Lesson 1

I know it has been a really long time since the last blog post, but I was waiting until I finished all the Library Orientation classes before posting. Since my first week of lessons fell on the week of Labor Day, everyone but 2 teachers forgot to come, I had to stretch it out to 3 weeks to get everyone in. So as of today, every class has been oriented. Woo hoo!

For Orientation, I always do a Prezi that contains some information about me, the library, some fun videos and important information. Since most of the kids were here last year, I have to change it up and make it new every year. This year I found a really fun video on YouTube about the Dewey Decimal system. I had to put it in my Prezi! I thought it was so cute, but my family was less than thrilled with me singing this song all the time! The kids really seemed to love it and I promised them it would stick in their heads for the rest of the day.

So for 3rd - 6th grade, we went through my Prezi and talked about the library. In most classes we barely had enough time to finish, so I will have to talk about Bluebonnets the next time they come in. In 1st and 2nd grade, we went through MOST of the Prezi and then watched a video called Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books.The kids love this because, well, they love anything that has to do with Pigeon. Then we talk about what the Pigeon did wrong and how we can talk better care of our books. Then I warn them to keep their eye out for Pigeon in our library and let me know if they see him. I will try to remember to place him in different places throughout the year. For Kinder, we don't watch the Prezi. I have them sit on the rug and we read the Shelf Elf.  We talk about checking books out and library manners and book care. They said they would help him earn the Golden Shelf Elf Award. We shall see.

My sweet little Pre-K kids come in every week for story time. They do not get to check out books until after winter break. So far we have read We are Going on a Bear Hunt, Go Dog Go and There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. We do sing songs and move around, because it's really hard for them to sit still for 30 minutes. Let's face it, it's hard for me to sit still that long!

If you would like to see my presentation, here it is.

Here is to another round of lessons and loads of fun in the library!

The Dark Side of Librarianship

Alright. I'll admit it. I HATE the first few weeks of school. Instead of greeting the students and welcoming them back after the summer, I get to spend long days getting computers and computer programs ready for them to use. And while that is definitely a worthwhile thing to do, I just don't want to be the one doing it. Oh well, thus is the life of a librarian!

I did however finally get to have my first checkouts this week. It was so good to have the kids in the library. They told me what they did over the summer and how much they read. I helped them find good books and smiled and told them how happy I was to see them (even though some of them I couldn't quite remember their names). By lunch, all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books were gone and so were the Dork Diaries. By the time the last 6th grade group came through, there was only 1 Bluebonnet Book left. And surprisingly enough, they left the library in pretty good shape. I only had to straighten about 5 shelves at the end of the day. Not bad! So even though I had to talk about using a shelf marker 15 times, it turned out to be a good day.

So, really not much to share today. However, I am getting my orientation set up and finding fun books to read to them for the first lessons! I can't wait. But first, I must make sure that every student has their log in to Reading Counts! Sigh!

Another New Year!

Okay. Last year did not go as planned. I think I only updated the blog twice the whole year and that was in the very beginning. Not good. So this year I am scheduling time to work on my blog so there is no excuse! The sad part is that some really great things happened in the library last year, but I never put them on here. But that is all water under the bridge. Fresh year, fresh start!

I started back to school on August 13th. Summer flew by way too quickly, but I was ready to come back until I got a look at my library:

Everything looked so sad and sterile. Also, they had used our school for summer school, so things were not exactly how I left them. I found piles of books and things that I assume I had a reason for when I left for the summer, but now I have no idea what I was thinking. I knew I should have written it down!

Alright! Time to roll up the sleeves and dig in. After a week and a half of inservice/work days, I finally got my library looking the way I like it!

Still work to be done, but it is definitely looking better! I even decided to put a new display on the door It's called "What's Mrs. Hancock Reading." I think it is important for the students to see that I am a reader as well.

Maybe some of my choices will inspire their choices. I also want to make my library an inviting place so I put this on the front door:

 Now the fun stuff starts; adding students to Reading Counts, Study Island, cataloging new books that I got over the summer, etc. Ugh!! Just let me have the kids already! Ready for a fabulous new school year!