There’s a whole lot of CRAZY going on right now in my work life. Typically, I like to keep the library open as long as possible, I always make exceptions for kids who need just one more book (LOTS of exceptions, okay…), and some form of an inventory happens. Not this year, though. I’m now in the process of hunting down books students still have checked out. Next week I will be doing a thorough inventory, cleaning up the records in Destiny, and getting the collection in pristine order. The following week, the cases will be delivered that I will use to pack up the collection for the move. The idea of doing all of this is overwhelming and makes me anxious, but I know it will be wonderful to have a solid inventory and clean records. And it will be a beautiful thing when everything is settled in at the new school.
Oh yeah, and on top of the move, our principal is retiring and we’re currently on the roller coaster ride that is the process of having our new principal selected. I’m not going to get into all of that, let’s just say it isn’t helping my current level of anxiety at all. I do want whoever is selected to be our new leader to really “get” what I’m all about and what our library aims to do. So I made a super extra special End of the Year Library Report that they will get a nice copy of to peruse at their leisure. Check it out:
I put it together in Comic Life, my FAVORITE program to use when designing posters, fliers, handouts, etc. And I messed around in Photoshop for a while and created those nifty graphics for circulation stats and library visits. This was such a great way for me to reflect on this year. There are always times where I think, “Have I really done anything productive this year??” Looking back on this year with this report, the answer is, “UM YEA!” I really feel like a lot was accomplished especially with introducing our gaming and going nontraditional in both fiction and nonfiction shelving! We’re going to go ahead and label this year a success.
AND speaking of SUCCESS — Yesterday I graduated from Northwestern State University of Louisiana with my Master’s degree in Educational Technology Leadership with a 4.0 GPA! Being able to share the day with my friend and CMS ELA teacher made it even sweeter.
(or my Library Superpower OR why I read MG books so obsessively)
I like to think that my greatest library superpower is my ability to put the right book in the right hands. It’s a job that I take very seriously. If I ever reach the point where a comment to the effect of, “You always recommend the BEST books Mrs. Whitehead,” gets old, then I need to start doing something else. I really take a lot of pride in this ability.
Recently, one of my ELA teachers — after I passed along Lauren Myracle’s Shine and John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars for her reading pleasure — explained my talent to her students in a way that totally made my day:
If you don’t have a book that you are reading and enjoying, then you NEED to go see Mrs. Whitehead. She knows exactly how to find the perfect book that you will love and not be able to put down. I’m telling you — it’s just like she can look into your eyes and see it, then know what book you need!
It’s easy to get distracted by all of the other aspects of our job, the technology, troubleshooting, programs, and day to day library business to the point that we forget that reading and recommending books is still at the heart of our job. We all know that if we’re doing our job, there’s no WAY that we have time to read at work regularly. But then the thought of my kids never seeing me read really bothers me, too. I’m supposed to be their ultimate reading role-model. They’ve got to see me read sometime! I try to keep my current read on my desk (amid everything else that seems to converge on my desk over the course of the day). I let them see it, know what I’m reading, maybe see me read a few pages from time to time, even. But like I said, if I depended on “reading time” during the course of the school day, I’d never even finish a book! So it’s something I commit myself to doing. It’s not always easy, especially when I get into a reading slump. It’s all worth it, though, when I’m able to take that book that I just finished and hand it with confidence to a child that I know won’t be able to put it down.
Here are some of my favorite go-to books to recommend –
For recovering Hunger Games addicts:
Series for girls without too much mature content:
Books for boys:
Edgy reads to hook more mature reluctant readers:
For my mature, YA reading girlies:
For my Sci-Fi/Fantasy lovers:
For those looking for a book that’s not boring:
I’d love for you share your go-to recommendations for your students! I’m working on my to read list for this summer, and it’s going to be a looong list!
The school year is winding down quickly — tomorrow I go back from spring break for two weeks of state testing/chaos, then just two more weeks of circulation before I have to shut the library down to get the library packed up and ready for the move. Since I’ve yet to do a complete inventory and both fiction and non fiction need to be cleaned up in the system, May is going to be a busy month. Especially since I’ve been told that everything needs to be DONE and ready to go by the last day of school.
