Thoughts From The Book Diva....

This year I have been slow getting my Pre K group of kids to check out. This has been a challenging year for me and I was not sure I was ready to take another challenge on. Well, last week I bit the bullet and allowed both Pre K classes to check out for the first time. I am not sure why I was so nervous. They were wonderful! It is so amazing to see their eyes light up when they hear that they will get to check out a book and take it home! Then to see them struggle with the tough decision of which book to take home, it's just so precious! Times like this remind me of why I became a librarian!

Thanks to author, Chris Espinosa for visiting Ney today! The kids had a super time and learned a lot! I am always amazed at how the authors that make school visits are able to maintain such a high energy level throughout the whole day. For any fellow librarians....if you are looking for an educational, entertaining and affordable author...Chris Espinosa is your man!

Congratulations to Katelyn in third grade at Ney! She was our top Bluebonnet reader for this year! She read twelve Bluebonnet books! As a reward, she and I (Mrs. Roland) went to lunch at Chick-fil-A! We had a wonderful time! She even got to miss some of her school day! Wouldn't that be cool if you were a part of this???? Well, you can be!! Just start getting ready for Bluebonnet reading club for next year. All third and fourth grade will be eligible to read books from the list and earn prizes like this! I am already looking for to it! My Ney friends need to post comments below and let me know what other prizes you would like to see given for Library contests. I want to hear your ideas!!

Wow! Time has flown by! I have not been very active on this blog site. I am hoping that I will be able to catch up on it and stay that way for the rest of the year. Here are some highlights of what the kids at Ney can look forward to in the coming weeks: *Author Visit- Author Chris Espinosa aka Uncle Chris is coming on February 16th *Ice Cream Social- February 18th *Spring Break (wooo hoo)- March 14th- 18th *Book Fair- March 28th- April 1st

I really can't believe that it is already November! This year has really flown by. I think the years go faster as I get older. :) School is off and running. I even have all my responsibilities and programs in place. The Knightly News is off to a great start, the Bluebonnet Reading Program has been kicked off for third and fourth grade, AND Kinder kids are already checking out books! I am proud to announce that we had an amazing Book Fair! Thank you first of all to all of the wonderful volunteers who showed up to help me. I am CERTAIN that I would not have made it without each of you! Thanks also to all of the students and parents who came and shopped at the Book Fair. Thanks to you, our school will be able to afford a wonderful author visit this year (more details coming). Well, I guess everyone needs to hang on tight because it looks like Christmas is right around the corner! I better start saving money!

Well, it has gotten off to a great start! This year I am sad to say that I will be running the library on my own. My fearless assistant Book Diva, Donna Allen, has decided to retire. I have been busy recruiting volunteers to help me in the library. So far I have had a great turn out! I think I have someone signed up for every day. If you would like to volunteer or know someone who would, please email me!

1.I like completing this professional development on a self-paced schedule (even though I procrastinated until the bitter end :) ). I really like the web resources that I learned about. 2.My least favorite thing was learning about PhotoStory. I like the program, but I was already familiar with it. 3.This journey has caused me to rethink how I will incorporate technology into the library curriculum. I've always used technology in the library, but I enjoyed learning some fresh ideas to use. 4.THe biggest surprise was the wealth of information on Read-Write-Think. 5.I will most likely use the Google Lit Trip site. 6.This was one of the most useful professional development classes I have attended! 7.The only suggestion would be to keep adding new and improved Web 2.0 tools.