August 2015

At the end of last school year, students were given a reading log to record the number of minutes spent reading over the summer.  The challenge was that the homeroom with the most summer reading minutes recorded would win an ice cream sundae party.  Reading logs were sent home with rising 5th grade students as well.  The reading log is saved in Google Drive as Summer Reading Log 2015.

Summer Reading Logs were due August 14 -- the first Friday following the first full week of school. Mary made a display of teachers' favorite books out in the hallway:  Come Take a Look at Your Teacher's Favorite Book:

We kicked off Wonder as well.  Teachers were given their copy before summer, and each student received their copy at the Wonder kickoff event -- pep rally like event held during connections where they watched a book trailer and listened about the  "Choose Kind" theme for the year:  Random Acts of Kindness, school-wide art project...  The Wonder files are saved in Google Drive in the folder Wonder.  We ended the project with Tammy Eunice speaking to each group of students about Legacy and leaving a legacy of kindness.

I kicked off the TOME Society as well -- accepting up to 15 members -- to read the specified books: www.tomesociety.org.

Each ELA class came in for library orientation which was basically STAR test and make sure you can log into the computer and Google.  I gave each student a "yellow sheet" with their login information, Lexile score, and directions for setting up library apps.  That sheet is saved in Google Drive as Yellow Sheet - 2015-16 Online Resource Logins for Students.  As new students arrive throughout the year, their Viking Envoy student brings them by the library for their user name and picks up a yellow sheet and the following step by step directions for setting up AD login and Google accounts.

I held a parent Google class -- a session at 8am and one at 6pm -- to introduce parents to their students' Google accounts just prior to our enabling email for all students (restricted to within the Lowndes domain).  I didn't have a lot of turnout, but the parents who attended were positive about the information received.  Here's the presentation I shared (saved in Google Drive):  Parent Google Class.

Bring Breakfast, Browse Books -- a B4 School Event:  an open invitation for parents to stop by the library before school (7:30-8:00) to browse the library with their students and top off their coffee and grab a donut.  Here's the advertisement with future dates posted:

The editable file for this event is saved in Google Drive:  Bring Breakfast/Browse Books.

I also created a  Homeroom Library Representative committee -- one rep from each homeroom -- to provide feedback on student tech/media issues.  They met with their homerooms to compile a list of books they'd like to see added to the library.  I plan to meet with them once a month.