Principal's Book of the Month

I’m not sure where I first heard of The Principal’s Book of the Month, but it was one of those things that I tucked away in the back of my mind. When my school got a new principal at the beginning of the 2020 school year (yes, during COVID) I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to build a relationship with my new principal and for her to build a relationship with the students, many of whom weren’t physically on our campus due to COVID. She loved the idea when I approached her with it and the planning began. The premise for our Book of the Month is for everyone to interact with the same text in a variety of ways to create a literacy community but also reinforce mindsets and habits we want to encourage.  I wanted to choose books that teachers could use as a mentor text for reading, writing, SEL discussions and refer back to  all year long.  I had recently seen Jo Ellen McCarthy talking about her book, Layers of Learning and really loved the C.A.R.E acronym she uses (Community, Agency, Respect and Encouragement) to talk about books.  I decided for our first year of the Book of the Month, we would use some of the books she recommended in Layers of Learning.    

For our book of the month, we wanted each of our 30 classrooms to receive a copy of the book, which was going to cost about $3,500. Unfortunately, most of the books I had chosen were recently published and only available in hardback. I had Scholastic Dollars left from book fairs and was able to use them on 2 of the titles.  Since I was not going to be able to have an in person author visit, I used that money on a few more of the titles.  Our student council was able to cover the rest of the cost.  

Galapagos Girl by Marsha Diane Arnold was our first book. We were starting in October so this would tie in with Hispanic Heritage Month as well as having animals which I knew would capture the attention of the students.  My principal and I delivered the book to each of the classrooms on October 1st. For the virtual classes, she was able to actually get on the teacher’s camera during delivery and tell the kids about the book. I sent the teachers a video recording of her reading the book aloud and a couple of extension ideas for the book.  Throughout the month, I received messages from teachers showing me things they had done with the book so I put up a bulletin board to showcase different activities classes submit.  We have had anti-bully posters, poems, letters to characters, pictures relating to the story, persuasive writing samples just to name a few.  

As the months went on, the students looked forward to the first day of the month when they knew we would be bringing the next book. It was so awesome to see their faces light up or the cheers they would shout out when we walked in the door.  My principal says it is her favorite day each month because she knows we will be visiting every classroom.  I personally loved seeing the connections students made to the books.  During one of my library lessons we were looking at the wordless book, I Walk With Vanessa and one of the students made a connection to The Invisible Boy which was a Principal’s Book of the Month 2 months prior to that.  It was also so rewarding when students would get excited to find one of the Books of the Months on the library shelves and want to check it out. 

Although a bit costly, this was such a great program for our campus.  Each classroom received 8 new books for their class library. My principal got to start a new tradition of positive interaction with students about reading and everyone was talking about BOOKS! 

We are going to continue this program for the 2021-22 school year with a few changes. First of all, my principal actually picked the books for next year. In May, I gave her about 20 books to look through and choose 9. She thought she had done a great job and when we counted she had only eliminated 5 of the books. So she had to go back and narrow down some more. I told her I would keep the 6 she eliminated the second time on our list for possible 2022-23 books. I am going to let the teachers know all of the titles in August when we go back to school, that way they can better incorporate the books as mentor texts into their upcoming plans. Lastly, we would like to get families interacting with books in some way. 

Things to think about:

• Titles: think about the goal of your program - will you have a theme? Do you want the books to teach a lesson? Portray a message? Or simply just be good books?  Look at reading lists like We Need Diverse Books or Reading Rocket’s Themed Book List for ideas.

• Cost of the Books: consider titles that come in paperback. Ask your book fair vendor what titles they have that you can spend book fair dollars on. 

• Funding Sources: Book fair, PTA, Student Council, Grants, Ask community business to sponsor one month

• Examples of other programs: Just Ask eNewsletter; Heathcote Elementary

Lego and Pegboard Walls

I have been wanting a Lego wall ever since I saw Diana Rendina post about it on the Renovated Learning blog. My problem was I had no available walls in my open concept library. Most of my walls are shelves and I had one wall that had a row of computers on it. 

