Thursday, October 15, 2009

NESA Library Week


Librarians work on a variety of projects and are pushed in many directions. NESA Library Week may not be the priority right now but it's coming soon. Only a month separates us from the actual event!

The week of November 16 2009 is assigned to be a joint project for NESA school librarians.

Meet Me @ My Library is a slogan that promotes the idea of introducing students from different NESA schools to each other.

Here at WBAIS, Peggy and I are planning a variety of activities to engage students from Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.

Peggy invites you to join the following activities (I am citing from her document that she wrote for this blog post):

1) Writing Workshop – Our 4th and 5th graders have busy writing personal narratives as part of Lucy Caulkin’s writing workshop program. They would like to share them. Do your students have writing they would like to share with us? I was thinking of a one-to-one exchange type program if it could be worked out. Anyone interested?

2) Collaborative Storytelling (grades2/3?) - I was thinking of an activity where NESA school libraries could each contribute a part/page to a create group story. Has anyone used StoryBird to do this? http://storybird.com/ Other ideas on how to do this? Would you be wiling to do a page in your library?

3) FLAT STANLEY (or some other character) in your school library (grades K-1? ) Based on the well-known Flat Stanley idea, we could take a picture of the same character in all our schools and compile the photos in some kind of digital photo album to be shared. Do you have any good ideas for a character?

4) Virtual Author Visit – It may be too late for this event, but I’d like to get an author to visit us via Skype or something similar. Do any of you have experience with this? Any authors you would like to visit? I’m hoping to find someone who can give me some ideas on how to make this happen. This would take place sometime between Nov 16-19.

The list can go on and on if you add Reading Marathon, Story Lunches, and D.E.A.R. Time!


I would like to involve Middle and High School students with a coffee shop in the lobby next to the library for the week (we don't allow food and drinks in the library and don't feel ready to break this rule yet).

High School students can do Scavenger Hunt on the Internet and online databases that the school subscribes. They will answer one question a day. Answers can be SMS'ed to the librarian's cell phone. We can work on questions together, if you wish, and compare how the Internet works in different countries, if there is any difference at all.


During the week we'll create a Parade of Digital Projects run at school. Students and teachers will present the projects they work on digitally and view what is done in other classes and schools. We'll post a link to the presentations for you to view.

Besides running all these activities, we, librarians, can share our ideas, experience, and proficiency by posting successful lesson plans and projects that you would like other librarians know and try as well. Participation in the project will work for teaching our students tolerance and and multicultural awareness through collaboration.


If you think you would like to participate in one of these activities, or if you have an idea for something you would like to try with other schools, let’s talk. We can use the NESA NING to exchange ideas, or you can email me directly. I really hope you can MEET ME @ MY LIBRARY November 16 – 20.

3 comments:

Ms. Flynn said...

Ideas are out in the field here at school. I will know more in a few days. We are participating. I don't know in what areas yet.

Tara said...

Hi there from ISBangkok! I worked with Peggy in Shanghai and love that the NESA librarians are so connected.

I just did a Skype author visit this morning with Mary Amato that was beyond fantastic! 15 minutes was a perfect amount of time to have a small group of 5th graders (about 7) ask some good questions.

http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com is where I found the info.

Would love to connect with many of you in the region. :) Kindly, Tara

Unknown said...

Hi Tara,

Thanks for sharing about skypeanauthor. Join our ning to connect with other NESA librarians!

Marina