Love and the Time of Cholera

"All you need is love!"

-The Beatles

I am wearing my green Wild About Reading t-shirt today.  It says "Daniel Webster Middle School, Los Angeles, California" on the back.  I got it because I read a million words a few years back.

Everyone else is wearing red today, it seems.  Grinning students are carrying around stuffed bears and bunnies, more chocolate than they can eat, balloons, and roses of every color imaginable.  I saw a black-leather jacket clad dark haired boy give his equally dramatically dressed, heavily eye-linered friend three black roses.

The main office is filled with contraband items: cupcakes, cookies, balloons, etc. captured from loving celebrants who might get them back at the end of the day.  Ms. Meekins did not need to decorate this year!  Valentine's Day is in full swing.

I'm not even present to that.

What I am present to is the fact that thirty-seven students, faculty, and staff have managed to read one million words in the space of just one semester.  This is more than we have had at the end of first semester ever.  This is thrilling to me, especially in light that there were times when Accelerated Reader, the program that we use to track student reading, was down.

California state educational standards expect that by eighth grade, students ought to be reading one million words per year.  If you think about it, that's about the entire Harry Potter Series, with a Twilight or two thrown in.  Those are huge books!  And, if you continue to think about it, reading them all in one semester is quite an accomplishment.

On February 24 during lunch, we will have a reading celebration for all the thirty-seven.  Each person who met their goal will dine on pizza and bottled water as they are called up in front of the group one by one to much applause and given a certificate and a t-shirt.  We will take a group photograph that will go on our website and be displayed proudly in the library.  This is a big deal.

The following faculty members joined in the fun: Mr. Higgins, Ms. Orendorff, Mr. Brener, Ms. Strong, and, of course, yours truly (I WILL have a Wizard of Oz t-shirt).

I also want to give a shout out to one of our paraprofessionals who joined us in this endeavor.  Ms. Smith--who also sang and played the guitar for the show we put on for our students last semester--particularly stands out to me because she participates in school activities.  Paras don't usually get so involved, and this is Ms. Smith's third year joining us for pizza and a shirt.  Way to go, Ms. Smith!

So today I celebrate not by wearing red and eating chocolate (ok, tonight my husband is making me a special lamb dinner and I'm surprising him with cupcakes--but that's after school...) but by doing the prep work to reward our readers so that reading stays special and precious to them.  This work makes my heart feel good.  And that's really the point of today, right?

Happy Reading!

Return to Oz

I am so very excited!

Four years ago we purchased a program called Accelerated Reader, which allows us, among many other things, to track the word count of each of our scholars.  Thus, our Million Word Readers (MWR) program was born.  The goal is for each student to read a million words by the end of the school year, as per the California State Standard for grade 8.  Each year has been more  successful than the one prior.  I love the excitement it generates, and it's all around reading.

For the last two years, I have been in charge of this program.  The first year I found funds to purchase t-shirts for those amazing readers who were able to read a million words by the end of first semester.  Think about what that means: middle school kids reading that many, many books.  It's a pretty amazing accomplishment to read a million words in a year--much less, a semester.  The shirts were adorable, with a Where the Wild Things Are motif on a lime green shirt.  Last year, with new funds, we got The Very Hungry Caterpillar t-shirts--also full of cuteness; we had SO many readers that I had to order a second.  Luckily, this was just when the company that I order from unveiled it's newest design: Harry Potter.  I got these in black and purple, mostly because I liked them both so much I couldn't choose between them.  Here they are.  Aren't they just so cute?

Over this past summer I got an email from the company that I order from.  To be honest, I don't usually read email like that because, really, who has time?  But for whatever reason I opened it, and felt a sudden moment of shock when I saw the t-shirt that they offered.  I had to take a moment to just breathe. I was immediately thrilled!  I decided right then and there that we had to have those shirts!  Of course, I moved heaven and earth (and heartily annoyed Dr. Joyce in the process) to get it.  We were able to order just 50.

Well, they came, and here, in this very email, I'd like to showcase the new Daniel Webster Middle School 2011 - 2012 Million Word Reader Shirt:

Modeled by our very own Ms. Orendorff, of P.E. department and MWR fame.

Can you see him?  Can you see it?  No?  Here's a close-up:

YES, it's THE SCARECROW from THE WIZARD OF OZ!  Which, if you have ever set foot in my library, you'll know is MY FAVORITE!!!!!!  And he's dancing down the Yellow Brick Road! Under a rainbow!  With a book!!!!!!!  I am so excited!  There are going to be Webster scholars walking around with this blue shirt on for the next three years!

(I'm trying so hard not to write "OMG!!!!!",  I can't stand it!)

Um.  Excuse me for a moment.

*  *  *

Ok, I'm back from jumping up and down in excitement.  Teacherly decorum, you know.  *ahem*

In any case, I'm off to go find my book, because I NEED that shirt.  Need.  There is one with my name on it that I'll wear as soon as I reach 1 million words.  Then I'll model it and make students want, want, want it so badly that they'll get to a million words just to get the t-shirt.  Yep.  That's exactly what I'll do.

Happy Reading!

The Bad Beginning

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

-Semisonic

We had our very first ever Library Advisory Committee meeting this past Monday.  This was pretty exciting to me, as I'd been given the idea years ago and it took me years to put it in action.  There was a terrific turn out, and after I brought up the DIRE NEED to change the name from Library Advisory Committee (LAC, for short.  I know, right?) to anything else, we discussed the following:

Creating a library policy for insuring that our books stay in our library
Library displays to make it look awesome and homey
Our Million Word Readers (MWR) program
The Virtual Reference Desk (VRD)
Purchasing a server for the library
This year's library budget, which is exactly $0.00

Suggestions involved a discussion regarding how to modify Accelerated Reader (AR) for differently-abled students, requesting magazine subscription donations for the library from the community (we are in the midst of a fund-raiser that has magazines right now...brilliant!), and ... me starting a library blog.

Holy cow!  A library blog!  How fun!  I feel that this is both the end of an era--that of me being a beginning librarian--and beginning a new one: that of me being a ...well, whatever I am now.  I plan to post about goings on: in the library, at Webster, etc.  Because that sounds like fun.  And I think that's what people want to know about.  So...yeah.

In any case, I have a good feeling about this.  :)

Happy reading!