Ideas!

One thing that some people don't know or maybe just don't realize, is that figuring out what you want to teach in the library can be a real chore!!  Do I follow the teacher's classroom skills?  Do I follow the AASL library skills?  (Have you seen those?  Those are really hard to follow.) Or do I do a combination of both skills?

I am someone who has always tried to follow classroom skills and throw a few library skills in.  This year I'm trying to do more out of The Tibrarian Handbook.  We also have new standards this year.

There are others that I use as well.  One idea, that I thought that I got from the Tibrarian book is a Flashlight Tour.  My kinder kiddos checked out books from a smaller selection of books in another room and not from the shelves in the library, so this year now that they are first graders, they are going to be checking out in the big library, I need to introduce them to the different places in the library and I'm going to be doing this with flashlights.  First, I need to find enough flashlights for all my kids.  But I'm really excited and I think the kids will like it.  I know the first grade teachers will like it because they commented on my Facebook page when I mentioned it.

If you have any super ideas that you use in your library, leave me a message below and maybe I can add it to my lessons.

Thanks for reading,

Brandy

Lacking Inspiration

Have you ever gotten down to the time it was time to return to school and you just lacked the inspiration and motivation?!  Well that's where I am!  I am enjoying my sleep time and read time and time with my kids and I'm just not ready for it to be over.

Here are some of my struggles:  (and yes, some are dumb, but still...)

*I have a very ugly circulation desk that I would love to do something to, but I just cannot decide on what to do to it.

*I'm struggling with not having plans done for all grade levels.

*There are textbooks all over the library. Even in my office and teaching room, I can't even begin to work in there.

*Maintenance people have taken books off the shelves and they are just in random stacks.  And they've broken my handrails and it looks really bad!!

*I love the theme that I've chosen but I just don't know how to execute it in the room.

But I love my job, I really do!!  I love that I get to have relationships with all the kids and all the teachers in the school!  I love when I can get a teacher or a student hooked on a certain book or series!!  I'm really good at recommending books!!

Today I got to spend time with some ladies from work and then I went by the school, just to get back into school mode and it worked!  I've been working on school stuff all evening and feeling better about the whole thing.  Also, one of my teacher friends and I hung out this afternoon and sometimes it's just good to be able to bounce things off others.  And she is so creative and should be selling things on Teacher's Pay Teachers because she made me an AWESOME cover for my teacher binder!!

So, Teachers, where do you find inspiration?  Pinterest, Blogs, Teaching Stores or does it just come from others that step in and help you out when you're feeling lost?  I hope if you are feeling uninspired that you can find someone or something that can help you out.

Inspired (finally),

Brandy

Pokemon Go~I'm back!!!

I really hate it when blogs die, and then mine died...I could NOT remember my password!!  But thanks to Pokemon Go, I got it figured out. 

 

Have you played this game yet?  I played it for about 2 days, but then I got bored.  But my kids are playing it and it's something to do to relate with the kids at school too.  And this little blog of mine is really a blog about school and it's still summer, so I'm saying Hi and I think I'm back, but since I'm not back in the school mode yet, I'm going to continue with this little break for a tad bit longer.  I hope to share more about my library with you as it gets closer to school time.  See you in August!!

Spring Break!!

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog.  Life just gets busy sometimes.  But now it's Spring Break, a time to reflect.  I'm getting a new aide after break, excited to see what it will bring.  I will miss my other aide dearly, but she's still in the building so I can see her whenever I want!

I am continuing with Library Centers, hopefully the students will do better with them this time.  They just aren't very good at cleaning up.  I've made some new signs and set up my center shelf.  We will go over the centers again and cross my fingers! We are coming upon testing season and that always messes with my library schedule, hopefully it won't be too bad!!

Lessons for this next week: 5th and 4th are doing the Dewey, if they get to come, Benchmark testing. I'm not sure about PK and K.  First grade will get their introduction to centers, we're going to act them out.  2nd is still doing genre and 3rd grade is learning about the Biography section and alphabetizing.

What are you doing in your library?  Anything exciting?

Twitter!

I know that I'm behind the times here.  I just started on Twitter on Sunday.  Have posted a couple of times, it's fun, but some people sure post a LOT!!  Like 50 times a day!!  Well today I posted about a book that I was starting because it was in the book fair that we opened up today.  Excitingly enough, that author retweeted my post!!  So excited!  If you haven't read the Cryptid Hunters series by Roland Smith, it is great!  The newest and final book of the series is out, it's called Mutation.  I had to bring it home tonight and start reading!  Exciting!  My "To Read" list is so super long and it gets longer every time we get a book fair or a book order comes in!  My first book order of the year came in this week.  Book fair, new books and retweeted by an author!!  What a week!!  Now if only I could figure out how to link my Twitter feed to my blog and vice versa, oh the technology!  

Have a great week!!

Brandy

The StoryBook Room

So I've been to several different elementary libraries and they are all very different in their make-up.  I love the ones with windows!!!  But I've never worked in one.  Several libraries that I've seen have been open, no walls, in the middle of the school.  And I have to ask, who thought that was a good idea?  I thought the library was supposed to be a quiet place.  A place where students could come to be themselves and get away.

My current library is open in the middle of the school. We have some half walls and so it's not completely open, but it is LOUD!!  Not sure how it is conducive to learning, but we are dealing with it.   It was hard to find a good story time place, not under the stairs-too hot.  Not by the stairs-too loud (sounds like cows are stomping on the stairs).  And people walk through the library all the time, like we're part of the hallway, just because there are no doors.  But this year, I've been allowed to take over a new room and it is fabulous!!  It is a small room off the library that opens to the hallway and to the library.  It is right next to my office, but way across the library from the check out desk.  Here are some pictures.  This is where I do almost all my lessons.


I hope that you enjoy a glance into my library!  I love to see pictures online of other libraries!  I've seen some great ideas!  

Door into the room, where most classes enter. Chair for the teacher to sit in.  If they stay!  

Where I sit to read, with my objectives and scales (This week I read Bugs in My Hair by David Shannon to my littles, as an intro to the book fair, which will be here soon.  Teachers were kind of creeped out!

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Nonfiction books and The Yellow Brick Road, for retelling.  I got it from The First Grade Parade blog.  

This is a window that covers most of the wall, tried to cover it with trees, it looks out under the stairs.  

A view of the door into the library, I stand at the door with my laptop and check out books to my littles (PK and K).  

Here are the Fiction books for Kindergarten and PK.

Library Schedule

I'm still planning to post pics of my library.  But I haven't taken any yet so I thought I'd share about my schedule.  It's changed a lot this year.  Last year, I was in the Specials Rotation for teachers to get their planning period.  But I was only in the rotation for second grade, so I only taught lessons to 2nd grade and then PK and Kindergarten.  This year, I am teaching lessons to all grades.  PK-1st grade is every week and 2nd-5th grade is every other week. I've seen so many different kinds of library schedules, it's crazy!  Here's my schedule, but it's all about flexibility, so it's changed a couple of times since: 

Nothing too inspiring but just a part of every librarian's job.  What does your library schedule look like?

Brandy