Susan Booth is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Churchill Junior High School. [Read more…] about Library Spotlight: Susan Booth, Churchill Jr. High School
Library Promotions
Library Spotlight: Warren Child, Cyprus High School
Warren Child is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Cyprus High School. His library theme for this year is Find Your Treasure: Read.
[Read more…] about Library Spotlight: Warren Child, Cyprus High School
Library Spotlight: Michelle Asay, Granger High School
Michelle Asay is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist for Granger High School. Mrs. Asay has one of the highest digital and print circulations in the district. She is very creative and offers a different library promotion each month to promote school wide literacy. She is an avid reader herself and keeps up on all the current YA literature trends.
Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA!
The Granger High Media Center theme for the 2014-2015 school year is Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA!
Mrs. Asay is featuring books that take place in various geographic regions of the United States via book talks and book displays throughout the year. Students have punch cards where they can keep track of which regions and states they have covered, and they must read at least one book from each region to beat the yearlong challenge. Students also have access to lists of YA Books by state and region online via G-House Center, the Granger High Media Center web site, on which are curated several state book lists from Destiny, Goodreads, the collaborative Google Doc YA Novels by State, and The United States of YA.
Library Orientation with QR Code Scavenger Hunt
This year students used QR Codes and iPads to participate in Mrs. Asay’s library orientations. Students explored the library searching for QR codes that introduced them to the “Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA” school literacy promotion, Destiny Library Catalog, OverDrive Digital Library, how to locate different genres and sections in the library, how to place a hold on a book, and more.
Granger High Media Center QR Code Library Orientation Activity
This is just a sample of the displays and activities in the Granger High Media Center. You can see more examples of Michelle’s displays and promotions, as well as displays from our other schools, on our Granite Media Library Displays Pinterest Board.
Spotlight Author: Cindy Moyle, Granite District Secondary Library Media Specialist
Library Spotlight: Beehive Book Awards
Beehive Book Awards
The Beehive Book Award is an annual award sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association of Utah (CLAU), given to one book in each of these five categories: Children’s Fiction, Informational, Picture Book, Poetry, and Young Adult. Committees of teacher, librarian, and parent volunteer readers create annual short lists of 10-12 books in each category. These short lists are announced in March and then school and public libraries work to get students to vote on their favorites for the following school year. The winner in each category is announced the following year in April.
Granite School District Elementary School Libraries work hard to promote the Beehive Book Award program and encourage students to vote for their favorite books. They do this through displays, community engagement, and library promotions.
Displays
At Hillsdale Elementary School, Angela Pratt has a display for the 2015 Beehive Book Awards and highlights each category on a different shelf. She uses this display when doing story time and encourage her students to check-out the books nominated. Truman, Woodstock, and Rolling Meadows have also set up displays to draw attention to the books.
Community Engagement
At Rosecrest Elementary, Vala’dee Tanner, the media assistant, collaborated with the librarian at the Holladay library to come do a book talk for all students 4th-6th grade. Each grade came to the library and the public librarian spoke to them about the Beehive award nominees and encouraged them to participate in the voting process. Many schools rely on their PTA to help them buy copies of the Beehive nominees and to help track voting. At Driggs Elementary School, the PTA buys copies of each Beehive Book Award nominee and create a plan to read them in the classroom.
Promotion
Many media assistants have set up ballot boxes to help keep track of votes. Dian Morrison and Kim Liston, the media assistants at Woodstock Elementary, have a glass ballot box set up by their Beehive Book Award display. Students enjoy voting because they like to submit them in the special box, and like to see the votes build up over the school year.
Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor
Library Spotlight: Toni Blattman, Kearns Jr. High School
Toni Blattman is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Kearns Jr. High School in Kearns, UT. Each month Toni and media assistant LaVada Brinton host a major promotion in the school library. For September 2014 the theme for their activity came from the Divergent book and movie. Following the premise of the story, students were invited to take the Divergent Factions Aptitude Test to determine which “faction” they were to join. Then, students engaged in Library Faction Challenges, such as checking out and reading a book or visiting the library to study with a friend, etc., for which they earned faction medallions upon completion. Over 40% of Kearns Jr. students participated in the activity, with 780 medallions being awarded to students.
Technology Tip: Toni utilized an easy Google Form to share the library faction aptitude quiz with students. She posted links to the quiz, the challenges, and other materials for the promotion on the school’s library catalog home page (Destiny Library Catalog), where students could easily access it from computer search stations and iPad kiosks in the library, or with a personal device from any other location at home or school.
The Divergent activity is just one example of the many ways Ms. Blattman promotes reading and information literacy at her school. As one result of her efforts, Kearns Jr. High currently has the highest circulation of OverDrive electronic books in Granite School District, although one of the smallest secondary schools. Ms. Blattman is one of our leaders in #graniteedtech and #granitelibraries, doing awesome things for and with students at her school.
Spotlight Author: Cindy Moyle, Granite District Secondary Media Supervisor