January Recap

 

I know it is the 2nd week of February, but I'm still playing catch up on the ice storm and days off we had last week. I was at the TCEA conference, and was planning to come home on Wednesday, but the weather had different plans for me. I was not able to come home until Thursday afternoon, and school was cancelled due to ice on Friday. School was closed for 4 days! In Texas we don't get ice very often, but when we do it is dangerous ice. 

Favorite book of 2022

Let's go back to the beginning of January. I love to assess my year in books for the previous year the first week of January. In 2022 I read 66 books, and had set a goal of 60. I went over my goal this year. I do not count the picture books I read, only chapter and professional books. 

My favorite middle grade/YA book from 2022 was THE LAST CUENTISTA by Donna Barba Higuera. This book also won the Newbery Award for 2022. It is a dystopian / Science Fiction book, and is absolutely beautiful! A must purchase for the school library collection. 

Professional Development Days 

I love professional development days! It gives me a day before the students come back to process my thoughts. But the best thing about PD is that I'm with my people! All the district librarians were together for this day, so I even got to see my former elementary peeps. It was a great day of learning - we looked at STAAR 2.0 questions and how we can support the teachers in the library with the new test format. Then the afternoon, we did a quick book study of HACKING SCHOOL LIBRARIES by Kristina Holzweiss and Stony Evans. It is a must read for new and seasoned school librarians. 

Fun in the Library

This month was short due to trainings I had to attend and the library being closed for CBE testing. However, I was still able to see most of the English classes, plus schedule "Book Blasts" for the reading classes. 

8th grade has started a unit over persuasive writing, so I showed that all the amazing things in our Gale Opposing Viewpoints database. We discussed how to build a better argument by looking at both sides of an issue. Then we explored some of the issues in the database. 

6th grade had a BLAST coding with our favorite robot, Ozobot. I found an Ozobot activity that ties in with Lunar New Year. We first talked about the holiday, then I told them about the tradition in China where the adults give the children red envelopes with coins. So, their challenge was to code Ozobot to go around the path to collect the red envelopes from the family members. It was so much fun watching the different ways the students coded the robots. 

January Statistics 

I was surprised at my statistics this month, being closed 3 days for testing, and gone for training a few days. The library was open when I was gone for training, but not as many students come in if they know I'm gone. 

Even so, we had 1,314 books circulated through our library. My student aides were super busy this month shelving. Plus we are trying to keep up with the dynamic shelving. It definitely increases circulation, but you are almost constantly replacing the books on display. 

My goal is to advertise eBooks more often - they don't get checked out as often as I'd like. 

How was your January?