Divergent Day at Todd

Check out this cool Smore that my talented colleague, Wendy Rollins, made to promote Divergent Day at our school. Can't wait for all the fun and I am excited that so many students are becoming interested in the series.

Always Make a Smore: Digital Flyers with Big Impact

SCASL Reflection - ReTweet!

I am still processing all of the great experiences and ideas from SCASL 2014, but thought I would share Cathy Nelson's blog post.  So proud that I got to be a part of her session - collaboration at work!

SCASL 14 Day 3 Final Reflection - Friday, March 14, 2014 SCASL kicked off the last day of conference with our ... http://t.co/rq8DYTJtq3
— Cathy Jo Nelson  (@cathyjo) March 19, 2014

Wacky Socks Day in Honor of Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss Week at Todd

Check out Dr. Seuss Week at E.P. Todd (via http://t.co/X2NhihYE9o) https://t.co/Ksd5BL7kjY

— Elizabeth Graham (@LibSciGal) March 2, 2014

Google Forms for Libraries

Taking a page from my Dorman high library mentors, Melanie Dillard and Cathy Nelson, I created a book contest entry form using Google forms. The contest is to pick the first student to check out Jeff Kinney's 8th installment in the Diary of a Wimpy kid series, Hard Luck. Our students LOVE this series and are eagerly awaiting the newest one.

This year our school is 1:1 with iPads (3rd-5th) and MacBooks (6th-8th) so students will be able to access the entry form very easily. What I like the best, aside from the ease of use in creating the form and tweaking the look and content, is that the results will feed into a Google spreadsheet with each entry sorted automatically.

Thanks Google and your magic Docs! Now that I have tried forms, I will definitely utilize this tool in the future.

Snow Days = Reading Days

With an unexpected 2.5 days off of work and school, it was the perfect week for reading while curled up in a chair with a dog and a blanket to keep me warm. I finished Scarlet, book two in Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. This series is a scifi/modern day fairy tale/dystopian mashup that is packed with action and romance.  Now I can't wait for my copy of book three, Cress, to come in at my local public library.

Maira Kalman's latest picture biography, Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything, is beautifully illustrated and full of important (and sometimes quirky) facts about the life of our third president.  I like this quote from TJ: "I cannot live a life without books". 

Based on student recommendations I read Lisi Harrison's The Clique  (OMG - girls can be so mean!) and am in the middle of Alvin Ho #1: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look. We just added Alvin Ho to our beginning chapter books section and the boys especially are very excited.  One student is already on book number 3!