Winter Break is Here!

 

T'was the Day Before Winter Break

T'was the day before the winter break, and all through the schools,

The students were wired, forgetting the rules.

The staff clung tightly to their last ounce of cheer,

Knowing winter break was practically here.

The bell rang at last, and the halls emptied out,

With backpacks and jackets, the kids gave a shout!

And the staff sighed loudly as they locked up their doors:

"Happy Winter Break to all - we'll be back next year for more!"

Poem not my own, but it was definitely fitting for today.  I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful holiday break!

Lots to Do in December

 

I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden it was December.  And as the title implies, there is "Lots to Do in December" here at the SHS Library.  So much so that I am already exhausted.  I hope the students are having fun.

Mystery Box - all month long

I actually do this every month.  I have one of those BreakOut EDU boxes, and I use the regular key lock.  (Of course, any box with a lock will do; the BreakOut EDU boxes just happen to be sitting in my library.)  Inside the box, I have free books, snacks, and stickers.  Students finish the activity of the month, bring it to me to check, and then I give them the key to the box.  They can choose 2 items from the box, and then give the key back to me.  Other than keeping the box stocked, this is a great passive program.  This month's activity is a Christmas word search.

12 Days of December - all month long

This is a passive program for the teachers. I send them the activity calendar at the beginning of the month, and they can open a box each day to see what the day's activity is.  I put a few treats in there along with some book recommendations, some tech tools, and brain breaks.  Here is the link to this year's 12 Days of December in case you need a visual.

Bundle Up with Books - all month

This is the reading contest in Beanstack.  So this program runs itself.  Students log in their reading minutes, and the program keeps track and rewards them digital badges along the way.  Once the students have met the required number of minutes, they come to me for a reward.  This month is combined with January.  So I probably won't be giving out any rewards this month.

FirstPage Friday - Dec. 6

This is a program for my avid readers.  They fill out a form every month with a preferred genre.  And on the first Friday of the month, I give them 2-3 books I have picked just for them along with a snack and a prize.  Think of it like a monthly subscription service, but with library books.  So the books come back to the library, but the student keeps everything else.  Here is the presentation I used last year and this year to introduce the program:  FirstPage Friday

Office Aides Gifts - Dec. 10 & 11

I try to do something special for my library office aides at least once a semester.  I have 22 Office Aides this year.  These are seniors, and Office Aide is a class.  They have to report to an office or area, and their main job is to run errands for the adults in the office.  Although the class is designed to be only a semester, many of them take the class both in the Fall and in the Spring.  Some of the students may change, but mostly we have the same students all year.  This year I gave the Office Aides a small bag of snacks and a hot chocolate bar so they can fix their own hot chocolate and put in all the fixin's.

Book Club - Dec 11

Book Club happens twice a month except for November and December due to the holiday breaks, testing, and all kinds of things that happen during the Fall Semester.  Our Book Club is called the 40 Book Pledge, and we get together to talk about books.  I do not assign a book of the month.  Our task is to read 40 books by the end of the school year.  So that is an average of one book per week.  Not all students read 40 books, but all of them read more books than they did the year before.  Here is the information about our book club:  The 40 Book Pledge.

District Library Meeting - Dec 11

Somehow I said yes to baking cookies and doing a short presentation during our meeting this month.  I am going over Genially.  It might not be my go-to program, but I do enjoy using it from time to time.  To be honest, the presentation is less than 10 minutes which isn't an issue unless I go over my minutes since I am used to presenting for 45 to 60 minutes. LOL! Here is my presentation:  Genially in the Library.

 Due to the fact that I have definitely over extended myself this month, I opted to buy my cookies . . . actually they are brownie bites.  I am sure everyone will still eat them.  LOL!

Hot Chocolate Bar for Office Aides and Book Club - Dec 12

I believe I already mentioned the Hot Chocolate Bar for my Office Aides.  I also include my Book Club people.  So I usually pick a date and combine the 2 groups.  I serve hot chocolate every lunch that day.  If students forget, they have to wait until next time.  This is also the day I am serving hot chocolate to the teachers if they are keeping up with the "12 Days of December."  I bet I see more students than teachers though.  I guess I will find out tomorrow.

Senior Breakfast - Dec 13

Thank goodness I am not in charge of this one, but it is in the library, and I did agree to help.  I have agreed to bake 4 breakfast casseroles for Friday.  To be honest, that should be easy.  I have a great recipe with minimal ingredients which takes about 40 minutes to prep and bake.  Back to the actual event, the seniors seem to enjoy it every year.  We play the Polar Express in the background, and the students wear school appropriate pajamas.  It is not open to all seniors, just the ones who pay the $15 to get in.  With the amount of food served, it is well worth the $15. Plus they get out of 2nd block and Advisory.  It's a win-win!

