Love, Mustaches, and Hippies!

So, let's talk Valentine's Day, Junior Research, and National Mustache Day. That has been our life since TCEA.

For Valentine's Day we put out construction paper hearts for the students to decorate so we can hang them up in our windows.  They love doing this.  The students write messages to their girl/boyfriends, create poems, or draw pictures.

In addition to that, we also have an interactive display.  We put famous book couples in each of our big heart cut outs.  Then the staff and students can try to guess the book that goes with each couple. The QR code under each heart reveals the book.  

Then we totally stole an idea from Pinterest to create a Valentine's Day book display....

This was a big hit with both teachers and students.  Everyone who walked by the shelves laughed.  Then a few stayed to look at the books on display to see what we were recommending.  The plan worked!

After having fun with Valentine's Day, it was time to switch gears and prepare for the Junior invasion.  I have to admit, the Junior research is fun.  The students research people, places, and events from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.  As a person born in the 70s, and raised in the 80s, this research is near and dear to my heart.  So we decorate the library and dress as hippies and help our Juniors get into the spirit of their research.  In the past couple of years, we have even convinced the teachers to dress up.  We all love being hippies!  

Junior Research LibGuide

Let's talk National Mustache Day!  Who knew this would be so popular?  Last year we noticed that a few of our regulars in the library had fake and temporary tattoo mustaches one day.  So we asked.  Come to find out, there is an actual National Mustache Day.  This year we jumped on the band wagon and purchased fake mustaches to give to our patrons.  We told the students all week that we would give out mustaches that Friday if they checked out a book.

Blanca even created a book display to help advertise...thanks again Pinterest!  

She had way too much fun putting all those fake mustaches on the books.  My favorite was the dragon from Inheritance!  It was funny how many of these books were actually checked out the week we were promoting the mustaches.  LOL!

That Friday, Feb. 22nd, was crazy busy.  We had students coming in before school started, during lunch, during classes with a pass, and then a few classes convinced their teachers to take a mini field trip to the library.  We bought 400 mustaches, and we passed out the last one during our after school crowd.  Our library check out stats tripled that day.  I'd say National Mustache Day was a great success for our library.

The next installment of the Beta Librarian...Open House and March Madness.  See you next time!

TCEA in Austin, TX

We absolutely love going to TCEA in Austin every year.  For the past 7 years, Blanca, Karen, and I have been lucky enough to present at this fine event.  A very wise librarian, Suanne Johnson, once told us that it was our duty to present and share what we do with others.  The first time we presented it was with Suanne, and we talked about how we ran centers in our elementary libraries; that seems like a lifetime ago.  Suanne is now retired and has move away, but I can still hear her voice in my head saying, "you need to present" when that email comes to submit presentations for the next year.  To be honest, we dropped the ball last year and missed the deadline.  Thank goodness someone from the Library Academy at TCEA contacted us.  The district no longer pays for our accommodations if we do present, but we believe it is worth the money from our own budget to go.

My favorite presenter at TCEA is Tammy Worcester.  She is fabulous!  If you haven't checked her out before, you are missing out.  To take a look at her page, click here: Tammy's Website. She is one techno-savvy lady.  Here is a list of all her presentations at TCEA this year: TCEA 2013.  We went to her 3 hour session, "Tammy's Favorite Web Tools," and loved every minute of it.  We also went to her presentation on Evernote, but I will admit she lost me when she started encrypting quizzes for students to take.  That was way beyond my comfort level!  Blanca also went to one called "Tech Tools for Administrators," and she came back with lots of ideas.  I put a lot of the tools we liked from TCEA on my Pinterest board: "Our Favorite Digital Tools."

Now for our presentation...Last year was the first year we presented for the Library Academy.  We presented our Pirate Freshman Orientation dressed in full costume.  (Here is a link to our presentation last year, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/epirate ) We focused on the technology we used, like QR codes, the ActivExpression clickers, Survey Monkey, and Animoto.  We presented in front of a group of about 20.  So in preparing for this year, we estimated for 40 librarians, thinking we would be bringing home some of the buttons and postcards we made to give out as "freebies." 

Well, we were WRONG!!!  Our presentation was up-sized to a ballroom 15 minutes before we began, and I almost hyperventilated when the placed filled up.  It was the first time in 7 years that I was actually nervous.  We had to scatter the postcards 2 to a table and asked the librarians to share.  We gave out buttons to those who asked questions during and after our presentation. That was not our original intention, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances.  

Here are a couple of pics of us presenting...

