Wow...What a Busy Start to the 2014-15 School Year!

When August rolled around, the DHS Library hit the ground running.  Before school started, we were involved in some summer training.  I always enjoy summer training because it seems more relaxed than school year training.  This summer Blanca and I taught...

• Google Drive Basics, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/googlebasics
• Google - Basics and Beyond, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/google
• Build Your Own App, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/buildapp
• Learn to Fly with Twitter, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/disdtweets

After summer training, we were also involved in New Teacher Orientation.  As Campus Instructors of Technology (CITs), we usually have a day to help with the laptop training.  Although the teachers are usually a bit overwhelmed by the time we see them, they are usually attentive.  This year was no different.  We have a lot of new teachers, but they seem to be quick learners.  

Once our week of staff development started, the campus CITs were give an entire day to cover all of the technology tools that the teachers needed including grade book. lesson plans, webpages, library policies, etc.  Since we have a staff of about 230 teachers, the traditional "sit and get" was not an option for us, nor did we want to do that anyway.  Who wants to sit in a room all day listening to us talk?  I believe we all know the answer to that...

Instead, we designed mini classes and broke up the training into 4 areas.  Each of us tried to have an activity to go with our training.  For instance, in my sessions, the teachers participated in some discussions about our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy.  So I created QR codes that highlighted our AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) to keep the teachers from having to read the whole document.  

Instead, they used their devices, scanned the codes, and talked to their group about the policy.  In addition, we also read some current articles on BYOD.  I also covered some "housekeeping" programs in Eduphoria.  Here is a link to my session's agenda...  http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/session4.

After staff development, the first month of school hit us hard.  I'm not even sure I can explain what happened.  So I'm going to let our September 2014 Statistics Report do our talking for us.  

I can't believe it is already October.  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

It's Teacher Appreciation Time!

Each year the librarians take time out of our busy schedule to honor those who are in the trenches every day, the classroom teachers.  We started this tradition last year when we realized that not too many groups planned to do anything for the teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.  The teachers were so appreciative of our efforts last year that we decided to honor our hardworking teachers yet again this year. Unfortunately, our campus had STAAR testing during that same week of May which prevented us from doing some cool week-long activity with our teachers, but we did dedicate our last Teacher Lunch Bunch of the year to our teachers.

Our Teacher Lunch Bunches are once a month.  The library has a conference room that we decorate, using a different theme each month.  We set out our microwave, pitcher of water, plastic utensils, and we also provide dessert.  So the teachers bring their lunch to our conference room to socialize and eat dessert.  It is a way for teachers to break out of their daily routine and enjoy the company of others.

Since our campus is so large, we have no designated "teacher's lounge" which forces most teachers to eat in their rooms or a colleague's room.  The Teacher Lunch Bunch gives teachers an alternate place to go.

Sooooo...for the last TLB of the year, we served cake while an art teacher made cookies and both the principal's and assistant principal's secretaries made yummy surprises too.

Then we set up a photo booth just for the teachers.

We went with our Super Hero theme because teachers are our Super Heroes.  After a little encouragement, some of the teachers even participated in this silly opportunity.  We had capes, masks, sunglasses, headbands, and props.  To see a PhotoPeach slideshow of all who participated, check this out...  http://photopeach.com/album/19ta85k

Our Teacher Appreciation Event was Monday, May 5th.  After our Lunch Bunch, the campus Parent-Teacher-Student-Association (PTSA) provided dessert on Tuesday, and our Career and Tech department provided lunch that Friday.  The administrative staff allowed us to wear jeans on Thursday and Friday which just goes to show that you don't need to spend money to appreciate the ones who work with you.  A little kindness goes a long way.

See you next time!

San Antonio, Authors, and AFT

We had tons of fun at the Texas Library Association (TLA) conference this year.  It was in San Antonio, and the weather was perfect.

We heard James Patterson speak, and he was entertaining.  I have not read any of his books, but I probably will now that I have seen him in person.  He spoke with such personality.  Besides Patterson, I enjoyed the sessions where there was a forum of authors.  We attended 2 of those sessions, one for scary books and one on romance.  After the authors talked, the audience could ask questions.  Then you could get in line to pick up a free book from each of the authors.  I liked that better than trying to hunt for their books down on the vendor's floor.

