The Daring Librarian

Hello there dear blog readers and my Twitter / Instagram family and friends. Here's a kind of mirrored post that I put out on my Daring School Library blog for my kids, parents, and community . That post is pretty school and district specific but I thought I could post over here some resources from our national educational partners like PBS Learning Works, Capstone, PebbleGo, MackinVia, and Scholastic. Since our schools closed down last Friday companies have been very generous and forthcoming to provide FREE resources for our out of school kiddos. Seems like more are coming out every day. Please note that I a Middle Grades (ages 10-14) and Young Adult specific educator and not Primary or Elementary. There are plenty of great people out there for those little squiggles. Bless their hearts. Here's what I said: I’m not gonna lie, it’s kinda weird out there right now but I truly believe we’re going to be OK. Things will get back to normal. They always do. #History....

Lately, I've grown fascinated with the Instagram #BookChallenge and the #BookBento photo technique.  So, here's my rendition, see above graphic or make a copy of my GoogleDoc . Feel free to take, use, share, & make it yours! (With attribution please) Confession: I'm kinda lazy, some book challenges are 30 or 31 days...I chose 10 pictures just to make it doable and easy.  Have you heard of these? Have you ever participated in one? For the past 6 months, I've been working on a new presentation for a keynote appearance in Ohio and it's making me more thoughtful about the potential of Instagram. More clever ways to interact with Libraries, literacy, books, reading, kids, and our community. UPDATE : October 5. I changed number 5 in the graphic & challenge above to #BookSelfie.  I have an announcement [taps mic] I am an idiot. Here's why. I've always LOVED the term #Shelfie cause it's fun to say, where kids & people hold up a...

The Summer Reading List is Here! Where does the time fly? I can't believe it's that time of year again! Time to share our Summer Reading List with you! It's my 27th year in HCPSS and 22nd year here at Murray Hill Middle School! W00t! A lot of things have changed but some thing stay the same. Like still LOVING to read. Every day. Especially, in the Summer time! There's nothing better to sit outside, on the beach, under an umbrella, or in a screened in porch and just read. For hours and hours! Where do you like to read? Any verified official Murray Hill kid who answers that in the comments will get a surprise next year! Sorry, Svetlana in Vladivostok, you are not eligible to win, but I still appreciate you reading this blog!   We Invite you to view & download the Middle School Summer Reading List Jpeg Page 1 and Page 2 or 2019SR_MSfinal- PDF  Thanks to our our A+ partner Librarians at the Howard County Library and two of our local HCPSS Middle S...

WARNING: Rant Below. So, my last post was about an easy interactive reading promotion idea using Post-It Notes I got from my fabulous friend (and one time mentee) Tiffany Whitehead. Didn't read it yet? Just landed here? That's OK, maybe you should go back and read it before going much further... it's OK, I'll wait.  (watches Ancient Aliens loves that memetastic Giorgio A. Tsoukalos but can't stand the annoying voice of that David Childress) This post was inspired by an anonymous blog comment. I'll post it below. Oh wait! Eep...sorry You also probably should skim this Reading Promotion post , too! It's cool, I'll go check Twitter while you do and Tweet back to my favorite band of all time XTC & Andy Partridge. Reading is the Key! 'Cause that's where the anonymous or unknown comment was left. My below rant will make more sense if you get the context. OH! I know, I'll screenshot it. Wait here for a sec. BRB. Here's...

Do you ever get stuck clicking around Amazon buying random stuff you may not really need but suddenly desire? Do you have a mountain of Amazon boxes in your kitchen waiting for each recycle day? Yeah, me neither! [cough] Like today, among other things, I got a Misto Brushed Aluminum Olive Oil Sprayer for my roasted cauliflower & Brussels sprouts addiction and a set of 4 Le Creuset Silicone French Coasters for the Coastal Cottage . You never know what you might find! But sometimes I stumble across something that sparks my creativity and I'm like - SO COOL!....Now what can I do with it?  This was the case with a set of 100 antique looking keys I found that came with raffia cords & brown card stock tags....all for only $20.99. Officially, it's called: SL crafts Mixed 100pcs Skeleton Keys & 100 pcs Kraft Tags Antiqued Brass Bronze Charms Pendants Wedding favor 34mm-68mm I mean, 100 fancy keys, 100 custom cut out tags, and 100 raffia cords? Bargain!   The...