Ditching Dewey: Choosing Genre Categories

November 29, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 46 Comments

One of my favorite things to talk about in library land is the genrefication of our library. I frequently get questions about this from folks who have read my blog posts or have seen me present. I blogged about the process all along the way, from theÂ tagging my fiction books, to genre shelving fiction, to ditching Dewey in nonfiction. Those posts were basically my reflections and thoughts from when I made the move. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write a more comprehensive blog post that I can share as a reference for people interested in genrefying their library. After our AASL presentation, I realized that a series of blog posts would be the way to go. So this post will be the first of several that will detail the process I used to genrefy the fiction and nonfiction sections of our library.

The first step in the process is to choose the genre categories that you will use. For fiction, I didn’t want to get too specific with my genres. My original categories for fiction were: realistic fiction, sports, romance, Sci-Fi/fantasy, mystery/suspense/horror, and series. As I sorted through the books, I made some changes to these categories so it made more sense for our collection and our students. I decided that it would be better for the series to go with their genres and clearly label them as series within their corresponding sections. I also added several more sections. Our fiction genres now include: historical fiction, general/realistic fiction, Sci-Fi/fantasy, action/adventure, mystery/suspense, sports fiction, relationships/romance, and inspirational fiction.

After the success I found with our genrefied fiction, I wanted to follow suit with our nonfiction. Choosing these categories was a little harder for me. Thankfully, I had my friend Tamara Cox to look to for advice. I took her nonfiction category choices and tweaked them to work with our collection. These are the categories we use for nonfiction in our library:

Some of our larger sections are broken into subcategories as well. This is our section and subsection breakdown:

Section List

Something that I love about this arrangement is that nothing is set in stone and you’re free to make changes to work best for your students and your curriculum — it’s okay to make some changes your categories and subcategories as you go. Make your plan for your categories, but don’t be afraid to tweak it as you go!

Watch for the next post: Labeling the Books

November Thankfulness

November 27, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 3 Comments

November has probably been the most exciting, exhausting, and busiest month of my career to date. I’ve been a little off the grid for the last week or so, trying to recover and rest my brain a bit. Now it’s time to do a little reflecting to truly appreciate everything that’s happened this month…

ISLMA Keynote

I was so incredibly honored (okay, and a little bit nervous) when I was asked to give the Saturday keynote at the Illinois School Library Media Association annual conference. These folks put on a really great conference, and I’m so thrilled that I was able to be part of it! This was my first keynote and is a memory that I know I’ll treasure for the rest of my career. My keynote was “Examining the Sacred Cows of School Librarianship.” I had the chance to talk about many things near and dear to my heart — including a little about genrefication!

Examining the Sacred Cows of School Librarianship ISLMA13 from Tiffany Whitehead

I also presented another session on my Favorite Tech Tools:

Favorite Tech Tools to Engage Learners from Tiffany Whitehead

Other highlights from the conference include meeting Tim Green and Sharon Draper and having the chance to hear them speak!

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And I made a quick visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which was amazing!

CMS Book Fair

I went home just in time to meet my friends from Cavalier House Books to set up our book fair, which ran from November 4-7. I am so lucky to live near these guys, because they sure do put on an amazing fair! I did my first fair with them this spring, and it was one of the best things I did last year!

#AASL13

I’d been looking forward to AASL since the last conference in 2011! Not only did I get to see so many of my amazing library friends, I presented with many of them, too!

A Library in Every Pocket: Click the image above to see the wiki full of resources from this pre-conference and abbreviated encore session I presented with Gwyneth Jones, Michelle Luhtala, Shannon Miller, and Brenda Boyer.

AASL Best Apps: It was very exciting to be part of the committee that put together the 2013 (first ever!) AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning list, and at the conference we had lots of fun sharing that list! Click the image above to see the list!

Unconference: Even though I knew I was already pushing my limits with all of the presentations I was involved with presenting, when Joyce Valenza asks if you’re interested in helping with ANYTHING, you always say YES! I had a blast helping out at the AASL Unconference. There was such a great turn out, and so many great discussions took place!

