Kilgore ISD Libraries

Volume II Fall 2014

KISD Elementary Libraries

Read below to find out what has been going on in the KISD elementary libraries during the second six weeks.

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Kilgore Primary Library

Many exciting things have been happening at the Kilgore Primary Library. Story time themes have included "When I Grow Up", diversity, and "Say No to Bullying". This week the story time focus is on Thanksgiving. KPS students have also had some very special guests in the library recently. The KHS cheerleaders came to read with students and a Vietnam veteran, John Edney, spent two days in the library with the students in honor of Veteran's Day. He brought many artifacts from his time as a soldier and the students really enjoyed his visit.

On the evening of Thursday, November 6 an IMPACT meeting was held at KPS. KPS staff organized this meeting around a Reading Restaurant theme. Parents were able to listen to KPS staff members read out loud to their students and were given tips on how to read with their children at home. Attendees were given oranges as an appetizer as they listened to the story Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson read by KPS Librarian, Angela Turner. For the main course, Mrs. Navarro read Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. After her story, the parents and students were served tamales. For dessert, everyone got to hear KPS counselor, Erica Fenderson, read Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. Afterwards, they enjoyed pudding cups. As they read, KPS staff members demonstrated how to ask questions, make predictions, and read with animation and inflection. Parents were given handouts with more read aloud tips and tips on how to help their children pick books on their reading level using the five finger rule. Each KPS student that attended was given their very own book to take home. It was a very successful night.

Many new books have been ordered for the KPS Library including bilingual titles. We have also ordered e-books for this library that will be checked out through the MackinVia platform. KPS students and staff members will now have two options for e-books: MackinVia and Bookflix.

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Chandler Elementary Library

In November, Chandler Elementary had a very successful book fair. This year, the fair was moved to one of the large multi-purpose rooms. Since the traffic flow was large and steady, especially during the two Grandparent days and Open House, this move helped tremendously. People were able to move more freely throughout the fair and items were much easier to see. Debra Sanders came and helped organize and run the fair. Her help was greatly appreciated and she did a tremendous job. This year, CES elected to get Scholastic dollars with their profit and earned over $7000! This money will be used to continue their subscription to Bookflix (e-book platform) and to purchase new books for classroom libraries.

Students at CES have been steadily reading the books from this year's 2x2 reading list sponsored by TLA. Our friends at the public library have said that many students and parents have come in requesting the 2x2 books. They did not have them at first but have ordered all of them and they are being checked out regularly. It is truly wonderful to see that our students are being encouraged to visit the public library because of a reading incentive being instituted at their school library.

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KIS Library

Work continues on the books at the KPS Library. KIS Librarian, Janet Clower, and a volunteer, Jan Hattaway, are working on the picture book section to change all labels and make them uniform. Janet is also changing the Accelerated Reader labels on KIS library books to match the color levels on the library books at the other schools. Once this is completed, all of our school libraries will have the same colors to denote specific reading levels. This will help kids to more easily recognize books on their reading levels.

KIS students are continuing to receive information on the Bluebonnet Books during their school library time. Students must read 5 books from this year's list by late January to be eligible to vote with other students across Texas on this year's Bluebonnet winner.

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Vietnam Veteran Visits KPS Library

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KHS Cheerleaders Visit the KPS Library

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Kilgore ISD Secondary Libraries

Kilgore Middle School Library

The KMS Library had their book fair in October. Sales were very good this year--over $7000. KMS earned around $1500 in cash and $500 in Scholastic dollars. This money will be used the supplement the book and e-book collection in the KMS Library. KMS Librarian, Diane Wimberly, had help from parent volunteers during the fair.

Mrs. Wimberly has also been working very hard on changing her Accelerated Reader color labels on all of her library books. I believe she is almost done with this endeavor.

KMS students in the 6th grade are also being encouraged to participate in the Bluebonnet Reading program.

Kilgore High School Library

At the KHS Library, we are working on discarding outdated books from our non-fiction collection. Student aides are helping to pull books from the shelves and are preparing them to be discarded by removing all library labels and stamps. The discarded books are placed on a "free book" table for faculty and students to take. Any leftover books will be repurposed for art projects and library decor projects.

The KHS Instructional Specialist, Christy McElyea, and KHS Librarian, Stacey Cole, have joined forces to bring a new technology initiative to KHS with the support of KHS Principal, Greg Brown. Each month, a technology concept will be showcased and tech support will be provided during PLC meetings or before or after school. In October, Mrs. Cole presented a Google website help session. During the week of November 10th at the PLC meetings, Mrs. Cole conducted a training on Eno Boards. Basic use and troubleshooting were discussed and each subject area received a list of interactive resources specific to their subject area. Some of the best resources were highlighted during each training session. To see some of Mrs. Cole's favorite interactive sites, please check out her blog post "10 Interactive Resources for Student Involvement". We are finding that many of our teachers needed updates to their computers in order to get the Smart Boards working and we have a few teachers that need replacement pens. Many of our teachers (especially those new to the district) had never received training on how to use their boards so it is our hope that with this new-found knowledge they will now feel more comfortable using them and making their lessons more interactive for their students. It has been a privilege to work with Mrs. McElyea and a great reward to have this opportunity to help KHS teachers. In January, Mrs. Cole will be presenting a session on Google Drive.

In early October, Mrs. Cole attend a TexQuest database workshop at Region VII. This year our library databases are provided free of charge and have many wonderful options for our students and teachers. Some of our teachers have slowly been integrating these resources into their lessons and using them for student research and we have had great results. For more information on what these resources have to offer, please check out Mrs. Cole's blog post "10 Reasons You Should Use the New TexQuest Databases".

We continue to have regular use of the library by our classes. In early October, Mrs. Cole presented a plagiarism lesson to all of the junior English classes. Our AP Biology classes have come in to research diseases and our Dance Technique classes have come in on two occasions to research ballet and tap. Our debate classes come in every week to research their cases and we have several English classes that come in twice a month for students to check out books. In late October, our journalism classes came in for instruction on the databases, EasyBib, and digital citizenship. On October 30, we hosted the hospitality area for Career Day and one of our guest speakers utilized the library for their session. In early November, Mrs. Mosely's speech classes came in to research speech topics. They used the Gale database, Opposing Viewpoints, to research their issues. This database is really great for current events and presents a pro and con viewpoint for today's issues. Students that utilize this database are able to present a well-rounded speech that illustrates all sides of an issue. On November 11th, the library hosted a Reality Fair for senior social studies students that was presented by Telco. Students were asked to choose a career and were then guided through the "reality" of what their financial situation would be based on that career's annual salary. Bills and monthly living expenses were accounted for and it was very interesting to see which students ended up in debt and which ones prospered. Our iPad carts continue to be used on a daily basis by KHS teachers for research and interactive activities inside the classrooms. Yay!!!!

During the week of October 20th, the KHS Library celebrated Teen Read Week. A Young Adult Literature survey was conducted and every student that completed the survey won a prize. We also hosted Teen Read Week Jeopardy in the library during both lunches. All participants won a free book and the winners received two books. The players had a lot of fun as you can tell from the pictures.

Part of our new book order came in and is now featured on our "Save a Turkey...Feast on Books!" display. Check out our new books blog post to see these titles.

Lastly, Mrs. Cole is working to convert the library website to the new website platform. We would like to send a big THANK YOU to KISD data specialist, Brittany Atkins, for her help with this.