And here we were after it was over...

So we'd like to thank everyone who showed up for our presentation.  We had a great time!  In case you want to take a peak, here is the link to our presentation... http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/tcea2013

See you next time!

Slow Time of the Year?

January is not usually packed with reseach classes, but amazingly enough, we are still quite busy.  There is a lot of planning to be done for the Spring.  We are spending what is left of our budget, introducing Nooks to our circulation, creating book displays, helping both staff and students who come see us, taking care of technology issues, and running a Twitter contest to enlist more followers after creating a Twitter handle for the DHS Library, which is @dhs_library. Then there are the presentations and staff development classes we are designing.

In addition to our TCEA presentation we are making in Austin next week, and the presentation we are making for our district Showcase on Feb. 18th, we are also analyzing a staff survey we sent out last week.  I created the survey in Google Forms because, to be quite honest, I hadn't done that before; I usually use Survey Monkey.  When we went to Keller's YAK Fest a couple of weeks back, the librarians there convinced us that Google Forms was the way to go.  The free Survey Monkey only allows 100 responses, and Google Forms has no limit that I have hit yet.

On our survey, the librarians wanted to know how we could focus our efforts this semester to help.  If you are interested in what we asked, here is a link to our form... Staff Survey Link

 

I set up the survey to be anonymous so more people would be willing to answer it, but I did ask for the subject they taught; I was curious to see if every department was represented. We did indeed have many teachers from different departments answer our survey.  Yay!  I do have to mention this side note...although the survey was anonymous, we were amazed by the number of teachers who came by to see if we could guess which set of responses were theirs.  LOL!

 

After analyzing our results, we decided to focus on staff development, and here were our results...

• Alternatives to PPTs = 21%
• School Fusion = 15%
• Web 2.0 Tools that are subject specific = 15%
• Flipped Learning Model of Instruction = 13%
• Pinterest = 12%
• Twitter = 8%
• Organizing a Research project = 7%
• Word 2010 & Win 7 = 6%
• Google Docs = 2%
• Saving You Tube videos = .5%
• CPS Clickers = .5%

We are planning to tackle "Alternatives to PPT" first for obvious reasons, and we are going to take advantage of our library space and offer classes there.  We plan to offer a different digital tool each week (on Mondays)  in February during all blocks and after school.  For some teachers, that will be enough.  We are going to offer to teach the class to their students as well, if they feel like spending some time with us in the library. We hope that in offering to teach the classes to the students, those teachers who are intimidated by new technology will have the protection of adverse consequences they need.  AND the students get the exposure to a new tool.  It's win-win.

 

Our first Alternative PPT class is Kizoa, http://www.kizoa.com/ .  Karen is using this one in our TCEA presentation next week.  After that, we are going to introduce the staff to Spicynodes, http://www.spicynodes.org/.  I am using this tool in our TCEA presentation.  Blanca hasn't announced her tool of choice yet.  She is hoping to learn about a new tool at the technology conference next week.

 

The next class the staff wants is School Fusion.  For those of you who are not familiar, School Fusion is an interactive website that our teachers use for class.  We plan to address this topic during our sessions at the District Showcase on Feb. 18th.  Then we are thinking of a monthly work session after school to give the teachers a safe environment to explore.  Here is our library School Fusion page http://library-services.dhs.duncanvilleisd.org .

 

The 3rd class the staff wants is Web2.0 tools that are subject specific.  So we are going to start with the 4 core, English, S.S., Science, and Math (with different tools for each topic within a subject...i.e. Chemistry, Biology, Physics  within Science).  Then we are going to do Fine Arts and Sp. Ed.  We plan to create a LibGuide for each area, and then giving the link to that LibGuide to the appropriate teachers.  After the teachers explore the LibGuide, we will then offer a class, if 4 or more teachers are interested, to guide them through the resources.  If you are not familiar with LibGuides, they are the best.  Blanca went to a LibGuides session at the Texas Library Association (TLA) conference 2 years ago, and she convinced us to buy this product.  They are great.  Think of it like a digital Pathfinder.  Many colleges and some high schools have these.  Here is a link to our LibGuides site if you are interested http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/ . If you are a librarian, I encourage you to take a look, and no, I am not receiving an compensation from the company for this.

 

So to say January is our slow time of year is a matter of opinion.  See you next time!

 

 

 

Happy New Year!

Semester one is almost over, and so far we have survived Freshman orientation and both the Sophomore and Senior research papers.  We have promoted Banned Books Week, an Angry Birds Family Night, and the Elves in our Shelves.

