Friday, November 11, 2011

Veterans Day in the Library

I was at the elementary school today, and there was a ceremony honoring veterans.  To see the elderly men so handsome in their uniforms immediately brought to mind two of my favorite books.  When the fifth graders - whittled down to half the class; this was one of the classes who had presented the ceremony so lots of parents took children home early - came for library class, I read these passages, with a little introduction, out loud.  Maybe you'll recognize the books:


They shot some more. Then the head Legionnaire threw up his arm.  'Troopers, hold your fire!  It's pretty nearly eleven o'clock.'

Silence fell.  Some in the crowd took out their watches to make sure.  It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the moment when the armistice of the Great War had been signed in 1918.  We all turned to face east as people did, toward France.

I turned to see a back view of Grandma.  Her left hand was outstretched, holding the paddle upright in the burgoo.  Her right hand must have been over her heart.  Her old hat was pulling low and pinned tight, and her hair was escaping.  I never saw her shoulders straighter.


I then told the students that when I saw the veterans, I imagine them as young men, like the man who narrates this passage:

The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized.  Another war came, World War II, and I wanted to get in it.  The war looked like my chance to realize my old dream of flying.  My soul began to swoop as it had all those years ago at the country fair when I'd had my first ride in Barnie Buchanan's biplane.  I only hoped the war would last long enough to make a flier out of me, and so it did.

I joined up at Fort Sheridan for the Army Air Corps.  But before I could go to flight school, I had to do basic training down at Camp Leonard Wood.

On the night we were shipping out from Dearborn Station, it occurred to me that the troop train would pass through Grandma's town, sometime in the night.  I sent her a telegram.  She never did have a phone.  A telegram might give her a turn, but I just wanted to tell her the train would be going through town, though it wouldn't stop.

In the way of troop trains, we left an hour late and sat on the siding outside Joliet for another hour.  You don't get any sleep on a troop train.  Our car was blue with smoke and noisy with a floating craps game.  I sat through the long night, propped at the window.

Then I knew we were getting to Grandma's town.  It was sound asleep in the hour before dawn.  We slowed past the depot, and now we were coming to Grandma's, the last house in town.  It was lit up like a jack-o'-lantern.  Every window upstairs and down blazed, though she always turned out the light when she left a room.  Now we were rolling past, and there was Grandma herself.

She stood at her door, large as life - larger, framed against the light from her front room.  Grandma was there, watching through the watches of the night for the train to pass through.  She couldn't know what car I was in, but her hand was up, and she was waving - waving big at all the cars, hoping I'd see. 

And I waved back.  I waved long after the window filled with darkness and long distance.



Peck, R. (2000). A year down yonder. New York: Dial Books, p. 46.

Peck, R. (1998).  A long way from Chicago.  New York:  Dial Books, pp. 147-8.



Image credit:  Collier, J. (1875-1900?).  Trains.  Retrieved online from the Library of Congress.

It was my favorite library class all year.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Conference Wrap-up

I've had the good fortune to be able to go to two - count 'em, TWO - great conferences in the past two weeks.  I went to the Iowa Technology Education Connection (ITEC) conference, focusing on integrating technology into education, then I went to the American Association of School Librarian (AASL) conference, focusing on school librarianship.  The latter includes a lot of technology, too, of course.  It's a bit overwhelming to consider all that I have to do, and easy to feel like I'm not getting anything done.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?

One of the fun things I was able to do was I tweeted my way through both conferences instead of taking handwritten notes.  I have a new phone, my first smart phone, and (as Hank Hill would say) I tell you what, it changes your life.  It's definitely made me more productive in some ways, but definitely more distracted, too.

I tell you what!


So if you want to read my notes from the conferences, just check out my tweets here.  I think my biggest takeaway from ITEC is that we can't definitively show improvements in student learning because of laptop computers.  That can't be the reason why we do 1:1 in schools.  But especially upon hearing the impact in the Sioux City School District (from people who interviewed and didn't hire me!), I know it does change lives for the better.  To me, it's about bridging the digital divide.  I'm also excited about lots of new projects - GIS, digital storytelling, tools for blogging, and a lot more.  The big takeaway from all that is that no one person can master all the technology out there.  I'm excited, though, after the standardized tests in a couple of weeks, I want to start implementing "lunch 'n learns" where people come eat lunch in the library and learn about some new technology.   I can't wait to learn from the great teachers here at my school.


