Author Visit!

The highlight of my week was having picture book author Kristy Dempsey visit Bethel last Friday!  I love reading to my students, but it is rare that they really get the chance to meet an author and connect on that level.  

I was so excited last spring when Kristy emailed the Greenville County Media Specialists to let us know that she would be home in Traveler's Rest, SC for the 2016-17 school year.  She is also the librarian at an international school in Brazil.  We had just found out that our school theme for the year would be "Our Adventure Starts Here" and I thought it would be such a great connection to make between her adventures and how she uses them in her writing!

It was such a lovely visit!  Kristy talked to all 1005 of our students about her adventures and how they help her to write as well as read us her newest book The Superhero Instruction Manual (which everyone loved!!).  I really enjoyed talking to her too.  It was so interesting to compare library stories from two different countries.

After the final presentation, I snapped this picture as Kristy sat on the floor and chatted with one class as the rest were filing out and their teacher was heating her lunch.  What a nice day and a great impact on students!

Jumping into genrefication

This week I have officially jumped into genrefying the fiction section of our library.  I had been researching and even bought genre stickers last year from Demco, but I hadn't actually started until this week.  I was inspired to finally jump in by two things.  One was watching my older kids, who I have worked so hard to teach Destiny to, struggle to find books using the catalog which has led me down the rabbit hole of "how can I help them?" And "why aren't they getting it?"  The second thing was reading Andy Plemmons blog posts about genrefying his library at the beginning of the year and how much it has helped the children to find books.

Does it really help them for me to keep beating Destiny into them, or does it make more sense to arrange books in a way that makes sense to them if it helps them find books they will read?  I am getting on the wagon with those who would like the children to be able to find things to read!

So as I have been hanging out in the floor putting genre stickers on books I have made some new friends as students on passes have asked me what I am doing.  They have been so excited to explore the section I have finished and I haven't even put all of a genre together yet.  It makes me excited for when I can get it all finished!