Field Day and School Trips

On this one day of the year, all students had left the building by 8:30 a.m., leaving it in silent bewilderment at the unusually silent hallways. What made this day so special? Well, all 8th grade classes were out on their yearly end-of-year school trips to Boston and other locales, while the entire 7th grade walked over to nearby DeFazio Field for their annual Field Day events. Thus, the silence that echoed throughout Pollard’s halls today.

Outside Pollard was a different story…

The day dawned cloudy, cool and foggy but, by 9 a.m., the sun and warm weather were out in full force.

DeFazio Field

Each cluster was represented by colorful t-shirts with my cluster (4) sporting pink. Cluster 3 wore blue, cluster 2 had on green, and cluster 1 wore purple (click photo to enlarge.)

Cluster 4

Cluster 3

Cluster 2

Cluster 1

The students “got into it” as evidenced by the vast amount of spray paint on hair and/or faces, which corresponded to their cluster color, as well as color coordinated beaded necklaces, ribbons, feathered boas, wigs, and other assorted paraphernalia. Some teachers in cluster 2 wore green capes and one painted his face green. Team spirit was very much in evidence, and it was quite easy to figure out what student belonged to which cluster based on the color of their t-shirts.

Throughout the day, students competed in games such as: Egg Relay, Sack Race, Human Boggle, Penny Pile, Short Distance Relay, Tug of War, Long Distance Relay, Paddle Ball and the Water Balloon Toss. You can see a slideshow of the events on flickr. The PE Dept. did a great job, as well as all of the cluster teachers and staff members who took turns leading the games, judging, helping students find their correct team/fellow competitors/event, performing bathroom duty, watching home base, and working on all of the many details that go into hosting and running a successful Field Day event.

After the activities at DeFazio, we all headed back to Pollard where we sat in the shade to enjoy a delicious barbeque luncheon of burgers, hot dogs and other goodies prepared by parents and staff. Winning teams, and those who placed, received medals at the Awards Ceremony which followed lunch and free time.

Congratulations everyone on a very successful Field Day.

End-of-the-year Preparations

With the end of school approaching just a few short weeks away, the library has been a busy hub of activity with end-of-year preparations. This summer, Pollard will be having its roof replaced. Since the library is on the second floor, this means much has to happen in the area of preparations.

So, besides the weeding of books which has been ongoing for most of the month, I will soon begin to put boxes of magazines into specific empty shelves at the very end of the library’s non-fiction shelves. These boxes hold back issues of all types of magazines which are shelved in A-Z order as well as chronological order. Students and teachers borrow from these magazines all the time, and they are considered part of the circulating collection.

In addition, the tops of all of the shelving units will need to be cleared, and all shelves will have to be covered in some sort of plastic or tarp. This include the library’s collection of DVD’s and videos in the workrooms, as well as the separate shelves of Reference books and the teacher’s Professional Collection. Everything on shelves and desks that is visible will have to either be covered or put away, as roof dust will likely gather on everything in sight. The computers and laptop carts will be taken care of by the Technology Department, which will be done after school has officially ended.

Thus, with approximately 17 days left of school, frantic weeding, boxing and shelving is taking place. This doesn’t include what I do with my usual library duties, as well as collecting overdue books, helping teachers, maintaining the collection, ordering books for next year, etc. etc. There is never a dull day at the Pollard Middle School Library, and that’s a good thing!

Article in “Knowledge Quest” magazine

I’ve been out sick for a few days, but Mrs. Mac is now back!

I recently received my May issue of the American Association of School Librarian’s (AASL) Knowledge Quest magazine. Knowledge Quest is issued on a bimonthly basis, covering news and topics of interest to school librarians. The May issue is dedicated to the 15th Annual National Conference, being held this coming October in Minneapolis. I was asked to write an article related to El Día de Los Niños/El Día de los Libros: Children’s Day/Book Day (also known as El Día de Los Jovenes/Day of Youth when celebrated with teens/tweens), as author and Día founder Pat Mora will be speaking at the conference.

My article, titled “Día and You: Celebrating Children and Literacy,”describes the importance of Día and explains why all school librarians should make its yearly celebration a natural part of their curriculum (click photos below to enlarge). For the past two years, I have been celebrating Día at Pollard with the 8th grade Spanish classes, and hope that by reading about my experiences at Pollard many other school librarians will be inspired to start their own Día celebrations.

I look forward to attending the conference and hearing Pat speak.