Ditching Dewey: I had an absolute blast presenting with Shannon Miller, Sherry Gick, Kathy Burnette, and Megan Scott on genrefication! We even got a little shout-out from School Library Journal here!

Ditching Dewey from Tiffany Whitehead

I’m a National Board Certified Teacher!

I’ve been anxiously awaiting the results from my National Board portfolio and assessment submissions for MONTHS. I am so excited to have achieved certification in my first year of the process! Even though I don’t think I’ll see any monetary benefits from this from my state or district (I believe they made changes after I started the process that cut off funding Â for those certifying after July 2013, but I haven’t really researched this since I was already in the process and didn’t want it to impact my motivation), I’m still quite proud of myself for this accomplishment!

So, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing for the past month! I’m so thankful for my friends, family, and amazing PLN that have supported me through all of these exciting things that took place this month. And now, I’m thankful for a break from school and some time to relax!

Book Speed Dating

October 7, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 7 Comments

One of the most powerful things I can do for my students is work to promote reading for fun and helping students find books that they will enjoy. I feel like middle school is one of those key times in life where many students either take the path to become a life-long reader…or not. So I try to do as much as possible to talk to my students about what they’re reading and help them find books that will get them hooked!

One activity that I’ve found to be extremely successful this year is a round of “Book Speed Dating.” I know that this is an activity that many librarians have done for years…it’s tried and true for a reason!

Here’s how I’ve put together this activity:

I pulled books that I frequently recommend from 7 different genres and put them in boxes at each of my 7 tables. It exposes readers to new genres that they may not seek out on their own.
Students come in and decide on a ranking system they’ll use to rank the books they preview (scale of 1-10, five star ratings, etc.).
I set a timer (like the one projected on the screen) for five minutes. For the first 30 seconds, they can peruse the books in the box at their table and select a book. Then, they spend 4 minutes reading the book to see if it hooks them. With 30 seconds remaining, they make note of the title of the book and give it a ranking.
If at any time they find a book they want to check out, they can hold on to that book. All other books go back in the box, we rotate the boxes, and repeat this activity 4-5 times.

I always get great feedback from teachers and students with this activity…they love it! By the final round, about half of the students will typically have a book that they want to check out. And ALL of the students have spent some time with a book from a genre that’s outside of their typical reading comfort zone.

I did this several weeks ago with my 8th graders, and this week the 6th graders are having their turn. I especially like that I can customize the boxes for the classes/grades that I have visiting. And I LOVE that lots of book replenishing is needed after each class!

Do you do something similar to this? What other tried and true activities do you use for the love of reading?

Time to Connect!

September 21, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 1 Comment

We had such a fun week in the library, connecting our students with others in honor of Dot Day!

My students had a blast connecting with and learning from students in different parts of the world!

On Monday, my BFF Alaina Laperouse‘s (who just started her new blog!!) students connected with students of some of our dear friends Sherry Gick (in Indiana) and Matthew Winner (in Maryland).

On Tuesday morning, two of my classes had awesome hangouts with some of Sherry’s students, asking and answering questions about our schools and hometowns. That afternoon, a class of our 7th graders did a Mystery Skype with Diana Maliszewski‘s students in Toronto, Canada. After a very lucky guess, my students were able to figure out their location!

On Wednesday, we connected with another of Sherry’s classes. I mean, can I just say how much I LOVE Sherry and her students? By doing multiple Hangouts with her classes, I were able to learn a lot and come up with a format for these types of Hangouts that flow really well! And I loved having out students discover similarities between our libraries, like self check-out and a genrefied shelving arrangement! Of course, my students are ALWAYS jealous when they see others in “free dress” — meaning they don’t have to wear uniforms. And discussing school lunches is always a hot topic for middle schoolers!

