What goes on in my library? Check out the Teaching category to get all the details on library lessons, computer science collaborations, library interns, middle school electives, social emotional exercises, book clubs, resource lists, and more.
Last Friday, November 8, I had the pleasure of joining a fabulous presentation team to share 20,000 Pennies, our story of community connection sparked through literature. Our presentation team included Kara McClurken, co-founder of Bennett’s Village, and Jack Dozier, St. Anne’s-Belfield School student and leader of the Leveling the Playing Field for Children in Charlottesville […]
On October 29, the Haunted Library opened its doors once again for a one-night-only, hands-on family celebration. Much like last year’s event, the 2019 Haunted Library invited ghouls and ghosts to attend in their costumes and explore creepy projects and games together. This year, middle schoolers were completely in charge of the event – from […]
Middle school self checkout is back, and better than ever! After a bumpy couple of years (filled with lots of lost books and oops-I-checked-it-out-to-my-friend-but-I’ll-take-it-anyway and what-do-you-mean-I-never-checked-it-out-at-all), I admitted librarian defeat and closed down our self checkout station. Middle schoolers had to come to the circulation desk to checkout with me, and had no options when I […]
You’ve probably heard about using the food pyramid to keep a healthy diet, but what about getting balanced nutrition for your brain? Instead of the same old genre review, my fourth graders are exploring the Brain Food Pyramid this week – the secret to a balanced diet for your brain 🧠 Together, we took a look […]
“You mean we get to TOUCH the ROBOTS?!” 🤖 💕 As part of our robotics unit, kindergarten students got up close and personal with their first set of robots this week! We used a beloved, classic story to ground this unit in literacy and bring the story to life. We started by sharing The Very […]
It’s Global Read Aloud season! The annual literary tradition kicked off at the end of September, and our students are so excited to be reading and connecting with readers all over the world through amazing common literature. We are extra excited this year to be the school from the state of Virginia participating in the […]
I love teaching graphic novels, especially to middle school readers. My goal with any graphic novel unit is to get readers to think about their books differently and start reading them as closely and seriously as they do their traditional novels. You can see a collection of my past work with graphic novels here. This […]
It’s Fall Family Book Club time, and we’re adding a pinch of magic to our Book Club recipe! Students and their families are invited to read Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble, by Anna Mariano. Family Book Club is designed for students and their parents/families to share the story together at home. After completing the novel, all […]
Do librarians use lesson plans? What kind of planner do you use? How do you plan for so many different classes every week in the library – and how do you keep it all straight? I’ve gotten a few questions recently about how I plan, so I wanted to share my current system. Planning as […]