Looking forward, we are planning our presentations for the Texas Computer Education Association at the beginning of February and our District Showcase in the middle of February.  The Juniors are coming in March for their big research unit, the Freshman are coming in May, and we want to plan another family night for Texas Public School's Week.  Of course, I have not forgotten School Library Week and Teen Tech Week....can't wait for those.  Fun times in the library!

As I prepare my part of our TCEA presentation, I want to take a few minutes to stress the importance of keeping library statistics as a way to promote your presence.  We started collecting stats 3 years ago when the district decided to hire 3 full time librarians at the same school. We wanted to make sure that our stats supported the fact that 3 librarians are a necessity on our campus, not a luxury.

Three years ago, we prepared a monthly report and sent it to our Principal and APs.  At the end of the year, we invited our teachers, staff, the administrators (superintendent, deputy superintendents,  heads of departments, library director, etc), school board members, and key community members (mayor, public librarian, etc) to come to an end of year bash where we also shared our stats for the year and thanked them for their support.

Last year, we sent the monthly reports to the Principal and APs again.  Then quarterly, we also sent them to key people in the district with which we had an established relationship, and we invited everyone back at the end of the year to thank them for their support.  This year, we started by sending out the first month to all key people in the district asking them to reply if they wanted to be kept on the mailing list and receive a library report each month.  Over half of our audience replied with a definite "yes," including 2 school board members.

So, where do you start?

Three years ago we started taking stats on our book circulation totals, how many classes we were either co-teaching or facilitating, the number of students coming to the library on passes, and the number of technology problems we solved.  Here is what our report looked like .....

This year we are keeping track of our circulation statistics, number of searches from our databases, the classes we co-teach/facilitate, students who come in before and after school, students who come in on passes during the day, the number of staff development meetings and events that we host, the amount of technology that is checked out by our teachers, and the number of technology issues we solve.  Here is what our report looks like now .....

Needless to say, our report has grown.  I think it is all about reporting on the things you deem important. Does a report like this take time?  Of course, but the numbers speak for themselves. This is a great way to promote your library to those who make the decisions in your district.  Just a thought!





Christmas in the Library

Here it is 2 weeks before Christmas, and we are chugging along at the DHS Library.  We just finished researching with the senior classes dressed up as British History characters...the Queen, the Knight, and 2 fair maidens.

 



 

In addition to helping out our seniors, we have also lined up some holiday events in the library to keep things interesting.  Our first event is teaming up with Student Council to write letters to Santa for Macy's Make a Wish campaign.  We even received a little local press about that...

 

http://dville.edu/FridayInformer/2012/120712.html#writing

 

 

 

Another activity we do in the library during the holidays is decorate gingerbread people.  We started this last year when the library entered the door decorating contest.  We had a gingerbread house theme and had the student decorate construction paper gingerbread people.

 

 

Because the craft was so popular, we had to bring it back this year even though the school is not holding a door decorating contest.  We decorate for everything around here anyway.  We don't need a contest to have fun.  So this year, they are decorating our library and external windows with gingerbread people to go with our other decorations.  Some of them are quite unique.  The students are having fun, and that is what matters.

 

 



 

 







 

Here is our brief write up in our district newsletter...
http://dville.edu/FridayInformer/2012/121412.html#energy

 

This week in additon to the letters to Santa and the gingerbread people, we have introduced our Shelf Elves.  They come from the North Pole just to hide and make mischief in our library.  We ask the students to help us catch these elves that our hiding in our library.  If they turn one of these mischievious elves in to us, we give them a holiday treat.  We have Spree, Sweetart, and Starburst flavored candy canes for the students as a "reward" for helping us catch the elves.  I think this year, I plan to snap a couple of pics to post to the library's twitter and FB page of the elves and what they do at night while we are all home.  Yes, this is a high school library, and yes the students still enjoy hunting the library shelves for an elf at Christmas time.  Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, right?  Instead of the ever popular Elf on the Shelf, we bought our elves from Oriental Trading.  They come by the dozen.  After a few days on the front line of a library that sees 500+ students a day, multiple elves is highly recommended.

 

 

 

Next week we are hosting our Guitar and Bass Club after school for an hour.  They will be performing their Holiday concert in our library while we serve cookies and cocoa.  It is open for students and teachers alike.  Speaking of cocoa, we did start selling hot chocolate in the library on Mondays before school for 25 cents or for 50 if you add whipped cream and sprinkles.

