Saturday, July 13, 2013

Pulling out the A/V Cart

Sometimes I need to take a break and remind myself why I know I'm going to LOVE this job. The Marion the Librarian dance remix is the best part.



This next one is a great video from TeacherTube that explains exactly what at teacher librarian does.  This might be a great thing to spread around to campus teachers and even students (you could show just the student portion to them) to help explain the role that TL's serve.

Monday, June 24, 2013

The Spoken Word

Fun fact: one of my five major switches in college was to broadcast journalism and I really wanted to my own radio show.  Unfortunately, my normal talking voice isn't that melodic or soothing to the ear, but that's okay.  Here is a podcast I completed for one of my teacher librarian classes.

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Totes Trending

Apparently I've started a trend of only posting at the beginning and end of summer vacation.  On to the updates!

End of 2012

In the fall of 2012 I started my new job at Tulare Union High School.  My husband graduated from there so he was overjoyed.  I was assigned three sections of regular freshmen and one double-block of intervention sophomores.  I was scared to death of that because sophomores are already angsty enough as it is.  It turned out to be great!  As my class was whittled down from 22 to 11, I really got to know these kids.  Many of them are going to be very successful.  I had a 60% passing rate on the CAHSEE, with which I'm overjoyed. Many of my students who didn't pass missed it by just a question or two.  Hooray!

Beginning of 2013

In January of 2013 I started my coursework at Fresno Pacific to earn my credential and masters in Teacher Librarianship.  As you can tell by my love of books, I am so eager to get out of the classroom and into my own library.  I plan to use this blog for both teaching and library items as I go.  The other great part about this semester is that I'M NOT LEAVING!  This will be the first time in my teaching career that I am not leaving a school and moving to a new place.  I AM moving classrooms, though, but that's a good thing.  My classroom this past year was so, so tiny, and I hated being there.  When a well-loved teacher took a job in Hanford, I jumped on the opportunity to request his room, as he has the room I'd choose out of all the options.  I have no idea when I'll be able to move in but hopefully starting next week.

We've been living in Tulare since July, and this will also be the first time in 10 YEARS (!!!!!!) that I haven't moved.  I seriously haven't lived in one place longer than a year since I was 16.  While this house isn't the best, it's really a nice place to live for now.  This year we watched our kitten Seamus grow up into a ginormous adult kitty, and we got a dog in October.  We rescued here off Craigslist and she has been such a delight to have at home!  She is an 8-year-old Australian Shepherd mix named Sydney.  We don't love her name, but we decided she was too old to change it. We refer to them as Bubbas and Pretty Girl, instead of Seamus and Sydney respectively, most of the time anyway, so it's not a big deal.  She really is a pretty girl.

Next Year

Next year, I am finally branching away from freshmen and sophomores!  ...sort of.  I will have two sections of regular freshmen, again the double-block of intervention sophomores, AND (drum roll, please!) a section of seniors!  Not just regular seniors, though.  I'll be teaching a section of ERWC (Expository Reading and Writing Course), which at TUHS is considered an upper level course.  It doesn't earn them an extra grade point like AP, but it is for college-bound seniors who love a good conversation.  I attended three trainings this year hopefully that one day I'd be able to branch out from freshmen.  I was successful and earned a new, much needed, bigger room in the process.  Hooray!  My B days are going to be terrible (Sophomores, then seniors, then freshmen), but I'm not going to complain.  I'm only a few years out from a library job anyway (hopefully).

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