Holiday BINGO - Dec 13-19

This is also in Beanstack.  I have created a BINGO where students can participate for another crack at the Mystery Box.  Some of the activities they have to be present for in the library, and other activities are online.  That starts on Dec. 13th, and the students have until the 19th to finish and collect the key to the Mystery Box.

National Buddy the Elf Day - Dec 18

This is also an easy program.  I pick a different day each month from the "National Day" calendar.  We celebrate that day by giving away SWAG related to said day.  For Buddy the Elf Day, I am giving away Elf vinyl stickers and candy canes.

Last Day of Class - December 19th 

Today is a day of nothing - at least no planned events in the library.  Students are taking final exams, and we are unplugging everything in the library and our 5 computer labs.  This is in an effort to conserve energy while away on break.  Did I mention how ready I am for the Christmas break?

Presentations This Year

 

This year I am presenting 3 different topics 5 times at 3 different venues.  So yes, there are some repeats! One venue has already passed.  I presented at the Region 10 Library conference on September 11th.  That topic was "Prepping your Library One Year at a Time."  I have done this presentation many times before, and I am happy to do it again if asked.  This presentation was mostly about making sure what you are doing in the library also aligns with your library appraisal.  Then how to organize it all.

I have 2 presentations at the Region 11 Library conference which is just a couple of days away, on November 21st.  Pam and I are talking about Reading Contests, and then I have another presentation about passive programming.  The reading contests presentation is new.  The passive programming is a repeat from the summer TCEA Library conference. I'm a little worried about presenting twice in the same day at Region 11.  As an introvert, presentations take a lot out of me.  Regardless, I will give it my all.

Then in January at TCEA, it is a repeat of both presentations from Region 11.  Those have been scheduled on 2 different days.  So I am not as worried about the amount of energy I need for these.

If you would like a sneak peak of our presentations, here they are . . . 

• Prepping your Library One Year at a Time (Google Slides) - presenting 1 time
  
  
• Page Turning Triumphs: Exploring the Excitement of Reading Contests (Canva) - presenting 2 times
  
  
• Nobody's Got Time for That: Passive Programming for Students and Staff (Genially) - presenting 2 times

I was really sad that TLA didn't want our presentations this year.  Something about the amount of  people who submitted their ideas.  Apparently, theirs were better. So, alas, you will not see me presenting at the conference in Dallas this April.  But I guess there is always next year!

Second 6 Weeks Check In

 Another six weeks is behind us, and I think I am most proud of the books circulated this time around.  After comparing last year to this year, I believe we are on the right track.  I believe that has something to do with our new reading program, Beanstack.  I have both teachers and students participating.  That is what is driving up the amount of books being checked out.  This is also my goal this year due to my disappointing numbers last year.

Pam and I are presenting later this month at Region 11 and at TCEA this year.  Here is a slide where I am comparing last year to this year, as far as books checked out goes.  The first 6 weeks was a bit disappointing, but I was just rolling out Beanstack to my library introduction classes.  So maybe that is the reason for a few less books this time around. However, my hope is that by our presentation on Nov. 21st, I will have surpassed the whole of the 3rd six weeks from the year before.  I just have to fill in the blanks when the time comes.  As of the first presentation, I will be about 11 days into the 6 weeks.  Wish me luck!

Besides the book circulations, I am also proud of the database usage. My first year here, 1st 6 weeks, I recorded 354 searches within our databases, and roughly 200 of those were teachers using TeachingBooks.net.  Yes, I said 354.  @#$%! Google was definitely the friend of this campus when I first arrived.  Today I am happy to report we had 42,002 database searches this 6 weeks.  Less Google, more authoritative sources.  Yay! And I'm not saying Google is bad; it's just our students and their refusal to vet their sources from said search engine.  They want answers, and they want them fast.  Showing them how to vet a source is always taxing, but I still do it.  I guess more choose our databases after that presentation.  LOL!  

Book Review: Hurdles in the Dark

Here is my latest School Library Journal book review . . . 
 

