Every year my husband makes a Thanksgiving dinner for the students in his life skills class. He leads the students in making a menu, discussing their favorite dishes, and learning about the holiday. In the twenty-two years he has been… Read More ›
books
How to Diversify Literary Analysis Research
As I was teaching a research lesson to an AP literature class the other day, a student raised her hand and asked, “Why is this list mostly dead white males?” She had been looking over the chart of author choices… Read More ›
Novels to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
I have always been drawn to Hispanic culture. For my Master’s of Library Science thesis, I wrote a 100-page study examining the portrayal of Hispanic characters in contemporary young adult books. Though I’ve never traveled to Latin America, I keep… Read More ›
Count Your Blessings
Happy New Year! Many of us sit down in December at year’s and send messages to friends and relatives reporting what happened over the past year. To make them more interesting, many add pictures of the various events in our… Read More ›
Finding Hope
I was very inspired by this year’s winner of the Google for Doodle contest, which was announced June 14, 2021. The doodle from sixteen-year-old Milo Golding from Lexington, Kentucky, is titled “Finding Hope.” He described the elements of the doodle… Read More ›
Bringing the Community Together with a Book Discussion
There were many issues that people disagreed about this past school year. What staff, students, and parents had in common, though, were high levels of stress. When an English teacher colleague approached me about co-hosting a community book discussion, I… Read More ›
Books to Celebrate Cultures and Foster Togetherness
There is so much misinformation circulating around the world these days. Hate has always existed but in today’s environment, it is front and center because of social media and other forms of technology that enable lies to spread in seconds…. Read More ›
New 2020-2021 Practices to Keep in the School Library
“What are some new things that you have done this year that you will continue in the future?” This a question that the middle school librarians in my district were asked at our May professional learning community (PLC) meeting. This… Read More ›
School Libraries – More Than Just Books? (or More Than Just Book Check Out?)
In Michigan, we are preparing for an upcoming Michigan Library Advocacy Day on April 20, 2021. The virtual library advocacy day is a partnership between the Michigan Library Association (MLA), the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME), and the… Read More ›
March Book Madness 2021: The Digital Version
The Fun Begins It’s that time of year again! When our school closed on Friday, March 13, 2020, I had just finished preparing all of the March Book Madness materials and was excited to come into the library on Monday… Read More ›