KaPOW! Graphic Books Signage!

I'm really, really, REALLY happy with the way my new Graphic Sign came out.  I've had this on the list for quite some time, but that To Do list seems to get longer every day.  Finally, I decided to just quit putting it to the bottom of my priorities and GET. IT. DONE.

Here's a close-up shot:

You obviously can't tell from the pics that it is double sided, but it is.  I made it from foam board and used a GIANT sharpie marker and red paint for the bottom layer, then traced out the same shape (from Word ) on yellow posterboard.  I downloaded several comic book free fonts and used my own little printer to make the letters. 

Yes, it took a little bit of time, but it was CHEAP to make and I had fun doing it!

Here's hoping my students like it just as much when they return tomorrow.

Mrs. S

My debut Pecha Kucha movie------for Teacher Inservice

So, I'm new to this whole Pecha Kucha phenomenon.  Really new.  As in, just heard of it the first time this spring, and only now daring to play with it myself.

I'm NEW, but I really love it so far.  It's fun and creative and I think it will prove a GREAT way to keep  the attention of our students and    *ahem*    TEACHERS---'cause let's face it: few things on this earth are as dull and dry as typical teacher inservice days. I begin to glaze over just thinking about it.

I'm super excited to play with this format since the moderators of TXLchat (of which, I happen to be one!) will be using this format for our upcoming presentations this year.

This one hits the highlights of library info everyone needs to know, as well as info for the Gifted and Talented program at my campus (I'm also the GT coordinator.)

Honestly---for this first presentation, my goal was simply to just finish it and like what I saw.  And I think I accomplished that!

Get Your Hands on a Great Book---Zombie book display

My Zombie display is officially done! I'm quite happy with it and thought I'd share it with you!  My brain first started tingling with bits of a then unconnected idea while I shopped in Dollar Tree last weekend.  (Oh, how I LOVE Dollar Tree, don't you?) I saw they had this area filled with Zombie goodies--in particular I felt drawn to the severed hands!---- and I just keep thinking there had to be a clever way to use those in the library.  Of course, the idea didn't fully come together until Sunday night about 10!  So, off I trekked to Dollar Tree again Monday morning.  ;) I loaded up on undead lovelies and headed up to school, ever-so-grateful they had the A/C on all week even though we weren't officially back to work until Friday, and with my little 4 year old "helper" in tow.

You know I'm a Pinterest addict, right?
Yes, it's true....my name is Sonja, and I'm addicted to Pinterest.  ;)  Feel free to check out my Back to School board if you'd like to see these pins.

In this case, I got the idea of the oozing green globs from one of my pins (especially since after I pinned it one of my students commented on the pin about how she would check out every book on the display!), and decided to update some of my "book talkers" inspired by another.  You can't tell it from the pic, but I have a couple of zombie dudes (ahem, those were my my idea, *blush*), and others are word bubbles that say things like, Read this book, zombies love brains. Duh.  and Sink your teeth into a good book.  I'll take some close ups of them and post them a bit later.

I've had so much positive feedback from this display, which is AWESOME because I really think the books are just gonna fly off of it once the kids come back!  To prepare, I've made extra vampire/werewolf/faerie themed book talkers to have on hand once I'm cleaned out of zombie books!

Yep, August has arrived

I don't officially go back to work until this Friday.  Of course, as with most educators, I've been working unofficially all summer.  Reading blogs, pinning ideas like a madwoman, "meeting up" with fellow librarians through twitter and Google hangouts; sharing ideas and making plans for the upcoming year.

My beginning-of-the-year To Do lists are HUGE, of course.  HUGE, I tell ya.

But that's okay, I'm eating that elephant one bite at a time.  There are just so many AWESOME new ideas I'd like to implement this year, so many GREAT new books I can't wait to share with my kids this year, so many FABULOUS improvements to make.

Here are a few of the gazillions of things on my To Do list at the moment:

1. Finish up my Zombie bulletin board.  The Undead aren't just for Halloween anymore! Seriously, I was in Dollar Tree last weekend and couldn't believe my luck finding a whole Undead section this time of year.   Today I'll add actual books and shelf-talkers and that bad boy will be good to go. I'm tweaking some awesome Pinterest ideas to make it too, too fabulous. 
2. Due to some strange and unusual circumstances last year I have a million books to process.  *sigh* No more on this....let's think on some pretty pink and blue thoughts instead, okay?
3. Finish my new signage for the Fiction section, since I did a massive book shift at the end of the year last year. 
4. And the biggie: finish up making my new spine labels and editing my book info in Destiny for my genre-fied Fiction section.  Oh boy, I'm starting to sweat just thinking about this one.  One bite at a time, right?  

Some of these will be crossed off this week, others may take the entire year, and THAT IS OKAY. Progress, not perfection. 

What are your back-to-school goals?  

Mrs. S