          

This year I was given a cart of chromebooks so I decided to get rid of my wall of computers and finally put up a Lego wall!  But why stop there? I had also been dying for a peg board wall since seeing this picture from the Oak Brook Public Library.

So I set out to make this happen.  I pretty much followed the instructions that Diana posted for the Lego wall. 

The pegboard wall took a little more thought.  While the board for the lego wall came in 4'x8', the pegboards did not.  They were 4'x2' so I need to figure out how to put 4 of them together. I knew I could put wood along the top and the bottom to attach the pegboard, but it made the middle of the boards wobbly.  I decided to glue 2 in blocks of styrofoam to the back of the pegboards to make them more stable. 

I left a 2 in. border around the top, bottom and sides of the whole board so I could attach it to the 2"x2" boards I had screwed to the wall for the frame. 

Once both boards were attached and sat over the weekend, it was time to let the creativity begin!  

A Book Holder

A fox

A flower, Among Us Imposters, and different shapes

Genre Tasting at the Library Cafe

Today I transformed my library teaching area into the "Library Cafe"  - the place to taste a variety of books!  I have seen book tastings all over the place, but have never tried it myself. I had a 4th grade teacher willing to try it so the tables were set.  

We gave the students a menu that had each of the genres and a little bit about each one and then space for their thoughts as they tasted each one.  Each table was set with books from the same genre but we didn't tell the kids what the genre was. They had to figure it out by looking at the cover and reading the summary. We gave them 5 minutes at each table to sample one book. 

The kids were super into it. Some were using Italian or French accents when they were talking. Kids at the same table were discussing what genre they thought the books were. We loved serving up these delicious treats.

When we finished tasting all 9 courses, we talked about how some books can fit into more than one genre and if they found any books they might want to check out or genres they might want to try. The kids thought the books were "delicious" and gave the Library Cafe 5 stars! 

Odd One Out

Do you remember the song from Sesame Street called "One of These Things?" 

I had forgotten about it until I had some training on Lead4Ward strategies. These are instructional strategies that are designed to engage students, encourage interaction and allow the teacher to see and hear the thinking of the students.  One of the strategies is called Odd One Out  and is basically one of these things is not like the other. 

Basically, you give students 4 visuals, words or texts to determine which one is the odd one out and justify their thinking. 

I recently used this for my Library Orientation with 1st and 2nd graders.  I showed them 4 pictures relating to books, reading or book care and asked them to turn and talk to decide which one didn't belong. Then we shared with the group.  The conversations were spot on and super engaging for the students and some of their thinking really surprised me.  For example when I showed them these pictures 

I was looking for you can read in all the places EXCEPT the bathtub, which most groups came up with. But I did have one group say the couch was the wrong one because the book was green (which I didn't even notice until they said it lol) and another group say the car was wrong because the book would fall off of that.  Maybe those were not the right answers, but the students were able to justify their thinking so I call that a win!  

I plan to use this more often in the future. The only problem I have found is that I usually end up singing the "One of These Things is Not Like the Other" song for the rest of the day. 

Why My Kids Didn't Have Birthday Parties

My boys are 19 and 16 and I can count on one hand the number of actual birthday parties they have had.  Why, is that you might ask? It's because they had the unfortunate luck to get stuck with me for a mother.  I am not a planner.  I despise planning things.  I don't like making decisions. I hate being in charge...and that might surprise people that know me.  But there is a difference between being a planner and getting things done.  You see planning means thinking ahead of time - What needs to be done before?  What needs to be set up? What needs to be purchased?  I am not a prethinker... I am an in the moment, get things done person.  Being a planner means seeing the big picture, how all the pieces fit together.  That's not me either - I'm a tunnel vision kind of girl. I try very hard not to take the lead on things.  I would much rather be the back up, gopher, task-doer, grunt worker than the one in charge.