After looking at the calendar and realizing how quickly this was going to come at me, I decided I needed to move past the denial phase and start really planning! So today I’ve been playing around with how I want to lay things out in the new space, which is VERY different from the rectangular box where the library currently lives.
Since fiction and non fiction are all now broken down by genre/category, I think this gives me some interesting options for arrangement. Below is my first draft of the new library layout. Feedback would definitely be appreciated!!
I like the idea of being able to put relevant fiction and not fiction categories near each other. For example, sports fiction and non fiction can be next door neighbors! I’m also thinking that having Sci-Fi/Fantasy and NF Science, Supernatural, and Mythology in the same area. The same for Historical Fiction and NF History and War.
I think this layout puts high-interest sections in the more flexible/larger spaces. I’m going to have LOADS of extra shelf space (worried that it may look empty, but I can’t really control that…). I also have some furniture that’s been ordered that won’t be functional/relevant such as newspaper racks, dictionary stand, atlas stand, too much magazine space. Once I get all of the tables and chairs, I’ll have to figure out a way to arrange it so I can also add in some lounge seating (which wasn’t included with district funds).
The center shelving will be 48” tall and have adjustable shelves (up to 4 shelves per section). Shelving around the walls will be 42” (lots of windows taking up wall space) and those will have two shelves per section with wood dividers. Rectangular tables will be up front, along with my projector station. Round tables will be in the back area near the rear doors, which will open into the courtyard.
SO, if you have any thoughts, ideas, or comments after glancing over this layout and reading this post, I would REALLY appreciate some feedback!!
PS: Thanks to everyone who responded about newspaper subscriptions in their library! I haven’t had a subscription since I’ve been in this library and don’t see the point in spending funds on it, yet when my plans came in there were fancy sections for me to hang newspapers. It looks like a lot of you have canceled your subscriptions in the past few years or plan to in the very near future.
I’ve been planning to hammer out this post for a while, and now that I’ve finished my grad school portfolio defense and have had some time to just chill out this week on Spring Break I’M READY!
At Follett’s New Leaf in Learning Conference, Tamara Cox and I initiated some serious conversations on the topic of nontraditional shelving during one of our presentations. Tamara took the plunge last year with her nonfiction shelving and I was so inspired. I started with genre shelving my fiction books earlier this school year. I have had so much success with the genre shelving — my students LOVE it and are much more comfortable browsing for books now. I honestly feel like it opens them up to new authors in a way that traditional fiction shelving does not. Whatever genre they are in the mood for is completely laid out in front of them in a manageably sized section so they can really see what’s there and what grabs them. We all love it, and I have absolutely no regrets about making that move!
With the success of the fiction shake-down, I was ready to dive into doing a similar dance with my nonfiction section. A few disclaimers about me:
I’m out of the box. And once I get a hair-brained idea brewing, I won’t be content until I run with it.
I’m not married to Dewey as a sacred cows of library life. I was a Page (read: 20 hr/week book shelver) at the public library for over 5 years in high school and college. Before that, I was a library helper in middle school (the same library that I work in now). Dewey and I have a long history, I know him well, and he has served me well. Naturally, I could get to any topic with easy because Melville and I go way back. However, for my kids it’s a totally different story and I’m okay with that, too.
I’m not the most organized person. Nor do I always think things through completely before I decide to just go with it. For this reason, my methods aren’t always the cleanest ways to get to a particular destination (but I make it work!).
I’m okay with things being a temporary disaster if I believe that there will be an improvement in the end.
I went back and forth with one of my best friends, who is also one of our 6th grade ELA teachers. She was sort of traumatized by the idea of me doing away with Dewey. I also discussed it quite a bit with my fabulous volunteer (a grandmother and retired middle school teacher) who helped me through the fiction switch. She thought it was a great idea and would make it easier for the students to browse. Having someone solidly on my team (and willing to put in a great deal of work to see it happen), I decided that we were going to go with it.
