End of Summer = Back to School

Well, another summer has come and gone. Tomorrow I go back to work to begin my nineteenth year in education.  I wish I could say I felt ready, but the summer is never really long enough.  Perhaps it's because I cram as much as I can into the short 59 days off.

I began the summer presenting with a fellow media specialist at our county's tech conference.

We presented on augmented reality and ended our session with a how to demonstration of Aurasma, which is now HP Reveal.

You can get the free how to guide I created HERE.

The next week, I attended the AWESOME GLMA Summit and met two of my "must meet before I die" teacher librarians, THE Shannon McClintock Miller and THE John Schu!  I was totally fangirling.  Like seriously.

I also got to hang out with my MS Conference BFF, Jenn.

After that, it was time to get busy cataloging and processing some new books that came in the last week of school.  I knew there was no way it was going to get done at the beginning of the year and I wanted my kiddos to be able to get to those new books as soon as possible. So I took a few days to go into work (for free) to get that done.

While I was at it, I weeded over 400 VHS tapes from our collection.  It was time.  And I know I will be happy about it come inventory time.

Not long after that, I attended my third "conference" of the summer....Media Specialist Boot Camp at West Georgia RESA, led by THE Andy Plemmons!

And thus my trifecta of pictures with AMAZING teacher librarians was complete and I was ready to really enjoy my summer.

Somewhere in between all that excitement, I sent my oldest off to Boy Scout Camp for a week.  He loved it, but it was difficult for me because that was the longest he had ever been away from home.  I was glad to have him back in one piece and he was glad to be back in the air conditioning.

My youngest got his very own public library card this summer and enjoyed checking out a TON of books.  I won't mention how many of those actually got read (bad mommy!), but we did visit the library several times.  He also started swimming lessons and did great!  He is ready to go up to the next level now.  I am proud of what both my boys accomplished this summer.

We also took a couple of family trips.  We made our annual trip to the beach and then did a cross Tennessee trip to visit family.

I was able to get a little reading done on these trips, so I didn't mind the long car rides.

We ended our summer with a day at Six Flags Over Georgia. 

It was a hot day, but I caught some Pokemon, so it was all good.  =)

I spent my last week of freedom pinning items on some new Pinterest boards and creating new products for my TpT store.  I literally spent whole days working to get these packs complete, but I LOVE how they turned out.

Book Camp Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Book Camp Library/Media Center Pack.

Here We Grow Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Here We Grow Library/Media Center Pack.

Ninja Themed Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Ninja Themed Library/Media Center Pack.

Ninja Themed Book Return Reward Bulletin Board Set

Click HERE to get the Ninja Themed Book Return Reward Bulletin Board Set.

With all this fun, no wonder I am not feeling rested up enough to go back to work.  But back to work I must go.  Fortunately, TpT is having their Back to School Sale beginning tomorrow, so that makes it a little less gloomy.

Of course my store will be in the sale.  You will be able to save up to 28% off all my paid products by using the promo code BESTYEAR at checkout. Click HERE to go to my store.

So all in all, it was a good, if not busy summer.  And now it's time to gear up for another fabulous year at the best elementary school ever!

I wish you all good luck this year!  Happy Back to School!

Tech Summit and Aurasma Freebie

It's the first official day of summer for us teachers in Coweta County and my Media Specialist friend, Amanda and I are kicking it off by presenting at our county's Tech Summit today.  We're just cray cray like that.  =)

Our presentation is all about Augmented Reality, so of course we are going to be talking about our favorite Aug Real app, Aurasma!
Note: Aurasma is now HP Reveal.

Aurasma (now HP Reveal) made some changes recently, and although it works pretty much the same way, it looks a bit different.  So, I've updated the How to Guide.  You can download your free guide HERE.  I have put it on TpT so that I can get your feedback on the guide, so if you download, please let me know what you think.

Wish us luck today.  Fingers crossed that all the technology works like it should and that the WiFi supports everyone's devices.