It's funny how that goes.  There were years when we went through the vendor's area 2 or 3 times a day picking up free posters and books.  This year...not so much.  We received a grant through the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) organization which gave us about 400 books;  in addition, we have forged a bond with our local Barnes and Noble, and they sometimes donate books and prizes for our events as well. I guess we didn't need the "freebies" from TLA this year, and I did not miss hauling bags of books around all day.  Who knows?  Next year might be different.

Speaking of our AFT grant, we had an exciting event on Friday, April 18th.  Here's a little background first... The AFT organizations in both Duncanville ISD and Lancaster ISD wrote a collaborative grant to go with their campaign "Reclaim the Promise" that was funded by FirstBook.org. I'm not sure the monetary value of the grant, but we were able to purchase 4000 books.  So that gave Duncanville 2000 books and Lancaster 2000 books.

We ended up with about 400 of those books to give to our students here at the high school. The rest went to the Elementary and Intermediate schools. So our library coordinator, Mendy Autry, circulated an email to ask us our distribution date for the books.  She also mentioned that AFT would like to furnish additional materials like t-shirts, buttons, bookmarks, etc to help with our events.  In a subsequent email, someone mentioned that National Library Week was coming and maybe we needed to distribute the books then. Great idea! I believe we all decided upon Friday, April 18 (since we were coming to school due to a snow day taken earlier this year.)

Our plan was to advertise ahead of time and distribute the books at lunch.  We have an open door policy at lunch anyway.  Students need their ID, but they don't have to have a pass if they are in our library for lunch. So we advertised on the morning announcements, Facebook, Twitter, and made posters for the library. We said we were giving out free books and would also have arts and crafts, snacks, and a Declaration of School Libraries to celebrate the last day of National Library Week.  

We weren't sure if anyone would come, but we were going to have fun regardless.  

Boy were we wrong! We had just about 300 students and 50+ staff members come through the library at lunch last Friday...

and we gave out all of the books.

Latrisa Davis, from AFT, organized a table for the t-shirts, bookmarks, flyers about AFT, and buttons.  Her table was just about as popular as the snack table.

Speaking of snacks, we provided individual bags of chocolate chip cookies...with encouraging words on them.  They were fun to pass out.

Our Arts and Crafts tables had pictures of  Easter eggs the students could color and Pokemon color sheets with lots of crayons, markers, and colored pencils.  I was amazed to see 9-12 graders coloring.

Then the students could sign our Declaration for the Rights of School Libraries...idea stolen from TLA.

However, the best was seeing students excited about books.  That made my day!

Hello March!

I thought February went by quickly.  Yikes!  Where did March go?  We have been plugging along here at the DHS Library.  March brought with it many events, classes, and always lots of fun.

Before Spring Break, we saw 12 junior classes researching the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.  We helped administer the TAKS test, and we organized our Winter Olympics event for the evening of March 4th.  That is our Open House night for Texas Public Schools' Week.  We always try to do something free and fun in the library.  We realize it was a couple of weeks late, but we decided to have our own Winter Olympics. We had multiple arts and crafts, pass the trophy, snowball/basket game, decorate your own cookie station, hockey, iPad games, and face painting.

A lot of our inspiration came from Pinterest, of course.  Here is a link to our Winter Olympics Board. At the arts and crafts tables, we had a Winter Olympics word puzzle, a couple of different color pages, strips of construction paper so the students could make their own Olympic rings, and a station with lanyards and badge holders so the students could create and decorate their Olympic credentials.

Pass the Trophy was much like "hot potato."  The students were placed in a circle and passes the trophy to the music.  When the music stopped, the student with the trophy picked a prize.  Our prizes were donated from our local Barnes and Noble rep. (Thanks Suzanne Howell).

Our Snowball Basket Toss was actually white socks that the students tried to put into a set of wood baskets.  The prize was lifesavers.  They seemed to fit the Olympic rings theme.