Now you’re probably thinking that I’m crazy for doing this in the middle of the school year. And I am. Completely crazy. BUT I wanted this to happen before we move to the new school this summer, so that meant we couldn’t wait for a summer to do this. I started this transition the same way I started with fiction: stickers. I printed out stickers for each section that we would use. How did I decide on my sections? I looked at what Tamara did, and she came up with hers using the Book Industry Standards. I looked at my collection and my student’s interests and created this list: Animals, Arts & Crafts, Careers, Crime, Food, Health, History, Literature, Math, Music, Mythology, Nature, Poetry, Religion, Reference, Science, Social & Cultural Issues, Sports, Supernatural, War. I made a cute sticker for each category and we got to sticking! Of course there were some things that threw me off — where do we put the dinosaur books? Animals? History? Science? Hm. There were also some things I was so psyched to group together — military and armor books go with war…YES!
After (most of) the stickering was done, I was ready to re-arrange! Tamara arranged hers alphabetically by category, but I didn’t since I’ll be moving completely soon anyway. I arranged it so big categories (history, science) could stay where the majority of those books already were. I also gave sports and war some prime real-estate. Then, within my categories that were larger, I sub-categorized on the shelves like this:
So, for example, within “War” I have: General, American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Modern Wars
The kids are able to find nonfiction that they’re interested in much more easily. I’m also looking forward to the move when I’ll be able to put categories into a new order and add biographies back in (they’re tucked in a corner right now).
A common question: What are you doing with the books in the catalog? For the time being, it’s still Dewey. I’m also leaving the Dewey stickers along with the category stickers. When I do inventory, I’m going to work on the catalog. I plan to use the Destiny feature where I can scan in a group of books and tack on a pre-fix, which will be the category name. I’m going to see how that works for a while. If it doesn’t, I’ll figure something else out!
In the end, I’m doing all of this because I believe that this is what will be best for my students. Anything that I can do to make the library a friendlier, more accessible place is a good thing!
I was able to spend this past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at Follett’s New Leaf in Learning Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. Back in the fall when Follett invited Tamara Cox and I to present on their Next Generation Library track, I was stoked at the opportunity to meet my friend face to face.
I was so very excited when I landed in Chicago and met up with Tamara at the airport to head to the conference hotel in Schaumburg. So the two southern girls took a crazy cab ride through the big city and arrived at the beautiful hotel and conference center. After getting checked in and finding some lunch, it was time for the opening keynote by Kevin Honeycutt. This keynote ended up being one of the highlights of the conference for me and I can’t wait for the virtual conference to go live next month so I can go back and watch his keynote again.
On Thursday morning, we enjoyed some great sessions, including “Leadership 2.0″ by Eric Sheninger. Eric has been one of my Twitter crushes for quite some time now. I’d heard him speak virtually before, but it was great to hear him in person. I had to refrain from shouting out an “AMEN!” at a couple of points during his session, but I did control myself. Although I couldn’t NOT get a picture at the end. I may have made him a bit uncomfortable, but I’m sure that many of you know how it is when you meet someone that you’ve followed and respected for so long.
We had a fabulous lunch (and breakfast, too! I forgot to tell you about all of the great food at this conference…it was outrageous!), we got to listen to Shannon Miller‘s session on being the change you want to see. I’m always so jealous when I hear people like Eric and Shannon speak because I so desperately want to get my school to the level that their schools are already.
Next, it was time for Tamara and I to share our first session, “Be a Next Gen Librarian TODAY!”
We were giddy by the fact that we had a packed house! We started rocking and rolling through out 70+ slides revolving around the 13 virtues of a next gen librarian. I think what everyone liked best about the things we shared was that there were lots of ideas that they could take back and apply immediately. Here are the slides from our presentation, and we added links here as well.
We were so pumped up after the great presentation! We had some great conversations after and people were definitely intrigued by some of the things we shared (nontraditional shelving, anyone?).
Since we were so close to Chicago, a city that neither Tamara nor I had visited before, we decided to take the train into the city for the evening. Some of the video I shared in my last post was our trip into the city, so check that out. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather while we explored the city. And we mastered the train, which I was quite proud of!
