Overdrive - This is the comic that I created to introduce Overdrive to my students and teachers!

SO many of my students got eReaders for Christmas and came back to school so excited. Then a week or so in, they started to realize that ebooks cost money. And middle schoolers generally are unemployed, which will really cut into an individual’s book buying budget. My budget isn’t exactly full of oodles of money for ebooks, either. However, our school is lucky to be located in the parish (now you all know, in case you didn’t before, that I’m from Louisiana) with one of the best public library systems in the country! And our public library is always adding ebooks and audiobooks to Overdrive. So even though I’m not at a point where I can offer many ebooks through our school library, I can show my kids how to access Overdrive with their public library card.

SCORE!!

I did a short 10 minute session during each of the lunch periods this week to show students Overdrive, what our public library can offer them, and how they can use it with their various devices. There were lots of excited students (and teachers, too) that came in to learn about Overdrive. I’m sure there will be lots of excited parents, too, when their kids show them that they have access to so many ebooks and audiobooks for FREE!

Ahhh…the perks of having a library card

I’m writing this post on the plane ride home from a fabulous week in St. Lucia. My family and I spent the Christmas holiday soaking up sunshine and relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the island. I spent the week unplugged — almost completely, just a few email and Facebook checks on the painfully slow, way overpriced resort wifi. I could usually be found laid back in a hammock on the beach reading on my Nook with a fantastic fruity beverage in hand. I had lots of time to read, reflect and relax.

Island life is so different from what I’m used to… it’s so laid back and stress free. That really puts things into perspective! I generally spend a lot of time fretting over things that I have no control over. I want so badly for my school and district to move forward. Technology is so relevant to our students and we are doing them such a disservice when we let our own fear and apprehension hold us back from giving them the best learning opportunities. I get so worked up over slow progress (and often what feels like NO progress) that I often let it overshadow other things, more current and pressing things. In the new year, I’m going to try to focus on balance. Crazy, right?

I’m not going to call it a resolution or anything, I’m just going to make a more conscious effort towards balance. I know that I need to spend more time reading. My husband would scoff at that I’m sure, but I feel like I need to make even more of an effort so that I can make the best possible book recommendations to my students. I recently read “The Book Whisperer” by Donalyn Miller, an EXCELLENT book that really made me think about what I’m doing to instill a life-long love for reading in students. I can’t do my job if I’m not doing everything I can to stay on top of what books are new and relevant to my students lives. There’s nothing like the feeling of satisfaction that you get when a student comes to you after reading a book you recommended and let know know what an impact it had on them. I need to be doing what I can to help all of my students find the books that can make that difference for them.

I also need to make a conscious effort to balance my schedule. I so struggle with this, but I need to find a way to be be consistent when it comes to making circulation dates, digital citizenship lessons, research activities, and cross-curricular projects happen regularly. Not sure how I’m going to make it happen (can I add some more time to my day, or maybe clone myself?), but I’m going to try. I also want to add more variety into programs — involving reading, technology, art, and culture. I’m thinking about doing some lunchtime and/or after school workshops. Coming back from the holidays, I’m thinking that a “How to Use Overdrive” to help new ereader owners learn how to take advantage of the access to Overdrive that we have from our public library…teachers AND students welcome!

2011 has been such a great year for me. This time last year I was gearing up for my mid-year move to the middle school. I’m definitely settled and in my element now, many changes and much success have found a home at the CMS library. More change is on the calendar for 2012…this summer we will be moving to our new school! So much to look forward to and so much to be thankful for…I’m loving life!

Gosh, I’ve been busy. So much to update!

First, I spent the beginning of last week at LACUE, our state technology conference. Good times! I really enjoy presenting — I mean I get to be the center of attention, I get to spread my ideas, I get to try to be clever and witty to see if I can get a few laughs.

Really, though, it was a successful presentation. My session was called “Favorite FREE Tech Tools,” and my links and resources can be found on my presentation wiki.

I’m hoping to do more presenting in the future and I also would love to do multiple presentations at LACUE 2012.

I came back from the conference on December 1st which was an exciting day — our FIRST ever author visit at the CMS library! Louisiana author Diana Rowland came for an after school meet-and-greet, where she talked about her writing process and publication. Diana is good people! The students loved her! After, my ELA friend and I took her out for dinner and we had a blast. Such a great day!

This is Diana’s most recent novel. Isn’t the cover insane?! Despite the fact that I was a bit hesitant about diving into this zombie novel, I really LOVED it! Even though the novel is definitely a high school level, a few of my more mature readers have gobbled it up like a jar of brains (hehe, I couldn’t resist!).

