One of the most frustrating aspects of being a high school librarian is failing to increase the level of leisure reading among the teenagers who frequent my library. There are a handful of dedicated readers who are as enthusiastic as… Read More ›
reading
One School + One Book = A Love of Reading
Creating a culture for reading is a major part of what it means to be a school librarian. It is also an ongoing effort. There will never come a time when we stop encouraging students to read. One of the… Read More ›
African American History in Real Life – The Black College Football Hall of Fame
The History of Black History Month Black History Month started as Negro History Week, created by Carter G. Woodson in 1926. It celebrates the significant impact African Americans had on development in the United States and the world. Woodson was… Read More ›
Do Reading Incentive Programs Work to Engage Readers at the Middle Level? A Practitioner’s Prospective.
For the last seven years, I have facilitated a customized student reading incentive program at my school that seeks to reduce the “middle school slide” for readership. This program has been successful in keeping books in students hands and a… Read More ›
Diverse Perspectives Book Club
I love it when inspiration comes at just the right moment, and I also love how great ideas build on each other. I was catching up on some KQ reading this past summer when I stumbled upon the post by… Read More ›
Choosing Books That Challenge: Shaking Up Students’ Beliefs
This past weekend I read an outstanding essay in The New York Times “Book Review” section by Brian Morton, the director of the writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. In it, he describes an encounter with a college student who had been… Read More ›
The Joy of Lifelong Reading
New Year’s Resolution fanatics take over New York salad eateries! Not the exact headline, but reports noted that there were record lines at restaurants like Just Salad and Sweetgrass instead of McDonald’s. Eating healthy is a popular resolution. Another one is… Read More ›
Early Literacy Skills and More Using Bear Books
The preschool program at my school focuses on using the students’ interests and the world around them to guide classroom themes. Being from Michigan, we see very distinct seasonal changes. What animals do during each season is often observed by… Read More ›
Keep Kids Occupied during Holiday Breaks
As a kid I always enjoyed my holiday breaks, but my family wasn’t the kind that went on vacation or did anything special. My parents worked like normal and I occupied myself during my days off. As a school librarian… Read More ›
What should our students know?
At the 2018 School Library Journal Summit in Brooklyn, I had the privilege of hearing George Takei talk about his childhood experiences in Japanese-American Internment Camps during World War II. The talk was timed for his forthcoming graphic novel for… Read More ›