Happy Holidays

The hustle and bustle is all around us, excitement is in the air. This month the library is a very busy place. New books are coming in, students are finishing up their research and Christmas stories are being told. 

The Shelf Elf has been spotted and all are trying to be on their best behavior.

                            Here are a few ideas for this blustery month of December.

Don't forget http://www.biguniverse.com -  Great Christmas stories and you can  put them up on the smartboards or listening centers.

All Aboard The Polar Express!  Check out this site for games, activities and a countdown to Christmas.

  http://www.polarexpress.com/games.

Creative Word Clouds-  http://www.wordle.net  or http://www.tagxedo.com

Use Wordle to create word clouds from text that you provide. The more times you use a particular word, the larger its text will be.  Have students enter their spelling words, favorite poem or vocabulary words. They can change the color, font or layout of the text.

Tagxedo is similar to Wordle, but you can dictate the specific shape a word cloud takes.

Check out the library home page for more Christmas and Holiday activities.

Season's Greetings!

Debbie

LET'S TALK BOOKS....

The cool winds of November have many people thinking of comfort food and snugglies. How about adding a great book to that mix?  Have you been reading a good book that you would like to share with others? Do you need to find a great book to read? What kind of genre do you like? These are questions we ask our students, but do we set a good example for them?  My thoughts were to create a space for our staff to reccomend and share their book ideas and titles. They do not have to be children's books, they can be whatever you like to read for enjoyment.
If people are willing, I would like to take a picture of you reading your book and make them into posters to hang in the library. ( if we have to slip a different cover over your book we can...) LOL 
Hope you will consider. If interested, please let me know.

IMTS information:   When you have time, please logon and complete the short user profile. I was told that this helps keep track of the usage and also creates a file for your streaming and video accounts. If you need help with using the new portal or have misplaced your numbers, please let me know.

November is:
                         11-1  National Family Literacy Day
                         11-2  General Election Day
                         11-3  Sandwich Day
                         11-7  Daylight Savings Time Ends
                         11-11  Veterans Day
                         11-14  American Education Week
                         11-21  National Games and Puzzle Week
                         11-25  Thanksgiving
             

This is the season for SPOOKY, SCARY, GHOST TALES..

 A Special SHOUT of Thanks to all that helped get the message out and this Resolution moving forward.

 On October 5, 2010, the Pa. House of Representatives unanimously passed HR 987, a resolution asking the State Board of Education with Pa. Dept. of Education to conduct a study of public school library services for K-12 students. The study will measure and compare access to print and electronic resources, support and instruction in the use of information and research and evaluate how resources are allocated for school library services in relation to student and community circumstances. The official position of the House as stated in the resolution is that “Students and teachers need high-quality school library services and related educational resources in order to meet this Commonwealth's academic standards for research and learning in all core academic subjects." Rep. Mark Longietti of Mercer County was the lead sponsor of the resolution, supported by the Education Law Center and the Pa. School Librarians Association.
Locally John Hornaman-Patrick Harkins and Curtis Sonney also supported this House Resolution
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HALLOWEEN READS

Here is a list of some of my Favorite Spooky, Scary. Ghost Tales:
       The Ghost's Grave   Peg Kehert
       Ghost Town             Joan Lowery Nixon
       Anything by              Mary Downing Hahn   (Especially Old Willis Place)
       Coraline                   Gainmen
       Widow's Broom       VanAllsburgh
        Monster's Ring         Coville
        Dark Pond               Bruchac
 

Also Check out the new Book Trailer Link on our Library  Homepage.

Fall into a Good Book

Well it is officially Fall according to the calendar, so I thought it would be a great time to recommend a few good books to help ease the pain of the darken sky. Please feel free to create your own books shelf. Shelfari is a cool web 2.0 tool that is fun to use. Just click below the bookcase to create your own.

Check out  my reviews that are on  "A Book and A Hug"
http://www.abookandahug.com/whats-new/20139-dirtballpete

http://www.abookandahug.com/whats-new/20138-thepout-outfishinthebig-big-dark


Thanks to all that returned the surveys. I will use your suggestions to help make improvements.

