I know this is a late post, but I wanted to share our videos of this event.  Mrs. Wilkinson, our reading coach, came to see me about possible ideas for the Celebrate Literacy Week.  My first thought was using video to create interest in the events and my second idea was to do a commercial similar to the Publisher’s Clearinghouse ads where people are running to deliver the good news.  I thought that a good way to promote Celebrate Literacy Week was by having students bring and share the books they were currently reading.  The class who had the largest percent of students with books for the morning was recognized the next day and taken to the cafeteria for breakfast.  I called it Bring a Book to Breakfast! Take a look at the results below.

This was the first commercial.  Notice we had both Dr. Surrency and Mrs. Oliver (Principal and Assistant Principal) right there in the middle of the fun!  They certainly got in their exercise for the day.

The first winner was Mrs. McDonald’s class.  There was a bit of drama to go along with this first “win”, but that story is for another day.

The second winner was Mrs. Symonds’ class.  As they paraded down the hallway, other classes cheered and clapped for them.

The third winner was Mr. Matke’s class.  We’re not sure who was more shocked at our arrival at his door, Mr. Matzke, who had no idea his students had won or the “suprise team”, who had to knock twice to get his kids down to the cafeteria in time for breakfast.

The fourth and final day ended with a tie between Mr. Drew’s class and Mrs. Leary’s class.  Both teachers were thrilled to have won and Mr. Drew even made us jump back by yelling, “What do you want?!?” after we knocked on his door.  His big grin, however,  made it pretty clear he was just teasing us.

I was very proud of the library assistants who made this part of our celebration a huge success.  It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun and exciting without our “suprise team” arriving at each room every morning.

On Thursday, April 9th, students picked their favorite Sunshine State Young Reader Award title.  On arrival at school, the student media assistants, along with Mrs. Gastelum’s first period Language Arts class,  immediately went to work setting up the media center for the day’s voting. 

Ballots, voting stations, and goody bags were generously provided by our Putnam County Supervisor of Elections Office.  Mrs. Pam Keene was our contact and the one responsible for ordering specially designed ballots just for the occasion.

At the end of first period, the three classes of students who had teachers that read out-loud to them began to arrive.  Because these teachers read at least three titles, each student in their classes was eligible to vote in this year’s contest.  Those teachers were Ms. Barnett, Coach Bennett, and Mr. Gastelum.  During the next three periods, students from 6th through 8th grade arrived in the media center to add their votes. 

When students entered, the voting procedure was explained and names were checked for eligibility.  Each qualified student was given a ballot and sent to a voting station.  After voting, the ballots were collected at another table and a goody bag was made available to each voter.  Then students moved on to the cookie table.  After getting cookies, students were able to relax and socialize while enjoying their cookies.

In all, we had 210 ballots submitted.

Our top pick was The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson.  Our second place winner was Peak by  Roland Smith, and our third place winner, with only 4 votes fewer than Peak was Red Kayak by Priscilla Cummings.

Jenkins is just a small part of the vote.  So far over 18,000 middle school students across the state of Florida have cast their votes.  We are the only middle school in Putnam to participate this year, however, and right now, the plan is to have even more eligible students next year!  Dr. Surrency is already trying to find ways to provide teachers with classroom sets of the newest Sunshine State Reader titles for the upcoming year.  We’ve also been lucky enough to receive a $350 donation for new titles.  This will buy almost three sets of books!

A special thanks is extended to Mrs. Pam Keene who made it very special by providing real ballots and real voting stations and the goody bags,  to Coach Bennet, Ms. Barnett, and Mr. Gastelum for finding the time in their busy schedules to read three of these books to their students, and to the students who provided all of the support for the day and who made sure everything worked so smoothly.  These are the days that make me proud to be the media specialist at Jenkins Middle School!

Sixth graders spent time in the media center this week taking their SRI and then competing in a nonfiction read-a-thon. After completing their SRI, students were asked to choose nonfiction books, read them, and then take Reading Counts tests to show comprehension of the books that were read.  What started as a simple contest turned into a RC points blow-out!  Mrs. Holley’s classes earned a total of 350 points!  In second was Mrs. Staple’s classes with 259 points, followed by Mrs. Gastelum’s with 214 points.  Mrs. Evans students made a decent showing by earning 150 points.  Mrs. Brauman, who has just one 6th grade class, earned a remarkable 134 points.  The winner has been determined by averaging the total number of points by the total number of students for each teacher.

Mrs. Holley’s students earned an average of 5.4 points each.  Mrs. Staples students earned an average of 3.4 points each.  Mrs. Gastelum’s students earned an average of 6.7 points each and Mrs. Evans’s students earned an average of 3.0 points each.  Mrs. Brauman’s class had only 14 students and they earned a huge average of 9.6 points each! 

