More paper crafts - my kids rock!

Here are some more great items that my kids have brought back.

I especially like the bunny with the whole Easter scene.

Maker Space is back up

We have the Maker Space back up with lots of paper crafts for the students.


The students can choose one of these papercrafts.
They seem to love doing these.

Here's R2D2 that a student made!

And another - lucky leprechaun by one of my awesome students!

New Addition to Our Library - Library Velociraptor

Here's our new friend, Library Velociraptor!
He has some messages for our students.

Captain Underpants Kawaii'ed!

One of my students made Captain Underpants, of Dav Pilkey fame, a little cuter w/a kawaii face. I love it & am leaving it on the book.

Write Your Heart Out - What my students love about the library!

So I put out hearts and a valentine's box for a week and had a sign saying "Write Your Heart Out!" and asked the students what they loved about the library or something they've learned in the library.  I put the hearts on my door and it's been fun reading them!

Here are a few - Even some asking for more books or complaining that the library is too small!

I love my students!

Fiction Meets Reality in Books!

Here's a great infographic that pairs fiction books with non-fiction books.  It even says what the subject is.  I love this resource!

Here's the link to the whole infographic:
https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3922de45-655d-48dc-844e-1ba2ba5da348#.URrAXh1EGSp
from our friends at Northwest High School in Northwest ISD!

Here's a little sneak peak:

You can also find more cool things like this on their blog:
http://www.naomibates.blogspot.com/

Why you gotta be so mean? Books on bullying.

The greatness of Librarian Andersen made a cool Prezi about some books on bullying.  Check them out on her blog page:

Peace, Love, Library Books

She has other cool things to look at ... go browse around.

Picture books rock!

Here's an article about picture books and why older readers should still read them.

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-older-readers-should-read-picture.html

I have always loved picture books. One that I read many times when I was a kid was Caps for Sale. 

There are really great current ones too. I'll read any picture book by Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka. 

I love how illustrations in these books tell the story (and sometimes more) in picture books. 

Bowling - AR Reward Field Trip!

My kids that me their Accelerated Reader goal last six weeks got to go bowling today. I think we have about 250 kids who qualified. They had a blast!

Workshop - Next Generation School Libraries and Next Generation Librarians

Dr. Ross J Todd (@RossJTodd) is leading our time today for FW Librarians at the service center.

He's got some great info on getting a vision of what our libraries should be like and how we can make them that way.

Things that stuck out for me:

Learning Commons instead of calling it library. (More my take on making it a learning commons - why not call it that?)

Make sure you have researched based evidence to support what is happening in the library.

Make sure that a library is collaborative & more than just a check out place. It needs to be a place of understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and more.

Make sure that kids are learning respect for different viewpoints!

Deep knowledge - evidence (focus, detail, relationships) rich detail & explanations.

More evidences - metalanguages, recall of complex ideas (fluency), organized ideas (more than a list of facts), formulating conclusions/implications.

Get feedback from students. What they learned & how they learned it.

Document collaboration. Document what kids are doing.

Interventions to help stop plagiarism.

Libraries should be social places.

Use tools to gather data (zoomerang, poll daddy).

Report on instruction, collaborations, engagement w/instruction.

Build a portfolio of info - pre & post products are the best.

What Librarian Zee up to today?

I'm at a cool workshop about next generation libraries. I'll post details later!