Library Media Tech Talk

This was a great year for the Library Media Tech Talk Blog! I created this blog in March 2014. I sincerely hope that my posts have been both interesting and helpful to all educators! As 2016 comes to a close, I want to share our most-read articles of the year. Top 5 most read blog posts of 2016 3265 pageviews: The Flexible School Library: Creating a 21st Century Space For Our Learners 2698 pageviews : How 6 Picture Frames Made A Difference In The School Library 2165 pageviews :  Create A Library Sign-In With Google Forms 1805 pageviews : Four Ways To Lead From The School Library 1757 pageviews : Library Orientation Breakout EDU Thank you for reading this blog! Happy New Year, friends! How we held the 2016 Skype-a-Thon in the library! My table of contents for the blog is here! I have a monthly email newsletter for the subscribers of the Library Media Tech Talk blog. If you are interested in exclusive content not appearing on the blog, b...

Updated February 18, 2017 Recently, I have heard from many teacher librarian friends around the country (and world) that are encountering the effects of personnel and/ or budget cuts. This deeply saddens me when I learn of library services being cut back in any way. We should explore ways to be proactive to hopefully minimize these effects. Sometimes, no amount of promoting the library seems to make a difference when money is tight, but we should still make the effort to show the value of the library. It is crucial that we show the school, community, and world that libraries are an essential part of learning. We should strive to lead from the library and work to do this even from areas in which we are not comfortable because this is how growth takes place. I'd like to share what has worked for me in the 9 years I have served as a school librarian. This isn't a perfect method of leadership, but I have seen it work year after year. 1. Build Relationships I used to thi...

It's that time of year. You have been running strong since August. Students are ready for summer; you can sense this feeling more each day. Everyone is ready for a break! It's ok to be tired. It's ok to look forward to a vacation this summer, but it's also essential to keep going strong right up to the last day. Here are a few tips to keep the motivation up and lead the way from the school library. 1. Reflect on the great things you have done with students and teachers this year. Show short videos or slideshows of meaningful programs from this school year. Display them in the library, so students can see them. This will ignite powerful memories of learning for you and your learning community. 2. Continue greeting students and building relationships. By late May, very often students will come in making requests without saying "hello" or "good morning". Mr. Ray Borel (one of our library assistants) and I generally always follow up these imperson...