I’m so glad that we were able to introduce this amazing author to our students, particularly those that have an interest in writing!

We had a slamming TL Virtual Cafe Library World Smackdown on Monday which ROCKED! If you missed it, you can check out the archive here.

And now, the best for last…I’m nominated for an Edublog Award in the “Best use of audio/video/podcast” category!! I’m so excited and so HONORED to be included in the rockstar crowd that is the Edublog Award nominees! And I’m not going to lie or be all full of fluff…of course I want to win! If you haven’t before, please check out the MightyLittleLibrarian’s YouTube Channel. If you like it and are so inclined, VOTE FOR ME!

I will admit, though, that there are some friends of mine that are MUCH more deserving that I am of an Edublog Award. The Daring Librarian is SO VERY deserving of so many categories, including “Best Library/Librarian Blog” and “Best Educational Wiki.” AND it’s time that we get out there and vote to give Joyce Valenza the “Lifetime Achievement” award for everything she’s done for our profession!

So there ya go, my friends! It’s been a great week!

It’s time to make our nominations for the 2011 Edublog Awards!

It’s basically impossible to pick just one person for most of these categories, but after much thought and consideration I’ve compiled my list! I’m so honored to have these individuals as part of my PLN and I’m so thankful for the contributions they continuously make to the education profession.

Best individual blog:  Joyce Valenza – Neverending Search

Joyce’s blog is the perfect balance of sharing valuable information and inspiring calls to action. She’s the fearless leader of our Geek Tribe and I’m so grateful that she continues to push those of us who follow her blog to grow as professionals.

Best group blog:  Tiffany, Shannon, Eden, Jennifer – Story Snoops

Story Snoops is a great resources for parents, teachers, and librarians. Not only do they have an incredible database of book reviews, but these four moms also co-author a fabulous blog! I use this blog to make so many book recommendations to my students (and book purchases!).

Best individual tweeter:  Steven Anderson

Steven is THE MAN on Twitter. Such an amazing sharer of the wealth of knowledge that he has on all things ed tech. Plus, he’s just a really nice guy!

Best new blog:  Tamara Cox – Eliterate Librarian

The day that I discovered Tamara’s blog was a very important day in my career! The more I read her blog, the more I knew I had found my library soulmate. She graciously shares amazing ideas on her blog, and her passion for her profession definitely shines through. I look forward to reading her blog and calling her my friend for many years to come!

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog:  Richard Byrne – Free Tech for Teachers

Honestly, Richard’s Free Tech for Teachers blog needs no explanation. He’s like the ed tech blogging Superman. This is always the first blog I recommend for teachers to follow.

Most influential blog post:  Gwyneth Jones – Lady GaGa Librarians Unite!

This blog post by Gwyneth Jones was by far my favorite and most influential of the year. It caused a bit of a stir (*evil grin*), which made it even better! In the words of Gwyneth — it’s time for us, as school librarians, to start acting more like Lady GaGa and less like Lady Bird Johnson!

Best twitter hashtag:  #ISTE11

ISTE conference time is the most wonderful time of the year! And the hashtag that belongs to the event is the best!

Best librarian / library blog:  Gwyneth Jones – The Daring Librarian

I’ve got so much love for the amazing, FANTABULOUS Gwyneth Jones! I’m talking oodles and oodles of love. Not only does her blog share the best of the best when it comes to ed tech and library goodness, but the tone and personality of her writing is what keeps us all coming back for more! Gwyneth’s blog truly gives you a sense of who she is and what she’s about — completely genuine and in my book THE BEST!

Best School Administrator blog:  Eric Sheninger – A Principal’s Reflections

I have so much admiration for Eric Sheninger and the advocating he does for social media in schools. He’s a stand-out to me when I think of proactive, forward-thinking administrators.

Best educational wiki:  SIGML Wiki

ISTE’s SIGML (Special Interest Group for Mobile Learning) wiki is fabulous! It’s beautiful! It’s clean! I love it! It inspired me to build better, fancier wikis…yay!

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series:  TL Virtual Cafe

The TL Virtual Cafe is such an incredible FREE PD opportunity offered every month! Participating in this terrific webinar series has helped me to grow so much as a teacher-librarian and it always leaves me refreshed and full of new ideas. Our Geek Tribe is so giving… having so many willing to share makes for something really great!

Lifetime achievement:  Joyce Valenza

Joyce is the queen of our tribe. She’s brilliant and inspirational. She’s an incredible leader and fabulous speaker. Joyce is also kind, generous, and a great collaborator. With everything that she has done and continues to do to push our profession and education forward, she completely deserves to be recognized!

Come on people. What the heck is going on here? It’s time to pull ourselves together.