AASL was a great experience too.  I'd never been to a national conference and the number of vendors and sessions was a little overwhelming.  There was so much I'd love to see and couldn't do.  I can access it through the AASL Ning, though, and hope to do that soon.  (There's also the Library 2.0 conference going on now, so . . . )  I met some great librarians, from Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Arkansas, Connecticut, and more.  I think the biggest takeaway I got there was that I'm in the coolest profession ever!  The coolest profession for me, anyway.  But I think it's pivotal that we librarians spread our message, that libraries aren't just about print books or the Dewey Decimal System.  We're about sharing stories and writing and research and technology.  Lots and lots of technology.

This week, it's book fair time, so that's a whole 'nother experience.  I'm learning with that too and can't wait for the next book fair because I'll know exactly what to do!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Boing!

I got the idea for this storytime from the great librarian at Confessions of a Real Librarian.  Boing!  (I'm really happy to report that all these books came from the MNW Elementary collection.  So often I go to a large library nearby and am frustrated that books that are ostensibly on the shelf are impossible to find.  This time, I relied on what was at hand, and I'm thrilled with the results.  I see we need to get a few titles - Bounce by Doreen Cronin would have been good - but still, a success all around.)

We started by singing our good morning song, and then we read:



Boing! by Sean Taylor.  Trampolines bounce.

Then we sang, "Hop, hop, hop kangaroo," to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."

Next we read:

Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle.  Kangaroos bounce.  The kids did a great job of "reading" this one.  We'll have to do this again in May for Mother's Day.

Then we did the fingerplay, "Little Easter Rabbit":

Little Easter rabbit goes hop hop hop
See how his ears go flop flop flop
See how his eyes go blink blink blink
See how his nose goes twink twink twink
Pet his white coat so soft and furry,
Hop, hop, hop!  He's off in a hurry!
Then we read: 

Bunnies on the Go:  Getting from Place to Place by Rick Walton.  Rabbits bounce.  What a fun rhyming book about different modes of transportation.  Kids were able to show off what they knew - from tractors to even taxis!

Then we sang, "The Balls at Storytime":
The balls at storytime bounce up and down,
Up and down, up and down…
The balls at storytime bounce up and down all through the day

The balls at storytime bounce way up high…
The balls at storytime bounce way down low…
The balls at storytime bounce all around…
And we read:

 Balls by Melanie Davis Jones.  This is a simple book, but perfect for preschoolers to be able to show their knowledge.  Because, of course, balls bounce, too.

Then, I had the fun of doing a bit of charades with the students.  I told them I was a type of food that bounces when it cooks.  So then I knelt down in a ball, and said the stove is turned on, and . . . ouch!  It's getting hot!  Pop!  Pop!  Pop! and started jumping up and down.  Of course, at first the students looked at me like a crazy woman.  Donna later pointed out that kids today will think popcorn is made in the microwave.  How sad is that?  But after me telling them what I was, kids got it too and had fun with it.  Someone else told me they'd seen a storytime where the librarian brought a hot air popper and showed the students what popcorn does.  That seems fun but maybe not very safe - all those little faces around this hot appliance???
In any event, then we read:

Popcorn by Frank Asch.  Depending on your definition of the word, popcorn bounces.  What a delightful book!  Sam's parents leave him home alone so of course he throws a party.  The guests bring lots of popcorn seeds and Sam pops it - and it fills the entire house!  Not to be dismayed, he implores his friends to help him eat it.  And they do.    "I don't care if I ever see another piece of popcorn in all my life," one says.  I'd say!

Of course we did a round of, "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed," too.
We closed of course with our goodbye song, "The More We Get Together."  What delightful preschoolers!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Presenting my vision

I had the opportunity last week to eludicate my vision for the school library to the elementary faculty.  I did so using this Prezi.  The big points:

The goals of the library:
  • Create a library space that is welcoming, attractive, and organized.
  • Instruct students in research and information literacy.
  • Support recreational reading by students.
  • Support the curriculum of the school through print and digital resources.
Statistics on the elementary library:
  • 7,330 holdings
  • 19 per student
  • Average age is 1990
A good school library includes a solid collection plus programming and teaching.
But a great school deserve a great library.

