Exciting happenings at TDS!

We have myOn again!  Be looking for information to come home in the next 2 weeks.  MyOn reading will count toward Readapalooza.

I wanted to summarize reading things going on at TDS.

First, students can log their reading on the Pizza Hut BookIt logs that were sent home.  A new log will be sent every month.  When/if log is completed, bring it to the library and I will make sure your student gets a coupon for a free Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut.

Second, is Readapalooza.  Students keep a log of AR tests they pass.  1st grade has their own logs but I have logs in the library for everyone else.  Students keep the logs in their library folders.  If they make an 80, 85, 90, 95 or 100, they need to write it down.  When the sheet is filled up, they will turn it in to me.  For every 25 tests they pass, they will get a charm and their name in the hall outside the library.  The goal is 100 tests or 100 points.  4th and 5th graders usually work toward points.  Reaching the magic number of 100 means they get to go to Readapalooza in May!

Third, we have myOn.  Students can count a score of 100 on the myOn quiz that is at the end of every book they read as a book on their AR log toward Readapalooza.  If they book also has an AR tests, they can click on the link, take the test and if they pass it, they can count that, too.  There are also projects on myOn that have been assigned to certain grade levels.  If students complete a project with strong effort, I will let them get something out of my prize drawer.

As I was working on the projects this evening, I noticed several 2nd and 3rd grade students started working on them immediately!  I think my prize drawer will empty out pretty quickly!

Cindy McCann's class has some AR goals we are working on.  Passing 20 AR tests each 9 weeks will earn them a trip to my prize drawer.  5 students got to go this past week and I anticipate several at the end of the block.

On a different note, the annual Tennessee Association of School Librarians conference was held this past week.  It is always a treat and a worthwhile meeting to attend.  Being information specialists, we get LOTS of information, links, sites, tips and ideas at the conference.  Sometimes it is hard to process and keep up with it all!  I hope to put the information in some type of document that I can share later.

Our library software has a way to link from this blog and our school web site to our software so students and parents can search our collection from any device anywhere they have Internet.  I hope to have that link active later this week!

Students will be checking out up to 3 book starting this week.  And they will be able to check out any title they want regardless of reading level.  But hopefully, students will choose books they are capable of reading, not just getting one to carry around and look like they are big stuff!

November is Picture Book Month.  I challenge everyone to read at least one picture book every day during this month.  I am posting my picture book reading on the TDS Library Facebook page.

And, last bit of news I want to share is I have registered for a DonorsChoose.org project.  It is called Graphic Novels for Reluctant Readers.  I hope to add to this very popular collection in our library.  https://www.donorschoose.org/project/graphic-novels-for-reluctant-readers/2201010/

If you haven't already, follow us on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/973367352693691 or look for TDS Library.  Our school's Twitter account is @TDSExplores.

Happy fall and have fun reading!

 Mrs. Trevenia

September 2016 News

We will be spotlighting an author or illustrator every month at our library. These will be geared toward 2nd through 5th graders. A few of the books by the author/illustrator will be on display on top of the Easy Fiction shelves. Students will be able to check these books out.

This month's author is Kevin Henkes.    http://www.kevinhenkes.com/

A few of Henkes' books that can be found in our library are:  Chrysanthemum, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, Old Bear and Birds.

Students who earned myOn rewards for summer reading should be bringing home letters regarding the water play and movie and popcorn day.  We still have not heard from Capstone about Wal-Mart cards or iPad winners.  Once again, thank you parents who encouraged your student to participate this past summer.  

If you want to see what books we have available at TDS Library, go to https://dcbe.follettdestiny.com/ then click on The Discovery School.  You can search our card catalog from anywhere!

Limeades for Learning, sponsored by Sonic, begins September 26, 2016. You can vote on classroom projects and needs from the Limeadesforlearning.com web site.  These are tied to donorschoose.org. We have a project on donorschoose.

