Shelley Carlton, SLMC at Tyro Middle, was inspired by an article from Knowledge Quest to develop a survey for students to gather feedback to assist in strategic planning for next school year. Using data to assess the needs of the school community meets Standard 2 of the evaluation instrument: "I have created a Student Survey using a Google form and am going to have a random sampling of students take it during their last class visit to the library in the upcoming weeks. (I have put a link on the Media page that is easily accessible.) I am particularly interested in finding out if students have enough opportunities to visit the library and also in finding out if they are using some of the things we have available....makerspace activities, magazines, book mobile etc...so that was the focus. The survey is very much geared toward what we want to know about the TMS library from a student perspective. The results will automatically go into a response speadsheet and data can then be analyzed. We are excited about using this tool as a means to make improvements to our library. Below are links to an article on this topic and the survey. Thanks!" Knowledge Quest: Survey the Students https://goo.gl/forms/aASXlWH259Ylt5Jp1
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Three library media coordinators completed the spring 2017 cohort of the Discovery Education DEN Ambassadors alongside a selection of teachers from across the district. They participated in a series of professional development sessions focused on digital learning strategies and content. Each attendee earned 4.5 hours of technology credits and enjoyed Times Square Pizza each meeting courtesy of Michael Capps from Discovery Education. Brene Duggins - East Davidson High School "One of the biggest things for me is all of the amazing resources I have been able to share with the EDHS staff. I have been able to share S.O.S. strategies with departments as they have come to the Media Center and mentioned projects or topics they are covering and also set up times for departments to learn more about some of the features available through Discovery Education. For example, in our Allied Health classes the teacher wanted to students to create a review and I mentioned doing a Gallery Walk with the student created review posters. History has used Paper Slides for students to create summaries of topics and then they mashed them together to create a review video. Science has set up a session to learn more about the Science Techbook and how to use it with our EDHS Science classes. It is great all the resources available at your fingertips through Discovery Education and it give me lots of ideas to share with the teachers as they are looking for activities to use in the classroom with their students!" Danielle Treadway - Brier Creek Elementary "I am an alum to the DE Ambassador program. Just like last year, this session did not disappoint. There is so much to the Discovery Education resource that I still learned new ways to use DE help my co-workers and students. I had the pleasure of attending these sessions with an awesome grade level team from my school. As a media coordinator, I strive to help the staff at my school learn about new resources that are available to them. Sometimes, though, there are not enough hours in the day. This year I hope that I have helped this third grade team become more aware of all that Discovery Ed has to offer. I have also shared what I have learned in other grade level PLC meetings which has helped in sharing this resource with whole school. As always, I still rely on Discovery Ed for my media lessons with my students. The Spotlight on Strategies tools are wonderful in enhancing my teaching and always adding the extra engaging piece for the students." Kristi Allred - North Davidson Middle School "I am so impressed with the resources we have at our fingertips with Discovery Education. I know that what we have learned is just the tip of the iceberg! I look forward to using these even more next year. I think the best thing about the SOS Strategies is how they are organized by skill on the website. My biggest transformation from this process has been that I have added so many resources to my personal toolbox so I can help teachers when they are brainstorming different lessons and activities with their students. I have shared information about the virtual field trips with specific teachers based on their curriculum. At least one teacher has incorporated them into a lesson! We even used the snowball fight SOS with our Battle of the Books team!" For School Library Month, SLMC Kristi Allred chose a fairly new program to introduce to NDMS: "I encouraged our staff/students to do the Reading Without Walls challenge that Gene Luen Yang created. They are adding to a Padlet. It is mostly 6th graders from one ELA teacher contributing, but it is fun to see them reading outside of their comfort zone. I attached the flyer I made. Hopefully some more staff and students will join in." The Reading without Walls program meets Standard 2, element A of the SLMC evaluation instrument: The official timeline for the Reading without Walls program is the month of April, however you can promote a similar program anytime. If you would like to try Reading without Walls, comment below and mark your calendars for April 2018, and visit http://read.macmillan.com/mcpg/reading-without-walls/.
It’s that time of year again! Yes, it’s School Library Month, and what better time to announce our brand new DCS Teen Lit Top 10 list? But first, a bit of background...
