Scholastic Book Fair

Today, I helped Mrs. Deep start setting up for the Scholastic Book Fair. Mrs. Deep gets 7 tall rolling carts full of Scholastic Books. Additionally, they send her more books in cardboard boxes. Mrs. Deep has figured out a system that really works for her patrons. First, Mrs. Deep takes a picture of the contents of the shelves to ensure that she puts the remaining books back where Scholastic put them. Then, Mrs. Deep takes the books off the shelves, one at a time. She rearranges the books by price. The reason for this is so that the students, especially the younger students, come in, they are able to easily purchase and find a book that they are able to buy. Mrs. Deep said that it took her a while to figure this out. This is what I helped her do today. We took two shelves, took the books off of them, arranged them by price, and re-shelved them. Then, I took tape and marked how much the books were on the shelf under the book. This really helps the Bookfair move more fluently.

After we organized the shelves and put the prices under the books, we looked at the Scholastic Bookfair brochure that went home with the students last week. Mrs. Deep said that a LOT of students come in searching for a specific book that was in the magazine. Mrs. Deep learned that the easiest way to keep track of the book's location on the shelves is to keep a copy of the brochure and label where the books are located on the shelves. She labels them using the SAME stickers that she uses for the lexiles out in the library. How smart is that!? For example, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is sky blue in our library. She would put a sky blue sticker on the brochure and a sky blue sticker under the book on the book shelf. This enables her to find the book quickly when a student asks for it. It also allows the students to know that that book is, or is not, on their current lexile level.

American Education Week Breakfast for Teachers

American Education Week is next week! As a token of her appreciation and support to the teachers at TCES, Mrs. Deep uses her funds from the library to purchase breakfast for them. This is an event that Mrs. Deep has done ever since she first started working in the Media Center. She stated that teachers are very important to her, and she wants to support them any way she can. This is a way for her to demonstrate her appriciation for all of the hard work that teachers put forth every day.

American Education Week is actually next week. However, Mrs. Deep is celebrating a week early so that she doesn't have their breakfast AND the bookfair all in the same week. Last year, she had both going on and it was very stressful trying to check students/parents out and set up the breakfast for the teachers. She learned her lesson the hard way!

I helped to set up the tables, get the supplies (cups, ice, napkins, plates, and platters), and lay out the breakfast according to the signs. Mrs. Deep got McDonald's biscuits for everyone. She also had coke, diet coke, and orange juice. Yum!

Afterwards, I helped to clean up and distribute the remaining items that were left. It was a big hit! I would love to do this one day when I become a Media Specialist. It is very important for your teachers to know how much you appreciate them!

Title Wave Box Trailers

Today I helped Mrs. Deep go through some of the Box Trailers that Title Wave sent to her. A few times a year, Title Wave will send Mrs. Deep a box or two of books for her to go through and see if she wants to add them to her library's collection. First, Mrs. Deep checks each book to see if they have an AR test on Renaissance. If they don't she puts them back in the box and does not consider them at all. Then, she researches the appropriateness of the book (maturity of the content, profanity, and/or relevant to the curriculum). She often uses Goodreads, a website online that has a catalog of all types of books that offers information on the appropriateness of the book. It also have ratings from readers who have read the book.

After checking each book to see if they had an AR test, we discussed the next steps of purchasing the books. If Mrs. Deep decides to purchase the book for the library's collection, she emails Title Wave to tell them which books she wishes to purchase. Then, Mrs. Deep goes into Destiny, goes to vendors, selects the Title Wave vendor and makes SURE that the bar codes that they have for their books do not belong to one of her bar codes on a book within the library. Again, this would cause major confusion and aggravation if it is not fixed or avoided. We did not catalog or check the bar codes of the books because Mrs. Deep had not contacted Title Wave yet and she did not have access to the bar codes.

Organizing/Labeling Weeded Books

Today I helped Mrs. Deep in organizing and labeling the weeded books. Mrs. Deep told me today that she has weeded many books over the last year and that she just put them into a stack in the back room. Over time, she forgot the reason for the books being weeded. Together, we pulled out each of the weeded books and labeled them with sticky notes. Some were weeded because they were either incorrect information or out of date, ruined beyond repair, and some were not AR books. Mrs. Deep and I labeled each book with sticky notes so that we could continue to add to the weeded collection. Mrs. Deep plans to have a cart outside of the library on Academic Night for parents. teachers, and students to comb through.

Finishing the Thematic Display

Today, I helped Mrs. Deep to finish the thematic display in the showcase. I helped to add 5 red table cloths to the display to look like curtains, created a film wheel, and laid out the floor and red carpet for the display. Last, but not least, I added stuffed animals reading books to go along with the red carpet theme. How cute!?!

