Library Media Tech Talk

This has been one of the busiest summers ever in our high school library. I have made efforts to share many of the activities on social media. It is important to show the community and administration what is happening, even in the summer months, since they are investing in our program. I want to share a few things with you that occurred this week that changed my thinking. My First Attempt at Using HyperDocs I was recently sent with a team from my school to my first ever Google Summit. One of the most interesting tools I learned about while there was the HyperDoc. This type of shareable, innovative document could be a Google Doc (It could also easily be a Word Document if you are using Docs.com or Office 365). The presenter was Will Kimbley (@willkimbley), and he showed us examples from his classroom content. He had placed a mixture of text, links, and even quizzes within the HyperDocs that were shared with students in Google Classroom. When learners accessed the content, they were ...

There are always students ready to lead book club discussions When the library began having summer hours during the 2013-2014 school year, I decided to make book clubs available to students during the summer months as part of our library services. During that same school year, we had our first student led book clubs. We have discovered that there are always students willing to lead book clubs in the library. This will be the third summer we have held a club. We decided to read The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. One of our upcoming juniors, Nathan, volunteered to lead discussion activities for three sessions. We started promoting this club during the last few weeks of school. Ten students signed up by the end of the school year. I used Remind to send text messages to book club members to help them remember the book club meeting dates and page assignments. One of our principals even sent out a phone message to all parents in grades 8-12 advertising the summer club. Nathan and I al...

I'm beginning my fourth year as a 12 month public school teacher librarian. I'd like to share some of the things I do in the summer months that have helped our learning community and our library program. It is rare in Arkansas (and in most states) to hear of 12 month school library positions. I want to pose some ideas for those of you that have considered working some of your contracted days in the summer months (if that is permissible in your school district). A Great Opportunity The library is a great place to host summer PD sessions! I have always envisioned the school library being available to students and teachers year round. This was something that came to pass for our learning community starting in the 2013-2014 school year. Since that time, I have witnessed a great increase in the use of summer library services, most notably following our recent library renovation earlier this school year.  Many people ask me "what do you do in the summer?" or ...

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...