Bookish Thoughts

Where do you gather your book recommendations from? Your besties? Your book club? Social media? Book reviews? Sometimes I feel as if I am never making progress on my TBR list or pile. Between what Amazon thinks I should read next, my students recommend to me, my book besties at work, and my library besties, my list is never ending. I also like to read across different genres–YAL, kid lit, picture books, graphic novels, and adult lit–so how do you decide what to read next? Do you make a chart? Pick the next book at random? Start whichever one is due to the library the soonest? 


Also, how do you decide which books you can listen to as audiobooks? Ebooks vs. paperback books? I feel like I need to hold a graphic novel, and flipping through the “pages” on an e-reader screen just isn’t the same. Anyone else with me? Same for picture books. I have a really hard time bonding with illustrations on a screen. I love reading on my kindle app, Libby, and Sora, but sometimes some genres lend themselves to an actual bound book. Am I right?

#OneWord

New Year, New You

This is the time of year for goals and resolutions. Unfortunately, I normally feel that I fall short of these most years—eat healthy, workout more, write more, read these books, or do this task everyday. This year instead I’m choosing a word for the year. One word for the whole year. One word to ground the year.

Focus.

Focus on what you can control.
Focus on the good.
Focus on living in the present.
Focus on whatever is right in front of me.

What would your word for the year be?

Makerspace Brainstorming

As we are still altering our ways of instruction to meet the needs of students during a pandemic, I wanted to get creative about new ways to invite students into our makerspace. Sometimes the activities we have out aren’t always the easiest to clean or easy for students to share the materials. Below are some of the activities I’ve added or tried to expand on this school year, and I have linked to purchases or resources for each. Hopefully these are ideas you can incorporate into your own media programs or classrooms. 

Large pop it games: Pop its are all the rage right now, so what better way to bring students into the makerspace? The best part is up to four students can play on each game board.

Digital sticker puzzle: My students love the Stick Together sticker puzzles, but I think they like the digital puzzles even more! The best part about this is that it is out in the learning commons for all students and teachers to contribute to not just in our makerspace.

Mackin maker cards: These free makerspace resources and task cards from Mackin have made setting up makerspace stations easier this year. I used the grades 3-5 task cards for multiple makerspace stations for strawbees, keva planks, legos, and snap circuits.

Golf tee pegboard: I ordered this pegboard display on wheels, and I have colorful golf tees out for students to use to build shapes, numbers, or letters. We even had a class borrow it to each multiplication and arrays. The students love designing items for the board, and this is another maker option we keep readily available in the learning commons outside of the makerspace.

Creating a Graphic Library: Graphic Novels, Anime, and Manga

Being totally transparent and honest, I don’t think I had ever read a graphic novel prior to last school year. Graphic novels, anime, and manga weren’t genres that grabbed my interest. However, after seeing the circulation statistics from year to year for our graphic novel collection and now hearing lots of students request anime and manga, I had to delve into these genres. 
Prior to last school year, I understood many hesitations about students ONLY ever reading graphic novels. Yet, even as adults, when we find an author or genre we like, don’t we normally stick to it? Don’t we go back and re-read our favorite books? So why isn’t it okay for students to do this with their favorite graphic novel series? 
I have spent the past year and half trying to expand our graphic library collection based on student requests, reviews, and conversations with other library media specialists. For elementary, this can be challenging because of the content in some texts. However, I was fortunate enough to hear from Sarah Smith at AASL, listen to her podcast on School Librarian’s United, and do a deep dive into her website: The Graphic Library. 
All of these resources have helped me to curate book orders to grow our graphic library collection. (Unfortunately, I group anime, manga, and our graphic novels all in one section! Please don’t come at me. It is only because of shelf space!) I know there are more recommendations and resources out there for me. Please share the best resource or title suggestion to grow our elementary graphic library collection! 

