Symbaloo

I had a lot of fun putting together my ideas about how to find new books to read, order and share for the NMLA conference this month.  I also put together some resources for becoming a school librarian that I got to share with a group of brand new UNM student teachers at Bandelier Elementary School.  Here is my Symbaloo from both presentations.  I love having all of my favorite resources and links in one place.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks for stopping by.

Genrefy (It's not really a word but it works)

I first read about this idea in this  School Library Journal article about ditching Dewey.  The idea greatly intrigued me because I was spending my days as an elementary school librarian constantly walking kiddos to the "books about tanks" or the "cat books" or the "princess books".  When I read in the article that they had organized the books in their library to be more user friendly I immediately loved the idea and when I love an idea I have to tell everyone about it (case in point at the moment).  Everyone I talked to about the idea was horrified. 
Horrified. 
Why, they asked, would you get rid of a perfectly good system?  The only reason I could think of is the most important reason, because it will be easier for the kids (who are the reason we have the library) to find the books they want.
I prefer to call my system genrefying because I'm not ditching Dewey. I love the Dewey Decimal System.  People think I'm joking when I talk about how much I love it. 
But, it's a system that only works for those who know how to use it and no matter how often I taught it and we sang the song the kids didn't live the system like I did.  So they might know where to find the cat books but not the dinosaur books and the numbers didn't mean anything to them.
Now that I'm at JMS and I have more time in the library with the books but the students have MUCH LESS time in the library with the books I have started the process.
I cannot explain to you how excited I am about this.  I know that it is going to increase circulation and make finding books MUCH easier for the students.
Here's what I'm doing:

I bought colored labels to stick on top of the existing spine labels, we started with the As and we are moving through the library. I'm sticking labels on the books that get returned too so there are some colored labels scattered throughout the shelves. 
I made a sign that lists our genres:
Sports
Horror
Humor
mystery
Classics
Action Adventure
Realistic Fiction
Historical Fiction
Fantasy
Science Fiction
and covered each genre in it's corresponding color. 
This will be slow going (until standardized testing closes my library for 2 months and then I'll have no patrons to speak of) and I'll make mistakes but I'm so thrilled to have started!
I'll keep you posted!

Reading Goals

This year my goal is to read 100 books.  I count ALL the books I read. So, if I read aloud to my 6 year old daughter, I count it.  If I read something for work, I count it.  A book is a book!  I am so curious to see if I reach my goal mostly because I've never kept close track of every single book I've read.  I'm going to try to do that via Goodreads this year.  I've been ok in years past at keeping track of the books I read for pleasure but not so much the books I read aloud to kids.  This will make it easier for me to suggest books to friends and parents that their kids might like.  What's your reading goal?

Books Make the Best Gifts

I love to give books as gifts and this year there are some great books to give.  I read about new books daily and try to keep up with reading those I can.   Here are some lists of best books of the year to peruse:  The School Library Journal is an informative magazine for, well, school librarians and others interested in books and reading.  Their best book list  has some of my favorites this year and a few I haven't read yet. The New York Times has a list each year of the Best Illustrated Books with some that overlap.  Here are some I think would make great gifts from these lists:

Fiction

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

This basketball book is so much more than a basketball book.  It tells the story of two brothers and their love for the game.  It's told in poems that are beautifully written and lively.  

 

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

I wrote a little about this book in a previous post. I loved the story and the language. This would be a great pick for the fantasy fans.

Revolution by Deborah Wiles

This book is the second in a 3 series set of documentary novels that tell different stories of the 1960s in America.  Great historical fiction for anyone.

  Picture Books

I love picture books, I think they are truly enjoyable for all ages.   Some of these are for your younger readers and some are for everyone.

My Bus by Byron Barton

The story is fun and full of cats, dogs and counting.  The illustrations are bright and cheerful and the story is complete.  My 6 year old loved hearing this over and over again.  It's a winner for our family.






Draw by Raul Colon
This wordless book tells the story of a boy and his wonderful imagination.  The animals in the jungle play a part in the story as does the boy.  The story is easy to follow even though there aren't any written words.  The artwork is wonderfully realistic and beautifully done.













The Pilot and The Little Prince by Peter Sis
This is a picture book for older children as well as younger kids.  The illustrations are intricate and interesting and the biographical text is arranged on the page in patterns and a style that add to the story.  There is sparser text on the page that could be read alone to tell part of the story for kids who can't sustain for all of the other information provided.  So much to know about Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 



Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales
This beautiful book has puppets and papel picado with wonderful bilingual message to follow your dreams.  Anyone who loves the art and spirit of Frida Kahlo will enjoy this book.



