Tales from a Loud Librarian

For Teen Tech Week , I wanted to create some kind of contest where I would provide a grand prize. The contest would be designed to have students submit some sort of written piece, and then I would randomly draw two names for the grand prize winners, one from middle school and one from high school. I like the idea that the winners are selected randomly and that just by entering the contest all students had an equal chance to win. Thinking about it, I decided that I would ask the kids to submit a review of a book, movie, or game that they would like to recommend to their friends. I gave wide parameters of what they could review. The students had to submit one paragraph with a brief summary and one paragraph explaining why they would recommend the book, movie or game to their friends. I created a Google form for them to submit, so it was easy to share on the library website and in emails. The students chose from new and old and below is a pie chart showing what they chose to review. It w...

This blog post is being designed as a lesson for the English I students at PFTSTA. The teachers and I have collaborated on an activity to celebrate Banned Book Week (BBW). Many times in the past during BBW, I have invited the 8th graders into the library to discuss the banning and challenging of books in schools and libraries. I usually show some videos and share books owned by our library that have been banned or challenged somewhere in the US. This activity always spurs great discussion among the students and teachers. This year we wanted the students to create a written response to the presentation. We thought there was a real world connection if we had the students post their opinion online as a comment to someone writing about censorship in schools. The teachers and I want the students to learn how to compose a well thought out comment that is supported by evidence and concrete details. How more real world could it be than having the students comment directly on their librar...

PFTSTA teacher Symbaloo I am an organizing freak. Though my desk may not always be neat as a pin (I run a very busy library), I usually can put my hands on exactly what I am looking for whether it is in print or in electronic format. My belief is that it is my job as a librarian to help everyone else in the school to be organized too. Which is why I love curation tools so much including Wikispaces, Livebinders, Diigo, Sqworl, Pinterest (unfortunately blocked at school), etc.  I learned about Symbaloo years ago at a librarians' conference but never really used it. Then at ISTE in 2014, I went to a poster session on Symbaloo. I was convinced that it would solve a huge problem at school. PFTSTA is a one to one laptop school, and the teachers try to teach with the least amount of paper as possible. As such, there are many, many on-lines google forms and responses, links, websites that are used on a daily basis by the faculty and staff. At the beginning of last ...

The other day I received news that I was nominated for an Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago. Every year, the university asks freshman to nominate a teacher from their high school who have made a direct impact on them. Patrick Taylor alumnus, Thomas Sostarics, nominated me. After receiving the letter, I texted Thomas a big thank you, and he responded by telling me that it was the least that he could do for all the support that I gave him and all of his classmates over the years that they attended Taylor. I feel so honored that he thought so much of me. Thomas was always an outstanding student, and when I wrote recommendations for him for college, I ended this way, (Thomas) "is going to be a real asset on any campus where he lands, and he will take advantage of every opportunity that you offer him. This is one of the students whom I will miss most of all when school starts up in the fall of 2014." It is so true. I miss him each and every day, but I k...

Every year around this time, I must call in all library book,s and all fines must be paid. I hate this time of year because I have to track down the kids and remind them numerous times that they owe a debt to the library. I know that many librarians have thrown out fines, but I don't think that the kids will return the books without the fines. I don't charge much, and when students owe a lot of money in fines, I often take off part of the fine if the student shows good faith and pays part of what they owe. I started something a few years ago that I thought would help me get the students to clear their debts quickly. I make a list of students who owe something to the library without listing the actual fees or books that are due. I title the list, Wall of Shame. I send out an announcement of the list to all the teachers, and I post the list on the library door. Most kids want their name off the Wall of Shame, so they get the books they owe back quickly. A few kids think it is a...

