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Auntie Librarian

Writing about work, reflecting on life, home and family. Processing . . . Processing. . . .

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Gifts from Auntie Librarian

What do the nieces and nephews of a librarian often get as gifts? Books! I have long been gifting my nieces books they ask for and books I think they will enjoy. Not long ago I gave my niece a copy of The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger She loved it and of course I was thrilled since I selected it for her. She loved it so much that she even made each of her friends an origami Yoda and asked for a light saber for Christmas. Of course I have already given her the next book, Darth Paper Strikes Back. If you are looking for an entertaining read for a young person, check out these books. The author's website is worth a visit.

The Mini Research Project

Teaching middle school students research skills can be like pulling teeth. I worked with our Language Arts Teachers on note taking lessons recently. The lessons went well, thankfully. The next step is the research project. I suggested different approach to the research project this time. Baby steps: before doing a big intense research project, try a "mini" research project. This will enable students to practice gathering and recording source information, taking notes and writing to inform. The finished product will be notes, one citation, and one paragraph of information. Once these are graded and returned and the teacher is ready for another research project, students can be required to submit more notes, more sources and more paragraphs. Taking a baby steps approach like this may lead to less frustration and more success for students and teachers and possibly a better view of research projects in general.

Check out this link to an idea page from the IRA/NCTE.
More ideas can be found here.

No E-Readers? Librarians Should Still Be Savvy

After reading some of my colleagues' responses to Travis Jonker's SLJ article "Fine. I Got an Ereader. Now What?: A newbie to digital reading gets his first Kindle" and Doug Johnson's blogged response: "Reactionary librarians aren't cute" I feel the need to confess: my school library does not own any e-readers yet. Buying e-books and e-readers is not absent from my list of things to do and I feel that e-readers and books are important.

It is incredibly important for school librarians to have a working knowlege of e-readers even if they do not make personal use of these devices and even if their library does not own any. I personally own an iPad. I can show you how to use the Kindle app, use ibooks and I have purposely familiarized myself with other e-readers. In partnership with our State Library, I hosted a "Technology Petting Zoo" for my faculty. The "Petting Zoo" featured e-readers, iPads and cameras.

A few students proudly brought their new e-readers to school with them after winter break to ask me questions about their devices. Of course, their librarian would be able to help them with their new e-reader! A couple of my students were upset. "I got an e-reader for Christmas, but my family doesn't have a credit card. How can I get books?" Another student got a Dell tablet, "How do I get books onto this thing?" she asked. Who else would a student ask? The librarian! We are now planning our first e-reader club. Students will bring their own devices and we will share tips and tricks with eachother. I regularly share free e-book titles with my students and faculty.

Budget and staffing challenges currently make purchasing e-readers and e-books something I am just getting ready to do. I am depending on the trailblazers to help me make the best choices in the near future. However, I know it would be a disservice to my students and faculty if I chose to remain uninformed about e-readers.

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📍SC
📚Middle School Librarian
🐾 dog mom 🧘‍♀️yoga girl
🌅fan of the great outdoors
🎶 music lover

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