The Fall Book Fair Starts Today!

The Fall Book Fair begins today!  I am always so excited for this event to come around each year.  Not only is it a wonderful opportunity to raise extra money to support our library program, it is also a wonderful time to meet parents and catch up with old friends.  I hope to see you there!

Book Fair Hours are:

Monday, October 24:  8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m

Tuesday, October 25:  8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m

Wednesday, October 26:  8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m

Thursday, October 27:  8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m

Friday, October 28:  8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m 

 

 

 

Fall Book Fair Schedule

Time Monday    Tuesday Wednesday     Thursday

9:15 to 9:45	Glowacky	Ribas
9:50 to 10:30	Fifth Grade	Fifth Grade	Fifth Grade
10:35 to 11:15	Weigand	Robinson	DeLawder
11: 20 to 12:00	Forbes	Messich	Hatfield
12:30 to 1:10	Broskey	Culpepper
1:10 to 1:50	Barnes	Pisegna	Lillard	Haney
1:55 to 2:35	Elkins	Ruscello	Unger
2:40 to 3:20	Bragg	Brehm	Chuby	Cline

Making the Change from Accelerated Reader to Reading Counts

This year Brookhaven Elementary joined the rest of Monongalia County Schools in using Scholastic Reading Counts as its reading incentive program.  For the past 17 years Brookhaven pioneered the use of this type of program using Accelerated Reader.  Although Mon County adopted Reading Counts as a countywide reading incentive program around 2007, Brookhaven was not required to change until this year, when curriculum changes dictated that all schools use the assessment software that included Reading Counts.


I think our transition to Reading Counts has been well-received by the teachers and the students.  Clearly, Reading Counts has some advantages over Accelerated Reader;

• the teacher and student interfaces are easy to use;
• the program is integrated with other assessment programs, which allows students to only use one user name and password to access all products;
• the students receive visually attractive reinforcements when the pass their tests.

I see some disadvantaged to Reading Counts as well.

Call me a librarian, but the indexing inconsistencies in Reading Counts are driving me nuts.  There does not appear to be a common set of rules for user to apply when searching for books by title.  Here's an example of what I mean:

Johnny wants to take a test on Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat.  He types the title into the search bar exactly as it appears on the title page.  He can't find the title, so he does an author search for Rylant, scrolls through a list of her books and finds the title.  He notices that the title is written as Henry & Mudge & the Happy Cat, using ampersands in place of the work 'and.'  Johnny is a clever kid, so the next time he is looking for a Henry and Mudge book, he automatically uses the ampersand, looking for Henry & Mudge & the Starry Night.  Good plan, Johnny, except this time the title is recorded  as Henry & Mudge & Starry Night.  When Johnny types the word 'the' in the title, he cannot find the test.

Other indexing anomalies exist with author searches.  Sometimes the author who is credited for a book may be someone who is the orginator of a series but not necessarily the author of the book.  An example might be the Curious George books.  Reading Counts list H.A. and Margret Rey as the authors of all these books, even though the title pages list different authors.  

Welcome to the 2011-2012 School Year

I am so glad to finally have the library up and running after a long summer of inactivity.  For those of you who may not be familiar with me and my family, let me share that this summer has been extremely busy and personally rewarding.  My first grandchild, Eowyn Grace Smith, was born on June 1 to my daughter Christina and her husband, Brian.  Ten days later, my daughter Lora married Josh in a ceremony held in Clarksburg.   With all that was going on in my personal life, along with the construction and painting in our school that took place over the summer, Mrs. Burks and I elected not to have open library during the summer vacation period.  


When school did resume last month, the library played host to our fourth kindergarten class until last week's move freed up a permanent room for them.  Consequently the opening of the library was delayed.  During this time I was able to complete many tasks that needed performed, but let me tell you, I missed my kids!  The library opened the Tuesday after Labor Day and has been busy and bustling ever since.  Hallelujah!  Here is a snapshot of the last few days' activities:

Total Circulation:      846

Holds Placed by Students:  8

Items Loaned to Other Schools:   3

Not bad for four days' business!  I look forward to continuing this level of service to our students, teachers and parents as the year progresses.  Our first Open Library Night will be held on Monday, September 12 from 4:00 to 7:00.  Parents are invited to bring their children to find new books and to investigate our new reading incentive program, Reading  Counts, which has replaced Accelerated Reader.  I hope to see you in the library for Open Library Nights!

