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.

Unlucky #13

You may or may not have noticed that I completely ignored this blog for almost the entire 2017-18 school year. In fact my only post was on September 17 :(

If I am being completely honest, I did not feel like I was on my library game at all last year.  I thought I had reached my peak and was now on the downhill slide to becoming one of those "old" librarians that has no new ideas.  I wasn't able to conjure the spark and innovation that I had previously brought to my job.  I still loved being a librarian but I was definitely having an off year and I was beating myself up.

I couldn't figure out what had brought on this sudden decline in my exuberance for librarianship.
*Could it have been that my assistant broke her ankle the 3rd week of school and not having her there to run the library and keep me sane threw me off kilter for the rest of the year?
*Could it have been that I had a senior in high school getting ready to spread his wings and attend college 7 hours away?  Was I subconsciously worrying about losing him and not able to focus on my work?
*Could it have been that the year before I had taken on too many responsibilities at the district level and had lost touch with my students?

Who knew?  I just knew that I felt like I was in the toilet of librarianship.

Then one night last week, in the middle of the night, after we had moved the college bound son to Oklahoma Sate and he was settled into his dorm.  I realized that I was heading into my 14th year as a librarian... which meant that last year was my 13th year.   

And it hit me!
That was the problem!

I was suffering from the unlucky 13th year!

So I am happy to say that the curse is over. I have found my stride.

And I am back!

#EdCampNavasota

Saturday, one of my teachers, Kandra Overturf (@kandrarene) and I attended #EdCampNavasota (3 hours away from San Antonio) at Webb Elementary, the campus of Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd).  A few of my other twitter heros were there as well... Aaron Hogan, Aaron Marvel, Brent Clarkson and Tom Spall. And I met some great new educators to follow Cassie Reynolds, Stephanie Ryon and Jeremy Stewart to name a few.

Why did we leave Friday night and give up a Saturday for this? We are both huge fan girls of TechNinjaTodd and wanted to see in person the kind of learning that takes place on his campus.
But also we wanted to experience another morning of connecting and learning EdCamp style and put some faces to our PLN.  If you haven't experienced an EdCamp before, it is truly a different kind of professional development. There is not ONE person leading the pd.  It is a collective effort among the participants.

 It starts with people writing down topics or questions that they want to learning about on post-it notes and sticking them on a big board, grouping like topic together.  Yellow post-it notes were for topics and pink post-it notes were people who felt comfortable discussing a particualr topic.

Then the organizers of the EdCamp organize the topics and assign a "moderator" just to get the conversation started.  

This is what our sessions looked like.  

The problem comes when there are two (or three) sessions at the same time that you want to be at... Kandra and I split up for a couple and took notes in a shared google folder so we could essentially be in two places at once.  Three was a little more difficult. The great thing was that people were sharing out their learning on the hastag so all I had to do was follow the hastag to pick up some of the great ideas.  

I picked up a couple of really great ideas from the student motivation and campus culture sessions that I am going to take back to my campus to share.  I also got a little better idea of how I might use snapchat or instagram with my students.  One of the best ideas I heard was about Twitter Moments.  Aaron Hogan shared about that in the Socail Media session and it was an eye-opener for everyone in the room.  Aaron blogged about moments here.  And here is an example of a quick one that I put together while he was explaning.  #EdCampNavasota Moment.  What a great way to capture and tell the story of a school, classroom or in my case library.  

When we were leaving Saturday, Kandra said "Well, that was great.  We can check that off our bucket list."  Then today I get this tweet...

My reply..

Why keep all this great learning to ourselves... Hoping some others will join us at #EdCampKaty.

Reflections from TCEA17

I was fortunate to spend 3 days last week at the TCEA conference in Austin, Texas.  19 hours of amazing presentations and that doesn't count the conversations standing in the hallway waiting in line for a session.  Conferences like these are always so overwhelming with information that it takes me a few days to process all that I have heard and learned about.  There was not one session this year that I thought was better than all the others.  Rather every session that I went to offered me something I could take back to my campus.

Here are a few of my take-aways.

Sphero - Emily Felker (@emfelker) did a great job of introducing Sphero as an educational tool instead of just a toy to drive around the library.  While sitting in the session I texted one of my 2nd grade teachers with an idea for using sphero with place value that Emily shared.  She also introduced me to making light trails by using the slomo feature on a camera to capture sphero's light in a dark room.