5th graders have started the Financial Fitness curriculum in the library as part of a Dickson County pilot.  All 5th graders in Dickson County will be taught this curriculum in the library. It is a minimum of 15 lessons.   We took a pre-assessment to see what they know about finances.  When we finish, we will take a final assessment to see how much they learned.  One of our classes had an average score of 51% correct and the other 46% correct. There were 40 questions so most of the students knew about half of the terms and scenarios.  There is an online program that corresponds to the curriculum that is available for us to use for free. We will access the web site every other week for students to use their new knowledge in a dynamic way.  Students will have a workbook assigned to them but they will be leaving it at school. The state provided the workbooks and sent just enough for our enrollment.    A great web site to help parents have honest discussions and role-playing with students is http://wisepockets.umsl.edu/

First time for everything. . .

I always begin the school year with my new kindergarten students talking about book care.  I show them damaged books that I keep on hand for these first 2 weeks with them.  Some have mold in them.  Others have had pink drinks spilled on them. One has coffee stains on the pages.  Another has purple marker on each and every page where a sibling decided to use it as a coloring book.  Then I show a couple of video clips made by other librarians out there.  Skippy Jon Jones and Pigeon are usually a big hit.  One clip has an early elementary girl leaving her library book around the house and the preschool little sister cuts, colors, etc., on/in the book.  We stop at each section and discuss what was wrong, etc.  This year, for the first time, I have a student who became extremely upset about the damage done to the books and now is afraid of coming to the library!  I promised no more video clips and we are going to move to centers and how we are going to do library centers while checking out books, etc.  I hope I can mend the gap with the student because it breaks my heart to think this student doesn't think of the library as a refuge.  That is my main goal in the library-to have the students want to come because it gives them a place to escape reality, testing, etc., by just losing themselves in books.  That is what the elementary school library represented for me back in the day.  I will keep working on mending my relationship to this student!

Part of my job (I feel) is to try to connect students with some book that resonates with them.  I have many students who come to me every week asking "What can I read?" "Show me what you would recommend for me to read."  Some 4th and 5th graders are still doing this after 4 to 6 years of this!  I will persevere!  As part of this, I stress to my classes that when we move about the library to "book shop" it is what they as individuals want to look at and read, not a friend, not someone else in the class and they need to experiment and branch out.  Some boys only will read nonfiction books about sports.  Some girls only want the drawing or art books.  I tell them they won't enjoy reading if they only read what others read or what others tell them to read.  This is one of my favorite quotes:

Sharing books or interests and partner reading is fine up to a point.  But independent readers and thinkers begin to experience books on their own only when they allow themselves to assert their interests, ideas, and tastes as an individual.

Watching the first graders take a beginning level nonfiction book, share it with a partner, discuss the pictures, pick out sight words they know, and help each other out with unfamiliar words is such an exciting part of my job.  Having them come to me to share a fact they just learned is very fulfilling.  Having a struggling reader, such as a 3rd grader that only reads graphic novels or snake books and reads on a 2nd grade reading level, get a DK book about reptiles that is probably on a 6th grade reading level, and read facts and come report them to me every 2 minutes just shows how important interest comes into play with becoming a successful independent reader.  "Did you know that snakes are not really slimy but are dry and smooth?" Straight from the book!  Hopefully, we can make inroads into his reading this year with this kind of interest!

Until next time, enjoy the beginning of the new school year!

Mrs. Trevenia

Beginnings and stuff

I have struggled with physical organization of my small library space as well as wrapping my head around ways to read aloud to students while adhering to a state librarian evaluation model that does not allow independent reading time, choosing of books or just reading to be entertained.  As I cleaned out, moved things around and read this summer, I found myself asking what is reading?

I don't have all of the answers nor do I pretend to be an expert.  However, I have found one blog post that at least gives an easy to understand, layman's definition of close reading. Many parents probably have no idea what it means.  This teacher explains it well.  http://hojosteachingadventures.com/2014/03/close-reading-whats-it-all-about.html

Meanwhile, parents juggle schedules, sports practices, games, work, supper, and other things but are asked to read to children every night, even school-age children.  Reading is one of THE most important things anyone can learn to not only survive in life but to succeed. This site from the Smithsonian is a great source of informational text that anyone can use.  http://tweentribune.com/

Free online read alouds are a great way for me to introduce new books or topics to my students. Our library is small. Likewise, our budget is very small.  I cannot order a wide variety of new and interesting titles every year. Online books give me an option to meet that need.  Students need to hear books read fluently and with expression.  These options are a great starting point.  http://rachelktutoring.com/blog/free-online-read-alouds/

For residents of the state of Tennessee, through tel4u.org (Tennessee Electronic Library-a free service to Tennesseans) you can access World Book's early learning resources.  It is a great site I learned about this summer.  http://www.worldbookonline.com/ewol/home#knowItcategory

I have more to share next month! Happy August! 

