Saturday, January 28, 2012

What A Week!!!!

This has been such a week.  It is report card time.  I did 21 classes of report cards on Monday afternoon and evening.  I was glad when they were finished, but boy did I have a headache.  Our reports cards, along with our grade book is done on the computer.  The week just went down hill from there.  I think it was partly me, but I know it was partly the kids too.  It made me feel a little better to talk to the other teachers in my building and they expressed the same feelings.  I was sure glad when Friday afternoon came.  I ended up staying at school until 6:00pm on Friday.  There were little things that were just bothering me all week and I needed to take care of them.  I couldn't face coming in Monday and still having to do them.  Also my assistant was out for Thursday and Friday, so things were a little more scattered because when she is not there I do her job and mine.  I have to rethink a few of my classes this weekend and go in fresh on Monday.  The bright spot of the week is we have an early dismissal day on Thursday and I have a book fair workshop happening at my school. I just love book fair and I love the workshops because I get to see what new books will be there.


Here's hoping your week wasn't as bad as mine and that next week will be better.


Stacey

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Caldecott Winners & Newbery Winners


Well, I was very surprised with the book that won, A Ball for Daisy," illustrated and written by Chris Raschka. This one had not ever appeared on my radar.  I can't wait to get it.  I'm on the wait list at my local library.  All the Caldecott Honor books I had on my recent book order.  The order can't get here fast enough!  

I'm not familiar with any of the Newberry winners.  But I've got them on hold at my local library too.  Has anyone read any of the Newberry books?  It looks like I've got quite a few books to add to my reading list for 2012!

In the next few days I'll post about a great new assessment app that I read about in another technology blog.  It is really neat and will provide a lot of documentation!!

Stacey

Monday, January 23, 2012

American Library Association Youth Media Awards!

Today is the day, finally!!  We get to find out the new Caldecott and Newbery Award Winners for 2012.  I can't wait.  There were so many good choices out there this year!  The link below is for a live webcast.  It starts at 7:45 CT.  I wish that I would be able to watch, but the filtering system my school system uses won't allow for live streaming video.  I guess I'll have to keep checking online.  Have a great Monday.


Stacey


http://webcastinc.com/client/ala-webcast/ 

Friday, January 20, 2012

Display for Top Ten Checkouts

I finally had time today to put my display together for the Top Ten Checkouts.  I think that it turned out great!  I  took a picture of the whole display.  I have windows all around my office, so the blue piece of paper are the display.  Then I took a picture of two of the top ten up close.  


To make the display, I took one piece of blue construction paper and glued on the ribbon that I had cut out using the die cut machine. Then I made copies of the covers of the books, cut them out and mounted them on black construction paper.  Next I typed up the title, author, and call number of the book and extra information if needed.  I mounted those on black too.  I'm also going to display the books if they are not checked out.  Most of the books in my top ten were already checked out.  


Let me know what you think.  You can see me in one of the pictures.  I didn't notice until I was ready to post the pictures.


Stacey




Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Top Ten Checkouts

I use the Destiny system for book checkout.  I was looking at tab called "Reports" and clicked on Library Reports.  I found a really neat report called "Top/Bottom Titles".  This report allows me to set parameters to customize the data that I get.  I set it to show me the top 10 books for the past 60 days.  I was surprised that it was all fiction books.  I know that we have a lot of nonfiction circulating, but I guess there are more books to choose from.  Using the data, I'm setting up a top ten display, that will change every month.  I'm going to working on it at school tomorrow and I will post pictures when I get it all set up.

I've been working on coming up with new displays.  I'm still working on the one that I wrote about a few posts below.  These are going out in the hallway so I want them to be almost perfect.

Stacey

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Technology: I love it & hate it!

It has been a great and very rough week with technology for me. The great part was I got a smartphone! I can't believe I wanted this long. In fact I'm using it to type my post tonight. It is just like after I got my Smartboard, I can't remember how I taught without it. Now on to the part that I hate. My parents computer has a hard drive that is going bad. I ordered a system restore disc from the unnamed computer company. Well, because of the horrible flooding over in Thailand it has been delayed twice! They needed a computer, so I went over to the store with my father tonight and bought a new computer. They are going to make restore discs so we won't have to go through this again. Stacey

Friday, January 6, 2012

My Good Reads Challenge Update

Wow, I was surprised how hard it is read "new" books!  I never really thought about it before, but I have books that I love to use with certain lessons.  Which means those are books that I've read before.  This has been a real challenge for me, but one that I'm getting so much from.  As you can see two posts below, I've now read 22 books out of my 2012 goal.  I've come across some great books, thanks to the blog Watch. Read. Connect. by Mr. Schu.  You will find the list below of those books and some others that I've found.  If you haven't read these, I suggest you find them at the library.


Blackout by John Rocco
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet  (I LOVED this one!!!!)
Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner
Sticky Burr:  The Prickly Peril by John Lechner
Jingle Bells:  How the Holiday Classic Came to Be by John Harris
I Didn't Do It by Patricia MacLachlan (A great poetry book using dogs)


Happy Reading!!!


Stacey



Thursday, January 5, 2012

Major Technology Frustration!!!!

I had mistakenly signed out of my blog account.  When I tried to sign back in I got a message saying that my email that I had associated with the blog was also being used now by my school system for an account.  It was set up by the school system.  I guess they are going to be switching our email.  The message that I got said that it should only take a few minutes to the change my email.  Well, after 30 minutes and a few choice words I finally got it changed.  Come to find out, well remember, I had used my other email account on Google already.  So I had to figure out how to delete that association.  But I succeed and can once again sign in without an issue!!!  


Stacey

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Good Reads 2012 Challenge

I'm going to be trying to do the Good Reads 2012 Challenge this year.  This is where I've challenged myself to read 2012 books this year that I haven't read before.  I'm not sure how to get the link to the widget to appear on the side, so I'm posting it in a post.  I'll update every few weeks.  During the school year I'm going to try and read as many picture books and chapter books as I can, but during the summer a few other titles might slip in.  I'm going to see how it goes.

I haven't really had a lot of time to explore www.goodreads.com.  I just set up my account over my break.  I'm hoping to have time in the next few weeks to explore the site.

Stacey


2012 Reading Challenge

2012 Reading Challenge
Stacey has read 2 books toward her goal of 2012 books.
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Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that it is already 2012.  I wonder how many weeks this year I will write 2011 on my checks.  I'm also going back to school today!  It will be a full week, one that I hope will be calm.

It's hard to believe that I'm still not 100% healthy yet.  I'm slowly feeling better.  It's been a long time since I've been this sick.  The only upside of being sick over my break was no lesson plans!

Wishing you happiness and health in 2012!

Stacey