Navigating the Library - New Organization, New Signs, New Year!

At the end of last school year, our entire fiction section was completely reorganized by genre.  If you haven't read all about it, check out Hacking Genrification at the Oak Hills Library!  It was a huge job!

  

I knew that the very beginning of the year would require a few lessons to help students find books using the newly genrified fiction section.  We have had two weeks of book checkout since the new school year began, and so far the newly genrified fiction section is receiving RAVE reviews.  This is a great relief to me! It was such a huge job and I really wanted some reassurance that we made the right decision. One student explained that adding genres gave him additional clues to find the book on the shelf! Another students said she liked searching for her book in a smaller genre section, rather than searching for her book in the entire fiction section. 

I also added lots of new signs to help student find books! My younger students really found the picture signs helpful.

Helping students find their books continues to be my number one goal.  If I can help them find their books while also teaching search terms, alphabetizing, sequencing and genre, then their library experience becomes both educational and fun!

Newest Addition To The OHE Library! #NothinFancy

I was super excited to add a little something new to our library over the summer! At the end of last year I asked my principal, Mr. Labatte, to purchase a whiteboard for my library.  Thanks so much Mr. Labatte!  

I know it doesn't seem very exciting, as I am usually the one in line asking for tech solutions to all of my teaching challenges.  But this new whiteboard will help my students stay connected to the learning targets for each lesson in a way that they weren't before.  So it is a little addition, but I believe will help my students in a big way.  

Tee Hee! It is double sided, so I can use the other side for teaching too!

A New Year Brings A New Website! http://isd194.org/oak-hills/

Parents at Oak Hills Elementary and throughout the Lakeville School District will notice that something has changed over the summer! The school district's web presence underwent a renovation of sorts! Along with a new brand, the district and all of the schools now have a new virtual look and web address - along with a much needed mobile version!

http://isd194.org/oak-hills/

As the Oak Hills Elementary webmaster, a title that sounds a bit more masterful that is required, I have been learning to edit in WordPress, the platform for our new site.  It is fun as I always enjoy learning new web tools! Now my focus will be on making our Oak Hills Elementary website be the best tool it can be for our parents and our visitors!

Celebrating Back To School!

It is Sunday, September 20th, and this is my first post since July! Our school year has started with a bang! From a tech support perspective, it has been more time consuming than past years, thus I am just making time to sit down and write about the most important part of my job, teaching! I wanted to find a way to celebrate the return of our students. Our school is such an animated hub of energy when school is in session!  There is no better way to demonstrate than a little time lapse video! I so enjoy having our school's library filled with their energy again!