AASL Conference Recap

This past week I attended my first national school librarian conference, and I was blown away by the amount of fellowship, networking, and sessions! Not only was it good for my soul to see my library tribe in-person (with masks and safety measures in place), but it also refreshed the fatigue feeling so many educators are facing this year. I got to meet people in-person that I had only met via Twitter or through webinars, and it truly felt like I was reconnecting with old friends. 
The sessions I attended were so impressive, and I came home with ideas exploding out of my brain! If you missed the AASL conference, you can find notes and presentation links here: bit.ly/notataasl21. Noteworthy sessions I attended included: #BetterTogether: Creating Content and Communities, Manga in the School Library: What, Why, & How?, AASL Author Talk: Project-Based Learning for Elementary School Libraries, 2020 &2021 Research Grants, Dueling Makerspaces: Curriculum-Connected or Open-Ended? You Decide!, Embedded Librarianship: Infusing Your Library Program within Your Entire School and Community, and Share Your Story! Getting Started with Professional Writing. 
I always feel like I’m drinking from a fire hydrant at a conference, so I’m trying to focus on one or two ideas I can implement quickly in my program. I worked on a manga book order while at the conference, so I feel my students will be happy when this arrives! I also talked with our stem teacher this week about different makerspace ideas as well as added to my Amazon wishlist for our learning commons. 
I tried to read over my conference notes yesterday now that I’m a day removed from the conference, but what other reflection tools do you use after a conference or PD session?
I hope to see many of you at #AASL23! Look out Tampa! 

2020 in Books

You would have thought I would read more in 2020 and not significantly less, but this isn’t the case. My goal is usually 100 books a year, and more often than not I surpass my goal. However, this was not a year for the books. (Ha, see what I did there?) Reading before bed every night and during lazy weekend mornings are always priorities for me, but I found myself more immersed in podcasts, researching virtual teaching strategies and tools, and just trying to survive all the losses and emotions we experienced this past year. 
Because of the insanity of 2020, my booklist isn’t impressive and many are not even noteworthy.  Only 71 books this year, which I know is more than some people read in their entire life. Yet, if I had to pick my top titles/series from the year, I’ve linked to some favorites on Amazon below…

Giver of Stars

Vanderbeekers (series)

Like Me
The Aviator’s Wife

Court of Thorns and Roses (series)

The Last Mrs. Parrish
What did you read in 2020 that stuck with you? Share out your recommendations! 

New year, New start: Organization

As we start looking towards 2021 and thinking back on all the goals we made for 2020, (HA! If we only knew what the year would bring us!) I started thinking about organization and all the plans I have in place at home and at work to make my life just a little more organized–or attempted organization would be a better term. I’m the type of person who tries to leave something undone at work on a Friday saying to myself, “I’ll finish it Monday morning”…. to then only end up doing it over the weekend because I have internal stress about it not being done. 
However, in the year of 2020 some of my pre-planning has only made more work for myself as things can change on a monthly, daily, or hourly basis at school or home based on Covid. So amid all of these things, I’ve tried to think about the best practices I have in place at work for our media program that keeps me organized. I would love it if you share with me your best organization hacks! 

Most Successful Hacks:

-Time to meet with myself in the AM: I know this is not possible for some, but I work the best in the morning for about an hour before everyone starts coming in. I get more of my own work done in the hour before work than I do all day long. This is my time to get my own paperwork, lesson plans, and emails done. I know some people work better after work, but around 3:00 I start hitting a wall where I just need to go home. My advice would be to work to carve some time out somewhere in your day to sit and work through your own to-do list so you aren’t bringing it home or worried about it the next day. 

-Daily checklist/to do list and to-do folder: This is one of those things that I get done during that morning time. I started this about seven years ago, and it still works for me. Instead of trying to tackle everything as it makes its way onto my desk, I just put it in my to-do folder. Each morning during that morning meeting myself I go through that folder and schedule time to do each of those tasks. Again, this is the best case scenario and sometimes things have to get done that day, but this helps me feel overwhelmed with each task or email. 