Big Universe Users: Please let me know if you are having any problems with using it. The kids are really enjoying it. If you need your passwords let me know.

Happy September

New Year, New Books: Check out the new titles by checking on our website-http://www.hcsd.iu5.org/-Go to our school and scroll down to library. From there click on catalog- On left hand side-Click on Destiny Quest and then in middle of page click Begin your Quest. There ( finally) you will see the new arrivals on the right. This is a new interface for our catalog. Check out the many features with more to be added.

Special Thanks to Melissa Tackett 

 Melissa is a former Klein Student who always loved books. I remembered by the time she was in 6th grade it was difficult to find a book that she had not read. It seemed fitting than when Melissa called me to tell me that she choose for her senior project to organize and run her own Scholastic Book Fair. I thought that was exciting enough, but when she told me that all the profits would go to the libraries, I was ever so gracious.A special bookplate has been placed in the books that she has donated.

Another Special Thanks: You may notice a new look to our catalog display. Now appearing are the actual covers of the books. This new program is called Title Peek. It adds a little more visual appeal to our website. Rolling Ridge's was provided by a grant from Mrs. Zajac and Clark's was provided by the PTO. Hope to add to Klein's soon.

Reminder to please turn your surveys in soon. I will  be placing another order in the next month.

Also a reminder to please help out our library assistants by having  your books down to the library first thing in the morning. It really is a big help.

Have you tried a Social Networking Bookmark?  It is a great and handy way to manage,organize and store all those website links that you may want to keep and share. Easy and popular ones are del.icio.us and digg.

"I really didn't realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group ... They are subversive. You think they're just sitting at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them." M. Moore

The Countdown Begins.....

Well, one week and counting and the sights and sounds of a new school year begins. As we start to plan for this next school year, I have come across some great websites for teachers that will help bring our 21st century skills into action.

Take a minute and see if any of these sites will work for you.



Many times we need a great photo editing tool. Here are a few to check out one for every skill level, Aviary, Picnik or BeFunky.

Online video editing tools where Flip videos can be uploaded for easy manipulation try Creaza . Creaza is also a great alternative for GarageBand and has a comic creator.

Delicious and Diigo are great online bookmarking networks for all those links we like but then forget where we put them...

Doodle is a neat scheduling tool when setting up collaborative work or meetings. The schedule can be shared with others by the link and it saves time running from room to room to set a meeting time.

I personally use dropbox. A tool that will let you drop files in from one computer to another. So if you are working on a computer at school and want to work on it at home, just drop the file in the box and it will be there on your home computer.

Edmodo is the #1 site for creating social networks within a classroom or amongst all the teachers in the building. It is simple and safe.

Free Tech 4 Teachers resource blog for teachers. " There's an app for everything"

More coming in the future.....

Look forward to working with your students and collaborating with all of you. If you need any help with these Web 2.0 tools let me know and I would be glad to help.


"Only the educated are free." - Epictetus, (Greek-born, Roman slave
and philosopher- 55 AD - 135 AD)


 Debbie McLaughlin

August 2010 News from the Library

A new year, a new beginning.......

Welcome to my Blog

If you are not familiar with a BLOG, it is much like an online newsletter, except you can interact within it by adding to it. This will take the place of my newsletters this year. Please feel free to add to it and suggest ideas.

Cannot believe that summer is almost over. Depressing as it may be, the school supplies already line the aisles of Target, Walmart and the grocery stores. There is just something about new school stuff that makes me want to put summer behind and start to think about the new year.

I have new Pin number cards for you from the IU, during one of the in-service days, I will distribute and explain along with a quick tutorial on using the OPAC.

New teachers and staff will need to stop by the library to set up an account with us, so you can begin to use our library resources.

Please let me know how we can help you. Research, new ideas, collaboration, technology, book suggestions....... Your library is your resource place, so please stop by. My calendar and schedule is on the door or white board.


Check out these new sites:

Seymour Simon-- Free membership for educators.

A Book and a Hug A great literacy site for teachers, students and parents.




"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." Walter Cronkite