Category Archives: Thoughts

Out There

Posted on by
1

Being connected is fun. I have learned so much by connecting with other school librarians and educators on Twitter, Google+ and even Facebook.  Being connected is fun, but also scary.  I was recently contacted by one of my connections from this summer. While at ISTE I met Brooke Ahrens, she was emailing me now to ask if I wanted to be a guest blogger on the AASL Blog for Tuesday Tech Tips.  Nothing big, just 300 to 500 words on how technology might be used by a school librarian. I freaked!  Someone wanted me to write something? I’m friends with those people, I do the reading… not the writing. I was flattered but not sure what to write about. I said “sure” and then didn’t do anything but quietly panic.  After a couple of days Brooke emailed again to check on when I might want to submit something, maybe something for November. So I bit the bullet and said I would work on something that weekend and send it to her.

After a few deep breaths, I thought about the technology I was using. I had some old favorites and some newly discovered apps I decided I would write about. Once I got started it wasn’t so bad putting myself out there. I finished it up and emailed it to Brooke Sunday night. Then I waited…and waited. All day Monday I keep checking my email…nothing. My parent volunteer keep laughing at me saying to relax.  All I could think was she read it and thought it was awful and not worth using but didn’t know how to tell me.

We all do great things every day in our libraries and I guess most of us are pretty humble. I get overwhelmed with all the great activities, lessons and projects I read about in the blogs I follow. My little write up didn’t seem that great, I was ready for disappointment.

Well at 3:15 on Monday I got an email back from Brooke saying the post was great and all she needed was a byline AND it would be posted the next day.  Yay! I breathed a big sigh of relief , everything was going to be okay.

Here’s my guest post:  http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/?p=5197

Okle 🙂

Sweet Summertime

Posted on by
Reply

Summer is here, finally. The end of this school year has been a hard one for me. My 19 year old niece was killed by a drunk driver on March 28. The rest of the school year was a little hazy. This blog isn’t a place for pouring out my grief, but I just wanted to mention why I had been so absent.

With this said, I am excited about my opportunities this summer to collaborate and grow professionally. At the end of this month I will be attending ISTE for this first time.  The conference is in Atlanta so it’s not too far to drive and I convinced two other library media specialist from my school district to go with me so housing won’t be too expensive. I registered for this conference in January and have been really looking forward to attending. I will be able to meet many of my virtual Twitter peeps IRL (in real life) and I can’t wait! I even created new business cards so if you run into me at ISTE make sure I give you one so we can connect next school year.

card

Week 4: World Read Aloud Day

Posted on by
Reply

Oh why didn’t I remember to read ahead for the blog challenge?!  Matthew Winner challenged us for week four to do the following:

Raising Our Voices

It’s time to read aloud! Select a favorite text, or a personal story that you love to share out loud, and make a video. If you don’t have a webcam, are having technical difficulties, or prefer not to be on camera, you can also translate this challenge into a written post. Share what you will be reading on World Read Aloud Day, and why you chose this particular piece to read aloud.

I was so busy connecting (and stressing) that I didn’t get much video or even photos.  (I did have a few that are below) I keep forgetting to pass the camera to the classroom teachers to help me out!  Luckily, Mr. Winner to the rescue! During our Skype call he managed to video me and send it to me right after our session. We had so much fun reading No Fits, Nilson by Zachariah OHora on the wonderfule We Give Books.  I don’t know how he does it, he must have four arms. One of my student commented after that he really is a winner, I agree!

Gorrie students really enjoyed connecting with so many new friends. As we sat in our shorts and t-shirts, we were amazed that some of our new friends thought 35 degrees was WARM!  We thought it was cold when it got down to 60 degrees after a cold front came through on Thursday.  We discovered much that was the same, student councils, recess, and of course loving to read aloud.

We had a total of 18 connections.  We had 8 more but Mother Nature had other plans. We are already looking forward to reconnecting with some of our new friends in April for Poetry month. Here are the librarians we connected with during the week.

  • Crystal Hendrix Asheville, North Carolina
  • Andy Plemmons Athens, Georgia
  • Wendy Garland Dedham, Massachussetts
  • Misti Sikes Forsyth, Georgia
  • Jenny Lussier Durham, Connecticut
  • Laura D’Elia Burlington, Massachusetts
  • Jeanne Cook Wentzville, Missouri
  • Donna MacDonald South Burlington, Vermont
  • Matthew Winner Ellicott City, Maryland
  • Esther Uribe Austin, Texas
  • Wendy Garland Norfolk, Massachusetts
  • Shannon Miller Van Meter, Iowa

photo 1

photo 4

photo 3

photo 2

Week Three: My Reading Life

Posted on by
Reply

I am participating in The Busy Librarian’s World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge, below is the assignement for week three and my entry.

