Juneteenth is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth. June 19, 1865, was the day General Gordan Granger announced the end of slavery in Texas and the emancipation of slaves throughout the confederate South. It was on June 19 that Granger… Read More ›
Blog Topics
Writing Historical Fiction: Collaborating to Meet the Standards
Over the past few semesters I have had the pleasure of collaborating with creative writing teachers in my building for weekly “Library Wednesday” lessons. In our school, creative writing is an elective course comprised of students in grades 9-12. We… Read More ›
Preparing for a Significant Year
Our School Is Celebrating Its 150th Anniversary Many cities, states, colleges, and universities are approaching noteworthy anniversaries. Standford University will celebrate 150 years in 2035, Vanderbilt University will celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2024. The state of Alabama turns 200 this… Read More ›
To Weed or Not to Weed…
I am a lover and collector of books. I still have some treasured books from my childhood that I refuse to part with. When I was getting my Master’s in School Librarianship at Longwood University, I shuddered when I discovered… Read More ›
End of the Year Report and Reflection
It’s that time of year — the time of year for usage reports and analysis of databases and collaborative projects. Each semester, we create a library usage report highlighting the activities in the school library. We know our administrators are… Read More ›
Summertime and the Reading Is Easy…
Summer Book Club for Our Staff…A Follow-Up Post Last month I blogged about furthering a culture of reading at my school through a summer book club for our staff. My wonderful instructional technology facilitator, Katherine Leatherman, and I planned a… Read More ›
Some Lesser-Known Features of GoodReads, a Great Book-Minding Tool
In January, I wrote about Library Extension, a tool that can inspire some powerful literacy moments. Another great digital resource for sparking powerful literacy moments is GoodReads, which offers some fancy features that aren’t always well-known. Let’s dive in! GoodReads: What… Read More ›
Inquiry Framework: What Makes Sense?
I’m on a quest to refine my teaching to be both student-centered and relevant. This has evolved over time to mean that I talk a lot less now, and put more effort into the design of the learning experience. How… Read More ›
Getting Started with Design Thinking
Introduction Last month, you may remember that a term that was discussed in my blog post about Ready To Code was design thinking. Design thinking is a problem-solving process. It includes five-steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test (Hasso Plattner… Read More ›
My Summer Stack
Often when I tell people I am a school librarian, they tend to believe my job entails sitting at a desk reading all day long. As many of you know the fantasy of what a school librarian does and the… Read More ›