Author Greg Neri visits!

from www.gregneri.com

In my last post I mentioned some very exciting upcoming events---and this week we have a BIG one! Author Greg Neri will visit every elementary school and middle school campus in my district!

It all started with our middle schools choosing Ghetto Cowboy as our One Book, One School selection for the year.  I am so very blessed to have a PTA that is incredibly supportive of this annual literacy event, and assists my campus in purchasing a book for EVERY child AND adult at our school----and a district that recognizes that author visits can be incredibly meaningful for our students, and bookmarks funds just for brining one in nearly every year.   My students responses to Ghetto Cowboy were enormous and positive--WOW, did they ever love this book!

Because the book is on the current Bluebonnet List, it was the perfect book for our elementary campuses too---and while each campus did their own thing regarding grade levels, number of books, etc. every campus participated.

And now...fabulous finale time---the author visit!

Not only did my middle school kids love Ghetto Cowboy, but his gritty graphic novel Yummy has flown off the shelves all year.  I literally cannot keep them in (did I mention the library owns 8 copies!) and the waiting list is l-o-n-g.  Because of the response to this book, the day he visits my campus we will have a special dessert session for the kids that were really impacted by this story, as well as having Mr. Neri speak to all the students about Ghetto Cowboy.

I am THRILLED about his visit and will post pics and details about his visit Thursday evening.  In the meantime, please check out Greg Neri's website to learn more about him and his work.

Read on, Gentle Readers; Read on!
Mrs. S

A new year filled with excitement!

2014 has been a year (okay, a month....um...partial month) filled with excitement already. Since returning to school on the 6th it has been relatively non-stop action in my library world---and I'm sure it has in yours, as well.  The spring semester always seems to move at a pace resembling what you'd experience on the Autobahn and my To Do list just keeps getting longer. 

I'm super excited about much of what is coming up, though, and that makes the pace more bearable.  (well, that, and I really did take a much needed timeout over the holidays).  I've been working on my Spirit of Texas middle school committee work with Jeri,  a wonderful library colleague, for one thing.  I could NOT POSSIBLY be more thrilled to work on developing programming focusing on fabulous Kelly Milner Halls' work. I've been a fan since reading her Cryptids book and hearing her speak at the Texas Library Association conference (TLA) a couple of years back.  And of course, if you scroll back in my blog you'll see the Thinglink I developed for Teen Read Week this year using her In Search of Sasquatch book! 

If you aren't familiar with the Spirit of Texas reading list (SPOT), please check it out---trust me, you'll love it and use it and thank me for introducing it to you!  There is a middle school level AND a high school level reading list---and the brjilliant part is that we have the programming all done and ready to roll for you (active, passive, and academic with the TEKS listed!)  

Seriously, go now and check out the lists and if you plan to attend the TLA conference in April come on out to the SPOT session to learn more. 

Along those lines, I've also been hard at work on my portion of the presentation that will be given by the #TXLchat moderators at both TCEA and TLA.  My portion deals with building your PLN, which just  happens to be a passion of mine, thus making it a total blast to work on the presentation.  By the way, be sure to join us for our next twitterchat on January 28th, 8:00pm CST!

Add to all this a dash of helping my students prepare for various academic competitions (One Act Play, Model United Nations and Future City for example),collaborating with 8th grade ELA teachers to create some innovative learning stations, and helping my own kiddos (daughter the eldest with her Girl Scout bronze award and cookie sales, daughter the youngest with learning to read)---well, you get the idea.  

I'll take another entire post to write about our upcoming author visit---I am SO STINKIN' EXCITED for author Greg Neri ( author of Ghetto Cowboy, Chess Rumble, Yummy)to visit our schools at the end of the month!

Believe me, I DO realize I'm not alone in all the business and busy-ness of the inquiry and book-filled existence that is being a school librarian.  I'd love to hear whats going on in your neck of the woods, too---nothing beats sharing ideas and learning from one another. 

Man, what a ride!  I can't wait to see what lies ahead in such a wonderful field and  in such exciting times.  

Read on gentle readers; Read on--

Mrs. S

image found at morguefile: http://mrg.bz/eo2VnI