Press

Charlottesville Business Innovation Council
Entrepreneurs, Businesses, and Educators Recognized for Leadership, Innovation
The Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC) is pleased to release a list of finalists for the 21st Annual CBIC Awards Gala. Twenty-five local organizations and individuals are being recognized with nominations for nine coveted CBIC awards including CBIC Educator of the Year. Read on CvilleInnovation.org.

The Tiny Acvitist
Sound off Sunday: Introducing Sarah FitzHenry
We love to continue to grow and learn, which is why we absolutely loved talking with Sarah FitzHenry, who is the brains behind Fitz Between the Shelves. Sarah gave us an amazing list of books to check out which will you have running to your local library too! We hope you have as good of a time learning more about Sarah as we did! Read on The Tiny Activist.

OESIS-XP
Library Faculty Services Panel
Panelists Sarah FitzHenry (librarian at St. Anne’s-Belfield School), Devorah Bader (librarian at Tarbut V. Torah Community Day School), and Kristy Kilfoyle (Director of Libraries, Canterbury School) discuss innovation in school libraries with panelist Sanje Ratnavale. Watch and listen on OESIS-XP.

Tech-Girl Monthly from Tech-Girls and Charlottesville Women in Tech
Tech-Girl Spotlight: Sarah FitzHenry
Each month we spotlight a woman or girl in tech who inspires us. This month we are highlighting Sarah FitzHenry, a library superhero! Read on Tech-Girl Monthly.

Nerdy Book Club
What Happened to My Reader?
“What happened to my reader? Last year, he was in the library every week picking out books. I had to take his book away at meals. Now, I can’t get him to read anything. It’s like he has no interest in it.” Why do students love to read one minute and not the next? Two faculty members look at the habits of young students and how to cultivate lifelong readers. Read on Nerdy Book Club.

St. Anne’s-Belfield School
Learning Village Library Hosts Identity Wall for Students, Families. Recent visitors to the Legner Learning Village Library may have noticed a new installation where the Quiet Room windows are usually found, a “Yo Soy/I Am” wall full of bilingual statements from the St. Anne’s-Belfield School community. Read on STAB.org.

St. Anne’s-Belfield School
School Hosts Cville OneBook Workshop. Nearly 40 parents, students, and faculty members gathered for the Cville OneBook “Tools for Handling Difficult Discussions” workshop on Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Belfield Campus. Read on STAB.org.

Perspectives
#STABSummerReading. Led by Learning Village Librarian Sarah FitzHenry, a School community campaign to celebrate pleasure reading during the Summer Break saw more than 150 posts of #STABSummerReading shared on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The posts showed the books, and reading environments, enjoyed by faculty and staff members, parents, and, of course, students. Read in Perspectives, on page 13.

Perspectives
The Power of Design Thinking. “We’re looking to hire consultants to solve a library problem. All interested parties will study the problem, design a solution, and pitch a prototype. Not every group will be hired. Any questions?” Using the design thinking process to empower students to solve library problems. Read in Perspectives, on page 22.

Charlottesville Tomorrow
St. Anne’s-Belfield School’s #STABSummerReading Social Media Campaign Fights Summer Reading Slump. Led by Learning Village Librarian Sarah FitzHenry, a St. Anne’s-Belfield School community campaign to celebrate pleasure reading during the summer break has seen more than 150 posts of #STABSummerReading shared on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The posts show the books, and reading environments, enjoyed by faculty and staff members, parents, and, of course, students. Read on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Nerdy Book Club
The Great Graphic Novel Experiment. So [my coworker] and I set a goal: we would stop guiding students away from graphic novels to something more “serious.” Instead we would help readers to see what graphic novels really are: worthwhile, serious, and profound pieces of literature— if you know how to read them effectively. If we dedicated valuable class time to them and showed students how to find and appreciate the elements of literature in graphic novel format, would students slow down and start reading and discussing graphic novels like traditional novels? Read on Nerdy Book Club.

CharlottesvilleFamily Bloom Magazine
Books on Bikes: Charlottesville Teachers & Librarians Nurture the Love of Reading Over Summer Break. It’s about 6 p.m. on June 26. The heat of the summer sun is dying down. On a Friendship Court lawn, kids are playing and some are skipping barefoot in the grass. They hear a delightful sound, and they start to run! It’s not the ice cream truck. It’s the sound of bicycle horns, bells and voices shouting, “Books on Bikes! Free books and freeze pops!” Read in CharlottesvilleFamily Bloom Magazine.

THE Journal – Transforming Education Through Technology
IoT has Arrived (Just Not in the Way You Expected). If your idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) involves smart environments that hoover up data from wearable sensors for more efficient traffic patterns, alert a teacher when a student’s eyeballs have wandered away from the lesson or notify purchasing when the pencil stock has dwindled in the supply closet, maybe it’s time to crank back expectations and look at what’s really going on in K–12 with IoT. Read on THEJournal.com.

Nerdy Book Club
The After: Educating in Charlottesville. A personal piece on the changes facing Charlottesville in fall 2017, with interviews from local educators on how education is changing. Read on Nerdy Book Club.

Voice Magazine UK
What to expect at Mozfest 2017 with Is That Real?: Preparing Students to Outfox Fake News. An exciting workshop coming from the USA for attendees of Mozfest 2017 – hear from two of the facilitators helping to put this workshop together. Read and watch on Voicemag.uk.