Teacher Appreciation Sale

It's Teacher Appreciation Week and I am celebrating all week with a sale.

My entire store will be 20% off this week, May 2-6.  Click HERE to visit my store.

And to make it even sweeter, TpT is having a site-wide sale , May 3-4.  Use the promo code CELEBRATE at check out to save even more on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It's just a small way to say "Thank You" for all you do.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

#SLM16 Ends with a BANG!

April was National School Library Month and this year, it was particularly eventful in our county.  We had not, one, but TWO media specialists named Teachers of the Year for their schools: Shannon Ewing, Elm Street Elementary and Jessica Pope, Atkinson Elementary.

Shannon and Jessica are not only colleagues, but they are also friends.  I know first hand how much time and effort they put into everything they do for their schools and their patrons; from planning fun reading events like Reading Caves, the Polar Express, and September Stories to encourage a love of reading, teaching fabulous technology integrated media lessons and information literacy skills so their students can find the information they need and want when they need and want it, attending workshops, conferences, and other professional development activities to continue their own learning and pass it on to others  as well as keeping up with the everyday tasks of running a media center, they do it all and do it with heart because they truly love what they do. It is their passion.   I was so proud of them when it was announced they had won this recognition for their schools.  It felt like we had all won.

On Wednesday, the county celebrated all the Teachers of the Year for our county and the three finalists for Coweta County Teacher of the Year were especially celebrated.  Shannon was one of those finalists, and again, it felt as if we were all up there with her.  

Several of us attended the program to show our support. And we all cried and cheered when it was announced that Shannon was named Coweta County Teacher of Year.  I think I may have punched the air and silently shouted "YES!"  It was an amazing feeling to have one of my peeps recognized in such a big way, in a way that media specialists don't always receive.  You can read more about Shannon and the other TOTYs for our county HERE.

I cannot overstate how proud I am of these two ladies. They represent our county and our profession well. They exemplify excellence in education and in librarianism.

Congratulations, peeps!  We love you and are so proud of the work you do!

April is School Library Month

In case you hadn't heard...April is School Library Month, and this week in particular is  National Library Week.  I always make special morning announcements every day at my school about school libraries during National Library week, but this year I decided to take advantage of this week to promote school libraries even more.

Maybe it was because I had energy from being off for a week of Spring Break, or maybe I just love my job, but when I came back on Monday, I decided to decorate the doors of our media center.  A lot of students and teachers have commented on how colorful and cheerful it is.  It just makes me smile walking by it.

I made fact sheets about school libraries based on some information I found online.  These are also the facts I share during morning announcements.  Some of the sources I used are listed below.

I Dare You Not to Share (So Many AASL School Library Month Goodies!) by Joyce Valenza

AASL Toolkits

AASL Advocacy Resources

ALA's Quoteable Facts About America's Libraries (2012)

ALA Facts About School Libraries (2013)

LRS Infographic (2013)

Institute of Education Sciences

Library Research Service

Pew Research Center, 10 Facts About American and Public Libraries (2014)

More Interesting Reads:

Why Do We Need School Libraries? Written by Melinda Graham, 2005

Occupational Outlook Handbook, Librarians (2012)

Why You Need Your School Librarian Written by Kimberly Shearer (2012)

Elementary Librarian: Are School Libraries Still Necessary (2013)

How Cuts and Closures of Elementary School Libraries Are Hurting Our Kids by Solvej Schou (2014)

I downloaded the free School Libraries Transform Learning poster from AASL and printed them on our poster printer at school.  You can snag yours at the bottom of the first link above.  Joyce made it easy to access.  =)

I also made a sheet for patrons to write about what they love about our school library media center.  I added these to the door display.

What the students have been writing is so sweet and heartwarming.

A couple of classes showed me even more love with flowers and cards.

I've put together a pack of the fact sheets I created as well as the "I love my school library media center because" sheet.  You can download it for FREE on TpT.  Just click HERE.  I'd love to hear what you think.

Happy National Library Week!