AASL Dia article p. 1

AASL Dia article p. 2

The Weeding Process

I’ve been spending this entire week Weeding the library. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, Weeding is very similar to what’s done in gardens. If you’re a gardener, you plant flowers and, when things grow that aren’t what you planted, you have to pull these “weeds” out of your garden. Those weeds, if left unchecked, choke out the flowers you planted and wind up taking up more room than the original flowers.

The same applies to Weeding in libraries. The flowers that are “planted” are the books I purchase for the library every year. As I continue to add newer books over the years, earlier books were getting older and older just with the normal passing of time. With budgets being what they are, I can never purchase enough new books to match what’s already in the library. Thus, older books tend to overwhelm newer books just by their volume of numbers. They need to be “weeded” out so students/teachers/staff are able to see the new books “blossom” in all their glory instead of being hidden by unsightly, old, broken down books.

Just yesterday, I had a student looking for books on Homelessness. She was discouraged, telling me all she saw when she went to the bookshelves were “old” books. I hastened to show her how to sort them by year of publication, telling her the results showed her the newest books. As a result, she went away happy with a newer book on her topic. This is an excellent example of why older books tend to overwhelm newer books and take away their ability to “shine” and why it’s my job to make sure students/teachers/staff members walk away with what they need.

When Weeding, I don’t haphazardly go through the library’s collection just looking for old books. To begin the process, I create a shelf list of books for each of the numbered Dewey sections using the Reports feature of the online catalog. I go through each book on the list, circling the ones who have older years (1940′s, 50′, 60′s and 70′s). I know the 80′s are also old, and if I see a book in the 80′s that’s very old, I “weed” it too. I also pay particular attention to areas like Science and Technology which should always have the newest books.

Then I go to the actual bookshelves looking for the books I circled to see if they are about something so unique that nothing has ever been written about the subject since that time frame. I also check to see if it’s in good condition and whether or not it has been borrowed within the last 3 yrs. If none of those areas apply, then the book gets “weeded,” meaning I pull it off the shelf.

Once it’s pulled off the shelf, I fill a cart with these “weeds.” Once the cart is full, the next step is to delete them from the online catalog so they’re not able to be searched by a student/teacher/staff member. Once deleted, all identifying marks (school name, barcodes) etc. are taken off the book and it’s stamped “out of circulation.” Finally, the books are boxed. When enough boxes are accumulated, a company who specializes in recycling books arrives to pick them up. This whole process takes many months. I have been doing it a little at a time throughout the year, but usually reserve the end of the year to taking larger chunks of time to get the process done before the year ends.

So, as you can see, there is alot of hidden work to keep the library running on a high level. Purchasing books, getting them into the hands of students, teachers and staff members is important. Teaching the library lessons are also important. However, keeping the library looking good (and new enough) to attract regular visits is very important. Who wants to visit a garden when all you see are weeds? Weeding will commence through the end of the year and will continue throughout the life of the library, as it is necessary to keep the library alive and to keep its visitors multiplying.

So, come on by the library and pick your favorite “flower,” and watch the library “bloom.”

Poetry Day 2011

Today was the annual 7th grade Poetry Day. Ms. Gomes told me that the students spend 3-4 weeks writing and revising poems, for a total of about 8-10 poems. They chose one to read during Poetry Day, and one to decorate for the Poetry Displays in the main lobby.

Poetry Display

In addition, the poem they decorate may not be the one they chose to read to the audience today, and all of their poems are put together into a Poetry Anthology at the end of the poetry unit.

Poetry Day 2011

All of the 7th grade clusters were mixed up, with students from different clusters going to five different ELA teacher’s rooms to read their poems wearing white t-shirts they had designed. A line from their poem decorated the front of the shirt, while a line from a famous poet was written on the back. Parents were invited to visit the Poetry Gallery and come to the classrooms to listen to the poems being read, with a time of refreshments at the end of each session.

Poems

I spent several hours in each of the classrooms listening to poems, with each of the teachers explaining how students would come up and read, urging them to project their voices and to have fun. All students received a 3×5 card and randomly chose a classmate’s name to write 2 positive comments about their poem. Cards were exchanged during the refreshment time. They were asked to begin with their name, title of poem, and a brief description of the inspiration for writing it.

