Thanks Northside!

It is with sadness that I post to my followers that I am leaving Northside. I will be relocating to the Myrtle Beach area to work at another school library. I will be the "teacher librarian" at Conway Middle School serving grades six through eight. In the five years that I have been at Northside I have learned so much about teaching, engagement, assessment, and arts integration. Many of you know me because of your library classes and our technology activities. I'm proud to say I worked at Northside and in Rock Hill. I think Rock Hill has a vision for education that is progressive and BEYOND exciting, and maybe someday I'll come back. But for now, I will explore opportunities in a middle school along the coastal regions of South Carolina. When i have a web presence and/or a school email, I'll post it. For those who need to contact me now, i can be reached at cathyjonelson -at- gmail dot com.

Last, I do have a professional blog at http://technotuesday.edublogs.org

Field Day Book Give Away - Big success

Our annual book give away on Field Day was a huge success once again thanks to Sullivan Middle and Ebinport Elementary. The library is transformed into a book store look, and every students gets to come through and select a book, totally FREE. We had a minor snafu this year. When our boxes came in from Scholastic, no one noticed that box #1 never made it in. All were signed for though. : (

So we called upon all schools who were having a book fair in the district, and two nearby were there to bail us out! Sullivan was having a BOGO free sale, and Ebinport had a spring fair. So we hit both book fairs and got all the needed books t make up the difference.

Usually field day is a HOT day, and the library is scheduled in the rotation to follow a much needed water and restroom break. So we enjoy offering our kids a cool respite from the typical hot, muggy weather. SURPRISE! It never made it to 60 degrees on field day Friday (May 4), and around 9:30 rain arrived, bringing all our activities indoors for the remainder of the day.

Usually on this day, we offer every student, teacher, and sibling that visits from home an opportunity to select a book. But with the missing box snafu (which still has not shown up!) we were concerned we would not have enough books. So sadly we had to limit book selecting to just Northside students--no teachers or siblings. The rain I suppose kept most siblings (who tend to come with parents) away, so we did not have to turn away any little brothers or sisters. Yeah!

It was a great day, and my hat is off to my handy helper for the day, Mrs. Alicia Sutton, who took care of the majority of this, allowing me to do administrative library things during the day. Thanks Sutton!

A new direction

Things are changing for me right now. Everything is up in the air. Friends call to inquire...I tell no one. I can't. Wednesday is the day.

The contest for field day is off for now. I can't come up with a fair way to do something equitable for K-2nd grade. 3rd-5th was easy. Just make them use OPAC and match titles with characters, events, plot summaries or special characteristics for the 2008 SC Children's Book Nominees.

So I return my focus to ending the school year. All faculty & staff got their check-out list today. I was stunned. I need to make certificates for ENN (our in-school news program) and AR for the Awards Day Programs. I will do a participation style certificate for ENN. I will do Point clubs, Highest Student per class, Highest Student per grade, and Highest student in School (I guess.) It is what has been done in the past. Not my favorite award, but its what the library always contributes. Usually these programs are going on simultaneously while I have classes, so this is not a big deal for me. Someone else gives out my awards anyway. But I still must work on them.

Another Contest coming!!! MAY 4th!!

The library has so much enjoyed these trivia contests, that we are planning another one! May 4th is field day at Northside, and everyone already knows we plan a huge book give-away! The library is a station in the rotation of field day every year, and it is a pit stop during the day's events where students can take break, rest, relax in the air conditioning, and best, select a free book of their choice. That's right folks, our library spends roughly $800 to set up a book fair where kids bring no money, but take away a free book! (This is one of the ways we use proceeds from our book fairs. And best, PTO does a matching cost to help!) I would have to say this is probably one of the most favorite stations at field day! Students seem very interested in the contests lately, so our next one will result in 2 winners on field day. We haven't decided what the contest will be, but there will be a drawing for two winners, one from the early childhood grades and one from our upper grades. What will the winners get?? Each student who wins will get to select FIVE books on field day instead of just one. How cool is that?? I am now so looking forward to field day! If anyone has a suggestion for this contest, let me know. I'm game for ideas!

