There are few things that sadden me more than seeing a school library that is not useable by every student on campus. Maybe it’s not intentional: perhaps your library administrator isn’t “into” improving access, maybe she doesn’t think it’s necessary or valuable, or does not really understand how to create a viable academic resource for [...]
Universal Design is a concept that seems so simple, yet has not been incorporated as a standard of excellence for educators. The concept is simple: plan something from the beginning so that anyone can use it successfully. One common example of Universal Design is incorporating ramps into the design of a building. Everyone can benefit [...]
School must be starting soon. Ms Ghareeb is already hearing the sixth-grade voices: “ My Teacher doesn’t like me. That’s why she gave me a D.” “Middle school is TOO HARD. I can’t do it.” ” All the (books, teachers, kids, whatever) here are dumb. I liked my old school better.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, [...]
Today is the day! The Extreme Read Challenge is a fun, collaborative event that encourages nothing more that sitting ad reading. We have 50 students already signed up, plus guests, family members, and school staff. Over the course of 4 hours we will add all the minutes read by everyone to come up with our total; Last [...]
Every year, about this time, the great mission begins: getting kids to turn in all those library books and pay for lost books before the end of the school year. Here are some ideas I’ve used to get those kids to settle up. Prevention, Prevention, Prevention. Aside from doing an extensive library introduction, and demonstrating [...]
Today is the last day of Spring Break. Come Monday, I’ll be back at school, bookfair driving me crazy, kids forgetting their books for the hundredth time, teachers demanding this and than and everything else. It’ll be like I never left. But this time of year always brings up waves of deep emotional inquest for [...]
Also known as Test Prep, but hey, who’s checking anyway. I don’t know about your school, but ours is hunkering down and cramming all the review they can into these last 15 or so instructional days. Here are a few Power Point Presentations I use to review content with students. While I’m the first to [...]
Here are some of the great new books (reviewed and approved!) coming to our Library! The White Gates by Bonnie Ramthun. This was a wonderful novel that I think will hit our “top ten” list in no time. When Tor moves to Colorado with his mom (she’s divorced, and a new doctor) he immediately figures out [...]
Our school is focusing on developing student academic vocabulary: making sure students understand the academic langauge that is often used in standardized testing, as well as in preparation for high schoo and beyond. This may sound simple, but we’re talking about some hard words here. ”Analyze the characterization,” and “Compare the two passages in terms of [...]
So far this week, I’m 0-for-3. I sent all three books I was reviewing for my library back to Library Services with the same post-it attached: Too mature for middle school, please send for high school review. There has been much discussion in our district about where boundaries are between middle school and high school [...]