Yesterday, I received a thank you note from our good friend, author Jewell Parker Rhodes . The students in 7th grade read Ms. Rhodes book, Ninth Ward , collaborated with a 7th grade class from Iowa that read the book, and took a field trip to see the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. In February, Ms. Rhodes visited Patrick Taylor. During her visit, we showed her the videos that the students created that highlighted their field trip to the Ninth Ward. She explained that she was going to a conference in Oxford, England in March and would love to share the students' videos with the attendees. We sent her three of the videos which you can see here .    Above is a picture of the gifts that she sent the students. The package included pens and bookmarks that sported the Union Jack and postcards from Oxford. The seventh graders are holding up the postcards that they selected as their gift from Ms. Rhodes. Hiding on the left in the second row is English teacher Cheryl Bordelo...

The following article was written by a member of Bookmarked, the high school book group. It was published on Sunday, March 11, 2012 in the Westbank Picayune. This is a special section of the Times Picayune that is only published on the Westbank.    Area high school students are invited to be journalists for the year. They select a topic about their school that they want to share, and the articles are published monthly. This month Kayla writes about the PFTSTA Library. She did a wonderful job, but I didn't even know about it until I saw someone tacking a copy on the bulletin board outside the office. I put so much information on the library website that Kayla didn't need to interview me. I could not find an electronic copy of this article. If you click on it, you can view a  bigger size that is readable.  Way to go Kayla, thanks for making the PFTSTA Library look so good. I hope all the kids at Taylor feel like it is a great place to visit or hang out. 

The above picture shows the table of contents of the January 18th edition of SLJ Teen Yesterday, I received an email from School Library Journal (SLJ) asking if Bookmarked , the high school library book group, would be interested in reviewing books for them. SLJ has several email/online newsletters. One of them is called SLJ Teen. In that bi-monthly newsletter, four to six teen reviews are posted in each issue.  The students in Bookmarked are already reviewing books for YALSA's Teen's Top Ten (TTT). I require each student to write at least one review every month to submit to the publishers. The student might nominate the book for TTT if they think that it is worthy. I think that the students could use the same review for TTT that they submit to the SLJ newsletter with some nominal additions. The teen reviews in SLJ Teen run about 200 words with half of the review describing plot and the other half describing why the reader liked or didn't like a particular book. I thi...

It's not often that we see 35 little ones sitting on the floor in the PFTSTA Library It has been almost nine years since I was an elementary school librarian. I miss the beautiful picture books, and the way I could hold a class of 32 kids in the palm of my hands as I told a gripping story. Luckily, we have an event every year that gives me the opportunity to ham it up and be silly in front of a group of kids.  Each semester, Mrs. Higgins, the seventh grade science teacher invites the 4th graders from Metairie Academy to visit PFTSTA. The students spend 45 minutes engaged in the experiments that the 7th graders created, and then they spend 45 minutes with me. I have two fabulous books by Steve Jenkin s that I have used for three different Extravaganza events. The non-fiction books, Bones and Actual Size , are huge with amazing pictures and the science fits right into the event. You can see me on the right reading to the students.  Once I read the books, my 8...

I received a bunch of multiple copies of brand new books from a library that could not use them. I wanted to give them away as prizes, so I ran another email contest for the students. That way, I would be getting the books into the hands of kids as well as getting them to read their school email. I also went through some of the boxes in the library and found more books to give away. I had  a total of 31 books which meant ten percent of the student body would win a book. I really like surveys. So I created a google form and asked the following questions.: What electronic device do you want for Christmas, be realistic or dream a little either way is correct?; What device do you want to give your family for Christmas?; What device do you want to give your friends for Christmas?; and finally, What device do you want to give your teachers for Christmas?. I am so proud of the students at PFTSTA; by reading their responses, you can tell that they put a lot of thought into it. Even thou...

When Lisa Valence and I heard that we won the Gale TEAMS Award in September, we thought that we would receive $2500 and that would be it. Who knew this was an honor that would keep on giving and giving, even several months later. Gale Cengage sent us to the American Association of School Librarian's Conference in Minneapolis in October and held a reception there in our honor. We have a year's subscription to Library Media Connection magazine, and we are waiting to receive the cash award along with $500 in Gale products and some Linworth products, too. Library Media Connection asked us to write an article for their magazine describing the collaborative project that we submitted for the award.  The icing on the cake is this marvelous video that Gale had produced about Patrick Taylor Academy and the project that we designed to teach the social studies research paper. The video was shown at the Gale booth in the exhibit hall during the AASL conference (over and over ag...