This can only happen together.

Then I discussed some initiatives - leveling all the books in the library, coordinating library and tech instruction, and working in the classroom with teachers. 

Dr. Pasco's law:  The quality of our library tells students what we think they deserve.
My law:  This is my classroom, but it is your (and the students') library.

How can I help you?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

It's a colorful world

It may be dark and gloomy outside today, but it's colorful at preschool storytime!


"Good morning" song

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin


Welcome chitter chatter - "I see someone wearing orange!  Oh, I see someone wearing green."  But aren't preschoolers funny?  If you have a teeny tiny bit of green on your socks, that means you're wearing green.  I guess it's true, but so literal.  (Of course I encourage color recognition!)


If You Take a Paintbrush by Fulvio Testa


"Red Dress" rhythm - the students really liked this!  Mary wore a red dress, red dress, red dress, Mary wore a red dress all day long, while slapping their thighs.  It continues with Mary wearing a red hat, shoes, gloves, but then the end is Mary is a red bird, red bird, red bird, Mary is a red bird, all day long.  Shouldn't Mary be Mark or Martin since red cardinals are male?  Perhaps Mary is a scarlet tanager!




Alas, this is a male scarlet tanager.  The females are olive green.  I think Mary was Martin after all, but then what could he wear?  Guess we'll just stick with Mary!


Lemons are not Red by Lauar Vaccaro Seeger


"If you're wearing red, shake your head" (to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It" - students loved this, but the only second part of the rhyme I remembered was "shake like a jello, be a fellow." 


   Blue - touch your shoe
   Green - bow like a queen
   Yellow - shake like Jello
   Brown - turn around
   Pink - give a wink
Color Dance by Ann Jonas 

"Little Boy Blue" rhyme 

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

"Baa Baa Black Sheep" rhyme

Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd

"The More We Get Together" (goodbye song)

What a great group!  The students really know their colors, and were such good listeners.  I think they could have listened to more books!  

Extra fun was when I had a kindergarten class in the afternoon and I read some of these books to them.  They read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I just would turn the page early enough that they knew what the next picture would be.  They really knew their nursery rhymes, too.

Next week - monkeys!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Pictures take two


I should add on the what I've learned post something about testing in different browsers, OS, etc., but I did that! I'm not sure why the Picasa slideshow isn't working for some people, but here are the before and after pictures for my library, if you don't mind the loading time.

Before:


The large library space was used for students taking PSEO classes, and not much more
The books were kept in a room off the large library space
Not the most technical of a design project, but it seemed to work (and much better when I started using a tape measure rather than a ruler!!)

Next the books had to be moved - a great time for weeding

The guys came to help

Straps are our friend

And after!
Our popular "comfy seating"
Another angle
Gutter shelving - thanks Kathy for the idea!
Students enjoy the space to work on their schoolwork
We have lots of students take college courses while in high school, and the library is their classroom
Football players use the space - and check out books, too!
I am really blessed with a great administration who understand and support my vision for the library as the learning commons of the school.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again - this is the best job in the world!

What I've learned as a new librarian

Some things I've learned in the past two months:
  • Worldcat is your cataloging friend.
  • Use pencil in the lesson plan book!
  • With a big job - like entering over 400 books into the catalog - divide it out, a little chunk at a time.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.
  • I should have taken a class in copyright. 
  • Have one place to make lists.  Either a planner that is always with you, or Evernote.  (Or better yet, I'm thinking of buying an iPhone.) 
  • Have one place to put papers.  I do most everything digitally, but not everyone is sold on that, so know where you put that paper.
  • Even if you use multiple computers (desktop at HS library, desktop at elementary library, work laptop, home Macbook), designate one as the default for keeping documents.  Better yet, use Google Docs.
  • Organize emails and online documents with the same folders - administration/collection, elementary/tech, etc.
  • Use Diigo and Pinterest to keep links - Diigo for text, Pinterest for images.
  • Twitter is important, but RSS is even more so.  It's easy to miss important info on Twitter, but on RSS, it waits for you.
  • Do preschool storytime!  Talk about putting a skip in your step. 
  • Know the names of the janitors and secretaries.  Mucho importante!  I've been picking up names of teachers pretty well, too.  700 students?  Not so much, but a little at a time.  I have no idea why I thought it'd be easy to learn everyone's names in a small school - rather than a bigger school where kids wear nametags and I wouldn't be expected to know their names at all.  Ah well, this is where I want to raise my kids, so I know it will come eventually!