We had sugar cookies with white frosting (to represent snow), and then the students could add M&Ms to their cookie to recreate the Olympic rings.  In the hockey area, we had those elementary scooters that the kids sit on.  We had plastic hockey sticks, 2 goals, and a couple of pucks.  We borrowed these from one of our elementary schools.  Then the students could play a little 2 on 2 hockey.  An adult had to be at this station to make sure all equipment was used properly.

We loaded a couple of Winter Olympic apps onto the iPads for those students who preferred virtual hockey and other Olympic sports to the real thing. One was called "Winter Sports Games" and the other was "Monkey Ski," both free.

Then we were able to invite the National Art Honor Society to face paint for us.

On top of all that, our Guitar and Bass club cranked out some tunes for us throughout the evening.  Many of the faculty brought their own kids to see us as well as the students we fondly call our "library regulars."  It was a fun night.

After a much needed Spring Break, we hit the ground running again. Our 12 junior classes were finishing up their time in the library with us while 6 more junior class began their research journey.  While juggling those classes, we managed to hold our monthly Book Club meeting, our monthly Anime club meeting, and launched our Battle of the Books contest, which is our version of March Madness.

For more details about our March Madness contest, see the previous blog entitled "March Madness"


Whew!  Can't wait to see what April brings us. See you next time!

February: Short Month, Long List

I can't believe this month is almost over.  Where did it go?   Well...let's see. There was Black History Month.  TCEA was the first week of February.  Then we celebrated Valentine's Day for a week.  We have been promoting "Blind Date with a Book" for 2 weeks along with National Mustache Day on Feb. 24th and preparing for March Madness.  Of course we have seen a few classes here and there as well.  The Junior English classes have begun invading the library with their research on the 1960s, 70s, and 80s which is one of my favorites topics because of the costume.  We dress as hippies, and that is so much more comfortable than a pirate, a British King, or any of the others characters we have been in the past.  I'm not sure that I like the decades in which I grew up being a research topic though...makes me feel old.

For Black History Month, we had 2 different displays going.  We used our windows for inspirational quotes from famous black people as one.  All of the quotes came from Pinterest like this one, Rosa Parks. So we printed off about 20 different quotes, and had them hanging up. We also made up a book display and put a book mark in each of the books for students to keep when they checked out one of the books.

For those of you who have not been to the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA), I highly recommend it. It is some of the best technology professional development I have experienced thus far in my career.  I even created a Pinterest Board dedicated to TCEA this year because of all of the great sessions I encountered.  My 2 favorite were Twitter/Vines and building your own app.  I was planning to use Vines   with our "Blind Date with a Book" program, but to be honest, I ran out of time.  So I used Twitter and Facebook instead.  More on that later.  The build your own app session was great, and it was easy enough to do.  The DHS Library now has it's own app, but it is pretty simple for now.  As I learn more, I am hoping our app will become a better tool for our patrons.  I guess you could say this is our beta version.  The program we used to create the app is The AppBuilder.  Here is the DHS Library app,  http://myapp.is/DHSLibrary.  It's easy to download onto a phone or tablet by going to the site, hitting your download button and tap "add to home screen."  I'm going to try it with my juniors next week when they come in for research.  We'll see how popular it is.

For Valentine's Day, we had the students help us make red and white paper chains that we hung from our ceiling.

We added two Valentine book displays.

Then the students decorated hearts for our windows, and on the day itself, we gave out kisses when students checked out books.  Those, of course, would be Hershey's Kisses, not actual ones.

Then we had a Valentine contest to match the famous couples to their books. We had one prize for the teachers and one for the students.

This year we decided to tackle "Blind Date with a Book."

It's been all over Pinterest for a couple of years, and we thought it was time to bring it to our school.  So the premise is to wrap up a variety of books so the students cannot see what book they are checking out.

After they check out the book, the students unwrap it and read it, no matter what they end up choosing.  So we added a few extras to that basic premise to make this program our own.  We decided that once they finish their book, the students have a chance to "rate their date."  Their rating form includes a place for them to put the title, what they like/don't like about the book, and on a scale from 1-10 to actually rate their "date."

