Wednesday, May 31, 2017

TeenReads

Teen Reads.com
   Teenreads  is a part of Book Report Network.  BookReport Network aim/ goal is to provide book reviews, articles, author profiles & interviews & excerpts news releases.
  Teen reads is aimed at students from 12 to 18. On the main page you will find ways to connect /interact with the providers by voting in their current poll, answering the current question, giving your reading recommendations or writing to the editor. This is aimed for the teens to interact with the providers and other teen readers.

Tabs at the top of the page are: reviews, authors, features, reading list, contests, teen board, blog and newsletter just to name a few. 

I plan on diving into the reviews and what’s coming soon. This site is well planned out and easy to use.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Library /reading bulletin boards for June

   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

Friday, May 19, 2017

Awesomelibrary.org- geat site


    Awesomelibrary .org is both awesome and amazing!  The tag line on the main page is that Amazing library organizes the internet with about 37, 000 sources.
    There are 30 tabs in block form in the center of the main pages. There is also a search box. The top tabs are Teachers, Kids, Teens, Parents, librarians and College. Each of those links takes the viewer to the next level where you can find specific sites for additional topics.
   Example: Under teens, there are school subjects( Math, Language arts,  Science, Technology ,English,  Social  Studies, the arts, health & PE ) and then there are also links for activities and more( Games, projects, Friends, questions, .authors, ) Each  link takes you to a page that has links .

      My focus is to find what they offer for librarians, teachers, and student’s. I feel that this will be a valuable site for librarians, educators, and students.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Organizing Your Day Using To Do lists!

   So you have your  To Do List  and you eliminated or delegated  tasks (See   post on 5/2/17 )
A good idea to make you more efficient is grouping or batching tasks or jobs.(See The Organized Librarian- my book - offered at this blog)  This works well  with small tasks or routine items. You can batch  small tasks like filing, shelving, budget work, or items that require the same mind or time frame. 

  Some Examples: 1) Take all papers, mail, handouts, budget sheets  to needed locations in one trip, 2) Do one project ( or section of a project) at a time . Work on it until completed or the task is completed before starting another task/ project, 3) Set aside certain times for checking emails, making phone calls, 4) phone contacts  to confirm meeting times and places.

Work from your To Do list with  3 to 5 items per day. Focus on getting those items done. At the end of the day, you will see  and feel accomplished .

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Wing & Claw: Forest of Wonders- Weekly Reading

  A new series by Linda Sue Park is Wing and Claw: Forest of Wonders  really caught my attention. Raffa, a young apothecary is learning to use the woods gatherings  of leaves and herbs from his Father. He finds a special vine with strong powers. With it he saves a small bat, but the vine leaves the bat with extraordinary powers.
    Raffa continues to experiment with the vine,  but he also wants to warn his cousin  of its power. The cousin and his family have moved to the big city to be apothecaries there.
     Something Raffa discovers  is very upsetting and he needs to  find out the truth about his relatives. This puts him in some danger, This a new series - I can't  wait to read the next one to see what happens!

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Using post –it’ notes to organize



   When working on projects, I collect papers and printouts.  If it is a large project with multi pages ( like 7 or more) I will label a file folder  and place the papers inside the file to keep them all together.
 But if the project is small or has just a couple of papers, and it is one I will do relatively quickly 
( within day or two), then this is what I do. I will paper clip the items together and then mark them with a small post it note.  ( On large  post -it notes  I cut them in half- the right way so they will stick.) Then I mark what they papers refer to or what I need to do with them.

   This way I can put them in  my  work basket,  and  then complete them quickly the next several days. (See small and large projects in my book The Organized Librarian!)  
  The post its help me organize and remind me what to do, and this  keeps me going in the right direction of being organized and getting stuff done,

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Symbaloo- Tech tool

Symbaloo  is an exciting tool to use - either with students or as an organizing tool for much used items It helps you organized the internet so you can find  and share resources!

   You build a webpage by first creating the title and then you can personalize with colors of your choice.You can add new sources- even articles  I think and radio stations. You chose a title , pick a color , and then up load a link I am just learning , but if you haven't seen this  it really is cool. And it is not to hard to learn.

