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!