 

Now that I see it all laid out before me, I see why I go home each day tired.  Call me crazy, but this is fun.  I think the key is to introduce your programs one week at a time.  If we started the letters, the gingerbread decorations, the cocoa, and the elves all the while teaching research classes, all 3 of us would have to be committed.

 

We are also pretty proud of our library decorations this year....

 

 

 

 

 





 

Happy Holidays!  See you in the new year!













Angry Birds Family Event

Wow!  Has it really been almost a month since my last post?  That was not the plan, but alas, the Sophomore research has taken over the library.  That is not to say we aren't still trying to have a little fun in here. 

About mid-October, our district has parent comference days.  That usually consists of teachers going to school all day on a Thursday and then coming back for 3 hours of parent conferences that night.  However, the following day, we have no students while we finish our parent comferencing for 4.5 hours.  Thursday is long, but Friday is great. 

Since nearly no one comes to the library for a parent conference, we decided to something a little more fun this year....hence, our "Angry Birds Family Night."



We picked Angry Birds because it is quite the phenomenon among students and adults alike.  We also inherited a bunch of boxes decorated to look like pigs from the creative writing classes.  They were just too cute to throw away.

 

 

They became the inspiration for our event.  After we made the decision to have an Angry Birds theme, we needed to plan an event to appeal to all students.  Since this was an evening of parent conferences, we knew parents would probably bring not only their high school child, but any other children they may have.  Having said that, we didn't want to be a place where parents just dropped off their 4 year old and went to a meeting.  We knew that would not be very safe.  So we did decide that students under the age of 14 had to be accompanied by their high school sibling or a parent.  That worked out well for us.

 

For proper inspiration, we turned to Pinterest.  We found tons of Angry Birds themed ideas for our family night.  To see our pinboard, go to this link http://pinterest.com/tahaneyj/angry-birds-resources/

 

After researching Pinterest, we decided on 7 different stations...

 

Angry Birds Toss Game

(bean bags bought at Costco, cups & candy for playing at Walmart, and pictures found on Pinterest)

 

Angry Birds Tournament

(brought our own iPads, Nooks borrowed from local Barnes & Noble)

 

Decorate an Angry Birds cookie

(sugar cookies purchased at Tom Thumb, decorating pieces and frosting at Walmart, directions found on Pinterest)

 

 

 

 

Angry Birds face/tattoo painting

(washable paint & brushes bought at Hobby Lobby)

 

Angry birds balloon crafts

(balloons purchased at Walmart, printables found on Pinterest)

 

 

Angry Birds cubes and color sheets

(printables found on Pinterest)

 

Barnes and Noble in Cedar Hill, TX

(community rep came and sold Angry Birds items; library received a cut of the proceeds.)

 

 

 

Next, we knew we needed help.  There would be 7 stations, only 4 adults, and a multitude of kids.  So we appealed to our older students and offered community service hours to help.  The cosmetology students volunteered to face paint.  In addition, we had 15 other juniors and seniors volunteer to help facilitate each area.  We even had 3 of them volunteer to wear one of the Angry Birds costumes we borrowed (old Halloween costumes) and parade around the library for a more festive atmosphere.

 

 

We planned for 300 people, and we ran out of supplies 2 hours into our 3 hour event.  Note for next year...only plan a 2 hour event!  We were exhausted, but we believe everyone had a fun evening.







Banned Books Week at the DHS Library

 

 

I believe Banned Books Week was a success. We had many great conversations with both students and teachers discussing what happens when others challenge or ban books.  We talked about why books had been banned, if any had been banned at our library, or in our distirct.  We checked out books, gave away bookmarks and buttons, and had fun.

 

There were many things we did in order to prepare for this week. The week before "Banned Books Week" the librarians combed through all of the ALA banned books lists and enlisted the help of our student workers to pull every book that we had on our shelves.  The books were then grouped together and displayed on the tops of our shelves for easy access.

 

 

Then we created buttons for the students and staff to wear if they checked out one of our banned books the following week...

 

 

We also picked 20 of those books, printed them out, and created QR codes explaining why these books had been banned from other libraries. These print outs and QR codes were displayed in our windows at the front of our library. Then students and staff could use their Smartphones to find out why these books had been banned in other communities,

  

 

 

These little things, along with a few morning announcements, were all we needed to do in order to celebrate the freedom of reading.  It was a great way to recognize the 30th Anniversary of Banned Books Week!

For more ideas, try http://pinterest.com/tahaneyj/banned-books-week/