few: Friend or Fake, Gaming, Cyberbullying, & Post to be Private.

   Another Tab is Games, which my students thoroughly enjoyed.  Website Warrior and Password Plunder were on my google classroom and many students return to Website Warrior  again and again.

  The Quizzes  tab has 4 quizzes- the first was completed by my students but  some of the wording was confusing to them.  There were two comic strips , my students viewed one.  The remaining tab is biographies on all the characters throughout the different  programs.

  

May Bulletin Boards!

May bulletin Board for Libraries

  It  is  getting towards the end of April , so I am thinking of what to do about those bulletin boards.
Here are some ideas of what I have used in the past.

Sneaking around with a good book- copies of sneakers , students will write  on a blank sneaker their favorite spring books.  They can color them and then we will put   them on the board.

"When we read we Grow.'May flowers-  Blue Back ground.
  Battle of the Books - groups. scores , announcements.

"We're wild about Books!"- Jungle theme ( animals , trees) around slogan, maybe even titles on tree leaves, or book jackets if you have more room.

"Read, Return, Repeat"  Make slogan like the Recycle, Reduce, Reuse  Make  green arrows- put book jackets around that.

"Don't be angry -Read a Good Book"   Angry birds and book jackets or titles

April Bulletin Board Ideas

     It 's time again to start thinking about April!  I know March seems like it just started but with vacation , I like to always think ahead!

      I've got a poem in my pocket!-- pockets with poems typed stuck in- these can be changed  weekly. Or let  students put in their  favorite poems.

     Get Graphic@ the Library!  Scan covers of some of your Graphic Novels and put on a colorful Bulletin Board.

      Get Hooked on  Books!- Fishing line with book titles or covers along the line.
( Fishing for a good Book)

     Spring into Reading with Great Books

      Sports Stories

      It's Raining Books- Put an umbrella in the corner of the bulletin board. Then place large blue and grey raindrops with book titles on them.( Again let students put up their favorites.

     April showers bring great books! ( Similar to above idea)


National Humor Month
School Library Month

Common Sense Media

 I have found this program open to school educators of technology and information literacy. I am planning to use some of the components  to  ensure that my 7th graders  learn  the ins and outs of the right way to use the newest technology. I think they will like what is coming up this week. We are finishing our black history project and will go  on to digital and traditional  media as an introduction to the Common Sense Media  components that I will be using

Projects/ Activities for February ( Middle school Information Literacy Classes)

    In 7th grade , we are doing some Black American History Month projects.  I have a pathfinder set up for students to read about some famous Black Americans- this gives them a link to the people  and leads them to Biography.com to get quick answers.

     Also there is a research aspect which delves into one person. Students are looking up why the person was famous and other interesting facts.   With these facts , they will be making a wordle poster  for another grade!

     On our Activity table, there are hearts to write their favorite books on, a movie survey, and a fiction find game.  

Middle School Library Centers- another idea

 I recently came across another idea that I want to try with my 7th grade middle school classes.  I will do a Research Question of the week  which I will put at the"Game Center"  I am not sure if I will offer a prize or not - still debating on it.

  What I  will do is post the question and then have students find the answer and also write down the source of the answer . I will give guidelines as to what sources they may use- NOT goggle- they always want to use that!

  I will gear the  questions to the Month- I just looked up what January is noted for( days, weeks)  This is what I found: Martin Luther King, Science Fiction day, Trivia Day, Hat day, Popcorn day, Hobby month, Hot tea  month, Oatmeal month,  Sunday Supper Month, Soup Month.

January Bulletin Boards

 What bulletin boards will I put up in January? I always try to think ahead and get ready for the next month.  I didn't this time. So here are some ideas that I have used or thought of to use in January.
   
    Let's read til we get snowed under-  snowflakes with book titles in the center. Blue sky in background. Bottom can be a silhouette of the town or school building.

   Sink into winter reading-  student/ teacher in a cozy chair reading, book jackets surrounded the chair.

   Hibernate with a good book- bears reading ( in a cave or in the snow)

  "READBOX"-  a redbox( movie rental)  with titles around that align with popular movies