Feeling RUSHED

The school year is just underway but I am feeling as if it should be May...hey, that rhymes.  Ms. Manso and I have had the library schedule in place for several weeks and by Friday, we will have seen all of the classes at least once and some of the classes twice.  For six years, Ms. Manso and I have worked side-by-side, complementing each other and kind of sharing responsibility for getting all of the work done.  Of course, nothing is ever completely done but we have worked well together, tackling all that we have to do, a little bit at a time. 

This year, with all of the district's problems and scandals, I believe the employees of EPISD are under the microscope.  Because Ms. Manso is paid with Title I funds, her duties in the library are being scrutinized and examined to determine which of her job responsibilities fall under the stringent government guidelines for Federal money.  We are still seeking clarification as to what Lorena can and cannot do but it is beginning to look like all of the book-related responsibilities are 'no-nos' and the large majority of her time now must be spent working hands on with me in instruction. 

Until this year, Ms. Manso and I have had a kind of choreography to our chores.  I handle all of the instruction, Lorena handles most of the book processing and most of the circulation of books, and we share lesson preparation tasks.  She shelves many more books than I do while I seem to be drowning in paperwork that I have to tend to.  But the way we have worked together has been a kind of library ballet. 

I am worried what the government guidelines will mean to the way we work in the library.  If you find books waiting to be shelved spilling out of the library into the main lobby at school, you will know that I am drowning in returned books that Lorena may not be allowed to shelve.  I appreciate your patience with the two of us and we adjust and adapt to the changes to our work.  And welcome any help with shelving!

Guess Who?

See the picture to the right?  Guess who this boy is?  You guessed it... William McCoin.  I finally met William McCoin!  I hope that this year I can close the library up in June without wondering who any of my students are.  Everyone of them should be able to come to the library on a regular basis...despite STAAR test preparations, cohorts, or tutoring.  I would like to think that the library activities we do just reinforce all of the good learning that is happening in our classrooms. 

I Finally Met the McCoins!

Today as I was busily adding the children's names into the circulation database, two little girls from 3B came into the library.  Itzel had accompanied Rosemary to tell me that Rosemary was unable to take an AR test and to ask me to check her account.  My computer was working very slowly so I asked Rosemary for her complete name and her ID number.  Imagine my surprise when she told me her last name was McCoin!  Today I finally met Rosemary McCoin!  And tomorrow, Rosemary is going to introduce me to her brother William.  Then I will be able to say I know the McCoins and can look forward to having them become regular library patrons.

I Still Haven't Met the McCoin Children

I am sad to report that I still haven't met the McCoin children. They came to our school some time shortly after the spring semester began. Ms. Manso or I put them in the circulation database so they could check out books. We added them to Accelerated Reader Enterprise so they could take AR tests. We might have even given William McCoin the STAR diagnostic test so we could determine his reading level. But roughly four months later, I am sad to report.... I still haven't met the McCoin children...face-to-face that is. Today William's fourth grade teacher came by the library to let me know that her class will be able to come for last minute research on Thursday and that I might finally meet Mr. McCoin! We talked about how long it has been since 4A has come to the library...weeks and weeks. We talked about how a 45 minute library visit every two weeks is certainly not going to negatively impact state standardized skills assessment scores and might even improve scores. And we wondered who we can convince of this so that the library schedule doesn't stop abruptly with the beginning of spring semester and the STAAR test crunch next year. Alas, who are we to make such decisions...just a lowly librarian and a fourth grade teacher. Two educators who believe that by collaborating we can provide our students with educational experiences to better prepare them for life beyond H.R. Moye Elementary. Why won't anyone listen?

Number of Hits

Little Free Library Comes to Moye

Or 

What Does One Write on a Blog?

 

It has occurred to me that I am not sure what to write on my library blog.  In the past, I have used my website to keep track of and report on the "goings on" in our library.  But then I would turn around a put basically the same kind of stuff on my blog.  Kind of redundant you say?  I agree!  Especially when I actually had TWO websites going (my original website through Google which became too large to add more pictures to and my newer, replacement website through Weebly) that shared the same information that I wound up posting a third time here.  But I don't really have any followers - or not many - of my blog and/or my website(s), so in the grand scheme of things, does it matter if I even post anything anywhere at all?