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Mrs. Brauman’s 6th grade Language Arts class!  You rocked Reading Counts this week!  Congratulations are also in order for Mrs. Holley’s students for earning the greatest number of points.  Earning 350 points in one day is impressive!  

Congratulations to the following top readers.  The top ten students for each grade leve are listed below.  Some of on the verge of setting a new school record! 

6th Graders:

7th Graders:

8th Graders:

There are more great readers out there who could easily make it into the top ten.  As an incentive, each student who earns 100 points will earn a free paperback book.  The even will take place very soon, so read and earn those points today!

It’s been said that the road to Hades is paved with good intentions.  I guess I know where I’m headed then, because I’ve had the best of intentions to keep this website updated, but I’m a bit overloaded right now.

However, even though the site doesn’t reflect it, things have been moving along at top speed in the media center and I’m going to try to share those things on the site.

Rumors abound and some scare me.  I keep hearing one floating around that the plans are to close all the media centers in Putnam and place the media specialists “back in the classroom.”  How ironic it is that “they” keep using that phrase “back in the classroom”.  That shows that “they” don’t really know what a media center is all about.  I can’t speak for everyone, but I can assure you that I never left the “classroom”.  It’s just bigger now with lots of books!  Librarians who sit behind the desk checking out books are a thing of the past.  We’re information literacy teachers and teaching is the KEY word here!

Of course, I’m doing double duty with four full-time Language Arts Classes, but just recently I worked with Coach Purifoy’s classes on their body parts projects.  Imagine how busy THAT was with two classes doing two different things in the library at the SAME time.  I like to call it organized chaos.

Next week we bring Mrs. Meade’s Social Studies classes in here.  Seventh graders will be learning about different countries and eighth graders will be working on finding information about the different states in the USA.  We’ll also have other Language Arts classes visiting for their library book checkout time.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

The other rumor I hear is that not only will they put the media specialists “back in the classroom”, but they will put instructional assistants in the library to check out books.  Wow.  No offense to our hard-working instructional assistants, but how insulting it is to think that there are people out there in this world who think my job is so simple that anyone can walk in, sit down, and do it!  My student helpers check out the books.  I’m the one who researches decides which books are needed and  are appropriate to purchase for the library. I update and maintain the databases.  I’m the one who enters every student into the system.  It’s me who is responsible for knowing where each book is and, even more importantly, knowing how the find the RIGHT book for EACH and EVERY student at JMS.  I develop research and reference lessons for classes, provide materials for teachers that will make their lessons better, and am only a phone call away should they have a technical issue that needs immediate attention.  I teach students how to use computers effectively to find information for their classes.  I set up safe email accounts for ALL students. I keep the Reading Counts program going.  I check the shelves to make sure each and every book is in its place so it can be found when it’s needed.  I create contests and activities to promote reading.  I run the book fair three times a year, and , most importantly, I work with students to help them become better readers and find a love for reading that will help them for the rest of their lives.  I sincerely hope that people who think media specialists don’t really do anything will reconsider that opinion.  Come spend a week with me if you dare!  I would love to have the help.

Now, I’ll climb down off my soap box!  The truth is I love my job, even though it’s the most demanding job I’ve ever had.  Believe me, though.  It’s worth it.  The thought of losing something that I’ve spent the last four years pouring my heart and soul into, is completely and utterly devastating.  It’s not about just having a job, of course I’m thankful for that, but it’s also about what’s best for the kids and for our school.  I hope the powers that be recognize the importance of maintaining as many services for our kids as possible.  I was born, raised, and educated in Putnam County schools and I’ve never felt my education was lacking for anything. I want our kids to have a BETTER education than I had, not an inferior one!  They deserve it!

Ever wonder what goes on in the mornings in the library?  Here’s a quick look:

New and Improved!

Have you tried the new and improved FreeRice.com? In addition to vocabulary building, FreeRice now includes quizzes on art, chemistry, grammar, multiplication, geography, and four languages (German, Spanish, French and Italian). Learn something new, try FreeRice.com today.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, and job performance.

It’s a exciting thing to be able to say, “Yes, we do!” whenever someone asks, “Do you have a test on _______?”

As of Monday afternoon, we became the proud owners of every single RC test in existence.

What does that mean for our students and parents?  It means more freedom to choose books from different sources.  Now books in the public library, stores, and homes may have tests available in our library media center.

Just keep in mind that there is not a reading counts test for EVERY book ever written, but the more popular ones will definitely have tests.

We’ll also be receiving monthly updates and that will eliminate the problems we’ve encountered in the past when we’ve had to wait on tests to arrive.

There is one downside, however.  Because of the size and the time it would take to download a list of over 43,000 quizzes, you’ll no longer find a quiz list posted on this site.  But I will be posting a link to a scholastic page that will provide you with everything you need to know about the books that do have RC tests.

Stay posted for more exciting updates!