WVTF Radio IQ
Virginia Kids’ Unique Gift to Hurricane Harvey Victims. Millions of Americans have chipped in, sending checks to help the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. In Charlottesville, a group of 4th graders found another way to assist as Sandy Hausman reports. Read and listen on wvtf.org.

NBC29 WVIR-TV
Students from Saint Anne’s-Belfield Read to Hurricane Harvey Victims. Fourth grade students at Saint-Anne’s Belfield posted videos are themselves reading so children affected by Hurricane Harvey can still enjoy books. Watch on NBC29.com.

WordPress Discover
Reinforce Your Personal or Business Brand with a Site Logo. When someone visits your site for the first time, you want to make an impression and immediately establish your identity or brand. One quick tip is to display your own Site Logo. Need ideas? Visit these four sites. Read on WordPress Discover. (My logo was custom designed and hand-drawn by Charlottesville artist Grace Popp.)

Tech-Girl Monthly
Tech-Girls Experience: Guest Post. Middle school girls love technology. They’re texting and clicking and snapping all day long – and yet, when asked, most girls will tell you that they’re not tech savvy. […] Why do girls feel the need to downplay or disengage from their interest in technology, and how do we get them to stop? These questions are two of the many reasons that I love working with Kim Wilkens and Tech-Girls. Read in the July 2017 Tech-Girl Monthly Newsletter.

Charlottesville Tomorrow
St. Anne’s-Belfield Hosts Computer Science Institute for Educators. Educators from Albemarle County and beyond came to the St. Anne’s-Belfield School this week to practice coding, try out new educational technology and to learn from their peers at a two-day Computer Science Institute. Read on Charlottesville Tomorrow. Or follow the link to see my session, Introduction to Robotics in Education: Robot Petting Zoo.

Nerdy Book Club
The Power of Poetry. If you are lucky enough to work with children and books, you know that young people’s passion for stories is as strong as ever. But even I wasn’t completely confident about the current role of poetry in young people’s lives. Do middle schoolers in 2017 really connect with Langston Hughes? Will my students still be inspired by the words of Maya Angelou? Read on Nerdy Book Club.

CBS19
2,500 Students Hear from Award-Winning Children’s Poet. As part of the Virginia Festival of the Book, youth headliner Kwame Alexander addressed 2,500 fourth and fifth graders from around Central Virginia at St. Anne’s-Belfield School on Wednesday. Read on CBS19.com.

School Library Journal
Books on Bikes Initiative Keeps Students Reading in Summer. For a group of school librarians and teachers in Charlottesville, VA, summer doesn’t mean lying out in the sun with a glass of lemonade. Instead, they are taking to the road with their bikes to provide books to students in the Charlottesville City School District, where 54 percent of the student population is economically disadvantaged. Read on SLJ.com.

The Daily Progress
Teachers Take to Two Wheels to Encourage Summer Reading. For the past five summers, teachers on bicycles have handed out books to students in neighborhoods across Charlottesville as a way of keeping them reading in the summer months and connecting with the communities in which they teach. Read from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Library 2.017 Digital Literacy Conference via the SJSU School of Information
Foiling Fake News with Fourth Graders. A digital conference session focusing on a hand-son, three-week news evaluation lesson unit. Includes links to resources. Co-presented with Kim Wilkens, TechGirls founder and Computer Science Coordinator at St. Anne’s-Belfield School. Watch on YouTube or listen to audio via BlackboardCollaborate.

School Library Journal
Supermoons Cause Tidal Waves—True or False? Our news literacy program challenges fourth graders to find out. A school librarian media specialist and computer science coordinator design a hands-on, three-week news evaluation lesson. See the full article in the June print edition of School Library Journal, or read on SLJ.com.

Nerdy Book Club
A New Kind of Book Club. When I became a school librarian, I knew that I wanted to create a new kind of book club that would welcome a variety of readers, with all different learning styles; a celebration of reading that everyone could enjoy. Read on Nerdy Book Club.

St. Anne’s-Belfield School
Newbery Medal Winner Kwame Alexander Brings Cool Back to Poetry. Fourth and fifth grade students from city and county public schools, as well as regional independent schools, were treated to a panel discussion with Newbery Medal winning author Kwame Alexander, Caldecott Medal winning illustrator Ekua Holmes, and St. Anne’s-Belfield School Librarian Sarah FitzHenry on March 22. Read on STAB.org.

Charlottesville City Schools
STEAM Team at Johnson: The Maker Movement. Thanks to parents and community support (and the leadership of the school’s librarian Sarah FitzHenry), Johnson Elementary has a new after-school offering, the STEAM Team. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. Read on CharlottesvilleSchools.org.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Visiting Author Kate DiCamillo. The speaker who garnered so much excitement, electricity, and joy was Kate DiCamillo, humble and hilarious author of some of the most beloved children’s books in recent history. Read on the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (pg 11).

Community Idea Stations
Lights, Science, ACTION! Talk about the perfect combination for a fantastic STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) educational experience! Meet Sarah FitzHenry, last year’s librarian at Johnson Elementary School in Charlottesville, VA, who- with her tech-savvy, incredibly curious young scientists, partnered with local non-profit filmmaking studio, Light House Studio on a project that combines movie making and science. Read on Community Idea Stations.

Charlottesville Tomorrow
Meet your Educator: Sarah Messham (FitzHenry). An interview with Sarah Messham (FitzHenry), School Library Media Specialist with Charlottesville City Schools. Read on Charlottesville Tomorrow.