The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee
Another wordless book telling the sad story of a little circus clown who tumbles off the train.  The farmer is delightful and kind and ends up saving the day.  The train passengers are reminiscent of The Little Engine That Could in the best way possible.  A quiet, happy book. 

Autobiography

These are two of my very favorite books of the whole year.  The story of people's lives are complex and funny and heartbreaking and these two women tell those stories with such beauty and talent. 

El Deafo by  CeCe Bell

This is a graphic autobiography.  The drawings are wonderful and the story both hilarious and touching.  Just the book for your graphic novel lovers and those who like a good autobiography.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
An autobiography told in poetry.  Each poem a memory from Woodson's life in different areas of the nation.  Growing up and finding herself while those around her help.

A Day in the Life of a Middle School Librarian

I love my job.  I love helping people find what they need, connecting people to information and books.  I love being in the community of a middle school, these are my people-the kids and the staff.  I love the hustle and bustle and the quiet time.
Here are some of the things I do all day.

The circulation desk is where all the magic happens, I can find books in the catalog that kids are looking for (John Green, John Green, If I Stay) and recommend others they might like.  I've been working on making the library as welcoming and friendly as I can because it's important to me that kids feel like the library is a place they belong. It's my job to connect my patrons with information and resources they can use.

I don't like this green shelf.  I've wanted to get rid of the first moment I laid eyes on it. I finally cleared and consolidated enough to clean it off completely.  It's my job to keep the library neat and orderly.  Usually this just means putting books back in the right place, dusting and general housekeeping but coming to a new school means making the space new.  This has been a favorite part of my job.  I'm loving how this is turning out. 

This is the "Newbery Maybe" shelf. It's my job to keep up with all the new books.  Luckily, I LOVE to read.  I get recommendations from all over blogland and I request lots of books from the public library and other school libraries to keep up with the books that aren't in our collection yet.  So far my favorite is Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff and (along with everyone else) Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacquline Woodson.

Of course it's my job to check books in and out.  Here's a stack of books coming back from a social studies class after an Ancient Egypt project.  It's important that the books get used, otherwise what good are they sitting on the shelf?

I love a good before and after story.  This is our little back room.  It's hot in the summer and freezing the winter, too far away from the stacks and computers to really work as an office and until recently it was full of junk.  My darling student aides and I have spent months cleaning it out and organizing the dead computer parts.  After salvage came and took the old furniture we had a nice, clean room!  We can use it for meetings or dance practice.

There are, of course, many other things that happen in my day.  This was today and I loved it.

Mock Caldecott Group

Our Newbery lunch group that meets on Wednesdays has morphed into a Caldecott group.  The kids who come are kids who are already reading for The Battle of the Books, kids who have LOTS of homework and extra curricular activities so asking them to read another chapter book wasn't going to work.  Instead I'm getting to do the one thing I miss the most about elementary school-read picture books! So far we've read Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales, My Pet Book by Bob Staake and The Right Word by Jen Bryant.  We also read I Am a Witches Cat by Harriet Muncaster but then realized that the author/illustrator was from England and therefore not eligible for the Caldecott.  Drat!  The tiny little world created for the illustrations in that book is worth the read.  So cool!

The puppets created for this books are beautiful, there is a wonderful video that shows the process Morales took to create the artwork for this book.  I love the message in the sparse words, English and Spanish. 

This was our group's favorite book so far.  The illustrations and story are so much fun!  I love seeing the process and artist has for creating the art work.  I know nothing about computer illustration but I love to see the product.

This was my favorite.  I LOVE Melissa Sweet's artwork.  I love knowing the story behind the "treasure house" of words Roget created and I love knowing how to pronounce his name. Here's a trailer that shows the beauty of the illustrations.

JMS Library Lunch Groups

We have started our lunch groups in the library. Students are still able to come in and read, check out books and work on homework.  In addition we have the following groups:

Monday is Makerspace
Tuesday is Battle of the Books
Wednesday is Mock Newbery 
Thursday is trailers and QR codes
Friday is fun computer games


We have been having a great time getting to know each other and setting up our clubs! Come join us in the library.

The Mock Newbery group (we'll throw in some Caldecott possibilities too) will be looking at the books mentioned here, here and here to find out which books we want to read to prepare for our vote for this year's winner.  Look for guest posts by members of our group and join us in predicting the winner!