Auntie Librarian

Students now showing us @Glogster, a tool for curating, presenting multi-media information about a topic. Very cool. #qepup13
— George Online (@GeorgeOnline) May 14, 2013

Sims Muddle School students continue to impress us presenting http://t.co/NjQVmx1EAm during #qepup13 unconference.
— Tasha Thomas (@tthomasuscu) May 14, 2013

 In addition to these five things I am also very excited that I have fixed the "broken" iPad lab which would not sync with Apple Configurator. After hours on the phone with Apple Tech Support I researched the problem and fixed it myself!  AND - I successfully loaded that laminator with new film without jamming up the machine.

The year is off to a great start at our school library.

It was day two of our read-aloud.Our school district's superintendent was in our building to meet with the principal. Of course, this is when we are reading the story of Auggie's birth, over the intercom. Those of you who have read this book will probably remember the farting nurse. Did I tell you we were reading over the intercom and the Superintendent was there?

It was so funny, but I was so afraid! Were we going to get in trouble? How could I have forgotten about this part?  I thought about it some more. That's when I remembered how important it is for our students to see reading as something that can be hysterically funny and entertaining one minute and serious or sad the next. Reading is not boring! We used that part and the part about Mr. Butt and Mr. Tushman to discuss comic relief with our students. How heavy would this story be if there weren't some really good funny parts mixed in?

Going Long
We had 20 minutes each morning for reading Wonder. This is our school's SSR time. We decided to read for as close to 15 minutes as possible to allow time for discussion. One day, one of our two awesome readers, who are now known as "The Wonder Girls", said she wanted to read up to a certain point in the book, the part where Auggie and Jack end up getting in a fight while they are at camp. She said we might end up going over our time. I knew this might be trouble. But, how could I say no? How could we stop at such a pivotal point? Big mistake. Never mess with teacher's planning time. At least give advanced notice if you are going to eat into someone's planning period. Everyone knows that! When our time was up, even though we were still reading, one or two teachers released their classes. I was so mad. How could they?  I composed an angry email, Before I sent it, I asked my teacher-friend Ruth to read it.

Ruth read it and turned to me. She said two words, "Choose Kind." Then she giggled.

I said, "Yeah, they should have!" I put my hands on my hips and turned to look at her, nodding. Righteous.

She said, "No, you should."

What could I say to that? This middle-aged Jedi still has a lot to learn. Wonder has been great for me. I deleted the email and felt better immediately. Yes, I am the owner of several Wayne Dyer books and CDs. I guess it's time to re-visit them!

The End
We finished the book this past Friday, September 27th. We had outstanding teacher and student participation. The book got rave reviews. The readers got rave reviews. Students and teachers are blogging about the book on our Wonder Blog. Reading those last few chapters was not easy for the Wonder girls. Such an awesome, moving ending. We played snips of the songs that Auggie mentions, like "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" and "Light and Day" it was beautiful. Will we ever do anything that awesome again?

Now, our teachers are returning their copies of Wonder and students are clamoring to check them out.
To read the book again. To bring it home to their family. To share it. They are still talking about this book. They want a sequel. They are asking me for "books like Wonder." Is that a Nerdy Blog post yet?

They are still writing about this book. Many teachers had their students journaling in reader's response journals. Now, we are having a writing contest called "The Daisy Chapter". Students are writing a chapter from Daisy the dog's point of view.  This was a student's idea! How awesome is that?

The goodness of Wonder lives on, even after we are finished reading it. We are all better for having read it.
Having read it together, like a family, makes us even better still. The world would be a better place if we were all #Wonder Schools.

This year is off to a great start. Showing the laminator who's boss certainly helped get things going in the right direction. But, I have to say the one thing that has truly made a difference to me this year is our school-wide reading of the book Wonder. I simply cannot say enough about it, and it is all good. Deep down good, warm fuzzy good, jump up and holler good, macaroni and cheese good.

I start off every school day with pure, wide-spread goodness. It is so awesome.

You think I am over-reacting don't you? That's okay, because you don't know the details. Why am I so happy about a school-wide read aloud?

I think it is because I work in a middle school. Do you know how hard it is to impress middle schoolers? With anything? And unfortunately, for the most part, the magic of read-aloud fades away at this level.
There are many reasons for this.

The Wonder Girls

But, at my school, every morning for twenty minutes, it is story time. And I am a kid again.

And it's magic.

Because so is everyone else.

The story, of course, is great and perfect and powerful. But, I think much of the credit for the success of our particular project goes to the two teachers who are reading to us each morning.

It just so happens that two of the most amazing read-out-loud teachers on the planet work at my school. (pictured)
I begged them to read Wonder for us because I know how incredibly important delivery is when someone is reading aloud. They are doing a phenomenal job. I don't think a day has gone by since we began reading four weeks ago, that someone hasn't said something positive about the read-aloud. It makes my heart sing to hear people say these things. We cry and we laugh. We talk about it at lunch and in the halls.


I am not forgetting the teachers who dutifully follow along with their books in the classrooms. The whole idea would go kaput if they didn't do their part.  ELA teachers are using the book in their lessons. The students are listening and following along. It's all so yummy good.


This is probably one of the coolest things I have ever done at school. Ma would be so proud. She would cry if I told her about this. Happy tears. We used to watch Oprah! together and just boo-hoo over all kinds of stuff. Ma would know that Mr. Browne's first precept about choosing kind is from Wayne Dyer whom she loved.

If you've read Wonder you may know the song that August and his dad sing together in the car. "I'm the luckiest guy on the lower east side."

Well, I'm the luckiest girl in the upstate, cause  I've got a story and you want to read for a while.

I read the book  Wonder by R.J. Palacio  after hearing Donalyn Miller book talk it at the SCASL conference.  I enjoyed the book and especially loved the quotes at the beginning of each section. Of course, I passed the book on to my students and teachers, urging them to read it. Not long after I finished reading Wonder, our school began forming and training an anti-bullying committee. I knew this awesome book would  perfectly compliment our school's anti-bullying efforts.

I did a book review program last year that I would like to share. I was certainly inspired by someone else, but I cannot remember who or where.  I do not claim that this is my original idea.  It was fun and I am going to do it again soon.


I called my version of this sticky note book review program, "Read! Write! Win!" students had to read a book, and get a numbered sticky note from someone at the circulation desk. Each sticky note had a different number on it. On their sticky note they had to write the title of their book, the author's name and a review of the book. The review had to assign a number of stars to the book with five stars being the best.


I did this program for a month. Each week we drew a number and matched that number with the number on the sticky note to determine who the winner was. The sticky note reviews kept coming in and brought a nice pop of color to the library. They filled up two doors and a door sized column.

When I do this again I will keep a running list of titles and star ratings and post it somewhere in the library and on the library blog. I enjoyed watching students read each other's reviews and use the reviews to get reading suggestions. .

I went to the SCASL conference this past Thursday and Friday. The conference was awesome. It was time and money well spent. I am up to my ears in technology at school and I have been neglecting the book part of my job. I chose to attend sessions without a technology focus as a librarian-chakra balancing prescription. I think it worked.  Here are a few of the tools, ideas, tips and tricks that I will be returning to and sharing with my fellow teachers.

The T&L Virtual Cafe came to my rescue last month, now a new e-book is out that I have been turning to for inspiration without disappointment. Talk about shameless sharing: the book is free.  

School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come