See pictures of exciting things happening in media centers across Alabama!

What's Going on In Libraries!

Here you will find pictures sent in by media specialists around the state about exciting things happening in their library media centers.

Kassie Millwood, Librarian
Big Spring Lake Kindergarten
Albertville City Schools

This is a link to a news cast covering our Storytelling Festival.

http://www.whnt.com/videobeta/217bf796-bdf9-42dc-b1ed-083fab642e38/News/Winter-Reading-Wonderland-At-Big-Spring-Lake

Cheryl Cornutt
Southside High School
Etowah County Schools

Students made a terrific Flip Video about how exciting the Southside High School Library is.

http://www.ecboe.org/212120425153858253/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=68704

Delfreda Coleman
Robinson Elementary School
Fairfield City Schools

Here is a picture from the Summer Enrichment Program (Technology) at Robinson Elementary School.  This program lasted  four weeks and served Grades K-5.   My goal was to introduce and review basic computer skills  (basic keyboarding, how to maneuver the mouse on a desktop or laptop, Internet safety, and the use of Microsoft Office products) to produce a quality piece of work.  Students created Birthday Party Invitations as well as an Open House Invitation for the program.

Vicky Cook
Baldwin County Schools

Picturing America Conference was hosted by Amy Herman, Director, Educational Development, WNET.ORG; Vicky Nix Cook, fine arts and library supervisor, Baldwin County Public Schools; Thomas Phelps, Director, Division of Public Programs, National Endowment for the Humanities; and Susan Brandehoff, Director, Program Development and Partnerships for American Library Assocation.

Photo of one of the prints in the Picturing America series--credits

12-B Childe Hassam, Allies Day, May 1917,

Childe Hassam (American, 1859–1935), Allies Day, May 1917, 1917. Oil on canvas, 36

1/2 x 30 1/4 in. (92.7 x 76.8 cm.). Gift of Ethelyn McKinney in memory of her brother,

Glenn Ford McKinney. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art,

Michelle Barnett
Providence K-8 School
Huntsville City Schools

Here are phtographs of several events the Providence K-8 school library sponsored this year. Some of the photos include hat day, Dr. Seuss Cafe, American Girl Tea Party, Lego Robotics Party, and ALA Snapshot Day for national School Library Month.

Amie Davis
Gaylesville School
Cherokee County Schools

Scholastic Book Fair--March 30-April 6

Melanie Sharpless
Fort Deposit Elementary School
Lowndes County Schools

PowerPoint of a fieldtrip photo collage done by Melanie Sharpless.

Michele Pierce Bennett
Gulf Shores Elementary School
Baldwin County Schools

These are some pictures from our PAWS for Reading program that we organized to target specific kids to improve their Dibels scores. We had six animals and owners for two days. Over 100 students read to the animals because they met their individual reading goal.

Andrea Pedigo
Warrior Elementary School
Jefferson County Schools

Tracey Woodall, Media Specialist
Dunbar-Ramer School
Montgomery County Schools

I spoke at the Ramer Civic Club meeting (held at the Ramer Public Library) on Tuesday about the roles and responsibilities of a Library Media Specialist.  I enlightened the group on the role of the Library Media Specialist and explained the necessity and importance of our role in education. The group was enthusiastic and some are willing to volunteer at my school.

Also, I informed the group about Alabama's "The Big Read" and mentioned that several businesses in the area (including my store) supported the program.  I wanted to share some pictures from the meeting and "The Big Read" poster that was made for my business.

Marilynn Ward, Media Specialist
Woodland High School
Randolph County Schools

Scholastic Book Fair held January 25-29, 2010.

Kassie Millwood, Media Specialist
Big Spring Lake Kindergarten
Albertville City Schools

I love and my students do too, the Michael Garland books. We emailed him in November to tell him how much we loved his books and included a few pictures of me dressed up! Check out this website www.garlandpicturebooks.com and go to the blog tab at the top right, then look at the blog titled "The Real Virginia Creeper?".

Crystal Camp, Media Specialist
Hoover High School Freshman Campus
Hoover City Schools

Chandra Sparks Taylor, author of Spin it Like That and The Pledge, recentlyvisited three Hoover City Schools.  Over two hundred students attended the author’s presentation.  The students learned about the writing and publishing process, and they also participated in a discussion on The Pledge.

Roxann DeFoor, Media Specialist
East Lawrence Middle School
Lawrence County Schools

The 6th grade students at ELMS wrote and published a narrative story.  The library media specialist explained to the students about publishing a book. The students displayed and explained their books to students in Grades 4 and 5.

Roxann DeFoor, Media Specialist
East Lawrence Middle School
Lawrence County Schools

The East Lawrence Middle School Library celebrated National Puzzle Day on January 29, 2010.  Students in Grades 4 - 8 put zigsaw puzzles together in the library.

Alison Holley, Media Specialist
Girard Middle School
Dothan City Schools

Girard Middle School receives $5,000 Lowe's grant for their media center.