Each teacher had their own way of decorating their classroom, with Ms. Matlaw presenting a soothing atmosphere with soft white lighting from a lamp and a string of white lights. Mr. Lundberg also went for soft lighting in his 1960′s Coffeehouse Style, using a painter’s drop cloth for the background along with a large “Corner Office Cafe” sign and soft jazz music playing as everyone entered. Whether decorated or not, each ELA teacher presented an encouraging atmosphere for students to present their poems. Mr. Lundberg modeled the way to read by reading an original poem “Preamble to Poetry Day” which expressed the joy he felt to be a middle school teacher. Click through the slideshow I created to see some of the student’s poems and to see them “in action.” All photos on the blog can also be enlarged by clicking on them.

As the students read, I was floored by the level of creativity and depth of the writing exhibited by the students. Below are some samples of what was read. Read on, and enjoy the wonderful Poetry Day work, which includes their inspiration while, for others, a key line from the poem is included. Congratulations to all of the 7th grade students as well as to their teachers Ms. Patel (7-1), Mr. Lundberg (7-2), Mr. Ciccolella (7-2), Ms. Matlaw (7-3) and Ms. Gomes (7-4) for a job well done.

A reader

Another reader

Still another reader

T-shirt

Ode to the Fallen

• Ben: Here – He loves baseball, so wrote about it.
• Veronica: A Dog’s Life – inspired by her dog Duchess.
• Alex: Hunger – “Hunger is a bone skinny dog.”
• Emma: Cafeteria Lunch – craziness of lunchtime.
• Josh K.: Dangerous Potholes – “my legs are cheese on a cheese grater.”
• Nick: America’s New Holiday – inspired by his brother.
• Jeremy: The Sun – “the sparkling sun is a diamond in the sky.”
• Annie: The River of Life – connections between both the river and life.
• Vinny: Phonosymphonic Sun – inspired by art in the ICA Museum.
• Parsida: The Doll – “she was here, she was there, now she’s gone.”
• Lauren: The Long Hot Summer – enjoys summer.
• Charlie: My Electric Heart – “perfect like a light filled diamond.”
• Michael: Life is Easy to Miss – inspired by the phrase “stop and smell the roses.”
• Jenny: Mirrors – “the silhouette of a girl who’s everything she doesn’t want to be.”
• Scott: Ignorance – inspired by the green indicator light on the SmartBoard.
• Caitlin: Reflection – “her gaze is piercing as if she could see inside of me.”
• Trevor: Snail Shell – thinks it’s a cool figure.
• Isabelle: 9/11 Upside Down – inspired by the events of 9/11.
• Aaron: Blue – “blue tastes like the crystal clear water I drink.”
• Andrew: Nugget – inspired by turning a backpack inside out, which is a nugget.
• Abigail: Invisible – “mumbling to herself, she had no one else.”
• Mike: The Stapler – used to be afraid of it, thinking it was a shark.
• Cameron: The Family Tree – “sitting there for decades, cold and alone.”
• Jenna: Disrespected – inspired by a chair.
• Jacqueline: Oreo – “the parents hold the family together – the cookie.”
• Jamie: Seashell – inspired by his teacher.

A day with Ms. LaBarge’s students

Today’s visit by Ms. LaBarge’s 8th grade ELA students was a trip down memory lane. I originally had this group of students in 6th grade when they had Ms. George for ELA. We worked together alot that year with the brand new Hi-Lo (High Interest-Low Level) books and the Blogging with Books and Buddies program I got as a grant from the Needham Education Foundation my first year at Pollard.

Last year, in 7th grade, I worked together with their ELA teacher Ms. Russo to help them find the best Hi-Lo books they could find to give them reading enjoyment.

Now, this year as 8th graders, we’ve come full circle. Seeing them evoked alot of memories of the 3 years we’d spent together and I marveled at how tall they’d gotten (which pleased them) and reminded them of the fun we’d had over the years.

I gave booktalks for three titles from the Hi-Lo collection, then students had a chance to browse through the new Hi-Lo books I had on display. They also browsed through the general fiction, non-fiction and Biography sections searching for books of interest. All of them borrowed two books, and Ms. LaBarge was very pleased they’d all found something to read. I told her about the Blogging with Books and Buddies program, so hope to see some of their Book Reviews on the blog very soon.

Have fun and enjoy your books everyone! It was great to see you again.

Research Season winds down

Happy May!

At the end of the day, I bid farewell to Mr. Kraus’ 8-4 Social Studies classes after a week of working with them on the research portions of their required research reports. By tomorrow, students are expected to have at least 5 NoodleTools online notecards completed, with a paragraph describing their thesis due the following day. The rest of their deadlines will follow, and the students were busily working hard today on their final day in the library with me.

Good luck cluster 8-4!