Sope Creek Elementary Library Media Center

November in the Library

November will be wonderful in the Library!  We have brand new computers throughout the school, thanks to our SPLOST project, and we are about to receive 71 new laser printers in the building.  We have a double Birthday Book Club coming up on November 15th, so if you have abirthday in the months of October or November, stop by the Library to select a new book and be the first to check it out!  contact the BIrthday Book Club rep from PTA for more information, or stop by the Library.

On Monday, November 5th, Mrs. Schultz-Suggs will be presenting to the Elementary Media Specialists in Cobb County as part of our Library Media In-Service.  She will be sharing with other Elementary School Media Specialists the kinds of lessons and activities she has developed over the past few years for use with our Sope Creek students.  Other Media Specialists are presenting as well, so Mrs. Schultz-Suggs will be able to bring back lots of new ideas!

On October 31st, the First Grade participated in the annual I Love A Book Parade, and Mrs. Schultz-Suggs took part.  That bulge in her belly is nothing more than the fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow and horse that she swallowed!  (Just kidding-- that bulge is actually a little boy who should be making his arrival early in March!).

Speaking of loving books, our first Book Club meeting will be held this Friday, November 2nd during 4th and 5th grade recess blocks.  Any 4th or 5th graders interested in reading the Georgia Book Award Nominees and participating in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl should stop by the Library during their recess on Friday to find out more information.

We are heading into the second round of shows for our four SCNN crews-- each of them have had their first show, and round two is in full swing.  tunein on Friday mornings for the latest stories of what's going on at The Creek, as well as our "Not Quite Patriotic Song" of the week!

At the end of the month, Mrs. Schultz-Suggs will be joining the 5th graders on their Jekyll Island trip and will be out of the Library for three days.

Welcome Back!

We are Soaring Into Knowledge and ready to start another wonderful year in the Sope Creek Elementary Library Media Center! We are prepaing to welcome all our students after Labor Day , and will be training our parent volunteers in the next few weeks.

The school (indeed, the whole County) is undergoing a Refresh of Obselete Workstations (ROWS) project which requires the location and replacement of all computers purchased prior to 2003.  With 112 laptops on wireless carts and 240 computers tucked away in classrooms, closets and trailers, this is quite an undertaking.  We will be in great shape once the project is finished, but it does require a great deal of effort at the onset-- which unfortunately translates into a later start date for the Library.

Keep checking back for updates-- the dates of the Volunteer Training will be posted shortly, as will orientation and deadlines for SCNN applications and such.  We're looking forward to a great year!

End of Year Schedule

                           The end of the year is fast approaching (can you believe it?!) and the Library is getting ready to close up for the summer. We are asking your help in keeping with the following schedule:

Friday, April 27th -- Last Day for Student Check Out

Friday, May 4th -- All Student Books Due Back to the Library

Monday, May 7th -- Overdue Notices Distributed

Thursday, May 10th -- Library Clean Up & Inventory Day (with help from our fabulous parent volunteers!)

Friday, May 11th -- Last Day for Instruction or Storytime in the Library (also, Career Day)

Monday, May 14th -- Lost Book Letters Distributed (with request for payment)

Thank you for understanding our end-of-the-year schedule and for helping us to make the close of this school year go smoothly!

Congratulations!

We would like to congratulate the members of the Sope Creek Book Club for a competition well-played!  Saturday, February 3rd was the 1st Annual Cobb County Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, held at Osborne High School.  The team (seven 5th grade students and two 4th graders) came in second place with 150 points.  This makes the second year in a row that Sope Creek's team will be competing in the Regional Reading Bowl!

The team will continue on to the Regional Bowl on Saturday, March 3rd at West Georgia University.  For more information on the history of the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, click here.

The Book Club members are asked to read novels from the list of twenty Georgia Book Award Nominees and be prepared to answer questions about the texts.  One of our members read all twenty books, and several others have read over half!

Congratulations again to the members of the book club, and good luck in preparing for the Regional competition!

We've Survived Friday the 13th!

We have successfully made it past the Friday the 13th deadline, and have completed all the necessary reports to switch automation systems. 

We have exported all of our collection to the Follett Company who will translate it into the new Destiny automation system for us. What does this mean for students, teachers, and parents in the community?  It means that our collection will remain static until after Thanksgiving when we begin using Destiny.  Mrs. Schultz-Suggs is unable to make any changes to the collection while teh information transfer is going on-- no new books can be added, no old books can be deleted, no changes can be made to the collection at all.  Birthday Book Club might be affected a little bit, but all that means is a slightly longer wait between book selection in November and the start of Destiny circulation in December.

