This bulletin board is located outside of my classroom, which also happens to be next to the school cafeteria.  In the past, I've done boards on visual literacy using different posters with questions to spur comprehension.  I really wanted to make it a school-wide reading board, though, so this year I tried something different.

Back in the fall, I distributed pumpkin cut-outs to all of the classroom teachers, with questions about favorite books.  The teachers asked their students to fill them out, and then turned them into my mailbox to be added to the board.  It was such a success, that I followed it up with snowmen for the winter (favorite places to read/ people to read with), hearts for February (books I love), and now kites for the spring (favorite character from a book, and why).  I'm thinking of finishing up the school year with suns, for summer reading recommendations.

As you can see, it's been a big hit with the students!  I don't change the pre-made decorations at all; just the change in fill-in shapes is enough to give it a different look each "season".  And it gives me great insight into what students are reading!  I think this would work great in a library setting as well.

The big news today in my classroom was "We got mail!"  If you've read my blogpost on The Three Ninja Pigs  then you'll know that the author, Corey Schwartz, commented on my post. This led to an email exchange, bookmarks for my students, and her offer to respond to any letters they wrote to her.  What teacher can pass up a real-life writing assignment like that?  So my students went through the writing process, produced their final copy letters, and I took photos of their papers using our document camera in the classroom.  I then emailed Ms. Schwartz the jpegs--easy peasy!

And today, Ms. Schwartz was kind enough to send her replies!  Not just one letter to the class, but a reply to each individual student and our one group letter.  I printed out duplicates so we could keep one of each in class and the students could take their own copy home.  I've distributed half of the letters; the other half will go out later this week, when the students are done with content focus groups.  Ms. Schwartz has asked them some questions of her own; I think we'll be writing more letters soon!

I love this avenue for exhibiting our IB learner profile of "communicator"!

No library experience to report this week (sigh).  I have, however, begun a month-long writing challenge put forth by the women behind the blog Two Writing Teachers called the "Slice of Life Challenge".  By joining the challenge, I have committed to writing on my blog every day during the month of March.  Since the writing can be of a personal nature versus professional, I've chosen to post on my reading blog, More Books Than Time.   Not all of my posts are or will be reading-related this month, but I'm hoping that my followers (all six of them!) will understand and put up with my musings, rants, and raves during this challenge month.

I chose to do the challenge to flex my writing muscles.  As a teacher of reading and writing, I feel it's important to model those actions as well; I want students to "do as I do", not just "as I say".  I won't be sharing every single post with them, but I will share my struggles to write thirty-one cohesive, interesting pieces.  And when I'm not successful, I'll share that, too; students need to know that failing does not have to lead to shutting down, and failed attempts at writing do not mean failure as a writer, or worse yet, failure as a person.  We celebrate the attempt, and strive to improve!

Immediate disclaimer:  the picture to the right is NOT of me!  But it makes for a good illustration of how my week has been.  We are wrapping up a full week of practice STAAR testing (the state standardized assessment for those of you who are not in Texas).  I could write a post about my opinions on the preponderence of testing in our schools...but I'll save that for my elected officials.  What I'd like to write about today is the flexibility that is required of teachers--and librarians--these days.

I was supposed to be in the library yesterday morning, covering for the librarian again, but due to the number of students requiring small group and individual administration of tests, I was needed to test.  At the librarian's request, I was able to open up the library and get all the computers booted up before the assistant arrived for her morning shift, so I did get to help in a small way.  The rest of my day, as much of my week, was spent in test administration.

I may have mentioned that prior to working on my current campus, my previous teaching experience was post-college, 1987-1993.  I was out of the classroom for seventeen years, working as a tutor, neonatal ICU assistant and clerk, and ARD facilitator.  I felt just like that newly-graduated teacher again, returning to the classroom after almost two decades.  What I quickly learned is that a teacher's day/ week is much different than what I experienced back then.  Years ago, I would have entire weeks of solid routine days; my classes were used to certain work being done on certain days.  Nowadays, students are pulled for collaborative days, speakers, district assessments, state assessments, and special projects.  We have focus days in which they work on math or writing all day in small group rotations.  Even on our "regular" days, students and teachers need to remember which specials the students attend (we are very lucky to have music, art, p.e., and Spanish!).  Teachers--including myself--are also pulled to attend professional development workshops and attend committee meetings and job-alikes.  Add in the usual student and teacher absences, and it makes for quite a bit of disruption to the "routine"--if that even exists anymore! 

What this means is that I have had to learn to be VERY flexible, especially in my role as a pull-out resource teacher.  I rely heavily on our shared online campus calendar and principal's weekly newsletters to plan on interruptions to my schedule.  I've also learned to "let go" of that which I have no control over (at least most of the time!).  Most weeks, I look over the grade level teams' lesson plans (also through our share drive) to see how I can connect the learning in general ed to what we're doing in resource.  At times, it feels like I am in reactive mode more than proactive... but that's okay, too.  I have learned to think of it as prescriptive, not reactive, much in the way a doctor prescribes a "cure" for what ails you.  We can't always predict exactly what a student won't understand, what support is needed for that special activity--and so I have to be flexible enough to provide services at point of need.

I have seen this flexibility at work in the library during my internship.  The librarians were dealing with "surprises" on a daily basis, with facility, tech, and equipment requests, incoming shipments, and specific teacher and student needs.  I don't think I had a repeat-routine days while I interned at the elementary and high school libraries.  This may be a test of flexibility; it also keeps the job fresh and interesting.  I am glad that I returned to the classroom while working on my MLS degree, because this experience will surely add to my effectiveness as a librarian.