Mrs. Trevenia

Things to investigate

Long post today!  Warning!!

I am researching and making plans to implement centers in most of my grade levels in the library in 2016-2017. I continue to struggle with activities that can cross grade levels so I don't have to be changing them out every hour and finding a place to store them in between and on Art days.

I am pinning ideas like crazy on my Pinterest boards and finding web sites to help.  

Here are some of the sites I am looking forward to reading.

http://learninprogress.blogspot.com/2014/07/primary-centers-getting-started-kaslsr14.html

https://elementarylibrarian.com/how-i-use-library-stations/

http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/Library+Centers+Procedure

http://ljune.edublogs.org/wiki/library-centers/

http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/centers/

Neat sites to use in a creative way

http://aturntolearn.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-make-collage-of-words-in-any.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+ATurnToLearn+(A+Turn+to+Learn)

https://www.thinglink.com/

http://morguefile.com/search/morguefile/1/pop

http://tilearray.com/

http://www.toondoo.com/

http://storybird.com/

http://popplet.com/

http://my storyboard.com
https://www.storyboardthat.com/
http://www.boomwriter.com/
http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm
http://kidblog.org/home/


Other lesson ideas
http://www.librarypatch.com/2014/10/research-task-cards.html

Creative sites to spruce things up

http://metaatem.net/words/Think%20know

http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

http://www.tagxedo.com/

http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php

During the month of July (2016), this web site will have 500 ebooks available for free with no login information needed.  Star Walk Kids free ebooks

Our public library has digital and audio books that may be checked out online and downloaded to your smartphone, tablet or iPad.  Visit Reads Lib Overdrive for more information.  You need a public library card with the bar code on the back and make sure you type in "Dickson County Public Library & Lifelong Learning Center" as the library.

You can access many magazine articles, games, and other elementary-appropriate level encyclopedia articles through our free access to Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL).  World Book Kids!  I also just learned about World Book's Early World of Learning for pre-K and Kindergarten level readers!  It has ebooks that can be read in Spanish or English and you can choose to have the narration on so kids can follow along!  Check it out!  World Book Early World of Learning

I love my job!

Summer!!

2015-2016 flew by!

Let me start the summer by saying reading anything during the summer is so important for students.  I have encouraged all of our students at TDS to get on myon.com as often as possible this summer.  Letters went home about it. The site can be used live with a wifi Internet connection or you can take any mobile device that can access public wifi and download up to 20 books at a time into the FREE app.  The app is on the iTunes App Store, Google Pay Store and Amazon App Store.  The Dickson County Public Library and Lifelong Learning Center has free wifi.  Dunkin Donuts, House Blends on Main Street, McDonald's and any other store that offers free wifi can be used to download the books. (You can even pull up next to the school and connect to our guest wifi!). I will be posting screenshots of our reading results periodically on the library FB page.  All of the school after cares will be allowing students the opportunity to use myon this summer.  I have forwarded all of our student login information to someone in each school.  https://www.myon.com/

Don't forget the public library's summer reading program!  http://www2.youseemore.com/dicksonpl/

Reading Rock on Main Street is an excellent bookstore to visit.  http://www.thereadingrock.com/

Set your calendars for the first annual Kids Fest at the Fairgrounds on June 11, 2016.  http://www.wdkn.com/community-events/2016-kidsfest/.

And last but not least: if you have a child that has benefitted from the Imagination Library and are interested in being recorded for inclusion in a public service presentation for Imagination Library, please come to the 10th Birthday Celebration of the Dickson County Imagination Library. We are hoping to have it on June 25, 2016 at the YMCA in Dickson.  All "graduates" of the I.L. are invited.  I will post the exact time and such when it is finalized.  https://www.facebook.com/DCImaginationLibrary/

https://usa.imaginationlibrary.com/affiliates_result.php?aff=TNDICKSON

If you have any used Imagination Library books that you would like to give to us, we would love to have them.  They are re-labeled and used for enrollment promotions. Technically, due to privacy issues, they are not supposed to be sold or resold. So we would love to help you recycle them! 