Joyce Valenza, Jennifer LaGarde and Gwyneth Jones have posted about it. We know that properly staffed and stocked school libraries really do make a difference in the lives of students. I’m not rehashing all of that, because – DUH! – we already know that. Despite this, the flippin’ petition still doesn’t have enough signatures. It’s time to get it together, people!!

This is what we are going to do: set up a petition station at your big Thanksgiving bash. I will be taking my laptop with this cute little sign I made and STRONGLY encourage every single person there to sign the petition:

PDF Here: SupportLibraries

I invite you to print it out and do the same. You could also use this QR code and have people get to the petition that way:

I think that setting up a station and having people do it right then and there would be the most effective way to make this happen. And we have GOT to make this happen!

If you plan to join in and set up a station at your holiday dinner, leave a comment! PLEASE! I’m begging you…let’s make this happen!

EDIT: Here’s the link to the petition!

I’m a big believer in decorating in the library. I don’t care if you have a moldy, musty, ancient room with ceiling tiles falling in (because I do!!) — you can still make the place cute. It’s not superficial, it’s an important part of making your library a comfortable, welcoming place. This is why I went crazy decorating when I moved into my current position.

So guess what else: I think decorating for holidays is pretty important, too. Yep, I’m out of control. But the kids love it, so that makes it all okay

For November, I created a “Thankful Door” where students and teachers could grab a marker and share something that they were thankful for this year. I broke out the Cricut and cut out some Thanksgiving cuteness to add to the door. I also broke out the leaves from last fall (I laminated them!) that I brought home from my North Carolina trip. Check out our Thankful Door:

ANNOYANCE: The stores apparently  think that Thanksgiving isn’t uber important in terms of decorations. They completely skipped from Halloween decorations to Christmas! The only things I managed to find were this goofy little turkey man to sit on the circulation desk and this little fall themed basket arrangement. Next year I WILL have a cornucopia. It’s essential!

Before I left on Friday, I went ahead and took down the fall decorations. My wonderful mom dropped off my Christmas tree and some of the kids were dying to set it up.

Since I’m at the middle school now, I (and by “I”, I mean mom) had to make new book ornaments with my kids’ favorite books (see my old elementary tree here). Have I mentioned that my mom is the best?? She is! After we got out of school on Friday (early dismissal for the holiday…SCORE!) we rolled on over to Hobby Lobby for some more Christmas decorations. Then we went up this afternoon to put everything up. Check it out:

We went with the BIG lights. And some nice touches of pink…

Yes, I like to be over-the-top. Don’t hate!

My first AASL conference experience was amazing! I’m on my way home after four days of learning and connecting. My mind is full of ideas that I’m ready to take back to my teachers and students; my heart is full of love for the amazing tribe that I am blessed to be part of and the relationships that have grown within our amazing Geek Tribe!

I was able to spend lots of time with teacher-librarians that I follow (okay, stalk?) and it’s just so fulfilling to be able to spend face-to-face time with the people who support me directly and indirectly as a school library professional. I mean, lunch with my the FABULOUS ladies that are Gwyneth Jones, Joyce Valenza, Shannon Miller, Cathy Jo Nelson, Brenda Anderson, Andrea Christman, Kyra Kreinbrook, Carolyn Starkey, Jennifer Nortrup, and others — YES, that actually happened!!

I think the conference really had a laid back, comfortable feel for me. A time for great conversations, sessions with wonderful new ideas, and just hangin’ with my peeps, yo. From beginning to end it was BEYOND amazing!

I’m so thankful that I was able to receive the Bound to Stay Bound travel grant that allowed me to travel to Minneapolis for AASL. Plus I got to meet a super cool new friend — thanks Autumn for being a great roomie! I also have oodles and oodles of love for my mentor (what what!) Gwyneth Jones who really looked out for me and introduced me around throughout the whole event. Between Gwyneth and Joyce, I definitely felt the love and appreciate their generous, giving spirits! Honestly, I’m one lucky girl!

Some of the ideas that I’m excited to try at CMS that I learned about in great sessions:

• 23 Things (although I won’t be doing quite so many “things”)
• Bookmark Contest
• Reading Lunch (not sure how to work this in against the xbox, but I’m going to try!)
• Battle of the Books
• More partnerships with our local public library
• Branding for next year when we move into the new school

Those are some of the ideas that I’m most excited about. I also can’t wait to get home and start sifting through the resources, recorded sessions, and all that good stuff on the AASL Virtual Conference page.

Here’s a little Animoto video with a few of the photos from this weekend! I can’t wait for everyone to put up all of their photos on Flickr to relive the fun!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.