Adjusting to Virtual Life

 We are now 3 1/2 months into our hybrid learning, and it is still a daily adjustment. Not having over half of your student population here on campus is definitely a challenge for this librarian I definitely feel like the role has shifted more toward teacher support more than student support, and I'm feeling pretty successful. 

Teacher Support

Our district has moved to Canvas as our Online Learning Platform, which was a huge change for our teachers. In previous years, we have used Google Classroom. However, with the current pandemic and need for remote learning, our district made the shift to Canvas. 

Let's be honest for a moment, while Canvas is amazing, it was not easy to learn. There is a MUCH BIGGER learning curve involved when it comes to Canvas. So, most of my hours have been spent helping teachers adjust. I am really enjoying that part of my role. After working in education for 20 years, and all 20 of those focused on the student, it is refreshing to be able to support the teachers more. That is my silver lining from the situation we are in right now. 

Virtual Library 

In the past, one of my favorite activities to set up has been a book tasting. I love setting the books out on the tables, and students rotate around the library to preview the books. It is always a BIG hit with the students. I've done this activity in elementary and middle school settings. 

This year, we could not do this in person for two reasons:

1. over half of our students are remote learning from home. 
2. we can't go around touching all the books and rotating to tables. 

So, I got my creative juices flowing and made a Virtual Book Tasting. 

The students are really enjoying it!! I've had several come into the library with screenshots asking to check out the book. Most of the books on the activity are checked out. 

Copy of Virtual Book Tasting

Book Suggestions: If You Liked DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

As I promised, here are book suggestions for your summer reading. I know many of my readers love the DIARY OF A WIMPY KID series, and have read them more than once.  So, my first book suggestions will be for you readers that love this series.

If you like Diary of a Wimpy Kid you should also read:

  Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

This is the first book in the Middle School series, and a movie is coming out this summer based on this book.  The main character, Rafe, is starting middle school and has a handful of problems at home. Rafe and his friends make up a game where they earn points by breaking the rules of their very strict principal. Along the way, Rafe meets up with the school bully and has his first crush.

Inside the book are lots of cartoon drawings to tell the story, similar to the drawings in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. 

 My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian

This is the first book in the My Life series. Derek is excited that summer is starting and is planning lots of mischief and silly investigations. Unfortunately, his mom has other plans and is sending him to Learning Camp. His mom wants him to read books other than his comics and graphic novels. He reluctantly goes off to summer camp and makes some unexpected friendships.

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Another first in a series, the Spy School series. Ben is an average middle school student, but is very clumsy. His dream job is to be a CIA agent. He is picked to attend a math magnet school, but due to mistaken identify is sent to Spy School. Does Ben, with all his clumsiness and mishaps, have what it takes to be a secret agent?

**This book does use minor curse words, so this book is for my older readers.




Stay tuned this summer for more book suggestions. Next week, I will have book suggestions for you Harry Potter lovers!

What are you reading this summer?

Don't forget, you can read books from your computer and tablets this summer by downloading eBooks.  The Big Nate and the Alvin Ho books are all available as eBooks. These two series are also great reads if you enjoyed the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Your login is your student id # and password is gisd.

Holidays at Hillside

The semester is nearly complete. WOW! These past months have flown by, and I have nearly completed a semester of being a school librarian. I have loved every minute of my new position, and I cannot wait to see what the next semester has in store for me at Hillside Academy.

The library is decorated for the holidays, and I must say it looks amazing. My fifth grade junior library assistants helped me put up the tree, and even decorated the tree skirt. I let them each sign their name so I will remember over the years who made the tree skirt. 

The library has received some gifts for this holiday season. We just received 3 new large bean bag chairs and a beautiful rug for our reading area. I have to rearrange some shelves soon to make room for the rug, but it will be ready soon. The bean bag chairs are already getting a lot of use. 

We also finally received our eBooks in the Hillside catalog. The students were so excited when I told them about the eBooks, and already I have almost half of the eBooks in use and checked out now. It made my heart happy that the kids were so excited about books. 

Alright, let's talk books now! Kindergarten has been comparing stories in the library. In their classes, kinder students have been reading and listening to different Gingerbread stories, such as The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Man, and The Gingerbread Girl.  In the library, I read the kinder students The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires, then we discussed the similarities and differences. 

First graders compared stories and made text-to-self connections in the library this month. We read the famous poem by Clement Moore, The Night Before Christmas. The students were upset that Rudolph was not in the story, so we had a discussion about how the poem was written before Santa found Rudolph and asked him to lead his sleigh. The following week, I read Texas Night Before Christmas by James Rice. The kids laughed at my southern Texan accent. After they finished giggling, we compared the two versions of the story. 

This is one of my favorite versions. The illustrations are beautiful!

Last Friday, the students had their house holiday parties. Each house had hot chocolate, made an ornament, and was able to invite their parents. The best part of my day was being able to go to my kids' house parties and seeing their bright smiles during the school day.