Have a great summer! Mrs. Trevenia

TDS now has a Twitter account!

Follow us @TDSExplores!

Busy Bees

I have so many exciting things to report!

We have about 30 students who qualified to go to Readapalooza at Montgomery Bell State Park on May 17, 2016.  If your student qualified, look for the permission slip and paperwork to come home for your signature and information.  These students worked so very hard this year.  I am happy to reward them with this trip!  We have four 1st graders, twelve 2nd graders (wow!), three 3rd graders, one 4th grader, and eight 5th graders to qualify.  Students could have passed 100 AR tests on their reading level (80% or better score) OR have 100 AR points at 80% or better in order to earn this trip.  Due to privacy, I can't release the names but they are posted in the hall at school outside my library door.

Students have been busy using the UTrust Grant books that we recently purchased.  I am required to take pictures and video the students using the items purchased.  3rd grade used the continent books I purchased to research 2 continents.  They really enjoyed the activity and learning about places so far away!

1st and 2nd graders have spent 2 weeks comparing and contrasting and retelling familiar fairy tales as well as putting the story into sequence order.  We covered Little Red Riding Hood in week 1 and Goldilocks this past week.  The students showed good listening skills and demonstrated learning how to get a story down to the necessities.  I have included a few pictures of the charts they created.

We are sending home information about summer reading with MyOn this summer.  Students will take a maximum 35 minute online reading level assessment and interest inventory to determine a starting spot.  I will be using library class this week to get this completed.  We are working on big rewards to reward student reading over the summer.  

The last day to check out library books this school year is Friday, May 6, 2016.  All books should be returned by Friday, May 13, 2016.  

The end of the school year includes the dreaded inventory.  Mine will begin on Monday, May 9.

I am busy planning my summer workshops and days of coming in and cleaning up the library.  An elementary librarian's job is not just from 7:30 to 3:15 Monday through Friday! I may make a plea for some help this summer so be checking our Facebook page!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/973367352693691/

And last, I could not do without my weekly helpers, Mrs. Betty Burgess and Lily P. and Alli H.  I am blessed to have volunteers and students who love the library and love to help! Thank you!

Spring Happenings at TDS

We are in the beginning stages of wrapping up the 2015-2016 school year.  There are several things I would like to point out as we begin this process.

First, our spring book fair was a HUGE success!  As a result, we are getting close to 200 new books and have money to pay for Readapalooza!

What is Readapalooza?  At the beginning of the school year (and every few weeks during the school year) I talked about students earning the reward of attending Readapalooza on May 17, 2016 at MBSP along with students from DES, VES, WBES, CES, and SBES.  Students that wanted to participate were given a reading log.  Criteria for attending was either to have 100 AR points (had to be 80% or better on reading quiz to count) OR 100 AR tests passed with scores 80% or better.  Students have been turning in reading logs throughout the school year and I have been awarding reading club charms as a reward along with posting the student name in the hall outside the library.  Over the last few weeks, I have weekly reminded students that the cutoff for qualifying for Readapalooza is April 29, 2016.  At this time, we have 18 that have qualified with possibly that many that are close to qualifying!  I will be sending home permission slip information and such on May 2, 2016 for students who get to travel with us to MBSP for a day of creek stomping, lunch, activities and a program led by a Park Ranger.  I am very proud of these students for their hard work!

Secondly, TDS was the recipient of a UTrust mini-grant this spring.  The money has allowed our library to purchase 98 new books to directly support the social studies state standards.  Our library was sorely lacking books on some of the topics and people covered under the latest social studies standards.  The grant money allows us to plug a few of those holes. 

Next, I would like to address overdue or lost library items.  It is Dickson County School Board policy that library books are treated like textbooks.  Lost or damaged items must be paid for before a student's final report card is released for the school year.  Therefore, if your student has lost a library book, please pay for it as soon as possible.  No report card will be mailed or handed out until the account is cleared.

