If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what’s a video worth? I think when you’re trying to engage middle school students in a review about how to use the school library, a video example is priceless. If you’re able to get their classmates to be the actors in your little library drama, all the better! The following clip is one of several filmed for this year’s library orientation. Our students, and even the teachers, got a chuckle out of it and it spurred a lively discussion about how to properly return a book to the shelf.

Download

At our district’s Library Inservice last week, I hosted a breakout session called “Casting a Wide ‘Net for Readers:  Using the Internet to Promote your Library”.  If you missed it, I’m including the PowerPoint below (there’s not much to it, I tend to talk more than “present”), along with these links to three cool web tools we discussed:  LogoEase (to make unique logos for your library and its programs), Wordle (a fun, eye-catching way to get your point across), and Animoto (slick little videos of your uploaded pictures).

Download

Here’s a picture from my library…

I love my job. I really do… …except for the shelving part.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer! Keep reading and keep learning.

We’ve all seen those little candy conversation hearts that are everywhere this time of year.  I’m not crazy about how they taste but they’re just so cute.

Since I’ve adopted a valentine’s day/candy heart theme for my upcoming RIF book distribution, I was excited to stumble on www.cryptogram.com/hearts/, a website that creates candy heart pictures that say whatever you choose to write.  I created twelve different hearts (I even used one of their anti-valentine’s day “goth” hearts just for fun), uploaded them to flickr, then used Big Huge Labs‘ mosiac maker to arrange them in one picture.  I probably didn’t really need to make the mosaic to create my poster, but it was fun anyway.  I also noticed a trading card maker on that site, too, which would be really cool for students to use for reporting on states or countries or rivers or planets… …but I digress.  I’ll try that later.

I added my RIF theme “Follow your Heart… READ!” and some clip art border and… ta da!… I have a poster for RIF that’s personalized for our school.

Candy conversation hearts are cute, but they’re even cuter when YOU get to compose the message on them.  Use them to promote whatever or whoever you want.  They’re sure to be a hit!

Keep reading and keep learning!

What do you do when your principal unexpectedly brings a news crew into your library to film you while you’re teaching?  Of course you do what you’ve taught your students to do… …you ignore the camera.  You just keep teaching.  That’s what I did when News Channel 3 showed up in the library Friday morning.  Since I didn’t really look directly at them, I thought they were a crew from the Board.  My principal had to stop me and call me over to talk to the reporter.  How embarrassing!

Imagine my surprise when they told me I was their News Channel 3 “Educator of the Week”!  I was stunned and speechless.  While I am occasionally stunned, I am very rarely speechless.  I can’t think of one instance in recent memory when I’ve been speechless.  Wow.  If I hadn’t been fighting back tears and marveling at how our staff and a whole class of 8th graders had managed to keep this a secret, I would’ve been able to tell that nice reporter from Channel 3 exactly how I felt.  It’s not like I haven’t repeated the following many times when telling people how much I love my job.  (I just usually don’t have a camera and microphone pointing at me at the time.)

So here, for the record, are some things I wish I’d said…

I am blessed with the best job in our school.  A job that lets me be as creative as my imagination will allow to serve not only our students, but also our incredible teachers and administrative team.  I’m doing everything I can just to keep up with other members on our faculty who consistently go way above and beyond to make our school and our students the very best they can be.  I’m awed by their energy and diligence.  I am constantly motivated and inspired by my fellow MCS librarians, by the fantastic Ed Tech team we have in our district, and by the support I receive from my administration, our teachers and all our wonderful students.  I love my job and feel very lucky to have it!

So, if you happen to see me on one of the “Educator of the Week” promo clips on Channel 3 in a week or so, you have my permission to laugh.  I know I will.  Just keep in mind that although I’m standing there looking stunned and embarrassed while the reporter tries to coax a few words out of me, I’m feeling so much more.