I have always known this about myself, but it was made crystal clear this week as I an event I was in charge of loomed over me.  Some of my 4th and 5th grade students wrote a book with a local author and tonight was the book release event. I planned an "Evening With Our Authors" to not only celebrate the book release, but also writers from other grade levels that teachers wanted to feature.  Talk about stress to the max!  Because the event was from 5:30-7:00 in the evening, we wanted to have food - but how much?  We never know how many people will show up to events at our school and I wanted to have enough, but not have an ton left over.  Decorations? I am not a crafty person.  How do you make a cafeteria look special for an evening event?  Then there's the layout of the event.  Where should the authors sit?  Where should the food go? What about the book fair?  What time should we start setting up?  What time should we pick up the food and the cake?  So many things to think about and PLAN!  All I wanted to do was curl up into a ball until it was over.

I thought if I just kept putting off making decisions, someone else would make them for me.  But as the event got closer and closer, I realized that wasn't going to happen this time.  I needed to put my big girl panties on and just do.it.  My amazing assistant held my hand as I ordered food and decided on decorations.  And today because I am not a big picture person, my timing was all off and I didn't think about how we were possibly going to be decorating, moving the book fair from the library to the cafeteria, attending to people at the book fair and picking up the food in the two hours that we had between after school and the start of the event.  Lucky for me there are AMAZING people at my school that stepped in and helped this afternoon.  First and foremost I am lucky to have a FABULOUS library assistant who is the pinteresty planner that I am not. Our technology specialist, family specialist, intervention specialist and a special education teacher also all jumped in and started decorating and setting things up while I went to get the food. And besides trouble with the microphones, I think the evening went pretty great!

 

 

 

 

While I was taking down decorations after the event, my family specialist said, "Sara, next time you do something like this.." and I interrupted her and said "Oh, there won't be a next time! No way!" I will leave the event planning to people who enjoy it and are good at it.  They can tell me what to do.

What I Learned From Having 5th Graders Do a Digital Breakout

I created (yes, created! From scratch) a digital breakout for my 5th graders to review some skills before their state assessment.  It was a great two days of learning in the library for me as well as for them.  Here are some things I learned...

1.  Sometimes the "smartest" kids aren't the most capable of thinking differently.  The students that we thought would be able to solve the puzzles or figure out the clues to get to the actual math problems were the ones that were at a loss as to what to do.  

2.  Some 5th graders don't like to do work.  Even though we told them that this was a math review and that they had to solve math problems to unlock the locks, some groups spent a lot of time trying to guess the answer to the locks instead of just working the math problems. 

3.  Even though we only had a handful of groups get all of the locks open, most of the students seemed to enjoy themselves and all were introduced to a new and engaging way to review for the upcoming test.  

I will definitely do another breakout with these kids this year.  Now that they have been exposed to one, I think many more will be successful the next time. 

Technology Tuesday: Seesaw

I am so glad that our whole school is using Seesaw this year as a portfolio for student work as a communication tool for parents.  And selfishly, I am loving it for the library.  At the beginning of the year, I asked our Instructional Technology Specialist, to add me as a teacher in all the classes.  I was then able to add a library folder in every class where students can put any work that we do in the library.  While I thought this would be the only benefit, that I would be able to keep a "portfolio" of their library work, I am finding many more benefits as the year goes on.  

1.  Parents can see what we are doing in the library!  When students are putting the work in the library folder, parents see that the library is a place where learning is happening.  Of course these are things I normally would have sent home on paper, but who knows if they actually made it home or not. 

2.  I can explain what we are doing in the library and show how it relates to what the students are doing in the classroom.  

3.  I can send my newsletter and other notes directly to parents.  Although it takes me about 10 minutes to post in all the classes, at least I am sure the parents have a better chance of seeing it than if I sent a paper copy home.  

4.  I can see what classes are doing in other subjects- because I am nosy that way LOL.  It does mean that I get notifications on every class though.