And most importantly:


Smile!  This is the best job in the world.




"smile!" by seanbjack.  Retrieved online from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sean-b/245744537/ under Creative Commons licensing.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Back to school - and back to storytime!

Today was a marvelous day as I did my first preschool storytime for a long time.  It could *not* have been better.  What a great group of kids, and only in school for three days!  They sat so well, and I was able to do a whole half-hour storytime with them!  I'm doing it again on Friday with three-year olds, but I might make it a little shorter.

Here was the fun!  Books are in italics, songs or fingerplays are in quotations.

"Good morning" sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday."  (Good morning to you / good morning to you / good morning dear preschool / good morning to you.)


If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

"1-2 buckle my shoe"

Late for School by Stephanie Colmenson

"Two little houses all closed up tight"


The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort

“The Wheels on the Bus”



Clifford Goes to Dog School  by Norman Bridwell


Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss

“The More We Get Together”

 I gave them a sheet to take home with a reminder that September is Library Card Month.  Go get your kids a library card!

I do need to get some better material as far as songs go.  It went pretty well, but I need to get a CD with children's music that is pretty straightforward (rather than the Raffi concert CD that I have, which includes a lot of banter with the crowd).  Any ideas?
This is the best job in the world!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

. . . and after!

For some reason, this works right in Safari and Explorer, but not Chrome. Not sure about Firefox. Sorry!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Like a wash of grief

I've been having a great time in the school library.  There's so much to do - it's still a bit like whack-a-mole - but I do think I'm making progress.  The kids love the furniture at the high school, and circulation is up.  Things are going very smoothly at the elementary with my new schedule and my splendid paraprofessional helping out.  


Then I came home today and thought I'd read a bit of the local paper, and there was a story about a soldier who died.  I've read lots of stories like this one, I don't know why it affected me so, but the article mentioned a video that was played at the funeral.  Oh, I have a video like that, I thought.  One that I made that was shown at my sister's funeral almost four years ago.  So I watched it.  And now I'm downloading sad songs on Itunes and thinking and crying.  There goes the whole night!


The good news is, I had a bit of a health scare a week ago but was checked out completely and got a clean bill of health.  I have a great job, a great family, good health that I can build upon with better habits.  


We just don't know how long we have.  I'm happy that I'm now what I've literally always dreamed of being, a school librarian.  


It's time to stop sweating the small stuff.


Beautiful Linda
1963 - 2007

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Weeding woes


Every librarian knows that weeding makes a collection stronger. I know the previous librarian did a fantastic job weeding - in two years, she improved the age of the collection twenty years. TWENTY YEARS!!!  That's pretty amazing. I've done a bit since I started in July, but it's not always easy. (Well, sometimes it is - the 600-page biography of Lyndon Johnson from 1980 that likely hasn't been checked out since 1993, for example.)  I think that since the books have moved out to the regular library space (long story) and I've done the weeding I have, it looks fantastic.  Before, in the cave, I didn't think it was a good collection.  Out here, with some more weed-worthy books out, any student could find a book they want here - and the new books aren't even out yet. It will only get better!

But getting there can be arduous. For instance, James Herriot's book, Every Living Thing. It's 300 pages,  is certainly a classic in adult literature, perfectly appropriate for teens, but it's never checked out here, and it looks like it's been here decades. There's A Midwife's Tale which won the Pulitzer Prize. I'm sure it'd be an interesting story. But it's 400 pages, all text with maybe two maps included for illustrations, and it's just not jumping off the shelves at a high school (apparently never checked out either).