This thematic display helped me to get into the school spirit of supporting reading literacy among our students. I was enthusiastic about the display because I know that the students will see it and want to become "Show Stopping Readers"!

Planning for the Scholastic Book Fair

Today, Mrs. Deep and I began to plan for the Scholastic Book Fair. Mrs. Deep has been participating in the Scholastic Book Fair for 6 consecutive years. Mrs. Deep has had a lot of experience with setting up and running the Book Fairs. Mrs. Deep stated that she likes to use Scholastic instead of other organizations for the book fairs because they are very organized, keep detailed records of purchased items, and offer incentives for schools who allow them to come set up their book fair. This year, because Mrs. Deep has used them for 6 years in a row, has earned $100 dollars in Scholastic Dollars. These Scholastic Dollars allow her to buy and get items for the library for free! Over the years, Mrs. Deep has gotten book shelves, rocking chairs, and various inspirational posters for free using the Scholastic Dollars. Another incentive that Mrs. Deep earned for the school is a $5 off coupon that she can give to every teacher in the school.


Mrs. Deep also explained to me how she has learned to set up and run the Book Fair so that it is less stress on her. Mrs. Deep prefers to set up the Book Fair and have it open on a Friday. Then, she will close the book fair early on the last Friday. Mrs. Deep also asked teachers to only allow the students to come to the book fair during their rotation time, not in the morning. The morning is reserved for parents who wish to stop buy and purchase items. Additionally, Mrs. Deep will request for 4th and 5th grade students on Principals Honors (All A's with a 95 or above average) to come and help with the sells in the morning. This gives Mrs. Deep the freedom to still help other students and teachers within the library to check out books, answer questions, and run reports. Mrs. Deep also said that the first book fair does not bring in as much money. The library can earn 25% of the profit. However, the second book fair that year, they earn a little higher percentage. Also, Mrs. Deep looks at what books are being bought and sees if they are Accelerated Reader books. She checks to see if they have a quiz that goes along with them. If they are popular, they are an AR book and have a quiz, she uses the money from the second book fair to purchase the books to add to the library's collection.

I also helped Mrs. Deep to create the newsletter to go home with the students. Mrs. Deep logged into her Scholastic account online, and we went to the premade form under her account. We edited the dates and the times to fit our needs for this book fair. Mrs. Deep also explained the new eWallet purchasing procedure that was implemented last year. Mrs. Deep allowed students to pay with checks/cash the first 5 years she conducted the book fair. However, last year she explored the Scholastic's eWallet option. Parents/guardians could create an account online, create an eWallet with a certain allotted amount of money, and the child would be able to purchase items from the store without having to keep up with the check or cash. Mrs. Deep explained that when she logged on to her account in the mornings of the book fair, she would receive an email saying that a parent/guardian purchased an eWallet. She would print out that eWallet booklet, with the bar code inside, and give it to the child. When they were ready to check out, she would scan the bar code, and the money would be deducted from that eWallet. At the end of the book fair, the eWallet would expire.

I look forward to working with Mrs. Deep in the Book Fair within the next few weeks. I feel like this will be a great experience and that it will allow me to work with more of the library's patrons. I can't wait!

Reading Enrichment Unit

This week I conducted the Reading Enrichment Unit. I used the data from last year's USA Test Prep Assessment to identify the group of students who had a definite weakness in a particular area within the Georgia Performance Standards. The majority of Mrs. Stones homeroom, fourth grade student, struggled with planets and the solar system. Therefore, I created this Reading Enrichment Unit to help supplement their learning and increase understanding of the planets and the solar system.

I used my knowledge of the students and Mrs. Stone's knowledge to conduct the learner analysis. While creating the Reading Enrichment Unit, I made to to adhere to the accommodations and needs of the students. The first day of the unit, we read the book, The Planets in our Solar System by Franklyn Branley. I also had a planet presentation to accompany the book. Students really loved being able to see the planets as we read about them. They were facinated by how different they are from Earth. On the second day, we learned how to use information ethically. This was an important day for the students because they are required to be able to use information from online and print resources ethically. They also would need this information to be able to effectively create their presentations at the end of this unit. On the third day of the unit, I taught students how to use Galileo and Destiny to locate information on the web. Students practiced locating information on one subject and shared with the class what they learned. Additionally, students worked in their groups to find a book in Destiny that would correlate with the planet that they selected. Students went to the library and located the book so that they could read and create their presentation on that book. Finally, the last day of the unit, student read their book in their groups. Then, they browsed Galileo to locate information on their planet. As a group they created a Google Slide Presentation on their planet. Students shared their presentations with the class at the end of the class period.

This Reading Enrichment Unit was a very rewarding experience for me. I was able to help supplement and increase understanding of the students' weakness. I had a great time with students and they really enjoyed being able to read more about the planets that they were interested in.