Research

Last week a teacher asked to reserve a few time slots in the Media Center this week to send in small groups of students to research for a Science project.   I immediately responded with a "YES!" because I am always encouraging teachers to collaborate with me on what they are doing in class.  Looking back now, I realize I should have asked a few questions like what types of things will they be looking for?  Will they need access to Reference materials?  Will they know what they should write down about the books they are using?  Knowing these things would have helped me to better help those students.  I could even have had a few books pulled out and ready to be searched through.  Hindsight.  Even though this is my fourteenth year of teaching, this is my first year as a Media Specialist and sometimes I feel like such a newbie.   *sigh*  Now that one group of students has been in, I realize that most of them were completely unaware of what they needed to be doing in order to conduct their research (future lesson idea stored away), so I made up a quick sheet to help guide them through the process as well as have one place to write down all of the information they found.  Feel free to download it and use it yourself if you think it might be helpful. Just click on the picture below.   =)

Do the Dewey

This month the Media Center is featuring non-fiction as the Genre of the Month.  I have been teaching non-fiction lessons to second through fifth grade classes for the last few weeks.  I found some great resources on the Internet and tweaked them to fit the needs of the students at my school.

It's tough to explain to elementary students what fits into a category called Generalities or Philosophy and Psychology.  But I made some reference sheets for them as well as a bookmark for them to refer to.


Today I made a Dewey Body Buddy worksheet based on a Highsmith poster (got permission from the company to do so) to go with the lesson for second and third grade.   Just click  HERE or on the picture below to snag your FREE copy.  I'd appreciate your feedback in return.  =)

So many pins! So little time!

Are you a Pinterest junkie?  I discovered and joined Pinterest over the summer, but didn't really get hooked on it until a few months ago.  But now I can't stop myself.  So many pins, so little time!  It's amazing all of the great stuff you can find just by looking at the homepage of Pinterest.  I recently spent some time repinning some great ideas to use in the Media Center as well as repinning and pinning items that would be great to use with different books.  If you're interested, click on the links below.  Hope you find something you like!  =)

    

     

      

     

     

     

     

     

     

   

First Christmas Card

I got my first Christmas card as a Media Specialist today.  It was from a guest author that I set up a visit with at the beginning of the year.  His name is David M. Sargent and he writes books about his dogs.  He brought his dogs with him when he came to visit and oh. my. word.  EVERYONE loved him!  He even had the teachers hooked.  He talked about his dogs inspired his stories and how anyone could be an author by writing about things they know...like their pets.   For my first guest author visit, I think it was a success.  Here are a few pictures from his visit.

We made a banner to welcome Mr. Sargent and his furry friends.

Mr. Sargent introduces Daphne.

Mr. Sargent with Tatum

Mr. Sargent with Emma, the star of the show

Mr. Sargent with Spike, the "bad" dog

Taitum shows what she can do.

 Mr. Sargent and I pose with Spike.

It really was a great time.  If you are interested in having Mr. Sargent come visit your school, email me and I'll send you the deets.  jnase1 (at) gmail (dot) com

What's in a Day?

My post yesterday got me thinking about what it is I really do all day.  Why am I so busy and tired by the end of the day?  So I thought I do a kind of day in the life of thing.  The following is a recount of my day today:

5:30-6:55           
Wake up, get showered and dressed, get the kids ready to go

6:55-7:00           
Warm the van up

7:00           
Leave for work

7:30      
Arrive at work

7:31           
Turn on all computers and log on to the system

7:30-8:00  
Check and answer email while also covering the circulation desk for morning check out and shelf books left from yesterday

7:55 
Great parent volunteer, continue to cover circulation desk

8:00-8:15   
Brief parent volunteer on the day's activities while continue to shelve books from yesterday (there were a lot of books that didn't get shelved yesterday, apparently), set up the computer and chairs for first lesson of the day

8:15-9:00   
Teach Dewey Decimal lesson to 5th grade class

9:00-9:30   
Read a holiday ebook to a Kindergarten class and then help them check out books

9:30-10:00  
Planning time which includes working on a newsletter for December, answering some emails, designing a poster for the Genre of the Month for December, working on making "secret symbols" to hide in books for the Genre of the Month

10:00-10:30 
Teach a shortened Dewey Decimal lesson to a 5th grade class

10:20-11:00 
Read a holiday ebook to a first grade class and then help them check out books

11:00-11:45 
Bathroom break, check and answer emails, scarf down a quick lunch, work on list of things to do that has grown larger rather than smaller

11:45-12:15 
Man the circulation desk, shelve books that have come in throughout the day, laminate a random item that comes in from a teacher, pull a set of books for a teacher, set up lesson for the next class

12:15-12:45 
Read a holiday ebook to a first grade class and then help them check out books

12:45-1:30  
Teach a Dewey Decimal lesson to a 5th grade class

1:30-2:15  
Man the circulation desk, shelve books that have come in throughout the day, answer a few more emails

2:15-2:20 
Straighten circulation desk and around the Media Center, thank parent volunteer for her time today

2:20-2:40 
Car duty

2:40-5:30 
It's the end of the month, so....
Look up the Reader of the Month for Accelerated Reader in 1st-2nd and 3rd-5th grade
Prepare a display for December's Genre of the Month
Pull books for to hide "secret symbols" in books that are in the Genre of the Month
Make the "secret symbols" to hide in those books and then put the symbols inside the books
Make a resource list on Destiny for books that have secret symbols to be able to refer to through out the month
Shelve the books that have "secret symbols"
Answer a phone call from another Media Specialist about Accelerated Reader and Reader of the Month
Answer a few emails
Finish up the December Media Newsletter and make copies of it
Staple and sort the newsletter for each homeroom
Update the Media Center website with the Reader of the Month, Genre of the Month and new Birthday Book Club members
Type up Media Center announcements for tomorrow morning
Set up as much as possible for lessons tomorrow
Work on this blog post
Log off all computers

5:30-6:00
Drive to pick up son from Sunday School

6:00-6:30
Wait in car for son to finish Sunday School

6:30-6:45 
Drive home

6:45-11:30
Eat dinner, spend a little time with my boys before putting them to bed and collapsing in front of the television to veg out for a while

Whew!  Yes, no wonder I am exhausted at the end of each day.  And I get to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.  But I love my job and wouldn't have it any other way!

I am Thankful

I realize that Thanksgiving is over, but I just have to say that I am SUPER thankful for my parent volunteers that help out in the Media Center.  There is NO way I could do everything by myself.  I was reminded of that today as today was one of the rare days when I did not have a parent volunteer.  And let me tell you I am plum. wore. out.  I didn't even finishing shelving books before I left today.  Just couldn't do it with out volunteers.  So thank you!  Thank you!  THANK YOU to all the parent volunteers who help me out each week.

In the MC with Mrs. Nase

So it's been a looooong while since I've posted.  This year has really been kicking my hiney.  It has taken until now for me to feel like I am not snowed under, although I still have a lot of little projects to do.  I will update on some of those projects over the next few days, but for now I'd like to share just one of those projects, the Media Center website.  I have been working hard on it.  It's been kind of interesting trying to keep up with updating it, but for the most part, I think I stick to a pretty good schedule.  I am very curious to find out how many students are actually using the site outside of school, although I would also like to know if they are using it in school as well.  I do think that some parents are using it as I have gotten a few emails about it.  And for now, having even just a few students use it makes it worthwhile to keep it going.  Here's a link to the site if you're curious.  Just click on the picture.