Then there's the The History of Iowa, a four-volume set. It was published in 1903. It's in remarkable condition for being over a hundred years old, but that may be because it hasn't checked out in my lifetime. Literally. Three of the four volumes, anyway, were last checked out in June 1970. (One checked out in 1978. Better save that one!) But shouldn't we have a history of Iowa book? This surely goes into early history in great detail. There's a seven-volume set on George Washington, and a six-volume set by Carl Sandburg on Abraham Lincoln. (Does it matter that we have no other books on Washington?  Probably should get one.) Surely these are important books in history, certainly appropriate for an academic library, but definitely not a school library. Then why is it so hard to set those aside?


I remember well what my Collections professor said - the quality of your collection tells your students what you think of them. If you have crap, you're saying they deserve crap. Of course I get rid of crap, but what about quality history, just books that junior high and high school students won't read?

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Squirrel story

This is an email that my 12-year-old daughter sent me about her recent fun at Grandpa and Grandma's:


So on Tuesday night, Grandma and Grandpa were gone and I was at [sister's boyfriend's apartment]. He was gone, but we were allowed to have some of his Twix ice cream, and L. and I were eating it outside on the deck thingy. When we were almost done eating, two squirrels abruptly jumped onto the same tree next to us. Okay, that's fine. Well, then L. was talking about how brave college squirrels are, and I threw a dirt clod at the tree (not the squirrels) to get their attention. The clod lands on a big patio table below, one squirrel running away and one to investigate the dirt mess. Apparently the braver squirrel got mad at us and started walking up the long steps towards us. And we were just like," Ooooooooooo herp derp it's a squirrel", thinking that the squirrel would stop midway. But it kept going, and L. got scared and started walking inside. I wanted to stay out, but the squirrel got all up in my face and was like," I pity the foooool that mess with me. Yo, give me your food. I'm a squirrel" so I ran inside and L. locked the door! And that's not all, about one minute later we looked out the blinds and there was the squirrel, a little aways, still on the patio, about five feet away. So L. sits down, and I go back to the blinds, thirty seconds later. And the squirrel is literally RIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR, on a ledge at eye level, looking right at me!!! So I freaked out, but quickly regrouped and decided to open the door just a crack, and the squirrel runs to the door and I have barely enough time to close the door! I guess L. was right when she said how brave those squirrels where! I better be good, or else L. will throw me out for the squirrel and his little friends and they will eat me ALIVE, I TELL YOU!






Watch out!!!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Picture day

It's my first picture day as a teacher librarian!  I actually have been in a yearbook since my senior pictures graced the pages of my high school's yearbook - my "Book Lovers' Club" was featured in a yearbook, and the kids insisted that I was in the picture too.  That was nice.  But the angst of picture day . . . oh well.  They can't do much about my extra chin, sadly.  (And, whilst practicing for pictures with my handy dandy computer camera, I'm reminded of what my daughter said to me a few months ago:  "I can't believe no one's ever told you that you have a huge nose."  Wha, wha, what???)

Lots of exciting things are going on in the library and can I just say, I am very glad that I started in July because I'd be freaking out if I was starting in the middle of August.  In less than a month, the students will be here, and I still have so much to do.  But it is coming together.

I've been around the blogosphere a bit.  My friend and author Bri Clark had an interesting quandary, with a school librarian being bullied and I put my two cents in - at length or course.  I commented about what we're doing with ebooks on the Unquiet Librarian's blog. I wrote on my school blog about what's going on in the elementary library.  I read this article about how we can't teach students to love reading.  And I ordered a camera cable, so I'll be able to post pictures soon.  But for now, I get to practice using Flickr and the Iowa AEA's clip art!  :)



cadfael1979 (2008, January 17). "I'm late, I'm late, I'm Terrible Late" Retrieved online from http://www.flickr.com/photos/7547397@N06/2210257778/  Used under Creative Commons license.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Recent happenings

So much has been going on in the library!  I was waiting to post until I had pictures to show you, but what with just moving, I can't find the cord to transfer photos from my camera to the computer.  Well, just as well, then you will be able to see the complete transformation from before to after.  It's still in the process of changing right now.  My self-imposed deadline to be all done (moving books back into the library space, posters up, furniture in, and now some other things I'm excited about) is August 1 for registration.  We'll see if I meet that!

