Happy New Year!

As I type this, we have had our first snow day in middle Tennessee!  I have spent my morning continuing to set up my new laptop and organizing my Google Photos.  I love the Google Photos site/app because it uses facial recognition software to group photos so that you can organize your pictures into albums much easier and faster than other methods I have tried to use in the past.  It is worth investigating if you have hundreds of digital photos like me!


Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See by Megan Dowd Lambert.  I hope to provide you with important details from it as I read.

50 of our 4th and 5th graders have public library cards now that will allow them access to the Dickson County Public Library and Lifelong Learning Center's free ebook service through Tennessee R.E.A.D.S and Overdrive.  These students will be allowed to bring electronic devices to school one day soon so that I may help them learn how to access the site and borrow ebooks.  If you have a public library card, it is easy to login using your barcode from the back of your card.  Just go to https://reads.overdrive.com/

Continue reading and completing your PizzaHut BookIt reading logs.  I have issued about 15 free personal pan pizza coupons so far.  I know more of you are reading at night so make sure you are tracking it with your log!

One half of the year is over.  If your student wants to attend Readapalooza in May with me, he/she should be close to passing 50 AR tests or earning 50 AR points.  The requirement is 100 AR tests or 100 points.  Students must complete the Century Book Club form and turn it in to me.  

Did you notice the widget to the right?  It is the new Follett Destiny Discover widget.  It is linked directly to the TDS library catalog.  You can type in a book title or author and find out if I have it in our library!  How cool is that?!?  You can also go to http://www.arbookfind.com/ and look to see if a book has an AR test.  The service is free.

Don't forget to be reading on myOn by logging into Clever and then choosing myOn.   https://clever.com/in/dickson.  Use your iReady/Clever/MobyMax/myOn number as your username and as your password.  

Dickson County is taking steps to become a Google Classroom district.  This will allow teachers and students to use Google Suite software to assign and complete projects from any location.  I am excited about learning ways I can use this to help students be prepared for middle and high school especially in research projects.  Look for more information later!

And I will leave you with a picture of my January bulletin board.  How will you spend your days in 2017?