Sue Hendrix, Media Specialist
Gadsden City High School
Gadsden City Schools

Sue Hendrix, Gadsden City High School Librarian, organized a project during the month of November to help students with overdue library fines.  In exchange for paying fines, students could bring items needed by the school's SRO Officer Brandon Teague whose unit has been deployed to Iraq.

A Gadsden City High School student helps pack boxes for shipment to the school's SRO officer, Brandon Teague in Iraq.  The project started as a library project to help students with overdue fines, but grew as many clubs and classes throughout the school as well as parents and those in the community brought in donations.

Gadsden City High School students separate items as they pack boxes to ship to the school's SRO officer, Brandon Teague, in Iraq.  What started as a small project to help students with overdue library fines grew into a successful patriotic endeavor collecting items needed by Officer Teague and his company in Iraq.

LeeAnna Mills, Media Specialist
Northside Middle School
Tuscaloosa County Schools

These three photos are from the AASL Conference in North Carolina. Ginger Eastman, library media specialist for the Alabama Department of Education; Meg and LeeAnna with two librarians from North Carolina with they volunteered with; they also spoke at the First Timers Luncheon to a crowd of over 300.

Kerra Middleton, Media Specialist
Tanner Williams Elementary School
Mobile County Schools

Goals of the instructional sequence (collaboration between classroom teacher and library media specialist:)

Students researched using print and electronic resources, practiced note-taking skills, utilized computer software, and worked cooperatively to learn more about Native American cultures.

Suzanne Ray, Media Specialist
Rehobeth High School
Houston County Schools

Last year we had a "Guess Who Got Caught Reading" contest during our usual GCR Emphasis. Students were also eligible to win prizes if they checked out a book or "got caught reading."

Earon B. Serra, Media Specialist
Hankins Middle School
Mobile County Schools

Author, Billy Moore, autographs a copy of his book, Cracker's Mule, for 8th grade students at Hankins.

Hankins Middle School's Rolling Readers have puppets and selected books to read to students in K-3 at local elementary schools.

Crystal Cam, Media Specialist
Hoover High School Freshman Campus
Hoover City Schools

Café Book at Hoover High School

Hoover High School recently celebrated Teen Read Week.  As part of the celebration, the Senior Campus and Freshman Campus library media centers held a Café Book event.  Café Book is a special activity that gives patrons the opportunity to discuss books over lunch.  One hundred eighteen students, faculty, staff, and administrators participated in the event. 

Sue Norman, Media Specialist
Foley Middle School
Baldwin County Schools

In August we moved into our beautiful new middle school and I really think that the library is the most magnificent part of the school.  It goes up for two stories and includes a very large reading loft. On the second level, floor-to-ceiling windows allow the students to look down into the library on two sides as they travel through the hallways.  A grand staircase leads from the main floor to the loft. This is the first year that we have had a real art teacher and I have partnered with her to display the student artwork on the windows at the front of the library.  Everyone has been very impressed by this student-created original art. Of course, the artists were thrilled to have an audience for their work.

Sue Norman, Media Specialist
Foley Middle School
Baldwin County Schools

This is another library activity that our students really enjoy.  We partnered with Barnes and Noble to have a book launch party for the new Wimpy Kid book.  Barnes and Noble would bring the books to the school the morning that they were released so that the students could be the first to buy and read the newest book in the series.  By coincidence, I had won a large cardboard free-standing cutout of the Wimpy Kid when I was at the ALA convention in Chicago this summer.  During the week prior to the release of the book, the cutout figure hung out in the library and students could have a photo taken with the Wimpy Kid. He also spent time with each of the reading teacher's classes and they played a portion of the first Wimpy Kid book. He posed for the art classes and we displayed the portraits on the library windows.  It was Homecoming Week at school so we had a contest to choose the student who could write the best essay about why they wanted to take the Wimpy Kid to the Homecoming Dance.

The young lady who won dragged the Wimpy Kid aroud with her all night and she won a free copy of the new book.  The other students took turns dancing with him.  As a culminating activity, everyone who purchased the newest book was invited to a Read In with refreshments served for the last hour of the school day. 

We had a great time and many students discovered a book series that they really enjoy and we have a 20-person waiting list for the 10 copies of the book which we purchased for the library.

Gail Richerson, Media Specialist

Bay Minette Intermediate School
Baldwin County Schools

Ted Dunagan, author of The Yellow Watermelon, visited the sixth grade and Project Jubilee students at Bay Minette Intermediate School to talk about the writing process.

Linda Goodwin, LMS
Forest Hills Media Center
Florence City Schools

Mike Artell is the author of Funny Cartooning for Kids, Three Little Cajun Pigs, Classroom Cartooning and Petite Rouge.  Mike was recently a speaker on the Alabama Library Expo tour.

Mike Artell’s visit to Forest Hills Media Center in Florence, Alabama. The students loved listening to Mike as he gave instructions on how to draw dragons, castles, and all kinds of animals. Mike’s books are well loved and continue to be checked out often.

