Genrefying, Two Truths and a Lie (Part 4, Lie: It’s Not Worth It – But It Really Is!)

Lie: It's Not Worth It (But It Really Is!) This is the last in a series of four posts about my experience genrefying the fiction section of my middle school’s library. Click here for the first post in the series, here for the second post, and here for the third. Yes, genrefying took a LOT of planning. It was …

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Genrefying: Two Truths and a Lie (Part 3, Truth 2: Not Everyone Will Love It – But Most Will)

Truth 2: Not everyone will love it - but most will. This is the third in a series of four posts about my experience genrefying the fiction section of my middle school’s library. Click here for the first post in the series and here for the second post. 2015-2016 (First year, post genrefying)  Our library …

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Genrefying: Two Truths and a Lie (Part 2, Truth 1: Genrefying Takes Planning & Work)

(Side note: This approach has pros & cons. Pros: I could do it during the school year. I didn't want to wait until the summer to do it all in one shot. I also weeded as I was genrefying and learned my collection at the same time. Cons: A lot of my other stuff took …

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Genrefying: Two Truths & A Lie (Part 1: Background)

I've been keeping this series of posts under my hat for a long time! I wanted to be sure that both my articles about genrefication were published first (see here and here for the links! Note you need a School Library Connection account - or a 30 day free trial - to access them.) I …

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Where I’ve Been & Where I’m Going: My 1st Post about Books

I eat, breathe, sleep middle-grade and YA lit. I just do. I don't read adult books, simply because I'm in love with lit for students. I inhale books, and thank goodness for Goodreads because it's such an easy way to keep track of everything I read - both online and on the app (add me …

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Makerspace on the Road: Beginning English and Origami

When I was younger, I think around elementary school, my friends and I would make these origami things for our fingers - we called them fortune tellers. The outsides usually had colors, like red, and you would open and close your fingers based on the number of letters there were in the word your partner …

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This: A Story of Purpose

I want to share an experience I had recently with one of my students, because it personifies our purpose as librarians (and it's also a really good story). He came into the library a few months ago with his English class, with the task of finding a book for a free-choice independent reading project. Aside …

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Beginning English, Makerspace, and Purpose

I absolutely love that my library's makerspace has been able to serve our Beginning English class this year. See this post from October about our first lessons! For a variety of reasons, we haven't been as consistent about having monthly lessons in the makerspace as we first intended. This month, we were determined (that, and …

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Providing Safety When Students’ Lives Get Complicated.

If you're like me, this past week has been...rough. Aspects of our country have been changed so much, often at a flick of a pen, much to the horror and shock of many people in America - and across the globe. It hasn't been easy on my students, either. The middle school where I work is …

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