Sharing Student Work With Each Other-  Google slides now has a Q&A option when you are in the presenter mode where students can ask questions during the presentation, but they can also post work there when finished for classmates to look at.  The same could be done with Padlet.  I have used padlet as a brainstorming tool, but never thought of it as a place to house student projects all in one place.  

Google Virtual Reality Tools - Kelly Fitzgerald (@LISDTechie) led an engaging session on google virtual reality 

Geoguesser - shows a scene from somehwhere in the world and then you try to guess where it it based on landscape, signs, terrain, etc

Google Art Projects - can see a piece of art work and zoom in on the brush strokes and in some cases where it is hanging in the museum to see other art work around it.  (CAUTION... Where there is art there can be inappropriate items for elementary)

Google Street View - can drop into places around the world to see 360 degree view of where you land.  Great for landmarks and ecosystems.

Personalized PD - a panel session with 4 amazing leaders Todd Neslone (@TechNinjaTodd), Jessica Torres(Owl_b_TorresEdu), Jason Bretzmann(jbretzmann), and Mandy Taylor(mandymtaylor).  So many great things came out of this session.  One being getting a picture with TechNinjaTodd!

All 4 educators were adamant about giving teachers choice in their professional development 

And that even if only 5 teachers attend a session, that is 5 more teachers that know about a tool.  That is growth.

TabScissors - this was not technically in a session, but it is one of the best things I learned about!  Before her Google VR session, Kelly Fitzgerald was asking people about things they had learned so far and she shared the chrome extension TabScissors.  This extension allows you to split a window into two smaller windows side-by-side!

Here I have 3 tabs and have to toggle back and forth. 

But by using TABSCISSORS, I can split the tabs and have two windows showing at the same time. 

This is life changing!!  

And one more fun thing.  Have you heard of Bitmoji?

It is an app and a chrome extension that allows you to create your own personalized emoji chatacter. Now besides annoying the people that you text...

which is super fun in itself, but how fun to put them on work that your students are working on in google docs?  Kind of like your own personal stickers... and what kid doesn't love getting stickers?

     

I always learn so much going to these conferences.  Too much to actually post about in one blog. I will write more as I put the tools into practice or share them with teachers.  

You Can't Read That!

Go get a different book.

That book is too hard for you.

You can't read that.

That book is not on your level.

You need an easier book.

I must (sadly) admit as a previous classroom teacher of 12 years, I probably uttered one or more of these phrases to any given student thinking that I was helping them make a better choice that would further their reading.  But instead, what I probably did was make that child like reading a little less.  

Today I had the pleasure of hearing the one and only Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) speak in my district about Voice and Choice in Reading.  She spoke for 2 wonderful hours and gave information, personal anecdotes and research about students and reading and choice.  But this one quote, mentioned very early on, is what has stuck with me for the rest of the day.

So instead of building the student into a better reader by making them choose a book "on their level", what I did, was tell them they were not good enough or able enough to read "that" book.  

What could I have done instead? 

 *Maybe ask them to sit and read a page or two with me and see if they change their mind once they read a few pages.

*Have a "preview stack" of books ready for a child that continuously chooses challenging books and say "Take a look at these books I thought you might like!" 

*Ask "Are you and your mom/dad/grandma going to read that together?"

*Check to see if there is an audio version of the book and let them download that to a device to read along.

And then the unthinkable... let them check it out anyway!  

Maybe they have a desire to persevere and read through the book,  Maybe they hide a "baby book" in the pages of the bigger book so no one knows what they are reading. Maybe they just want to be like the other kids.  Maybe choosing a book in the library is the only choice they have control over that day.  

Maybe I need to find a way to support them and help them like reading because as Donalyn said, "If not us, then who?"

What key phrases or techniques do you use to help a student choose books?

What Was I Thinking?

For the last few years to promote my Bluebonnet  program, I have offered 3 raffle prizes for students who read more than 5 books. For each book over 5 they earn a raffle ticket and can place it in the box of their choice. Each of the 3 prizes connects or represents one or more of the books in some way. I have raffled things like Spurs jerseys when "Mathlete vs Althlete" was on the list. When "The One and Only Ivan" was nominated I had a giant stuffed gorilla. This year, when brainstorming with my fellow partner in crime, Natalie Watts (@readdancetweet), she came up with the idea to raffle a hamster- not a stuffed one, but a real, live one!