April 20 Contest Winners!!

Okay, we did our daily trivia all week (Monday through Thursday) and we have winners!! There are four winners from our upper grades (3rd - 5th) and four winners from our early childhood grades (Kindergarten through 2nd.) Here are the winners:
Noel G. - 1st Grade
Lauren B. - 2nd Grade
D.J. H. - 2nd Grade
Caleb J. - 2nd Grade
Michael B. - 3rd Grade
Austen P. - 3rd Grade
Jeffrey E. - 4th Grade
Karyli S. - 5th Grade
Congratulations to these students. Each one has a coupon to select a Book Fair Book valued at $5.99. The Book Fair is this week.

Library Trivia Contest - a change

Instead of making stickers to go on students each day for K-2nd grade, I am making class signs that contain the cover images of six titles. The trivia question will be announced on the morning tv show, as originally planned, but students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade will have the opportunity to look at six different covers and choose their answer to submit. A trivia question will be announced each morning, Monday - Thursday, and daily teachers will submit students' entries. On Friday we will draw names live on the new program, ENN. I'm so excited! This is all part of our April events to celebrate April as National Library Month.

Scholastic Book Fair -- April 23-27

Coming next week! The Scholastic Book Fair will be visiting Northside April 23-27! We will have one evening of late hours. Plan to return after school Thursday, April 26 until 6:00 PM to make a book fair purchase. The library will be sponsoring daily questions announced on ENN each day this week (April 16-20) and then draw names each day of the book fair for students to come and select one paperback book (for $5.99 or less). Listen carefully during our Explorers Network News for the daily research question. Visit the library or DISCUS to find an answer, and submit answers by the end of each day. To help younger students, a separate set of questions will be on stickers that Kindergarten through 2nd graders can wear home, and they can bring the correct answer back (after getting help from a parent or older sibling.) All correct responses will be placed in the daily drawing, and then each day next week during the book fair, tune in to ENN to see whose names are drawn! The book fair will be closing at 9:00 AM Friday morning, so plan accordingly if you will be making a purchase!

Coming Friday, April 20, 2007

On Friday (April 20, 2007) Northside will have a visitor in our library. Bethany Fetzer, Children's Librarian for the York County Public Library System will be visiting to kick off their upcoming summer reading program designed for kids. You'll miss it? Don't fret! Bethany has agreed to allow Mrs. Nelson to video the half hour sessions, and these videos will be shared with age appropriate groups as they visit the library during the next two weeks! Each class will have a "scheduled" class time during the next two weeks, and Northside will share the video of Bethany book-talking books, promoting the library's summer reading program, and encouraging students to take home a library card application. I look forward to hearing this presentation, and sharing it with other classes that will miss her in action!

New Books!

I just received an email notification that our last two book orders will be shipped this week! Now I know we are on spring break, but that hopefully means by Friday they will be ready for checking out! What new books are we getting? Well, we have ordered all of our picture book and children's book nominees for the SCASL Book Award program. We have also fleshed out more of our World War II books and figurative language books--these have been requested repeatedly by our teachers. They include some 900s and biographies, as well as easy fictions to help teach figurative language. That pretty much took care of one of the book orders. The other order takes the remaining money we had left from our school budget, and combined with the "Rock Hill Reads" Literacy Walk money our school raised, we are replenishing many of our worn out but ever popular easy, beginning (Emerging) reading books. I polled both kids and teachers, and overwhelmingly, we were asked to get more Junie B. Jones, No David books (that's what the kids call them--actually they are David Shannon's books), and Froggy books--by our students. Our 1st grade teachers begged for newer, better looking Hillert books. So the 2nd order will contain these books. Students who had a book plate sent to our school in their name will be invited to the media center during this week to select from either set a book they wish to have their book plate in, and these books will be displayed for the remainder of the year for a quick check out. Oh but first, those students will be allowed to check them out for the first time. These books will be on a cart marked "brand new!" for the remainder of April for anyone who wishes to drop by and look through or check out.