Thursday was busy with Hangout/Skypes with three different schools: Kari Healy‘s students in Minnesota, Sherry’s students in Indiana, and another Mystery Skype with Diana’s students in Canada!

Friday was a staff development day, so students didn’t have school, which cut our “Dot Day” week a bit short. But this was one of those weeks that gets you pumped up and excited to see what the school year will bring! I am so excited to make more connections throughout this school year! Connecting virtually with other schools allows students the opportunity to overcome nerves and speak in front of their peers. With speaking and listening being a key element in the Common Core State Standards, I feel that these virtual connections will be more important and powerful than ever!

I’m definitely going to be looking for more opportunities to connect this year — Mystery Skypes, sharing book talks, making presentations, and just fun get to know you Q&A sessions — let me know if you’re looking for opportunities to connect too!

Dot Day!

September 8, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 2 Comments

So Iâ€™m jealous of all of the excitement going on with Dot Day and figure itâ€™s time I got my students involved with this! I absolutely love my friendÂ Matthew Winnerâ€™s idea of the trading cards (see hereÂ and here) and want to use that with my students! I also want to make some Google Hangout connections! Iâ€™m planning to share this video to introduce the students toÂ The DotÂ by Peter Reynolds. Then Iâ€™m planning to have my students make three trading cards (one to trade with another student in their class, one to trade with a student in their grade but on the other team, and one to send to our friends that we connect with via Google Hangout). So do you want to hang out with us?

I’m looking for middle school classes to connect with on the following days/times:

Monday, September 16:
7:40-8:00 AM CST
9:20-9:40 AM CST
1:20-1:40 PM CST

Tuesday, September 17:
9:20-9:40 AM CST
1:20-1:40 PM CST

Wednesday, September 18:
7:40-8:00 AM CST
9:20-9:40 AM CST

Thursday, September 19:
7:40-8:00 AM CST
9:20-9:40 AM CST
1:20-1:40 PM CST

I can be somewhat flexible in the times if I need to, so please let me know if you’re interested!! If you’re interested in connecting, you can leave a message in the comments or use this Google Spreadsheet to put in your information so we can connect!

I hope to “see” some of you soon!!

Exciting Fall Presentations!

August 31, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 5 Comments

First of all, thanks so much for the positive feedback on my last (very honest) post. It’s nice to know that we’re not alone in the feelings over overwhelm that we face at the beginning of a new school year. Now that I’ve been officially back at school for four weeks (how did that happen?!), I’m finding my groove. I hope that many of you are starting to feel the same way.

There are lots of exciting things on the horizon in the coming weeks and months that I’m insanely excited about!

I am so excited that it’s time to kick of the new year of FREE TL Virtual Cafe Webinars! I’m honored to join my amazing friends Gwyneth Jones (The Daring Librarian) and Jennifer LaGarde (Library Girl) for the Back to School Special! Please join us next Monday, September 9th at 8 PM EST as we share ideas and get pumped up for the new school year!

This next one is big…one of those surreal things that makes you freak out when you see it in print! I was honored, humbled, and absolutely giddy when the Illinois School Library Media Association asked me to keynote at their conference in November! Seriously!! And then when I saw the brochure for the conference with yours truly as the Saturday Keynote Speaker, I was completely over the moon (okay, and a bit nervous…but in a totally awesome way)! I am so excited to share my keynote, Examining the Sacred Cows of School Librarianship, and meet awesome members of my PLN in Illinois! I’m telling you, I’m one blessed girl! And um, yeah, I’m on the flier with Tim Green and Sharon Draper…THAT probably blows my mind more than anything! Yowza!

Also in November (talk about a busy month!), I’ll be participating in several presentations at AASL in Hartford, Conneticut! I absolutely love AASL. I attended for the first time two years ago in Minneapolis, and I hope I always have the opportunity to attend. It’s so great to be surrounded by tons of awesome teacher-librarians ready to share and learn together!