The A marks where we were standing during the Skype session Today the 7th graders, two English teachers, the PE teacher who drove the bus and myself headed down to the Ninth Ward. The students had read Jewell Parker Rhodes ' book, The Ninth Ward . The students have also teamed up with a 7th grade class in Van Meter, IA. They have been communicating with these students via  Edmodo . Today on the field trip, we skyped using my iPhone with the students in Iowa. We asked six of our students to be the eyes and ears for the students in Iowa. We showed the Iowans some of the Make It Right Houses built from the foundation that Brad Pitt created. The kids in Iowa asked us some questions. Most of these questions centered on the students' personal experiences during Hurricane Katrina. It was a great experience. I have more pics to share in later posts. Below you can see us skyping with the phone.  Yes, 3G works in the field. It is not an ideal way to Skype, but we got our poi...

Below is a letter that I received from a student who moved away a couple of weeks ago. I knew that she enjoyed the library, but I did not realize that I had made such an impression on her. I love this letter.   It makes all that I do everyday worthwhile. By the way, I also love that I have a number one bookworm. To read the letter, you can click on it to view it in a larger size.

On Thursday, October 13th the 7th graders, Ms. Bordelon and I  joined 1100 other schools to watch a live presentation by James Patterson from Palm Beach, FL. He was in the auditorium of his son's middle school with several hundred students in attendance. He was there to talk about his new book, Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life . The event took place during our lunch period, so all the students were munching during the presentation. Since Mr. Patterson could not see us or hear us, it was not an issue. His message about reading was right on target. He believes that all kids need to read and read well. Good readers will have more choices in life and end up with better careers. He said to read like your life depended on it. If you want to be a good writer, then you must READ! He said that kids need to find good books that will engage them. Besides his titles, he also recommended the Percy Jackson series, Warrior series, Book Thief , and The Invention of Hugo ...

The 8th and 9th graders were blown away when Heather Brewer began talking at 9:30AM, Wednesday the 28th. She called all the teens in the room her minions. She believes in "world domination." With world domination, she and her minions could change the world to be a more accepting place. A place where there would be no bullies and everyone is accepted for who they are whatever that may be. Heather Brewer knows bullies, as she was not treated well by her peers in school. One of the students said it was the best author visit ever, and two teachers said the talk was awesome because Heather was so real. She spoke with honesty from the heart, and the students could relate. There were many hugs when she arrived and even during her talk. One student couldn't contain herself when she found out that Green Day was one of Auntie Heather's fav bands. She ran up for some love, and Heather was extremely accommodating. The main character in the Vladimir Tod Chronicles  is ...

One of my goals for this school year is to create 2-3 minute mini-lessons that teach students how to use the library databases and create citations for their research. This is the current trend called a flipped classroom or blended classroom. If students can get to the how-tos at home, then at school I can spend time hands on with helping them in their research. I have created a few videos, but it is slow going. To speed up the process, I have enlisted some student helpers. The students chose what they wanted to teach and used Screencast-o-matic  to create their tutorials. When I make the videos, I use my laptop and a microphone. The students decided it would be easier for them to create them by using the interactive white board. The pictures below show two students as they create their screencast. All instructional videos can be found on the PFTSTA Channel in Vimeo .  

Here are some of our new students. I broke a record I think. On the fourth day of school they were in the library for orientation. After orientation, the doors to the library are open for the school year. It was a stampede. The kids were begging me to open. I could not say no. Food in the library. That is an issue that remains a problem. I really don't want the food, but on the other hand I know that they students want somewhere other than the cafeteria to eat. I make sure that they throw away all trash, but they still manage to drop bits and pieces on the tables and the floor.