So what do all good friends do? Copy their friend's great ideas. So I spoke with my principal to see if she was ok with us keeping a hamster in the library until January and then raffling it off to a student that had parent permission to win the hamster. 

We got the hamster and cage last week and he/she has been a huge hit! 

I don't have a name yet, so the students have been suggesting ideas on butcher paper.

We have gotten names like Eyeball, Snowflake, Olaf and Caitlin from Kinder. And Fluffy, Dump Truck, Hammy and Rider from other grades. I will pick a name and announce it on the announcements on Wednesday. 

While he has caused quite a commotion this week, it has been really fun to see the excitement and wonder of all the students as they come to check out books and watch the hamster for a few minutes. Even when he is sleeping, they talk to it and ask questions about it. 

So I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I decided to bring a hamster into my library, but I can't wait to see what other opportunities it sparks.

What Happened to Summer?

I am not sure what happened to summer.  I feel like I spent most of it in my car.  I have an incoming Junior in high school and an incoming 8th grader, bith boys who play baseball.  So my whole summer felt like I was either taking them to practice, lessons or heading out of town for tournaments.  I did manage to get 2 weeks at my favorite place in the world, Fish Creek Wisconsin.  Otherwise I really would not have felt like I had a summer.

The good thing about all that baseball is that I got a lot of books read.  I am talking 35-40 chapter book. Bluebonnets, young adult, grown-up and professional books.  I got some of everything.  Here are a few of my favorites.

#1 Professional Book:  Kids Deserve It!

A perfect summer book written by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome.  A great reminder about why most of us got into the teaching profession... because Kids Deserve It.  With uplifting stories and humorous ancedotes, these two principals have started a revolution of educators who are in it to do what's best for kids.  I loved this book!  As a matter of fact, one of my teachers saw my tweet about it and asked if she could borrow it.  Then another one asked to borrow, and another and... now at least 9 of my teachers have read it and more are on the "waiting list".  We even gave it to our new principal as a welcome gift on her first day, signed by those of us who had read it over the summer. 

#1 Young Adult Book: Serpent King

I just love YA books.  Almost enough to make me want to be a middle school librarian... not!  But I really do love to read them.  Three high school seniors all trying to deal with their last year together in a small town.  One dying to get out, one content to stay and one who thinks he can never escape.  Told from all three points of view, but interwoven into an unforgettable coming of age story.  

#1 Bluebonnnet Book: Echo

I am afraid the sheer size of this book will scare off a lot of readers (over 500 pages) which will be such a shame because it is a wonderful story of three children brought together by a magical harmonica that comes in and out of their lives at the perfect time.  I could not put this book down. 

A Few Things I've Learned While Using the 3D Printer

Just a few things I learned while making the Decade Coins with 5th grade.

1. Kids are WAY more creative and better at Tinkercad thank I am.  I have always had trouble visualizing things.  I can not picture how furniture should look in a room.  I actually have to see it in there or move it around.  I had a very difficult time making a sample coin to show 5th grade. I was worried how the kids would be able to connect the different shapes to create what they wanted or if they would get frustrated.  They were much faster and much better at combining the shapes than I was. 

2.  There are different kinds of filament.  Who knew?  Not me.  My 3D printer came with a role of filament and when I was running low, I emailed the vendor that the printer was purchased from and asked him for a quote on white filament for the Afinia printer.  He sent it and I bought it.  

3.  Different filaments have different settings on the printer. When I loaded it and printed for the first time the coin would NOT come off the raft.  It was stuck on there like super-glue.  I thought maybe I had messed up the calibration or the nozzle height so I reset those and printed again.  Still stuck. I emailed Afinia support - which is great by the way.  They sent back some instructions and still stuck.  I went through the whole set up one more time and happened to notice a drop down in front of ABS and remember seeing something about ABS filament.  I looked at the filament that I loaded and it said PLA.  I changed it in the drop down and presto-chango, worked like a charm. I really don't know what the difference is between the ABS and PLA but I found this article if you are interested.

4.  Different filaments take coloring differently.  After I made my sample coins, I tried coloring them with Sharpie marker.  Keep in mind this was on the ABS filament - no good.  The marker bled and looked horrible.  Crayons were no good either.

Sharpie

Crayon

Colored pencils worked great on the ABS filament.

Colored Pencils

Once I loaded the accidently PLA filament, the Sharpie markers looked awesome!  The PLA is a little shinier and maybe seals better so the sharpie doesn't bleed.