I’m so excited to be able to present with so many of my library friends and mentors at this conference! First, I’ll be joining the party with the incredible Joyce Valenza, Gwyneth Jones, Michelle Luhtala, and Shannon Miller for the pre-conference workshop “A Library in Every Pocket.” Not able to make the pre-conference workshop? Plan to join us for the abbreviated encore on Friday!

A topic that sometimes seems to cause a stir is the idea of Ditching Dewey! This session with Kathy Burnette, Sherry Gick, Shannon Miller, Megan Scott, and I will focus on how we have genrefied our libraries!

Although I didn’t get to take part in the initial presentation of the AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning at ALA in Chicago, I am so excited to have the opportunity to help share our awesome list in Hartford! I’ve so enjoyed working on the Best Apps Task Force and I’m so proud of this inaugural list that has been released!

Even though some of these big events are still several months away, I can’t help but get pumped about all of these awesome things on the calendar! Are you planning to attend either of these conferences or the TL Cafe Back to School Webinar? I hope to see you there!

Back to School Blues

August 11, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff 14 Comments

***Disclaimer: If you’re looking for an inspiring post or great ideas, this particular post is not it. It’s more vent/rant/brain dump. But maybe you feel the same way at times and can know that you’re not alone.

I haven’t been very inspired lately. Kind of in a funk.

And I came to a realization. I struggle with the start of every school year in the library. I also struggle with the end of every school year. Once I’m in it, in some sort of routine, and really interacting with my students, all is right with the world. But the beginnings and ends of school years are hard for me! Even though, with my 9 month library position, I’ve only been back officially for a week. But I’ve been at work all day every day for three weeks now. And I felt completely overwhelmed and burned out before the kids even showed up.

Textbooks, lost library books from last year, teacher and student usernames and accounts, computers and projectors not working, issuing student and teacher IDs — dealing with all of these things at the beginning of the year seem to suck the life out of me. This is the time when I want to be gearing up for library programs for the year, finalizing things for my new self-check out procedure, preparing for upcoming class visits and projects, and planning for my brand new multimedia class/daily news show. I want to be excited and eager to kick off the new school year. Instead, I’m losing my mind over two new textbook adoptions and the rest of things on the never ending to do list.

I hate that moment when I’m hit with the all too necessary realization that I am not Superwoman. The fact that this has happened in my life a number of times is probably telling. The realization usually comes after I have a complete meltdown (which is also probably telling, but hey, I’m an emotional kind of girl). With the realization comes a paradigm shift. Like I said, this has happened before in other areas of my life. So here’s what I think I’ve come to realize this past week:

I can’t let myself get worked up about things that are either not my problem or not in my control. It is absolutely ridiculous for me to be more concerned and worried about the math textbooks than the math teachers, the people who actually need and will use them. I’m not saying that I’m not dealing with textbooks because it is part of my job, but I cannot let myself be consumed with solving all the world’s math textbook problems at the detriment of the rest of my job (and life). Someone else with more control of the situation or need for those books can come to a conclusion about how they need to be dealt with, and then let me know. Then it will be dealt with and I will NOT be stressed about it.

I have to prioritize things. I read 18 minutes by Peter Bregman in the spring, thought it was great, but I think I wasn’t ready for it. Well, now I’m ready! I have to put first things first. Dropping everything to do something that someone else needs done is not the best way for me to take care of business. Saying “Later” or even, gasp, “No” is very difficult for me, but I need to work on it.

Despite the way I’ve been feeling, I know it’s going to get better. I know things will calm down, the library will fill up with students, and I’ll be happy. I’m just ready for that time to get here!

Anyone else out there struggle with back to school craziness in the library? Does anyone else feel like textbooks are like kryptonite?? How do you cope with feeling this way?

Flat Fountain’s Adventure

July 14, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff Leave a comment

I’ve posted sporadically about our amazing trip, but I must post fully about the adventures of Flat Fountain! For those who are scratching their heads, trying to figure out who the Flat Stanley-esque character is that appeared in numerous road trip photos on my Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook streams, let me tell you about Flat Fountain! Alaina and I have a really great principal, Mr. Fountain! I originally hoped that he would be coming to ISTE this year, but he couldn’t because he was busy awaiting the arrival of his first child this summer! A big congrats to the Fountains, who welcomed their beautiful baby into the world this week!!