A Snapshot of My Reading Life

Post a photo that gives readers a glimpse into your reading life. This could be your favorite place to read, your bookshelf, your library, your classroom, a book from childhood that you still re-read today, your favorite person to read with. Anything that brings joy to your reading life will work!

Below the photo share a short narrative explaining why this picture is meaningful to you.

Screen Shot 2014-03-02 at 7.18.06 PM

This is a screen shot from Amazon of my Kindle library. I love to read, have always loved to read, and for the most part read “regular” books.  When I finally broke down and got a smart phone I downloaded the Kindle app.  On September 18, 2011, I downloaded two free titles and I never looked back.  There are now 140 books in my Kindle collection most of them already read. I still order print books, especially picture books, but I do love the convenience of always having my book with me.  I even ended up buying an actual Kindle paperwhite a few months ago, but tend to read off my phone most of the time.  I like that I always have it with me.  I know, I know I could carry a book with me. But my phone is already with me and I don’t forget it.  If I am sitting on the sidewalk at Disney waiting for the parade, waiting at the dentist,  getting my hair done, or eating lunch in my office,  I can finish up a few chapters.  Finish a book? I can start a new one already downloaded or even buy the next book in the series where ever I am.  Since using my phone I have really gotten back into the grove of reading books for me and not just books for work.

Just recently I have bought some Kindle versions of picture books for school.  I was buying the book and even with my two day Prime shipping I couldn’t wait to read the book and so bought the Kindle version too.  For picture books I use the Kindle’s cloud reader on my computer.  I used it to share the books with my students and will be using it to share with some of our WRAD connections.

This really wasn’t meant to be an advertisement for Amazon or Kindle but it is a big part of my reading life right now.  I think the important thing to remember is if you want to read, and want to make time for reading, then do what you need to do to make it happen.  For me, it was realizing I didn’t have to have the hardcover or physical book for me to still be able to read and enjoy the story.  As a librarian, I do like have my bookcases full of books in my house and I have them all over the place along with books stacked by my bed.  With that said, I do like always having my book in my purse or back pocket and more titles ready, just a download away.

So whether you are old school or new school reading, as long as you are reading you are doing it right!

Free to Read: Week Two WRAD14 Challenge

Posted on by
Reply

We are in week two of the WRAD Blog challenge and I had so much fun with this post. I liked being able to ask my daughter the questions and see what her reply would be. Even though we will be moving into week three tomorrow, I plan to ask my students some of these questions and post their answers.

My daughter, Audrey is six years old and in first grade. She loves to read, often getting in trouble at school for reading the book in her desk instead of paying attention, but that’s a whole different story…

 

Here are our answers to the questions for this week. My reactions to Audrey’s answers and in italics.

1. I think everyone in the world should read…

Me: … WHATEVER THEY WANT! (Sorry for shouting, but I feel a might strongly about this.) It breaks my heart when students don’t get to read the book they want to read. Yes, we should encourage them to branch out and grow as readers, that’s why they can check out more than one book at a time. We did away with Accelerated Reader at my school several years ago (Yay!) but some teachers have started using a free online quiz program that is similar. And some of the same problems, when those classes come from checkout, have already started. I had one 1st grader, who is a strong reader, checking out Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. I asked her if she wanted the second book Knuffle Bunny Two. It had been turned in recently and was right behind me on the bookcart, (I like to be helpful like that 😉 ).

“No thanks, there isn’t a quiz for it”.

“Are you sure, it’s really good!”

“No, I have to met my quiz goal”.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

Audrey: … nonfiction. Because you can learn from it, and you can learn stuff you don’t know.

This reply kind of surprised me because we mostly read fiction picture books at bedtime. She does like to read my magazines after school and checkout nonfiction. Guess we need to beef up the nonfiction books at home!

 

2. If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be…

Me: … someone British! I love accents, so maybe Sir Patrick Stewart. His voice is so “engaging”  (Trekkies did you see what I did there? 😉 )  For the most part, I can listen to almost anyone, if it’s a good story. 🙂

Audrey: … my mommy, because she can read really good. (I really think that, hey… you don’t have to type that!)

 

3. When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is…

Me: …animals and regional accents.   I love to read Three Little Gators by Helen Ketteman, I may not have a perfect east Texas accent but it’s funny and the kids laugh.  I also enjoy saying “Affirmative” when reading the delightful Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman.

Audrey… puppies! (Put an excite mark, because I LOVE puppies)

4. The genre or author that takes up the most room on my bookshelf (or e-reader) is…

Me: …science fiction. I have always loved science fiction (and fantasy to a lesser degree). I love the classics from the Golden Age of Science Fiction with authors like Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Anne McCaffrey.