Sharpie

5 Things I learned from Kinder Makerspace

Kinder had their first experience in the makerspace this week... or let me rephrase I had my first experience with kinder in the makerspace this week! ;) I had one kinder class in each day to make a pompom launcher in the makerspace.  I really had no idea how this would work so here are 5 things I learned...

1.  Kinder kids LOVE glue!

2.  Kinder kids have great ideas! Yank the red pipe cleaner, the cup moves and the pompom comes out.

3.  Kinder kids can make things better!  She started with the pompom on the end of the straw, but it kept falling off before she could blow.  She looked in the bucket and found the lid to spices that had holes in it. The straw went through the hole and the pompom sat in the lid.  

4.  Kinder kids can think simple... or complex.

5.  EVERY kid can be a maker!

And one last thing... God Bless Kinder teachers!  I don't think I could do it every day!

A Writer I am Not

I do not think of myself as a writer.  Writing this blog is a huge step out of my comfort zone every, single time.  My dad and my brother seem to have taken all of that talent for our family.  They both just have a way with words.  They just flow so effortlessly and elegantly from their minds.  Even when being humorous or sarcastic their way with words just make you want to read more.  

Sometimes when I am reading books, I get lost in the writing.  That happened to me when I read All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.  I am an elementary librarian and this is definitely a YA title but it is just so beautifully written and the story is so amazing, I had to tell you about it. 

In this story, Violet and Finch meet on the roof of the school.  Finch is fascinated with death and Violet is trying to escape - her town, her grief over her sister's death, everything.  Through a school project, they become friends and begin to bloom each in their own way.  But is it enough for Finch?  

I couldn't stop thinking about this book after I read it.  The writing is just beautiful, the language just makes you want to read more and more. It was like I knew Violet and Finch and expected them to be around the corner.  Jennifer Nivens has a winner here!

Time for Change

Today the library director for our distrct stopped by to talk with me about the transformation plan for my library. See, she has a vision of what libraries should look like and offer students,  It is a vision of makerspaces, collaboration areas and really knowing what the students want and need from the library.  Last year, she told us about this "transformation" plan.  We were supposed to think about how we could change our libraries to be more innovative and relevant to today's students.  So I set to work genrefying my fiction collection and creating a teaching space by my smartboard by removing shelves and moving computers from the middle of the floor to against the wall.

Whew!  Done!  Check transformation off the list! Or so I thought...

Last month at our library meeting, she made a comment about phase 2 of the transformation process. Alarms started going off in my head. Phase 2? I transformed already.  I thought I was done.  What more could I do?

She says...Start with a blank template of your library, no shelves, no furniture and think about how you could make the space innovative and functional.  What would you do?  What would you change? Ask the students. What do they want to be able to do in the library?

I am not a very visual person.  I cannot imagine things in spaces or visualize how things might look in a different arrangement.  So panic started to set in for me.  Blank space? Not possible.  I have been living in this library for 12 years.  I love my space just the way it is.  I love the flow.  I love the arrangement.  I don't like change...

But I pretended like I was cool with this and I even asked her to come out and take a look at my space and give me some ideas about how I could redesign. And so she did... and now I am hyperventialting!

What if you moved your chapterbooks to the other side of the library and your Everybody collection over here?  Then you could remove these shelves and this would be a great place for your makerspace.  You could get tables that lend themselves to collaboration and have some comfy collaborative reading areas here and here...  I smile and nod and try not to pass out.

Then I get on twitter tonight for a #ce15 chat about innovation.  And this happens...

They are speaking to me.  My PLN knows what I need to hear tonight.  Another example of how being connected is so valuable for growth.

And so I'll go to sleep tonight.  Return my breathing to normal.  Bring my assistant some donuts in the morning.  And together we will make a plan to transform our library...one step at a time.

A Little Hand Holding

When I first came to my school 12 years ago, there was a third grade teacher who never took her kids to the computer lab.  She is a wonderful teacher.  She is very structured, has very detailed plans and very high expectations for her kids.  She just would not step foot in the computer lab because of the high possibility that the technology would not do what she wanted and she would be left to wing it.
 

Fast forward 12 years… this particular teacher (now in 5th grade) checks out the iPad cart from the library. She asks for ways to integrate technology into her lessons. She finds a way to complete projects on the iPads when the computer lab is closed for testing.  She is blogging. And hold on to your hats… She is even flipping part of her Language Arts class this year!