This become a webmix. You can also search in the gallery for other webmixes that have already been done. Theses are very helpful and you can find lots of interesting links that way'

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

To Do lists

In the morning ( or at night before you go home) ,whichever works best for you, you write your to do list- right?  You might want to divide your list into three columns:
Today's Priorities                       This week to do's                                            Would be nice to do


I keep this limit to 5 items in each column. Then I go back and see if there is anything  that can be avoided or delegated. Look at the tasks that are really worth you time and energy. Get rid of anything that is not necessary. This way you can focus your day on doing what is most important and will make the most impact for you students . teachers, or patrons,. I make my list before I go home. Then in the morning, I look at my list again  and cross off items if I feel it is not worth my time.

 Then I focus on what is most important  and even get some 'nice to do  " items which is very nice feeling! 


Tuesday, April 25, 2017

May Bulletin Boards

  It  is 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 put on their favorite spring books  and 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 green arrows- put book jackets around that.

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

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Elink- site for Curation or Pathfinders!

Elink is a free site where one can share information using computers, tablets,  or phones.  It is easy to publish and edit the content on the go. This will help students (and others) share online content .  So you could include videos, webinars, podcasts, articles, images, google docs and more.
  Curating with elink is a simple way to  share. You choose a template, add the links or articles, save the content  and then share your elink webpage.

It is easy to use . I use it to create pathfinders for specific student projects. Then I post on the library page and students use the links to complete projects. 
 This was one of the links in the Curation post that I wanted to try first- I made a pathfinder today for one of my teachers- It was really easy to set up! I will do more of these!

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Curation:A new term for Educators


 One of our goals in education is higher order thinking skills. So we are trying to get away from students simply recalling information.  One new concept I've been reading about s curation.

Curation is the collecting and organizing of facts/ writings of high quality and then sharing those collections with the world. A student could collect: articles, images, videos, audio clips or a mixture of items that all relate to a topic . It’s like “The top 10” or “The Best of” something.  


Curation projects require students to  : Understand the information, analyze  and  organize it to make sense, and evaluate  / judge the quality  of the items. 

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Book Review- Where Can We have the Party?

   The animals ( Elephant, Giraffe, Monkey, and Snake) are trying to find the best place to a birthday party for their friend Chimpanzee. But each idea of a place they come up with won't work for the chimpanzee or the four friends.  

     They finally find the perfect place- Hungle Bungle Park. The friends decorate the park with balloons, ribbons, streamers , and a Happy Birthday banner.  The whimsical illustrations are soft and  make a soothing yet colorful  jumble of the zoo and its animals.

    The party was a surprise  so they all yelled surprize when Chimpanzee arrived.  The friends danced, and played games, and had lots of fun together.  When the party was over, Chimpanzee told them,"This was the best birthday party ever!"

   This is a fun birthday story for children from 2 to 7.  The jungle party with the animals is a great twist on the birthday theme. The illustrations are fun and age appropriate . All the animals are friendly  looking and happy. This would make a great gift for a child's
birthday, they will want to read this story over and over.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Budget Book- a good way to organize

      A few years back I was on my "notebook ". I organized all my important papers into three ring binders to keep everything straight and items together.   I decided last week  ( I 'm at the middle school now) that the note book organizing was the way to go  to keep like items together.  It worked at the public library  when I had a tiny tiny office,  now here my office is bigger but has even less space  and places to organize important papers.

     The first thing I did was to organize  and figure out how to build my binder. Previously I had items in two hanging file folders that were located on my desk placed in one of my file holders. Every tune I took one out to work on something ( which was weekly) the papers would either fall out or get in the wrong spot.



      So in the binder  I put  four divider tabs.  The first was labeled pending, so all the purchase orders still  out / not received were hole punched and place behind this section. I also made a section marked general in which I placed information about the  budget in general- amounts for  materials and supplies, amounts for chapter 53 ( funds for books state assigned).  So depending on the PO , I placed them in whatever tab they belonged.  These were the completed  Po with items we had received,


     Now when I have budget papers  they are finalized, I hole punch them and put them in the proper section. When I pull out the book, the items stay where they belong.  It makes it easier to grab what I need and also is much easier to keep in order.  MMMMM What else can I put in those binders??