Last year, I read Wool by Hugh Howey and it blew my mind! I still think about it and have read several books by other authors set in his Wool Universe. I think it got picked up to be made into a movie, but read it first! I also really liked his Molly Fyde series. Currently, I have been reading a lot of young adult dystopian novels, here are some of my favorites: (links are to the first book of each series)

The Giver series by Lois Lowry
Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
The Frost Chronicles by Kate Avery Ellison
Maze Runner Series by James Dashner
Matched Trilogy by Allie Condie
Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman
The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Taking Series by Melissa West
The Testing Series by Joelle Charbonneau

I could go on and on, even just compiling this list I kept finding series I haven’t read yet and need to add to my must read list!

Audrey: … books about puppies.

 We are reading our way through the Puppy Place series right now, can you tell! And yes we do have a dog so she isn’t starved for puppy love.

 

5. My favorite part about reading aloud or being read to is…

Me: … performing for the audience. I love seeing the students’ reactions, when they laugh at the right parts, or wait in suspense for me to turn the page and the gasp of the reveal. Two years ago for the 2012 Global Read Aloud, I read The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate with a 4th grade class during their lunch time, for the whole month of October. Now that I’m not a classroom teacher I don’t get the chance to read aloud entire novels so this was a real treat for me. I loved having them beg for me to keep going, which sometimes their teachers would graciously allow us to do. I miss that part of being in the classroom, I developed a special bond with that homeroom by sharing that book with them. When it won the Newbery we were so excited and not surprised, it is a wonderful book.

 

Audrey: … hearing mommy make the different voices, it sounds so realistic.

That makes me feel good, I love reading aloud to Audrey and I hope she will not outgrow this feeling anytime soon.

 

Well that’s it for this week.  I need to get on Twitter and finalize some WRAD plans, it is getting closer!

Why we do it

Posted on by
2

I’ve had a fun summer.  I spent time with my soon to be first grader.  We swam, relaxed, went to the mountains in North Carolina and to Disneyland in California and of course read, read, read. While we had fun, we are both ready for school to start and it will for her next Tuesday.  I went back this week.  This is the first time in 23 years of teaching that I did not go back early on my own time before pre-planning to get my room/library ready.  This week I have been going to meetings and helping teachers get their technology up and running in their classrooms so there are some odds and ends still needing to be done in my room, and I have tried not to stress about it!

While I was out and about helping teachers I found the note below (along with another sweet  one) on the checkout counter when I returned to the library.  This makes it all worth while!  This is why I am a school librarian, not because I love books (which I do), not because I love connecting with the world through technology (which I do) but because I LOVE getting kids to love these things too!  To see their excited little faces when they find just the right book, a new favorite series or get their tech project working just they way they want is priceless.

I have some exciting plans for this year and I can’t wait to share them with the favorite people at my school…my students.   I hope everyone has a great school year, I know we will.

 

Okle 🙂

 

note

 

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Posted on by
Reply

Well, the April Shelf Challenge is over, phew!  Did I get all the way through my assigned section, the S section? No, no I did not.  Am I still glad I tried? Yes, yes I am!

It was great fun to read through my section and revisit some old favorites like: The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales  by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith, Where the wild things are  by Maurice Sendak, One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, by Dr. Seuss and yes, by Dr. Seuss.


I also discovered some new favorites like: Monkey and Elephant by Carole Lexa Schaefer and Shark and Lobster’s Amazing Undersea Adventure by Viviane Schwarz

 

I must admit one that should have already been an old favorite but I had never actually read was Skippyjon Jones and the big bones by Judy Schachner.

 I have recommended Skippyjon Jones books millions of time but they are always flying off the shelves and I never had the chance to read one myself.  I read it to my daughter after school one day and we laughed and laughed.  Talk about a book you need to practice with first if you really want  to use your best read aloud voices and accents! Thank goodness I had a supportive audience in my 5 year old daughter and not a whole class of kindergartners!

 

Along with some misshelved finds, (Henry and Mudge what are you doing jumping a shelf down into the S’s!) I found some holiday books  by Lola M. Schaefer that should be in nonfiction. While they probably circulated fine in the easy section my younger readers LOVE to go the nonfiction section and this way I can steer them to some that I know they can read.  A win-win for everyone!

 

April was busy with testing…poetry… more testing… formal observation… still more testing…and reading! I didn’t get all the way through my section but I have fun almost making it around the corner of my book case.  Who knows, maybe I’ll keep going into May.  I do know that I will be signing up again next year…maybe a fiction section next time!