How does this transformation happen you might ask?  I don’t really have the answer.  I do know that 12 years ago when I came to the school and in the spring suggested that we do a lesson in the computer lab, after she stopped hyperventilating, she trusted me enough to meet me in the lab and let me walk her students through creating a Book in a Box PowerPoint.  She saw how engaged the students were and how proud they were of their finished boxes.  I am sure that we had technical difficulties (who doesn’t when they are in front of 23 students?) but we just made a plan B and carried on. 

After that, when I heard her talking about another project they were doing, I would casually mention a technological component and again with promises that I would be there with her, she would cross her fingers, hope I knew what I was doing and venture into the lab again. 

The next year, she asked me if I was available to help her in the lab when it was Book in a Box time again.  I went with her and while she taught the kids what to do, I stood by as a security blanket in case anything went wrong.  Of course, she handled everything fine.

The next year, I caught her going into the lab with the kids BY HERSELF!  I peeked through the window and she was doing the Book in a Box lesson.  Later that day, when I asked why she didn’t let me know, that I would have come to help, she said, “You were busy and I thought I’d try it myself.”

And now look where she is. 

I am proud of this teacher.  I am proud of the risks she takes for her students.  I am proud of her for stepping outside her box 12 years ago and venturing into uncomfortable territory.  And I am proud to see how even though she still does not consider herself “techie”, that she is integrating technology into her space every day.  

So today, on the day after "Dot Day", I realized that all it takes sometimes is a little hand holding to help a person make their mark

A True Librarian

Summer is over and it's back to school.  I've been reflecting for the last few days on my job as a librarian and what my goals and visions are for this school year.  As I have been thinking about this, a question popped into my head... What is a True Librarian?  I tried to think about the job description and how I would answer that.  I came to realize that there are many types of librarians and that I do not fall solely into any of these types.  At any given moment, I can be one kind and then the next moment be another type.  Many days I am a combination of more than one.  Sometimes I stay in the role for a while depending on my goals for the year but other roles sneak in and out depending on the moment.  And sometimes I can be all of these in the space of just one day.

Booky Barbara - Barbara is the book-lover of all book-lovers.  She knows every single picture book or chapter book in her library and has read them all.  She knows the exact book to point kids and teachers to at any given moment.  Her days are filled with classes coming in for story time and she is the ultimate read-alouder.  The students are mesmerized when she reads because of her changing voices and facial expressions.  Barbara is a true librarian.

Curriculum Cathy - Cathy knows the state standards for every grade level like the back of her hand and every lesson that she teaches supports at least one of those standards if not more.  She loves to create new and exciting ways to reach the students in whatever lesson she is teaching.  Teachers come to her for book suggestions for teaching certain ideas and she can point them to multiple titles in a matter of seconds.  Cathy is a true librarian.

Technology Tina - Tina is the technology-guru on her campus.  She can troubleshoot technology like nobody's business.  She just has to walk into the room and whatever technology problem was there is fixed, bam! just like that.  She also integrates technology seamlessly into her lessons and teachers come to her when they want an idea for integration.  She knows about the newest things going on probably because she tweets, skypes, follows blogs and participates in education chats. Tina is a true librarian.

Information Irene - Irene knows the answer to any question that is asked (and if she doesn't know she can find out).  She knows where to find answers and she loves to teach the students how to search for themselves.  You can often find Irene by the computers or on an iPad talking to students about keywords or directing them to the library databases to find their answers.  Irene is a true librarian. 

Programming Peggy - Peggy is the ultimate actress.  She loves to dress up and get "into character" for different activities happening in her library.  She loves planning for author visits and story-tellers and always has some kind of reading challenge going on.  She figures out how to interest kids in reading through her programming.  Peggy is a true librarian.

I know there are many more hats that librarians wear depending on their library, students, administration, etc.  Do you identify with these or do you have a different definition of a true librarian?

Emily's Blue Period

Emily's Blue Period by Cathleen Daly and illustrated by Lisa Brown is a sweet picture book on the Texas Bluebonnet List for 2015-16.

Emily is artist who finds out that even the best artists got through a "blue period" when things in their life make them sad.  Emily's blue period starts when her family gets mixed up and she has two houses to live in - one house for her mom and one house for her dad.  Which one is her "home"?  It isn't until her brother quotes a potholder... "Home is where the heart is"... that Emily gets an idea and her creative juices start flowing again.