But here I am at lunch on a Thursday in April, pondering these deep kinds of questions like 'what does one write on a blog?' and I have decided that I will begin posting new ideas and pilot projects on my blog in hopes that someone will happen along and comment on them.  And then I will post pictures and share information on library activities at H.R. Moye.  And if you are reading this and can offer some insight about the difference in blogs and websites and how I should be using each, I would welcome your suggestions. 

Sooo...a few weeks ago over spring break, I met with fellow EPISD librarian Lisa Lopez who works at Zavala Elementary School to receive her kind donation of the Little Free Library for H.R. Moye.  The Little Free Library idea originated with Todd Bol and Rick Brooks in hopes of 'building a sense of community and a love of reading' with their cranberry crate little free libraries.  Learn more about the humble beginnings of this magnificent project at http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/index.html. 

The Little Free Library project came to El Paso when Lisa Lopez introduced the program to her school community at Zavala Elementary.  In a no time, Zavala was on the news locally and nationally, sharing the success of their first Little Free Library and have since implemented a second LFL outside the school.  Eager to share her experience and encourage other area librarians to join the LFL craze, Lisa donated a cranberry crate library to the students at H.R. Moye and the rest is...history...in the making!

 

Our LFL has been in place for approximately two weeks in the Moye library.  I am hoping, now that state assessment tests will be officially behind us at the close of business today, to really begin promoting use of the Little Free Library among all of our students.  While I was out of town for TLA last week and during testing this week, the LFL has been located right inside the library door.  But it is yearning to broaden its horizons and to venture down the halls and into the classrooms around the whole school.  And if the project is successful, I will be eager to get a second LFL for outside that can be used by Moye mountain lions during the summer break.  Stay tuned!!!

 

Fast and Furious February

The shortest month of the year was one day longer this year with Leap Day, but it still went by with the blink of an eye.  (Hey, that rhymes!)  We celebrated Valentine's day and Dr. Seuss-Read Across America week; the upper grade students have been unable to come to the library for the most part because of the pressure to prepare for the STAAR test, but those who did come, reviewed the arrangement of the library and the Dewey Decimal System. 

The younger Moye mountain lions had lessons on hibernation, using and comparing fiction and nonfiction books on animals that hibernate.  They also listened to the story The Hat by author Jan Brett and completed a hat-shaped worksheet where they were asked to write the beginning, middle and ending events in the story as well as the author's purpose.  

During Dr. Seuss week, the students, faculty and staff wore crazy socks one day, crazy hats another, and made birthday cards to wish Dr. Seuss a happy birthday.  In the library, we made the Cat in the Hat and shared some of Dr. Seuss's less well known books written under his pen name Theo. LeSieg.  Second graders listened to my favorite Seuss story Horton Hatches an Egg, and identified the ways the characters changed from the beginning to the end of the book.  First graders read My Many Colored Days and made little paper dolls like the characters in the book and writing about how certain colors make them feel.  Dr. Seuss week helps all of us to feel young or young at heart again.

Blue is for...

... Bluebonnets and Bluebonnet Voting and Blueberry Pie!!


Somehow the fall semester has come and go, and the Christmas holiday with it, and we are well into January and it is time to vote for our favorite Bluebonnet Book.  The students in third, fourth and fifth grades will be voting all week on the library computers.  Before each class votes, we are taking a look at the books that we have shared together on this year's Master List and determining what genre they fall under and what the author's purpose was in writing the book.  We are making genre pies and adding the titles of the books we have read under the correct slice ~ narrative, poetry or expository.  The students and I are taking things one step further by determining the "sub-genre" for each book, so once we decide a book is expository, we figure out if it is a memoir, biography, autobiography or informational text.  Doing so has helped me see the balance in the overall Master List and helped the children realize the merits and pleasure of reading all types of books.

Stay tuned for the results of our voting!