Another great breakfast on Friday morning — bacon, eggs, fruit, hash browns, yes please! — we geared up for our second session on “Embedded Librarianship.”
We were able to share about the different places where embedded librarians should make themselves seen and heard. Again, we had a really good response from the audience and had a great time presenting together! I think that Tamara and I made a great team and I will definitely look forward to more opportunities to present with my dear friend!
Now, being the devoted middle school librarians that we are, we NEEDED to see the Hunger Games before we hopped our flights back home. AMAZING! It was such a great end to our time together and a great trip!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but where I come from things right now are crazy. The picture above pretty much sums up how I’m feeling, as are many of my fellow teachers.
The value-added model that’s working so well everywhere else (ha!) is coming down the pipe to us here, while Jindal is pushing his “education reform” bill through to essentially do away with teacher tenure and open up a voucher program for private, parochial, and charter schools. Not that those schools will be held to the same standards of public schools, of course.
At my school, we are getting ready for our high-stakes test. In just a few months, we’ll be moving into a new school. A number of changes have been proposed in our district for the next school year, including doing away with the block schedule to move to a 7 period day. We’re going to be getting our first year’s transitional curriculum to move us to Common Core. Our principal is retiring, so we’ll be experiencing a major leadership change as well.
It seems like every day is something else. Morale is terribly low. I’m hoping that at some point in the near future, we’ll be seeing things in a positive light. Until then, I’m going to write some grad school reflections (THAT is a light at the end of the tunnel that I can definitely see!!) and reread The Hunger Games.
Mardi Gras break is a great thing in South Louisiana — especially the fact that we are getting a whole week off this year! This week has also happened to fall at a very convenient time. The time when I need time to finish my thesis paper. So, yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to these days. I figured while I was waiting to hear back from my advisor/professor (Dr. Sang Park the rockstar!) for what seems like the hundredth time in the past 24 hours to see where to go next with Chapter 4 of my paper. Meh. Don’t feel too sorry for me, though. I’m almost done with my master’s program (YEA!) and I’m headed to NC this weekend to visit my precious nieces.
March is SO CLOSE and such a hoppin’ month, it’s basically going to be PRESENTATION EXTRAVAGANZA!
So it was a major bummer earlier this month when LASL, our state school library conference, was postponed at the last minute due to weather. It’s back on now for March 3rd and I can’t wait to share my three presentations! I’ve never attended LASL before, so I can’t wait! My three presentations will be: ‘What’s a PLN?’, ‘PD with a Twist’, and ‘Favorite FREE Tech Tools.’ Slides can be found on my (very cute if I do say so myself) presentation wiki.
In a few more weeks, I’ll be heading up to Illinois to present at Follett’s New Leaf in Learning Conference. The most exciting part is that I’ll be meeting (face to face!!) and presenting with my library BFF and constant source of library inspiration Tamara Cox! I know we are going to have a BLAST sharing all of the fun things we do in our libraries in our two presentations: ‘Be a Next Gen Librarian Today’ and ‘Embedded Librarianship.’ Honestly…good times ahead! And I’m sure I’ll have to do some of my always fun, usually rambling video blog posts when I travel to Illinois!
Happy Mardi Gras friends, and laissez les bons temps rouler!
So my darling friend Tamara Cox, the Eliterate Librarian, posted a fun video tour of her library and challenged the rest of us to do the same.
You all should know by now that I love to make a video, so I was ready to jump on the wagon and get mine out there.
It’s so overwhelming to think about how much I’ve done in just over a year since I moved into this position. There’s nothing like middle school and I adore the crazy, drama-filled, brilliant, talented children that I get to work with each day.
I got an amazing compliment this week when a teacher came in to tell me what one of our 8th grade boys (the one that was recently voted “Most Athletic” in the class favorites yearbook poll) said about the library. He told his teacher: “You know how some restaurants have signs and stuff that say ‘World’s Greatest Hamburger” or “World’s Greatest Pizza”? Our library needs a sign that says “World’s Greatest Library.”
Good to know that I’m doing something right, especially on those days where it’s an absolute zoo in here and I feel like I might very well have lost my mind