 

Suzie Martin, MLIS, NBCT

Changes to Accelerated Reader

Effective immediately, parent access to Accelerated Reader has changed.  Now parents may request an individual login to Accelerated Reader, which will allow one-stop access to all your children's AR records.  Parents may also request automatic email updates when their children take quizzes.


The deadline for earning points for the first bowling trip is December 15.  The point requirements are as follows:
     Kindergarten - 5 points
     1st grade -     10 points
     2nd grade -    15 points
     3rd grade -     20 points
     4th grade -     25 points
     5th grade -     25 points


Points for the second trip may be earned beginning December 16.  Any points earned before December 16 will not count toward the second bowling trip.  The point requirements will be the same.


If you have any questions, email me!

Fourth Grade Book Club in Progress

I am having a lot of fun with the Fourth Grade book club.  Its members are Peyton V., Emily F., Tyler M., Destiney W., Maya C., and Meagan G.  We are reading Debbie Dadey's Cherokee Sister, a historical fiction novel about two girls who are forced to walk the Trail of Tears.


To provide background information about the Trail of Tears, I showed the children a video clip from United Streaming called The Trail of Tears: The Cherokees Leave Their Homeland.  After viewing the video, the children decided that they did not want to read this book, because it was sad.  I presevered, because I think this is an important book. Now that we are at the point where the girls have embarked on their forced journey, I think the children have become personally invested in the story.


Each meeting of the club begins with a snack and a recap of the previous session.  The sessions conclude with some free time to allow the children to log on to the Destiny Quest accounts and send book reviews to friends.

The Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Leave Their Homeland.
Discovery Education, 1996. Video Segment.
8 November 2010. . 

The Book Fair Report

Preliminary reports show that our fall book fair was quite successful.  It appears that this was our most successful book fair ever.  I will not have a final account until all the paperwork is complete, but it looks like more than $2000.00 cash was earned for our school library program.  Scholastic, our fair vendor, also provides "Scholastic Dollars" to be used to purchase  library books directly from the fair.  Again, I will have more information about this once the final paperwork is done, but I have already selected more than $300 of books from the fair.


Once again I am completely indebted to the wonderful people who have helped make this fair the success it was.  Preschool and kindergarten aides Shawnee Murphy, Dreama Hewitt, Debbie Burns, Doretta Malone, Charlotte Hawkins and Bonnie Homchenko take on extra responsibility with each fair, as our littlest shoppers need the most help finding appropriate items.  I appreciate their extra efforts as well as those of all our teachers who make extra time for their children to shop.


Josh Salisbury, our music teacher, helped with all the class previews.  I know the children are particularly thankful for his technical expertise in getting our most popular item, the Top Secret UV Pens, to work.  He also set the ground rules for behavior which made the preview days much more orderly.


I have always been very grateful for my parent and grandparent volunteers who have helped with the before-school shopping and class previews.  This year I was blessed with a wealth of volunteers. They are, in order of appearance, Melissa Burns, Tracy Uphold, Angela Hanlin, Lauri Martin, Valerie Blosser, Eileen McCusker, Sherry Scarbro, Janna Lowery, Kathy Barr, Greg Rice, Devon Boyles, Beth Proctor, Shonet McClung, Christi Lyons, Tanya Bartley and Jessica Criser.  Brian Henderson and Lisa Nair helped with evening shopping.  Art teacher Charity Bolyard helped with sales after the Halloween parties.


I am particularly indebted to student volunteers Rylie Hollar and Katy Pasquarelli who helped set up displays before the fair.  Tiffany Shannon, Taylor Keeling, and Shylar Hanlin helped with sales.  


Finally, Christi Lyons and her daughters Taylor, Haleigh and Maddie, and third grade teacher Rhonda Hatfield helped break down the fair and rebox unsold merchandise.


I want to say thanks to all the parents for their support of our school library.  It means a lot to me.


I'll have more details about the fair and plans for the revenue at a later date.  Thanks again for everything!