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

 

A Poetic Evening

Posted on by
Reply

Andy Plemmons in Athens, GA blogged about doing a crowd-sourced poem with his school (you can read his post here).   I thought is was a wonderful idea and decided to create a form and sent it out to all my county librarians , or media specialists as they are called in my school district.  I got back just enough to put together a really nice poem.  I was really excited about sharing it.

Luckily for me, our county association HASLMS was hosting our annual media specialist – principal banquet. There would be librarians, administrators, supervisors and school board members present.  This was the perfect place to share a poem about how great our libraries are, so I asked if I could read my/our poem at the dinner.  I was slightly nervous since I get choked up reading, as mentioned in other posts, but it went over really well, I warned the audience ahead of time and only choked up some at the end. ; )   Several people complemented me and asked for me to post it in school email, which I will, but I wanted to share it with you too!

Here is how it turned out:

 

 

Our Libraries are NOT a quiet place

 

Our libraries are not a quiet place, they are…

full of learning and connecting,

energetic,

rush hour in the traffic of knowledge,

like a crowd of eager book fans behind home base,

a symphony of literacy and learning,

buzzing with energy and creative ideas,

full of learning fun,

learning labs of the future.


In our libraries you can hear…

a blend of great literary noise,

turning pages and readers cheer,

students engaged,

students chatting, books slapping, keyboards tapping, and data charts mapping,

keyboards clicking, scanner beeping, excitement overflowing,

all kinds of reading done.


In our libraries you can see…

smiling faces and excited minds,

fantasy, information, adventure, knowledge and curiosity,

science alive from avocado plants to the mealworm life cycle,

a wild garden of activity,

kids read and talk and play,

the world!


In our libraries you can feel…

safe,

at home,

excitement

wonder, curiosity and a love of learning that’s real,

a love for books each day,

empowered and content, since we are reading for life.


No, our libraries are NOT a quiet place and we are glad!


By HCPS Media Specialists, 2013

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

#ShelfChallenge – Day 3

Posted on by
Reply

Well, day two was a bust. After school I worked on finishing up the yearbook and finally left the building at 7:00pm! I was so tired I went to bed at 8:30 without reading the bag of books I brought home. I was excited to see Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say in my bag. This is definitely a favorite.

So, today with the yearbook done, I took my bag with the same books and went home at a decent hour, well 4:15. Audrey (my daughter) and I went to our favorite pizza place and while we waited for the pizza I read 6 books. Audrey looked at some and 2 of my 6 I read to her. It was fun to be in a restaurant reading a book out loud (but not too loud!)

I still have some to read but wanted to go a head and make my post so I can read in bed. : ) I’m not very good a book reviews, I’m one of those people who love or hate a book and it’s hard for me to articulate why. But I’m trying to get better. I guess one thing I can say is books I love evoke a feeling. I am a very emotional person (ask anyone I know I can cry or get choked up at the drop of a hat). Of the books I read tonight, Grandfather’s Journey was the best. I love all of Allen Say’s work. The pictures are gorgeous  it’s no wonder it won the Caldecott.  But it’s also the prose that gets me.  The economy of the text, the stillness I feel when reading it.  The way his life echoes his grandfather’s, with the yearning for both countries, (good grief I’m literally tearing up typing this!) it is just so beautiful.  Sigh, it is pure bliss to read his books.

Some of the books I read and when I’m done I’m just “meh, that was okay”.  Again, it’s hard to me to say why and I don’t really want to tell you the titles because I feel like it will hurt the book’s feeling!  But two of them just seemed okay, cute enough stories, cute enough pictures.  But then again my easy section is really, really full so maybe they shouldn’t be taking up valuable shelf space.  One Audrey looked at and she said she liked it but when she saw  Farm-Fresh Cats by Scott Santoro she immediately said “ohhh, read that one to me!”  It was funny and fun to read and she totally loved the idea of the green cats.

I’m signing off to finish up my day three reading.  Tomorrow is a day I have no classes and a parent volunteer so I’m hoping to work my way through some during the school day.  I can’t think of anything better for the students to see than me sitting in the easy section engrossed in a book!

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

 

#ShelfChallenge – Day 1

Posted on by
2

Well the day has finally come, I am supposed to start my #shelfchallenge today.  I didn’t get off to a great start.  I have book fair  for most of the morning and then spent the rest of the school day working on finishing the yearbook.  The yearbook is due today and I need one more day.

That said, I did make a short video to show you my assigned section, the “S” everyone or “easy” section.  I did grab the first few books to take home with me to read tonight.  My father just called to remind me that my Aunt and Uncle are visiting and to report to his house.  It’s like the universe if trying to keep me from reading but I plan to read some if not all of the ones I brought home so I may have another post later tonight.

Soooooo, enjoy my video (one take rule) and I will report in later.  Hope everyone else’s first day of the challenge was more productive than mine!

Books Read: 0

Okle : )