Kay Fagerstrom, LMS
Andalusia Middle School
Andalusia City Schools

As an introduction to Banned Book Week (September 26-Oct.3), using a hallway bulletin board 7th grade students try to guess what all of these books have in common (they had all been challenged). During morning announcements, clues were given and the first student to guess the correct answer won a special treat. All students were given special bookmarks featuring banned books, and a strange woman was seen wondering the halls in a banned book T-shirt.

Danville-Neel Elementary Library
Morgan County
Sheila Tate--LMS

"Cooking Up A Great Year With Books"

This is the way we "hook" children into the library and reading.  We start each year off with a theme to generate their interest in using the library and to reading. 

Themes

The pictures above are library aides in our library in chefs' hats that we made for them. They are the "top chefs" in our library and are such important people. They serve their teachers, the administrators, and their peers when they work in the library. You will also see pictures of the librarian and library assistant, Sheila Tate and Cissy Cook.

Students with good behavior are able to sit at the RESERVED table. 

Crayons fill the parmesan shakers.

Bagel instructs children where to return their books to the book drop.

Bulletin board supports theme and introduces a variety of books about food, cooking, nutrition.  October 8th we'll be sharing 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to support the Read For the Record campaign.

Chef Liseur (which happens to be a fancy French word that means one who is fond of reading) and Chef Livre (another fancy French word meaning book), have visited our library. The children have learned some of the responsibilities of being a chef.  The chef told a drawing story aloud, "What's That Sound", which is a story about a bored child and donuts and tea.  When the story was over, the chef had drawn a teapot.  There are so many stories in the library about food, cooking, good nutrition and community workers like chefs. Do you remember the stories of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the story of The Little Red Hen, or of course Strega Nona?  We are combining three favorite pastimes this year: reading, eating, and learning how to find books about foods as well as many other subjects. We hope to create  "reading omnivores"  in our students this year...students that read anything and everything. We want our students to "savor" books...to lend themselves to the total enjoyment of books!  We will "FEED" them with great books. 

Bon Appetit For Books!

Enterprise High School
We're reading The Gospel According to Larry this month and several members have already finished the book!  We have 27 members at this time.

Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School students interview authors
at the Alabama Book Festival

Authors - Solomon Seay, Jr. and Judge Delores Boyd – Jim Crow and Me

Authors -  Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce
Eye of the Emperor Penguin and Penguins in Antartica

Brewtech Student Interviewers

Brewtech Student Interviewers

Author, Carole Boston Weatherford- Becoming Billie Holiday

Author, Laurel Snyder – Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains

Author, Rick Bragg- The Prince of Frogtown

Author, Kerry Madden – Up Close: Harper Lee

Artwork created by students for the entrance of the festival. GREAT JOB!

Chip Gillikin, Follett account manager for the Bay Minette area, hosts summer event for local media specialists.

His family owns one of the largest day lily farms in Alabama. It was closed to the general public for the day. Library media specialists from the area were invited to attend. Below are some pictures from the event.

EHS Book Club Student Advisory Board 2009-2010

EHS Student Book Club 2008-2009

Members of the Enterprise High School Book Club gathered for an end of the year picnic and book sale in the Library portable on May 6, 2009.  The EHS Book Club, a new organization on campus, is composed of students who share a love of reading.  Mrs. Susan Phares and Mrs. Karen Haglund, EHS librarians, led the monthly book discussions on science fiction, mystery, historical fiction, and contemporary young adult literature.  Each session featured an author study, critical reviews of the titles, and directed literary discussion.  Members had the opportunity to read 10 different books during the 2008-2009 school year.

Alan is the author of one of the ALA's 2007 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, Samurai Shortstop (Dial 2006), and a 2008 ALA Quick Pick for Young Adult Readers, Something Rotten(Dial 2007). A sequel, Something Wicked (Dial 2008), is on shelves now. His first book for middle-grade readers, The Brooklyn Nine (Dial 2009) debuts in March 2009, just in time for the baseball season.

We had an exciting guest speaker in S.R. Butler High’s library today.  Dr. Ernie Cerbert is a geneticist with Alabama A&M University in Normal, AL.  His work is with the genes of plants.  His work has taken him all over the world in pursuit of better use of our planet’s resources.  In particular, currently he is very involved with raising better canola plants so their oil can be converted into bio-diesel.   

He had the good fortune to be able to visit President Obama’s grandmother in her village in Kenya, Africa.  His talk to Butler High Students was in preparation of forming a partnership between Butler High Students and students in Kenya—to exchange ideas, cultures, to “give back” to both communities. 

Gina Ashley, Library Media Specialist
Horizon Elementary School
Madison, Alabama

Ms. Ashley submitted a photostory movie from her library. Click here to watch the movie.

Sherry Jimmerson
Boaz Intermediate School
Boaz, AL

Here are some pictures from Boaz Intermediate School after receiving the AVL Back to School award. 

Sherry Jimmerson is the media specialist.  Sharon Burke, the Computer/Title I teacher, also assisted students with this contest.

Lauri Biegler

This bulletin board probably says it all. This was her October board.