We realized that Real Fountain was going to have a VERY busy summer, but wouldn’t be doing any traveling. So this is where Alaina and I came up with the idea of Flat Fountain! He would get to travel to all of the awesome fun places along our epic road trip…

Our adventure began on June 22 as we drove from Baton Rouge to San Antonio. Here’s Flat Fountain at the Texas state line.

We had a wonderful time in San Antonio at ISTE learning, exploring, and visiting with friends!Â Flat Fountain met many of our friends, including Matthew Winner.

He was excited to visit the Alamo, but was disappointed to find that there’s no basement. Flat Fountain also enjoyed the Riverwalk.

Other ISTE friends included Moby and presenter Lori Elliott.

After leaving San Antonio, we drove into New Mexico. Flat Fountain really enjoyed Carlsbad Caverns because he met a new flat friend there!

We visited Roswell, NM and the International UFO Museum and Research Center, but Flat Fountain wasn’t too sure about those aliens…

We rode along Route 66 where we could, which Flat Fountain really enjoyed. One of the fun places he visited along the way was the Wigwam Village Motel!

In Albuquerque, NM we had a great visit at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

Flat Fountain was very excited to enter Arizona because it’s such a beautiful state!

The most exciting thing that Flat Fountain did in Arizona was rafting on the Colorado River! It was a HOT day (105 degrees), so Alaina and I went for a dip in the water (which was a CHILLY 47 degrees), but Flat Fountain obviously couldn’t get wet!

On the way to Las Vegas, the winding road took us in and out of Arizona. We did get to make a fun stop at the Little Hollywood Movie Museum in Kanab, Utah. Flat Fountain got to play the part of a movie star in an old western!

The Hoover Dam was another must see sight on the Colorado River.

Flat Fountain was happy to spend a few days in the same spot…in Las Vegas! It was also nice to see a familiar face as my mom met us there! Vegas was the hottest town on our stop…LITERALLY, with a top temperature of 126 degrees!

After leaving Vegas, we took a scenic drive through Utah…such a beautiful state! Flat Fountain visited a number of National Parks along the way, including Zion National Park and the AMAZING Arches!

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Flat Fountain was snoozing as we drove into Colorado in the dark, and he recovered from the long day in Utah as Alaina and I visited with a friend in Denver (thanks for having us, Carleigh). Ahead of us was another long day of driving through Kansas. We did enjoy our visit to theÂ Eisenhower Presidential Library & MuseumÂ in Abilene, KS.

We stayed the night in Topeka, KS and visited Monroe Elementary School, home of the Brown vs. Board of Education Historic Site.

Flat Fountain was very happy to say, “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” as we make another stop in Kansas City, MO. We made two more library stops: Kansas City Public Library and Truman’s Presidential Library & Museum. The Truman Library was one of the best museums we visited during the entire road trip! Flat Fountain particularly enjoyed the recreation of Truman’s Oval Office.

Our next stop was St. Louis, which proved to be a pretty tricky city! We ended up in Illinois twice after unintentionally taking the bridge over the Mississippi River. Flat Fountain finally had his chance to visit the Gateway Arch before we headed out of town.

Next, we headed to Memphis, TN, the final stop on our amazing road trip. Flat Fountain visited Graceland, home of Elvis!

And before heading home to Baton Rouge, Flat Fountain needed to do one last thing…send a post card from Graceland to baby Fountain!

What an incredible adventure for Flat Fountain…and Alaina and I had a blast too! I know that the memories we made on this trip will be shared ALL the time, for years to come!

Our Road Trip Photobook!

July 12, 2013September 8, 2015 - librariantiff Leave a comment

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Mighty Little Librarian

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