What is the DCS Teen Lit Top 10? The DCS Teen Lit Top 10 list, first implemented by high school librarians during the 2016-2017 school year, was created to give Davidson County high school students options to explore high quality young adult titles through a variety of activities at their home schools and online. While we’re still exploring ways to help readers from different schools interact and we had to cancel our planned DCS Lit Con due to scheduling conflicts, the first year of this initiative was still a success. Our students enjoyed having a curated list of books to read and discuss, and some of the titles from this year’s Teen Lit Top 10 were among the highest circulated books in our collections! This year’s favorites included Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Looking for Alaska by John Green, I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, and Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman. How is the DCS Teen Lit Top 10 Different from Battle of the Books? The Battle of the Books is a great program, but a more flexible format works better for DCS high school students. Many high schoolers have jobs, take advanced classes, and participate in extracurricular activities, which makes finding time for pleasure reading a challenge. With the DCS Teen Lit Top 10, students simply read the books from the list that appeal to them, and share and discuss their favorites. How was the Top 10 list created? DCS high school librarians chose books based on a variety of criteria to create a list that we believe represents a wide range of reading tastes, diverse perspectives, social issues, and cultural significance. For inspiration, we looked to the Audiobook SYNC program as well as quality lists curated by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association. For newer releases that haven’t had time yet to win an award, we chose titles that are “buzzworthy” in the YA genre and have a very high Goodreads average. Where can I get the books? All titles should be available at DCS high school libraries, as well as through the North Carolina Digital Library, which students can access with a public library card. This is a great time to sign up for a library card if you don’t have one! One title is also available for free through Audiobook SYNC, a summer audiobook program for teens. See our Smore (www.tinyurl.com/DCSTLT10-2017) for more complete information and detailed summaries of each book, and our Toolkit (http://tinyurl.com/DCSTLT10Toolkit2017) for a printable poster, bookmarks, and handouts for students to rate the books they read. What does it mean to participate? Students can read as many or as few titles as they wish, and activities will vary from school to school. This is meant to be a flexible opportunity for readers to participate at the level they feel comfortable with. We realize that not every book is for every reader, and that’s okay! How can librarians help? Middle school librarians can inform their current Battle of the Books teams of this opportunity, while high school librarians can spread the word to their feeder schools, teachers, and patrons. Suggestions? We’re still figuring out the best way to give our students an opportunity to build a reading community that reaches across our schools. While we did have some participation in the Google Classroom we set up this year for this purpose, we’d love to hear your suggestions about how to invite further participation--please share your thoughts in the comments below. Did you know there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (43 quintillion) ways to scramble a Rubik’s Cube? This best selling toy of all time was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik. He wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself.
According to Brandon Lin, expert at Rubik's, you don't need to be a genius to solve these puzzles. The skills you do need are as follows:
First year ETS/media assistant at Tyro Elementary, Hawshen Flinchum, has started a Rubik's Cube Club. Currently, the club is offered for 4th and 5th grade students on Mondays and Fridays during their Recess time from 2:00-2:20. Flinchum has created a Google Slide presentation as well as handouts with the algorithms for students to learn. If you need a club idea, this has gotten the students excited!!! Beverly Cleary, author of the Ramona series among other favorites, was born on April 12. In conjunction with School Library Month, www.dropeverythingandread.com is promoting a day to "just read". Since April 12th fell during our spring break, some elementary schools chose to celebrate another day. Tyro Elementary: Students at Tyro Elementary celebrated DEAR day on Monday, April 17th. The theme was "For Peeps Sake, Drop Everything And Read!" Each student received a Peep bookmark and enjoyed Peep marshmallow treats. See below for a pdf of the bookmarks.
Friendship Elementary Dianne Wright is highlighting Beverly Cleary on the morning news programs at Friendship and has invited guests to come and read excerpts from their favorite Cleary titles. I got to share my favorite, Henry Huggins, today with kindergarten! You can celebrate D.E.A.R. day anytime and adopt any theme. If you have celebrated DEAR day or School Library Month, comment below. We would love to feature your school library in the next blog.
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About UsWelcome to the official blog just for DCS library media programs. Enjoy new posts from one of our many contributors and follow along to see the amazing things happening in Davidson County school libraries. Archives
April 2019
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April 2019
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