Mrs. Schultz-Suggs has just met with the 4th grade team during their all-day planning (thank you to our PTA for funding substitutes for this very important planning day!), and will be working with many of the 4th grade teachers on an upcoming project.  This unit will involve the new Georgia Performance Standards on explorers and will incorporate information literacy skills as well as the elements of the Big 6 research model.  The 4th grade students worked on a Big 6 project last year on Habitats in conjunction with the Library, so they are familiar with the model.  If you are interested in seeing the final products of the 3rd grade Habitat project, click here.  Check back at this site in a few weeks to see examples of the 4th grade projects!

NEWSFLASH!  The Curriculum tab on the Library Media webpage is up and running with information about the Library Program at all grade levels!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school!  The Library is up and running for teachers and will be open for student check-out beginning Monday, August 28th. We are busily helping classroom teachers get their equipment set up and submitting both work orders and surplus orders to fix up and clear out! 

If you haven't had a chance to stop by our office, we've gotten our own mini-renovation with a newly faux-painted wall and framed artwork (thank you to both Nancy Condron and the PTA Reading & Literacy committee for the artwork!)

Though the beginning of the school year will be fairly straightforward this year, toward the Thanksgiving Holiday we'll be changing circulation systems from Athena to Destiny.  The circulation system is the computer program we use to check in and out all of our books and catalog our collection.  Thsi changeover requires that all student and teacher materials checked out from the Library be returned before the Thanksgiving break.  Circulation will begin again one week after Thanksgiving and will continue, uninterrupted, until the end of the school year.  We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

"Well then, I'm happy and sad for you..."

We are pleased (and saddened) to announce that Megin Robinson will be the new Library Media Specialist at Lewis Elementary next year.  This means she has graduated from Library Goddess-in-Training to full fledged Library Goddess!  She will be receiving her MLS degree from Georgia State University in May, and is ready to have her very own Library Media Center.  Her outgoing personality as well as her technology and teaching skills wil be missed.  We wish her the best of luck and know she will be an excellent addition to Lewis. 

As a result of Megin's transfer, we have been conducting interviews to fill the position of Library Media Parapro.  After many interviews of many very qualified people, we have hired Beth Lauria as our new Library Media Parapro.  She is currently a Parapro in the Special Needs Kindergarten class over at Sedalia Park and was looking for a position that more effectively used her talents.  She has a background in drama and radio broadcast, and is very excited to be a part of our Library Media Center next year.

So, as stated in the title of this posting, we are both happy and sad in the Library Media Center!
(The above quote is from a very silly movie from the 80's called Real Genius)

MEDIA CENTER CLEAN-UP DAY!

Please join us from 9:00 to 11:00 on Friday, April 28th for our annual (sometimes biannual!) Media Center Clean-Up Day! Don't worry, if you're not available during the "official" time -- we would love to have you at any time of the day on Friday.  Also, don't feel bad if you can only stay for a short time -- we can find something for you to do during the time that you can be here.

On this day, we try to get as many of our fabulous parent volunteers as possible in here to get all the books checked in and shelved, and to make sure that every books is in its place.  We "read the shelves," which means that we take a look at every book and make sure they are all in order.  The more folks we have in here, the quicker the work!

If shelving and straightening is not your thing but you'd still like to help out, we've got labelling and computer searching to be done.  Also, we still need help with weeding and book.  And after all that, Megin and I are going to try to conduct an Inventory (the County is requiring it this year).

We hope to see you there!

Finally Complete!

We have finally completed the Library Renovations.  Our tables arrived this week, and they have all been assembled and most of them are in place.  They look beautiful!  Please stop by and see for yourself -- the beautiful wooden bookshelves filled with new books, the Reference Room with its new wall, the new tables and chairs, and the fabulous murals on the walls are truly magnificent!

7 Weeks and Counting...

With only seven weeks left, the Library is gearing up for the end of the year!

    The Sope Creek Library Media webpage is almost complete! Ms. Robinson learned the program Microsoft Frontpage in order to design the site, and Mrs. Schultz-Suggs is learning it now in order to post the pages to the main Sope Creek site.

    We have received word that the new tables for teh Library Media Center have shipped!  We are very excited at the prospect of having our Library Media Center complete before the end of this school year.  It has certainly been a long process, but the the beauty of our new space is certainly worth it!

    Mrs. Schultz-Suggs served on the Georgia Picture Book Award Selection Committee this year, and will be presenting next year's nominees at the Georgia Children's Literature Conference in Athens on April 21st and 22nd.  Ms. Robinson will also be attending the Conference and Mrs. Spraggins will be the substitute, holding down the fort back at the Creek!

    Ms. Robinson is three weeks away from completing her Masters degree in Library and Information Technology at Georgia State University.

    We have a Library Clean-Up Day scheduled for Friday, April 28th. This is a day when the Library is closed temporarily so that our volunteers can help us make sure that the books are all in order and accounted for before we conduct our annual inventory (which is also completed that day).

    Sope Creek does not have an official summer reading program, but we will be hosting a representative from the Cobb County Public Library in May to announce their summer reading program to interested teachers and classes.