Then the students can pick a book, puzzle, or trinket which for us is donated items from our local Barnes and Noble.  (Thanks Suzanne Howell in Cedar Hill)  We also categorized the books so that the students might not know the book, but they would at least have a hint. I thought we would come up with 5-6 categories, but we had 14.  That's where I thought I would create Vines and put them on Twitter and Facebook.  For those of you who have not been to Vine yet, it is a social network of 6 second videos where people post them and make comments.  Your Vine account can be connected to most other social media accounts if you wish.  It's worth the look even if you don't plan on making a video to post...highly entertaining!

Anyway, I was planning to create these 6 second videos to give hints to the students about the blind date books.  Then the students would have to go to Twitter or Facebook to find these videos.  Once we decided upon 14 topics, I nixed making 14 videos...even if they are only 6 seconds long.  Instead, I created hashtags for each topic and then listed the hints under these hashtags in both Twitter and Facebook.  Here are a few examples... #BDB14  #BDB10  #BDB05. So far I believe the students who are participating are having fun.

National Mustache Day was a big hit last year, and we brought it back again for this year.  It is pretty random, but the students seem to like it.  The premise is simple; check out a book and get a mustache.  Last year we promoted it with signs and a book display, see post here entitled "Love, Mustaches, and Hippies." This year, with all the other activities we were doing, mustache day was a bit more low key.  The students and teachers still enjoyed it though; that is what really matters.

Now, as March begins, we are gearing up for the bulk of the Junior research, Open House,and March Madness (Battle of the Books).  All of these events begin next week.  In addition, we are also housing a few displaced classes for the TAKS test. Needless to say we will be packed, and then there is Spring Break...so ready for a week off!

See you next time.  Thanks for stopping by!

Staff Development in the Library

Generally, January and February are the months we don't tend to see research classes.  This year we actually have 2 junior classes starting early, this week in fact.  So we are dividing our time between the classes that are coming and the other chores of spending our budget, cleaning up the card catalog, processing, book displays, etc.

In addition, this is the time we sit down and analyze our staff survey to create the staff development classes we want to offer to the teachers.  Our philosophy is to know our audience, and what better way to know than to just ask them what they want.  So we created a Google Form to briefly ask the staff what classes they wanted to attend.  Here is what that looked like... Teacher Survey 2013-14.

From that survey, here are the classes our teachers wanted...

Our next step was to set the staff development schedule, and that took some time.  We debated whether to hold 2 sessions at a time, one session at a time, or hold one session on multiple days.  In looking at some of our surveys in the past, we decided to go with one class on multiple days.  We operate on a modified block schedule, and we have an A day and a B day.  On A days, we see blocks 1, 2, 3, 4, & 8.  On B days, we see blocks 1, 5, 6, 7, & 8.  Some teachers have an instructional planning block on A days, some on B days, some on both days, and some not at all.  If we offer our classes all day and after school, two days in a row, we give all teachers the opportunity to come to our classes.  So our staff development schedule is set as follows...

Jan. 14 & 15 - School Fusion (Beginner)

Jan. 22 & 23 - School Fusion (Advanced)

Jan. 28 & 29 - Google Drive/Docs

Feb. 11 & 12 - Alternatives to PPT

Feb. 18 & 19 - Digital Tools

Feb. 25 & 26 - Twitter (Beginner)

School Fusion was not on our survey, but it is a district program.  We always have requests for School Fusion classes at the beginning of a semester.  School Fusion is the program for our teachers' websites.  So we began with those classes first.  

We do not have any classes the week of Feb. 3rd because Blanca, Karen, and I will be in Austin attending TCEA.  This is the 1st year in the past 7 or 8 years that we will just attend the conference and not present. That wasn't by design; we just missed the deadline.  We are planning to use our new knowledge from  TCEA to design the remaining February classes we have scheduled in our own library.  We are all excited about going. Austin...here we come!

See you next time.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Day in the Life of a High School Librarian

Happy New Year!  I can't believe it is already 2014.  As we gear up for a new semester, I thought I would share with you what happens in our library in a typical day...from my point of view.  This was my day today, January 8, 2014.