– Visual Goals: In my office, I have a piece of chart paper with long-term and short-term goals with collaboration, reading programs, professional development, library science, and other. Under each category, I have post-its for each goal or what I’m working on towards that specific goal. Not only does this keep me organized, but it is a visual for others to see. While I may look like I’m sitting at my desk, I’m actually working on a professional development session or creating a research guide. 

Again, I would love to hear your best hacks for how you stay organized! 

Thanksgiving Break Check-in

Well teacher friends we have made it to Thanksgiving break. I have never seen teachers so happy and ready for a break as I have this school year. In the world of face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual teaching, we are exhausted. I know I’ve been taking longer teacher naps each day! (I thought this was a hard feat to overcome based on my normal, school-year weekly naps!) While this school year may not be ideal for some, it has pushed me to re-think how we instruct, provide materials, and ensure our students have access to the materials they need. 


Our media program is doing mobile book checkout on a book cart (since no small groups or class check outs happen in our learning commons right now), and I am pushing into classrooms and computers labs to teach. This isn’t worst case scenario for us by any means! We have been able to add so many resources into our collection with the thought of virtual learning behind them. Below are some ideas and resources we’ve started utilizing or changing the way our students use these resources during hybrid instruction.

What resources are re-evaluating this year or what new resources are you making use of for your students?

Destiny collections: We’ve used Destiny collections in the past for book recommendations, but this year I’ve highlighted different topics or resources available through collections. Different collections are linked here on our learning commons blog.

Makerspace kits for checkout: Since makerspace supplies are only being used as requested on carts for teachers to use in their classrooms, many of the supplies are sitting unused. One media specialist in our district starting checking these out to her students, and I thought this was a great idea. Right now we have ten makerspace kits for checkout to students. They are a variety of perler bead activities and makerspace craft supplies (paper, foam, pipcleaners, etc.), and students can check out a bag of supplies, use what they need, and return the unused materials. We will quarantine the materials for three days like we do our library books, re-stock the bags, and check them back in. Our school’s makerspace information can be found here on the learning commons blog.

Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season to all!

Show Educators Some Love

To all the educators who are teaching right now whether it is virtually, hybrid, or face to face on some wonky model, I see you and I feel you. We just finished our third week of teaching on a hybrid model (teaching both virtual and face to face students at the same time). We do work remotely on Wednesdays in order for buildings to be cleaned, and we have meetings both with teachers and students to do virtually. 
I have come each day exhausted. Not one class in “teacher school” prepared anyone for the level of engagement you have to meet each day. Many teachers are leaving with no voice because we are working to ensure we talk loud enough for all the students to hear us behind our masks. It is hard. If you know a teacher, this would be a great time to send them a quick letter, text, or note of appreciation. Because right now, so many of our efforts don’t feel seen or heard. Also, if you are a parent, ensure you show your child’s teachers some grace. Many are learning how to navigate day-to-day instruction along with your students. I am extremely appreciative of my teachers who are still collaborating with me and bringing me into their rooms for lessons. 
Show a teacher some love today.

Fall Break: Self-Care

Many of you know we are usually traveling any break we have an opportunity to go somewhere; however, the world is weird now. We didn’t make any fall break plans this year because we weren’t sure what the status of traveling would be in late September. We have had the chance to enjoy time at home, and I’m completely okay with that. We’ve had some much needed bonding time with our new pups, I’ve knocked some books off my TBR list, and we’ve gotten so many things done around the house that have been our list forever! 


As I start back to school with a hybrid model (teaching face to face and virtual students at the same time) right after this break, I am trying to take as much time this fall break for self-care as possible. I saw the quote recently, “self-care isn’t selfish” and I couldn’t agree more with that statement. Doing things for yourself or saying no isn’t selfish. You have to take time for yourself before you can ensure you are doing what you need to support others. I think this rings true in today’s world more than ever before, so with that said what does self-care mean for you? Is it coffee in pjs with books and pups? Is it a day in bed? Is it a day with Netflix?