And lastly, every 5 years or so, the library needs to be weeded.  According to the American Library Association (our guiding policy organization), nonfiction titles should be pulled and discarded periodically according to publication date criteria.  In this day and age of quickly changing information, certain books are obsolete and outdated pretty quickly.  ALA's stance is that no information is better than old information.  School libraries are not archives and should be cleaned out (weeded) regularly.  To that end, Mrs. Betty Burgess, my volunteer, has been coming in and helping me pull books that should be discarded.  While the ALA guidelines state many of these should be discarded after 5 years, I have been more lax and usually say pull them after 10 or more years.  My afternoon helpers are helping with the marking process and we are collecting these in the auditorium.  I will be allowing students the opportunity to take some of these books home to keep in the last few weeks of school.  It is a big undertaking and will continue through the summer.

Fourth and fifth graders are finalizing a research project and creating Power Points to teach the rest of the class.  I look forward to hearing them in the closing weeks of school!

I need to learn this lesson, too!

I recently read this statement from James Clear: "Play — schedule time to play into your life. We schedule meetings, conference calls, weekly events, and other responsibilities into our daily calendars … why not schedule time to play? When was the last time you blocked out an hour on your calendar just to explore and experiment? When was the last time you intentionally carved out time to have fun? You can’t tell me that being happy is less important than your Wednesday meeting, and yet, we act like it is because we never give it a time and space to live on our calendars." (http://jamesclear.com/positive-thinking)

Those of you who know me personally, know that I am a schedule-oriented person.  We have many students who are also schedule-oriented and know when the daily routine is altered.  It often affects outward behavior in children and I believe it affects our behavior as adults, too.

Much research across the US and in European countries shows the importance of physical activity and play in the lives of children.  However, many lawmakers appear to think they know better because they keep heaping more and more expectations on students in spite of scientists and medical doctors advice.  As political as that sounds, I think the parents and educators in our society need to start advocating for our children.  No one else is going to do it for them.  Not only do they need playtime, they need outdoor playtime. They need time to lose themselves in creative play, imagination, pretending and having imaginary friends. 

In addition, many children do not even get home in the evening much before bedtime. They are picked up at 6:00 from after school care, stop at the grocery store, eat supper, maybe do homework, take a bath, then it is bedtime.  No time for play or it is just a video game or watching TV. 

As a librarian, I see the long-term effects of this lack of play in various ways. Students cannot sit still for more than 5 minutes because they are so full of pent-up energy.  Stamina is lacking in staying with tasks whether it is reading a book or attending to a conversation.  Reading suffers because they can't focus on it because of all of the signals their bodies are sending needing to be acted out.

Our school does its very best to provide as much movement as possible during the day. However, it needs to start at home.  We need to put pressure on our lawmakers to stop forcing our children to try to do things they are not developmentally ready to do.  Is this a soapbox? Yes. However, many do not want to hear the truth and do not want to admit there is a problem. In my efforts to start keeping a better balance in my personal life, I have decided to start speaking out on behalf of our children.  I cannot be balanced if I ignore what is going on around me.  As I recently heard at a meeting I attended, "When you are unaware of what you don't know, nothing changes. When you become aware of what you don't know, everything changes."

My job is to help educate, inform and encourage children. Sometimes that means speaking up for them and stepping on toes.

Where has the reading gone?

Today I let one of my 5th grade classes spend library time just reading. They had completed a portion of the state achievement test earlier in the day and came to me at the end of the day. This class loves to read and begs for me to just let them read. Today I did that. They got my pillows, bean bags, and stuffed animals out and sat around the room and just dug into their books. When it was time to go one of the boys came to me and asked if we could do that every library visit. My reply was that my state of Tennessee evaluation rubric does not include reading for enjoyment so it is out of my hands. He asked, "If you could allow it, though, would you?" "In a heartbeat." Because when I was in 5th grade, my library visits were either reading for enjoyment, a film strip, particularly Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, or Mrs. Easley (my librarian) would read to us while she sat in her rocking chair. Of course he did not know what a film strip was. [Therefore, I have included an image of one just like we had back then!]

I think I turned out OK as did many of my elementary classmates. This got me thinking about "the good old days" and were they really better? Maybe, maybe not. However, the fact is clear that much has changed and reading continues to be a concern for employers and educators. Maybe we need to remember the simple pleasure of being read to or watching animals in countries that we have not encountered and may never visit or see. But our lives are enriched, and our vocabulary is enlarged by being exposed to something that has no "assessment" attached to it.