New Books Chosen by Librarian

As a librarian, I get to know our students and their interest, issues and challenges. Here are the books from #Capstone that we received that I selected for the students

#PPG Grant Books

We were so lucky to have received a grant for $1,000 from PPG so we could have Heather L. Montgomery, children's nonfiction author visit. We included the purchase of her books we didn't have in the grant

More New Titles

New Titles!

Sharing New Stories

Ever wonder how your school librarian decides how to spend the money earned from our one fundraiser, #Scholastic Book Fair? @MTCES last fall we had our most successful book fair in eight years so we had $2,000 to work with; sounds like an awful lot but with so many books choices and reasons for choosing, it's quite a challenge to begin selection. 

In our library we have a well loved and worn Wish List 3-ring binder. Throughout the year, student and teacher request are added to the notebook. Sometimes the request might be just one title, author or subject, sometimes it may be several pages of books an entire grade level it working with for a new focus on sharing literature in their curriculum, and of course favorite titles wear out and awesome new books are published. Weighing the needs of our teachers and students is very important and the Wish List notebook is never empty. 

This week in the library we expect a couple of very important shipments from two of our favorite vendors, #Capstone and #BoundtoStayBound. Because our books are used by so many children, library binding is our preferred binding. This increases the cost of the book, but the number of circulations per book make this a worthwhile trade.  As these books are processed and ready to shelve you will  see lots of happy faces in the school library!

MakerSpace Mentors

Engineer-Mom Volunteer, Amy Vandiver, Shares Friction, Speed, and Gravity Concepts

After fourteen successful MakerSpace Friday events I can safely say that MTCES loves MakerSpace! Getting started was a little scary and overwhelming, but with the help of parents and community volunteers, we have reached over 350 students with STEM opportunities that engage the learner and challenge the mentors and students!  The challenge has come from learning new technology tools to share and in scheduling volunteers and students.  Here at Mt. Carmel we are also fortunate to have STEM projects developed for Mt. Carmel Elementary by University of Alabama in Huntsville, Engineering Design students (sponsored by Women in Defense) like this Marble Roller Coaster, that we include in our MakerSpace Friday offerings.

As part of our Community Mentor outreach, UAH Engineering Design Student, Danielle Lewis Volunteers to help with MakerSpace Friday

Teachers have learned to love the MakerSpace Friday opportunites and use the SignUpGenius posted for Teacher & Students I create based on Community Volunteers that have signed up on their own SignUpGenius link.  It is very exciting to see our program grow as more volunteers come forward.  UAH students have been amazing to help alongside our parent volunteers.  Each volunteer works with 2 students or more, depending on the activities being offered that particular day.

Cory Copeland, UAH Mechanical Engineer, has worked with our program from the first day to help us tinker with our new technology and get us all up and running for MakerSpace Friday.

The library used Scholastic Book Fair funds to purchase 3 very important tools to begin our MakerSpace:  OSMO, Sphero, and green screen equipment (iPad mount, tripod, and lens).  Using the free Touchcase app for creating green screen videos, we have been slowly finding the many functions available in this app and helping our students to find their presentation voices.  

UAH Students, Taixing Bi, Electrical Engineer, and Cory Copeland, Mechanical Engineer,

 helping 2nd grader create puppet show utilizing green screen technology

One of the most popular stations offered at MakerSpace Friday is Sphero.  This little robot ball, affectionately known as Roger, has been used/played with to teach place value, direction, speed and velocity relationship and coding.  We look forward to learning more with Sphero as we get to know his capabilities.  Meanwhile, the students think he is fabulous!

Character Day and MakerSpace makes for crazy pictures! 

Dixie Smith, UAH Engineering student learns from classmate, 

Cory Copeland on how to program Sphero

American Association of School Librarians Conference 2015

While it is hard to leave our students for days on end, this week is the AASL2015 conference... What does that mean for Mt. Carmel? By providing this opportunity for your librarian to participate, you are providing access to the latest books, children's authors and professional development from the leaders in field of school libraries; it's fresh ideas and problem solving solutions relevant to school libraries, and it's inspiration that is contagious.  Learning alongside several thousand school librarians at a conference of this quality gives me, your school librarian, a pinpoint focus and renewed energy that sustains me to share with my students the very best of today's library.