A collaborative poetry experiment

Had SUCH a great time working on a collaborative poetry project with some amazing middle school librarians across the state.  SO thankful to Sue Fitzgerald to coming up with the plan and organizing us all in this endeavor!

The words in this Wordle came from multiple groups of my 8th grade students (it is spring, it is after STAAR, they ARE in 8th grade---so you'll notice some "lame" and "boring" in there!)

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!

Check out a larger image of our Wordle creation by clicking the image!

And we're cookin' with gas

SO much happening lately...so much that it is almost a bit overwhelming to ponder, actually.  But in a good way.  ;)

I posted about my amazing TLA experience, which I am still delighting in, actually--especially since I've starting reading my TBR pile that I brought back with me!  OH MY GOODNESS, the TREASURES I was given!  The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Bird Box by Josh Malerman, and Dangerous by Shannon Hale have all set the bar pretty high, folks.  They are each different, but absolutely delicious reads.

But moving on from my TLA adventures, I've had some pretty exciting news since coming back home that I am really thrilled to share. I applied for, interviewed, and was hired to be the new high school librarian beginning in the new school year.  Our current HS librarian is retiring, and I have really felt pulled to this new experience for some time.  I am giddy with all the possibilities that this change will bring.  At the same time, I have had 12 really great years at my current school, and it is truly bittersweet to leave all my friends and my library.  I've put blood, sweat, and tears (literally!) into making that space amazing, and you can't find better folks to work with than at my current school.

Still...I am pulled, I am thrilled, and I am ready.  Let's DO this!  I'll keep you posted every step of the way!

Read on,
Mr
ps--Did I mention today is World Book Night?   I was a book-giver again and got to give Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children out today.  I gave several out before the testing today---and I had multiple kids come up to me outside waiting in the car line that they are LOVING this book!  YAY!  I love being the resident book fairy!  Best.Job.Ever!

TLA Awesomeness

I've spent the past week in beautiful San Antonio, Texas for the Texas Library Association conference.  As always, I've come back feeling refreshed and renewed and loaded with tons of great new ideas to enhance my library.  Here are just a few of the too-many-to-name highlights from the week:

• Meeting new librarian friends and sharing ideas
• Seeing "old" librarian friends and sharing ideas
• Listening to/meeting/having conversations with amazing authors
• the Nerdy Book Club session.  Amazing.  Inspiring. 
• Presenting with the fabulous folks that make up the #txlchat moderators
• Being inducted as the District 8 Secretary for the 2014-2015 year
• Spending my birthday at the conference.  ;)
• Great sessions on everything from creating your own cons to making poetry exciting and relevant to lists of new books to read and pass on to my students
• The amazing publishing houses and other vendors that are so generous to us at the conference.

As always it was a great time, and I'm still a bit on information overload in the best possible way.  I love learning and growing in my profession!

With author Jason Reynolds.
When both Sharon Draper and Laurie Halse Anderson describe someone as the
 next author to watch, you take note!

TLA book swag!

Oh the Horror!  author panel with some amazing folks (why yes,  Kami Garcia and Jonathan Maberry are up there!)

"Lead out Loud" was our conference theme---and author James Patterson was our first keynote speaker.

Our Library Showcase

Here's a peek at what I've been working on a bit today!  This year, in an effort to provide more visibility to all the cool, amazing, creative things we have going on in our libraries, we as a library group have taken the time to snap some photos each month or so and then I pull them together for us into a fun format (obviously this month we are using Animoto!) so the district can show-off our showcase on the district website.

I think it is SO important to let our little lights shine---and let our folks know about some of the cool events/displays/etc. that go on in the library.

Hope you enjoy!

Mrs. S