Hurdles in the Dark is the personal memoir of Elvira K. Gonzalez, who is best known as a Mexican American athlete and track star. Elvira, or Kristi as many of her family and friends called her growing up, delves into overcoming immense challenges in her life. The majority of her memoir centers around her high school career as a track and field hurdler.  Kristi saw this sport as her opportunity to earn a college scholarship and to make a better life for herself.  However, the physical hurdles were not the only obstacles in her path.  Kristi had to jump many hurdles in her life as well including leaving the barrio where all her family lived, raising $40,000 to save her kidnapped mother who crossed the border for a wedding, being arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center, and being sexually abused by her track and field coach.

 Despite all the obstacles in her way, Kristi ended her high school track and field career ranked fourth in Texas and among the top twenty in the nation.  She committed to the University of the Incarnate Word with a full athletic scholarship where she was successful until a series of injuries forced her to quit the team and lose her scholarship.  From there, she moved to New York to finish the book she started back in the juvenile detention center.  Without a steady income, she found herself back in the sport of track and field; this time she was a coach.  Kristi eventually created a thriving track and field club team.  Then she enrolled in school and became a first generation college graduate. There are just so many life lessons packed into this memoir. 

The author’s writing style absorbs the readers into her world.  The readers experience all of Kristi due to the honest account of her setbacks and triumphs. She is able to write her memoir as if it were happening in the present due to the many journals and diaries she kept growing up.  The tone shifts to the grown up Kristi, or Elvira, once the reader reaches the Afterword of the memoir.  It is here that Elvira explains her life lessons, her college experiences, and her time in New York city.  She also talks more about the darker side of sports, grooming, and sexual abuse. This topic might be a trigger for some readers, but Elvira handles it with such ease and has facts to back up her statements.  All throughout the Afterward, Elvira talks about the importance of mental health and finding the right help. Her memoir is a cautionary tale meant to help others through the obstacles in their lives.  

Therefore, Hurdles in the Dark is highly recommended for any high school library, grades 9-12, that needs more memoirs emphasizing the importance of mental health.

A Look at the First 6 Weeks

 It has been a busy 6 weeks.  I introduced our new reading program, Beanstack, to all of our Junior ELAR classes, and the advanced Freshman and Sophomore ELAR classes.  I am hoping to get to the rest of the Freshman and Sophomore classes this 6 weeks.

Looking at the highlights, I can already see a difference in the number of books checked out by classes.  When I first started to keep the books checked out by homeroom statistic, the numbers were so low, like I think the largest number was 27.  27 books checked out by one class during a six weeks!  Yikes!  Now I see that the homerooms are checking out triple digits . . . mostly.  I call that an improvement.

The database usage looked a bit high for the first 6 weeks, and then I remembered that the ProCom classes were working on a speech, the Art I classes were researching art movements, and I showed some of the classes our databases when they came in for the Library Introduction.

So overall, I am happy with the usage statistics this 6 weeks.  However, I am excited to have the other Freshman and Sophomore classes come to the library so I can introduce Beanstack and the databases to them as well.

New School Year - New Goals

August 2024.  Year 30 in education. Year 22 in the library.  Why am I still here?

I can honestly say I feel myself slowing down.  I can honestly say waking up to an alarm that goes off at 4:45am five days a week is getting old.  However, I can also honestly say I really enjoy this job; I love the students, I love the people who work here, and I love my school.  That is why I am still here.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel . . .  retirement, but I'm not quite there yet.

After analyzing last year's usage statistics and the ones from the year before that, I decided my goal this year is to increase book circulation.  I have concentrated on technology for 2 years now, and it is time to get back to the basics - reading.  I have all of these programs to promote reading, but have I actually been promoting book check out?  Maybe, but not as much as I should as indicated by my circulation statistics.  To see that comparison, check out last May's blog, "End of Year Check In." 

One of my main tools to increase book circulation this year is Beanstack.  That is a reading program we purchased as a district this year.  It has been fun watching the students get back into reading.  If you are not familiar with Beanstack, it is a program where students can track their reading, earn digital badges, and prizes.  Every campus handles the prizes differently.  I have an online prize wheel that I let the students spin after they complete a reading challenge in Beanstack.  The prize wheel includes snacks, books, a large Sonic Drink, a medium Dutch Bros drink, and a Chick-Fil-A lunch.  The food and beverages were donated by way of gift cards.  Since our district policy is not to give out gift cards as prizes.  I purchase the food/drink for the students with the gift cards, and they come pick up their prize during lunch.  We will see how long the gift cards will last. 

I am looking forward to diving into this new reading program to see what I can do.  They have lots of templates you can use, or you have the option to create your own reading challenge.  I promise I am not getting any compensation for this product, but so far, I like what I see.