When I do post the pictures, I will also share some things I've learned in this project.  I will say that since I'm a K-12 librarian, the only librarian in the district, it's great to have someone to help with an eye toward design of the library.  I found that person at the local furniture store here in town.  It's great to have someone who knows the space, knows the people, and can see the possibilities.  Oh, also, make sure when you begin to have a tape measure!  Of course we have several at home, but since I live 20 miles from the school, when I forget it, I can't just pop back home and get it.  I ended up having to change my entire floor plan because my measurements (done with - ahem - a ruler) weren't accurate and I needed more space for fiction books than I thought, so the fiction is where I thought the nonfiction would be.  (Plus, I don't put books across the full length of a bookshelf.  I give a little room at the end so I can stand a book up vertically to feature it.)  But I think it's better this way, anyway!  

I got the go-ahead on Follett Shelf, an ebook program that will work with the students' laptops.  Very exciting!  I was always apprehensive about using Nooks or Kindles because that's an additional device to break.  I have to admit, my superintendent had the vision of this type of ebook program way before I did.  Mr. Egli, are you a closet librarian?  (Apparently I already heard about Follett Shelf at the AEA meeting I went to this spring.  I think that Vgotsky's Zone of Proximal Development applies here - I just wasn't ready to learn about that yet.)

I met with the new TAG teacher and am very excited about that.  It is so nice to have someone who speaks my language - defensible differentiation, autonomous learner, Henry Passow's could-would-should test - and we get to teach a class together!  (My son isn't too excited about that, as he is in the class.)  It's a class for any high school student, and we're going to really be able to make it our own.  It's basically a research class, but also learning about your own learning style, study skills, expanding the walls of the school to learn, and really, being responsible for your learning.  All those things that we think schooling should be - that's what we're going to do. 

Oh!  And gutter shelves!  Have you heard of these?  They're going in!  I anticipate two section of them, about 48 feet total.  I'd love to put them in at the elementary, too.  We'll see.

I did a Titlewise collection analysis.  The previous librarian did a fantastic job of weeding - two years ago, the average age of the collection was 1973!  But now it's a much more respectable 1993.  I'm going to have to do some more weeding - I'm adding a lot of books to the collection, and there are still more books that probably should go. 

Loving life!


Happy!

Photo by What What, with Creative Commons rights.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

My first week

Squee!


That's my excited voice . . . excited that I am working as a school librarian!


The thing that surprises me is exactly how many different realms there are.  I am really found of Evernote as a tool to keep track of my shopping list and my husband's honey-do list and for work, my FIRES list.  Here's the different categories (so far):

  • High school library space
  • New cataloging software
  • Book order
  • Ereaders/ebooks
  • Schedule
  • Digital presence
  • Elementary library instruction
  • Elementary tech classes
  • Collaborating
  • Personal PD
  • Clean office
All but that last one has seen a lot of progress this week.  :)

But then a blog post I read will send me in a whole new direction.  Yesterday, it was this post by Doug Johnson.  He writes:

Unless you already have the e-reading devices in hand, cancel the order. Spend your money instead on e-books that can be read on as wide a range of students' own devices as possible. Take a hard look at Adobe Overdrive or FollettShelf. (I have no stock in either company.) The BYOD - bring your own device - are gaining footholds in a lot of districts where personally owned technologies that can be used to read e-books were previously forbidden.

I didn't go any further - but started making phone calls.  Since I work at a 1:1 laptop school, this is what makes sense.  I'll write more when we know where this is headed, but one of those two (not the one that costs $4,000 a year!) is very promising.

Then this morning, it was this post by Eliterate Librarian.  I did a featured collections project in my practicum (I wrote about it here) and now I'm really thinking doing this whole-library might be the way to go.  I think I'd phase it in first this year at the high school - we're doing a lot of changes to the space (I will post before and after pictures eventually), so it might be a good time to change this too.  Again, since we're 1:1, the nonfiction collection isn't as deep, and so this would make what is there more inviting.  I am definitely going to study up more on this.

I started creating our digital footprint - so far I have Twitter, a blog, Diigo, and Shelfari, but eventually will add Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, Flickr, and probably more.  

So much to do!  It's hard not to feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole sometimes, but I can see even in a week, I've made a lot of progress. 

Love my life!


Photo by TPapi,"Seven Mole Fever."  Used under Creative Common License.  Retrieved online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tpapi/2764694929/