At 7am, we opened the doors to over 200 students who were checking out books, using a computer, playing chess, or just hanging out with their friends.  Classes start at 7:30am, and our task is to herd our students out the door between 7:25 and 8am to make sure they are not late for class.

At 7:30, my first class of the day showed up.  It was an audio/visual class researching topics for a newscast they had to prepare.  After conferencing with the teacher yesterday, we decided to narrow the search to news clips, newspaper articles, and magazine articles.  The students could research whatever they found newsworthy from our country's recent cold snap to Manziel announcing his intent to play for the NFL.  The teacher wanted her students to use both databases and websites.  So I decided to highlight 2 of our databases, EBSCO and NBC Learn, as well as a few reputable websites like CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, and Biography.com.  My part of the class included navigating to the library website, showing the students how to use our databases, demonstrating how to either save the articles or print them, and then mentioning the other websites they should try.  Afterwards, I stayed with the class during their independent research time to help those who had questions.  I taught 3 of those classes today.

In addition to these classes, I had 2 other tasks to accomplish today.  First up...staff development.  Blanca, Karen, and I planned our staff development schedule for January and February based on the campus interest survey we sent out in the fall.  This is the 2nd year we created the interest survey in Google docs.  Before that, we used Survey Monkey.  Here is a link to this year's survey... 2013-14 DHS Survey

So based upon the 100+ teachers who responded to our survey, these are the staff development topics our campus wanted...

Using this information, we set up a calendar to address the top 4 topics (social media, Google drive, alternatives to ppt, and digital tools) along with 2 more classes on School Fusion (district website).  School Fusion wasn't a part of our survey, but all 3 of us had been receiving recent requests to hold more classes. After we set the calendar and decided who was going to teach which classes, I sent out a campus wide email to inform our staff, put the classes in our library calendar, and created them in Workshop so the teachers could register online for the classes they wanted to attend.

Second task of the day...register for TLA.  This included registration, hotel arrangements, finding a SUB to help Judy out while we are gone, and submitting an online form to seek our principal's permission to go.  In addition, we also reapplied for our annual TLA membership.  After all those forms were filled out, I had to go back and fill out the payment request forms for each of those items.

Between the classes and the tasks, I assisted multiple students and teachers who came into the library looking for help. Some of the student crises we averted today included looking up passwords so students could have computer access, helping students locate books for their research, helping them use the document camera to trace political cartoons (economics project), helping them use the copy machine, the color printer, connecting their new devices to our wi-fi, and checking out iPads for after school use. We were open for an hour after school for student and faculty use.  Our morning crowd is always more, but we probably had about 100 students after school using our computers, looking for books, or just hanging out.

On the teacher side of things, I got a projector to work in one of our labs, fixed 2 computers in that same lab that weren't getting any power, showed a teacher how to turn on the desktop computer she wanted to use, helped another find a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, and listened to 3 others who just needed to vent.  I have always said that the librarian is the "bartender" of the school. In the midst of all that, I did squeeze in a 20 minute lunch. 

Now take what I did today and multiple that by 4. There are 4 of us in that library, and each of us stays busy.  For instance today, between helping students and teachers, Blanca changed out one of our book displays...(just in time for the Awards Shows - Books that have been made into movies)

talked to multiple vendors, ordered eBooks to complete our latest grant, helped me map out our staff development, registered for TLA, and organized our Book Club field trip, which is YAK Fest in Keller. Karen delivered mobile labs, reserved mobile labs for a few teachers, delivered a projector to an Admin meeting, detangled a couple of mobile labs that were returned but not properly stored, shelved 2 full carts of books, assisted some teachers by troubleshooting laptop issues, helped me map out staff development, registered for TLA, and opened up our latest order and put in a help request for maintenance to come put our new bar stools together.  Judy, our clerk who diligently guards the front door to make sure all students have their ID and a proper pass, also encouraged students to help us decorate the library by cutting out snowflakes, took down the last of our Christmas decorations, and shelved 3 carts of books.  

I'm sure if I asked each of them, they could name a few more tasks they did.  Again, this is a day in the life of our library from my point of view.  It takes a village to keep this library running, and I couldn't imagine having this job without them, all of them.

Thanks for stopping by!  See you next time.