January to do list!!

Our boys and girls need to rev up their reading of the SCASL book award nominees for the 06-07 school year. Voting has to be submitted during the first week of February, so I will be soliciting votes the last two weeks of January!! Since I have half day scheduled classes, this will be one of the activities we will do during those last two weeks.

What else will we be doing in those scheduled library times?? We are really going to look at dewey numbers again, perhaps focusing on the numbers AFTER the decimals, and possibly connecting the decimal study from your math classes. We will also be making sure kids understand the different reference sources (encyclopedia, almanac, dictionary, atlas) since my teachers are bemoaning the fact that the MAP Test has questions that ask this, and the kids do not know. It doesn't matter how many times I explain they won't know unless the kids authentically use them, these teachers are insisting that I cover this. Goal: Help them create an authentic lesson where the kids must use all four. In the meantime, I am making a game--ppt type game to play with the kids, and then hand off to the classroom teachers to use--at least those with Promethean Boards.

Now--what will I be doing in my flexible time, besides circulating books? I have a 5th grade book brunch from December that was postponed. So I'll do that during our first week back. 3rd graders have just completed their Brattonsville field trips. So I am going to propose that the teachers get students to work on digital video project using Photostory3. It will require some tech exposure, but hopefully the teachers will devote some computer lab time to doing this. I think if they group the kids and give them the pictures taken, the kids can make a nice memory type video with narration and time period music.

Mrs. A. Sutton and I have to get REAL busy working on the year book too--we are the cosponsors, and our first deadline is rapidly approaching. Thankfully it is ONLY the class pages, which should be relatively simple, though I confess, we have NEVER done our yearbook online, and so I'm just a little nervous about this! We'll see. Last, the February Blossom sale begins towards the end of January, and I am TOTALLY responsible for it. Carnations for a dollar, delivered on Valentine's day, and the library we'll use the funds to buy books for the Field Day Free Book Fair.

Then we are going to gear up for our Feb and March Reader Prize Patrol (which I will detail later.)

Let's not forget that I will also be sponsoring my after school digital camera photography group (Creative Explorers.)So that will keep me realy busy too.

Geesh! I really need to slow down.