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.

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)

Tentative Library Schedule

We have a tentative opening date for the Library!  Monday, October 24, 2005 is our target date at this point. 

Of course, this depends on whether or not the shelves are finished in time for us to get the books on them during the week of the Book Fair.  If you take a look at the photo album entitled "October 5 -- Construction" you can get an idea of how many boxes of books Megin and Jessica have to deal with. 

At this point our "opening date" refers to our ability to function at a very basic level -- find and circulate books.  Individual teachers and students will have access (we hope!) to the Library and its materials.  We will not be having full-class check out at this point.  Full-class check-out and the beginning of full access to the Library will probably begin a week or so after our opening date.

In preparation for the opening of the library, we will be having two Volunteer training sessions for our wonderul Library volunteers.  The first will be on Friday, October 28th from 10:30 to 11:30.  The second will be on Tuesday, November 1st from 9:30 to 10:30.  Both sessions will be held in the Library Media Center and will provide our fabulous volunteers with a review of our policies and procedures, a chance to work with our automation system, and an orientation to the brand new, very different shelving arrangement.

We look forward to opening and seeing everyone!

Post 1: In which the Library Media Specialist begins a weblog to chronicle the construction in the Library...

Good morning everyone!  This is the very first entry in Sope Creek's very first weblog!  I have created this blog to update students, teachers, parents and other community members on the status of our Library.  This blog is in its infancy, so please forgive the lack of entries or panache.

The mission for this blog is to provide up-to-date information about the Sope Creek Elementary Library Media Center and the goings-on therein.  This will include lists of new books received in the library, events to take place, and (the goal is) weekly postings of an informative nature.  Megin Robinson (our phenomenal paraprofessional) and Jessica Schultz-Suggs (our library goddess) are working toward an actual website for the Library which will contain a link to this blog, and so much more!

We hope you enjoy visiting this blog as much as we enjoy maintaining it! Please continue to check back with us as the site grows.