 One of my most favorite things to do as a Media Specialist is to host book tastings! In our library, we host book tastings for both teachers and students throughout the year to share new books, spotlight genres, and to love on books that often get forgotten. This week, we had the opportunity to host TWO book tastings - one for a fifth-grade class and one for teachers and staff. We had the most fun with our readers! For our fifth graders, we pulled between 10 to 15 books in five different genres: mystery, fantasy, poetry, non-fiction, and humor. When students arrived, we escorted them to their reserved table where they were met with a genre "menu" and "book graffiti" placemat. Students picked a book from their selection platter and spent about 10 minutes getting to know that book and recording their first impressions of the book on their genre menu. We repeated this process for each of the five genres. Afterwards, students enjoyed juice and muffins as they shared about their book finds and jotted down notes about books they would like to checkout from the Media Center!
Our book tasting for the teachers just so happened to land on Valentine's Day so we went with a "sweet" theme for this event. :) Earlier in the semester, we sent teachers a survey to check in and also to see how our professional book collection could be improved to better meet their needs. We then took their feedback and ordered books in the following categories: Inspirational, STEM, English/Language Arts, and Innovation. Teachers stopped by throughout the day to munch on sweet treats as they browsed our new books. 
Interested in hosting a book tasting of your own? This resource on TpT is amazing and chock full of everything you could possibly need to get started!
Happy Reading!
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In honor of Black History month, I wanted to share a few fantastic resources that celebrate the life and legacy of African Americans and their contributions to society. One of our amazing fourth-grade teachers, Dr. Jaji, shared this first resource with us and we're so glad she did! This site plays host to dozens of three-minute videos spotlighting famous African Americans and the importance of celebrating diversity.  Our second resource - click here - is also a treasure trove of articles, images, and videos all highlighting the exceptional contributions made by African Americans. Below is a peek of the page's online exhibit that marked the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that changed education and helped end segregation in schools.  Source: http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/exhibition/photos6.html Our last resource is a snapshot of African American biographies available for checkout in our library. See any that interest you? Stop by the Media Center and check one out!  We're gearing up for Read Across America Week and we're SO STINKIN' EXCITED! One of our favorite parts of RAA Week (and every week, really) is our Student Reading Challenges! Last year, students worked hard to log minutes on their reading logs to earn pieces of duct tape to tape yours truly up onto the wall. Let's just say that it took A LOT of reading to earn all that duct tape!  This year, there's no tape involved...instead, we've opted to keep things extra sweet! ;) I can't wait to see our students' faces when they hear this year's challenge! Click on the video below to check out our plan! Students will use the BINGO recording sheet below to try and get as many Bingos as they can! What are you doing to celebrate Read Across America week?
Welcome back, Everyone! We hope you all had an amazing holiday break filled with lots of memory making and book reading! Now that we're back in action in our most favorite place in the whole school, we wanted to share a new listening center that we've launched in the Media Center!  Your Library Ladies are huge fans of podcasts and thought it would be fun to share that love with you! Podcasts are awesome because you get a new episode every week, or month, so there is always something new to listen to! They also cover such a broad range of topics and interests so there's literally something for everyone! Our current favorite podcast is One More Page. It's a podcast for lovers of kids’ books and is packed full of interviews, book reviews, and even the occasional fart joke! Want to give it a listen?! Stop by the Media Center to check it out!
  Source: https://www.vat19.com/item/bloxels-make-your-own-video-game With Bloxels, students can build games and tell stories about anything you can imagine! Using their 13x13 gameboard and blocks, students are able to create all levels, characters, and any other art they have in mind. Once their design is created, they can use the free Bloxels Builder app to capture their gameboards and animate your heroes and enemies. See it in action in the video below! The best part? Mrs. O'Brien and Mrs. Cleary just ordered FIVE sets of Bloxels for our Media Center! We can't wait to share them with all of you!  Happy Holidays and thanks for joining in all of the fun of our "Six Days of Techmas!"
 On the fifth day of Techmas, my Librarian gave to me...Flipgrid! Flipgrid is a video conversation app that is perfect for showcasing student voice! Use this app for Back-to-school intros, booktalks, reflections, expert Q&As, to showcase STEAM ideas, etc. The possibilities are endless for students to verbalize their learning! Click on the video below for a step-by-step guide of how to use Flipgrid in your classrooms!  On the fourth day of Techmas, my Librarian gave to me...Quiver Vision to take your coloring to the next level with augmented reality!  So what is Quiver Vision, exactly? According to the creators of this AR app, Quiver allows children to bring their unique coloring creations to life in extraordinary 3D augmented reality. Characters literally leap off the page, entertaining both little and big minds!  There are so many different coloring packs to choose from within the site, including educational packs like the one you see above. Check out the demo video below to see the app in action!  On the third day of Techmas, my Librarian gave to me...Emoji and GIF fun for everyone! Want to spice up your lessons? Use these fun (and FREE!) apps and websites to add emojis and GIFs to your slide presentations, assignments, daily warm ups, and more! Check them out below!
 On the second day of Techmas, my Librarian gave to me...Classroom Screen! This amazing resource will seriously rock your Christmas socks! Classroom Screen is a one-stop shop for essential tools teachers always use! With over 10 useful widgets that you can project on the screen at the same time, teachers no longer have to visit multiple sites in order to launch different tools like timers, name pickers, notepads, etc.   Classroom Screen has the following tools and features:
Check out the demo video below to see how easy it is to navigate within Classroom Screen! It's sure to be one of your favorite classroom tools! |
AuthorMrs. O'Brien is a Library Media Specialist at Austell Elementary School in Austell, Georgia. Archives
February 2019
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