Here’s an impromptu tour of the new library. Sorry that it’s so spastic, I wanted to video something really quickly but didn’t have time to plan anything. Please don’t judge my video creation skills on this! I thought I would still share it, though, to give you all a better idea of how things are coming along overall.
And here’s a few photos of my latest project, also. Our school is implementing the Leader in Me program, which is based on Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Each room in our school is going to display the seven habits, and this is how I decided to display them in the library:
I bought eight 10×8 canvases that were on sale at Hobby Lobby. I cut out the letters using scrap vinyl from my other projects and put them down on the canvas. Mom painted over them with some acrylic paint we had used for another project, then peeled off the vinyl letters after it dried. We did a little touch up with a white paint pen, but I think they came out looking quite nice! The lime green is a little hard to read at a distance or at a certain angle, but I like it anyway.
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I told my principal that I need school to start so I can stop having these brilliant project ideas that have been consuming my life for the past two months!! I’m very proud of the way that the library is looking, now it’s time to get some kids in there!
I recently posted photos of the amazing quotes that we’ve added to the stunning new library. The only place where I needed *something* was above the circulation desk area. Mom requested that I pick another quote and make it a short one (we’ve kind of had enough of sticking vinyl…). Of course, I’ve got to be difficult. Lying in bed two nights ago, I had the brainstorm to use that space for a word cloud. Not simple, but potentially awesome. Yesterday morning, I made a list of words I wanted included and assigned them each a size (XL=10”, L=7”, M=5”, S=3”).Then I started cutting on the Cricut machine, which takes longer than you would think. MI varied colors and thickness and crossed my fingers that it would fit together like a nice puzzle. Mom came up to the library yesterday afternoon and we got out the laser level again and got those fancy words up there! It was a long and frustrating day, but THIS LOOKS AMAZING! I think it may be the showpiece of the library! What do you think? 🙂
I’ve been back from my California extravaganza for a week now, and my world has been revolving around moving into the new library. Things are getting unpacked and the library is starting to look cute. I mean… if you know me, you know that CUTE is a major priority 🙂
A huge project that we’ve been tackling right off is putting up the new wall quotes. I loved my wall quotes at the old library and knew I wanted to do something similar in the new school. The old ones we painted using stencils, but obviously there is no painting these brand new walls! We have a Cricuit machine at school and I purchased some vinyl sheets and spent quite a bit of time cutting out the five quotes I decided on. I recruited help from my amazing mom and awesome friend BJ, and we got to sticking! Thanks ladies, I couldn’t do it without you!
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How the heck are we getting these letters on straight? Mom got a laser level that sticks to the wall. Genius!
So here are the five quotes that are now hanging out in the beautiful new library (colors: teal, pink, blue, purple, green):
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And here are the two decorative arrangements that are in front of the huge windows:
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There’s still lots of work to be done and many more blogs posts to come, but I’m so proud of how things are coming along!
I’m going to try to reflect on my experience at ISTE in San Diego, but I know I’m not going to do it justice. It was incredible. This was my third ISTE Conference and it is an experience I feel like I need each year to recharge my batteries and get excited for the next school year. Although the idea of being “recharged” is difficult to grasp because I ran myself ragged at the conference this year. I just couldn’t make myself stop or slow down for silly things like sleeping and eating, there was just too much to do! Next year, I have to do a better job of giving myself time to chill and reflect.
So this year, my BFF and 6th grade ELA teacher at my school (@alaperouse) was the victim of being sucked into my ISTE and ed tech obsession. We decided to turn the conference trip into a marathon and spent a few days before and after the conference seeing San Diego and San Francisco. She was excited about the trip and curious about the conference. She’s my BFF so she knows how much my life revolves around Twitter, blogging, and the ed tech world. Since the conference, she’s a convert! Now Alaina is building her own PLN and we are making plans for some cool projects this school year. I’ve been lucky enough to have a different teacher come along with me to ISTE each year and I think that it’s really added a lot of value for me, this year especially.
So I’m going to try and give a recap of the conference. Before the conference, I was able to attend the Leadership Symposium and attend a break-out session on Moving Beyond from Textbooks — lots of great resources in this LiveBinder.
Sunday afternoon I helped set up for the SIGMS table at the SIG Fair. I love our SIG, one of the best and busiest I think, and it’s been a great year for me serving as Vice Chair.
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I was able to meet so many great members of my PLN at the Fair and see many of my beloved library friends! Before the opening keynote, the cast of ISTE Hollywood Squares met up and cut up…err…planned for our session. I still can’t believe I was part of that group, what a blast! I watched the Opening Keynote from the Bloggers Cafe, but you can see it here:
Then, Alaina and I rushed back to our hotel to get ready for the AWESOME Edubros Party 🙂
Monday morning started with the SIGMS Playground, which is always SO much fun as always! After, I glanced at the planner and saw Lisa Parisi’s session on Making Connections with Blogging was about to begin. That was the PERFECT opportunity to have Alaina see how much her students NEED to be blogging. SUCCESS! It was a great session with amazing ideas and I can’t wait to see what will come of it for our students. I also attended sessions by Adam Bellow and Chris Lehmann, both amazing speakers who shared the great things they are doing. Monday night was the SIGMS Reception sponsored by ProQuest, which was a great chance to hang out with awesome library friends!
Tuesday morning I went to breakfast with other educators from my district attending the conference at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado. I attended Kathy Shrock’s session on Literacy in the Digital Age, then got ready for the SIGMS Forum. Steve Hargadon was the main speaker, discussing social media in schools and libraries. Joquetta Johnson and I spoke of the ways that we are using social media in our schools (SO MUCH FUN!), and Jason Epstein, Marie Slim, Jane Lofton, and Peggy George shared cool tools like Pinterest, Celly, Tricider, and Symbaloo. Sharing at the Forum was a great experience! And the session is also available through ISTE’s Video On Demand!
My favorite session was Wednesday morning’s SIGMS Breakfast. Not only was I presented as SIGMS President-Elect (I’m so excited to be part of the new re-structuring of SIGMS leadership!) but we had an amazing presentation by Alan November. I mean, PREACH IT! CIPA, information access, filtering policies, the roles of librarians, search personalization by Google, and so much more! I can’t wait to listen to the Video On Demand of this session again so I can yell “AMEN!” and “THAT’S RIGHT!” over and over.
I wrapped up the conference with the craziest, most out-the-box session at the conference, which I happened to be part of…Hollywood Squares! I think most of the audience appreciated our humor and enjoyed the session as a fun way to end their time at ISTE. I know I had fun playing Lady GaGa!
So now I’m home and recovering from that incredible trip. I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to connect with so many amazing educators from around the world. You all inspire me daily and drive me to constantly want to better myself as an educator.
    
