Interviews & Author Skyping

Every week is kind of like a circus in the Media Center. We have all kinds of crazy things going on and it is almost always a wide-variety of activities. This week was no different. Tuesday I did book checkout and maker space free build with a Reading class that doesn't usually come to the Media Center. Wednesday I was off campus for a testing training. Thursday I was back at it with my Art students working on their Langston Hughes projects and Friday I had my GAPP kiddos back with me doing an "I Love My Library" activity (more to come on that later).

There were a lot of BIG things this week:

• The ABC Awards Gala for Brevard County Teacher of the Year
• A News Interview for the #swms20bookchallenge 
• Project Lit Skype session with Nic Stone 

I'm not going to talk much about the Gala. It was a wonderful evening but doesn't really have anything to do with what happens in the Media Center. I will say that I got to walk down a red carpet, do a red carpet interview (if you'd like to watch it, it is the second video on the linked page and about 18 minutes into the video), and I got to meet a lot of awesome educators. The interview part was one of my favorite parts of the evening (other than having my mom, my husband, and my bestie there with me) because I got to speak about the importance of my profession and what I do everyday and how AMAZING our students are. 

Thursday I had the honor of having Greg Pallone join us for an interview. He did a story on our school-wide 20 Book Challenge and our participation in the Follett Challenge. He spoke with some of our kids who were featured in our video. He got some information from me and then worked hard to get the story in the 5:00 News and on their website. I'm so thankful that he came and invested some of his time to help our students out. 

Friday we had our monthly Project Lit Book Club meeting but this month's was a special one. We focused on Dear Martin by Nic Stone and Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Our students got out of class for an extended period of time and we got to Skype Nic. It was sponsored by two of our incredible community members. We had a former NFL player join us, a fierce attorney, a high school senior, and one of our City Councilmen join us. Our students asked really great questions and our community members also had the chance to ask Nic some questions. I highly recommend doing this for your students!

I've written several times about the power of author visits. I have seen the impact of them. Sometimes budgets are strained...ok, who are we kidding? Budgets are ALWAYS strained but this is a great option that is significantly less expensive and still brings your students a great experience. 

A few tips about Skyping with an author for the first time:

• schedule your time and date with your author and then plan to have students in and everything else set up and ready to go before that. Our students came to me 15 minutes ahead of time.
• Make sure the students are prepped for the event. My students knew the event was happening, had read the book, and had been given some background information on the author. 
• Expect tech hiccups but Skype with someone else to test it all out and make sure you have all the equipment you need. 
• Make sure you have your admin stop by so they can see how awesome it is!

Nic is incredible. She's an incredible author and she loves students. If you are looking for an author to Skype with, she's definitely a great choice!  

If I can leave you with one piece of advice it would be to promote your program like it's your job because it is. People don't know that great things are happening unless you tell them about it. Be your own advocate! 

Author Visit, a Big Honor, & Daddy

This past week was actually pretty low-key for the Media Center.

Monday: double classes for book check-out
Tuesday: afternoon book celebration for our self-contained ESE students who just finished the 3-5 SSYRA book Wish. We watched a book trailer, had a discussion, and made lunchbox notes for each other because the main character always wanted to get a note in her lunchbox. It was pretty awesome!
Wednesday: I was supposed to have Girls PE but they rescheduled so I didn't have anyone and ended up covering for a teacher who had to leave early. I got all caught up on 20 Book Challenge responses and we were able to get the report run. I mean, look at these amazing numbers! We are almost 300 books ahead of where we were this time last year and we broke records last year.

Thursday: I got to take some of our students to Hoover Middle School to see author Pablo Cartaya who wrote our SSYRA book The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora and he also wrote Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish.  Mrs. Watkins teaches a Reading class that has all of our ESOL students in it and most of them primarily speak Spanish. She read Epic Fail with them which was really cool because it is a bilingual book. I got with our ESOL District contact and told her about the opportunity to take these kids to go see Pablo and why it was so important and she helped me find the funding to take them. You see, how often do these students get to see someone who looks like them, speaks like them, and writes characters just like them who is very successful in person? How often in our school system do they have the opportunity to ask questions in their native language and get answers in that same language? How often do they miss out on opportunities because of the language barrier? I knew it was important to take them but I didn't realize until we got there what a life-changing moment it was for some of these students. They were SO engaged! Pablo is really funny and a great storyteller. He switches back and forth between English and Spanish. Our students asked some really amazing questions and all of them made it a point to tell me how much they enjoyed the visit. A few of the girls told me their favorite part was when Pablo had me dance with him. Our book club kids also got to go with us and they had a blast too. It made me so happy to see how an author can deeply impact kids who are so different and come from different walks of life. It was a powerful day! I'm so thankful to Ana Woodbrey, Hoover's Media Specialist, for putting such an awesome day together!

Friday: My sweet GAPP kiddos were there for book check-out and it was such a relaxing day. Fridays are short days because of early release so we returned books, renewed books, checked out books and then the kids could either work on their 20 Book Challenge (logging or correcting responses) or they could sit and read. I got to sit with them and read too! I finished Lu by Jason Reynolds! It is SO good! Definitely my favorite one in the Track series. I always have such great conversations about books with these kids. I always walk away encouraged and with a full heart!

The other big thing that happened this week is that on Monday, my admin team and all the front office people came in with flowers and a balloon and made an announcement over the intercom that I had been voted (by our staff) as the Southwest Middle School 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year. It's a really, really big honor. So many teachers and so many students stopped by to congratulate me. I've never imagined what it would feel like to win but it is so surreal. I'm so very honored and at the same time, I feel a bit like I'm taking credit for everyone else's hard work. Everything I do is part of a team effort. I don't do anything alone. We do some cool things but we do it together. I work with the best people!

After finding out, on my way home from school I called my husband and then I called my mom. As I was talking to my mom, I got upset because it was such a punch in the gut that I couldn't also call my dad to tell him. I've always been super close to my dad. Always. Two years ago, right as I was starting out in the Media Center, my dad died of Cancer only 4 weeks after diagnosis. My dad is the one who convinced me to be a teacher. I didn't want to be a teacher. I wanted to be anything BUT a teacher. He is the one who sat me down and told me that I was made for this and that he would support me no matter what, but that teaching is what he thought I should do. When I graduated college, he was clapping the loudest and cheering his heart out as I walked across that stage as the first college graduate in my immediate family. When I got my first teaching job, my dad built me a bookshelf for my classroom, helped me move all my stuff in, and bought team bags for the Girls Basketball team I coached. He came to their County Championship game and was so proud. Both of my parents have always, always supported me and pushed me to do my very best. My dad was a really hard worker. If there was something to be done, he wouldn't rest until it was done. If a kid needed something, he didn't care what it took, he would make sure they had it. My dad grew up in extreme poverty in a single parent home and made sure I knew what it was like to live like some of the kids I teach everyday. He told me to make sure that I was their champion, to be the light for them; that I was there fighting for them every day because some of them wouldn't have anyone else that would do that for them. He is the reason I'm so driven. He is the reason I give everything I have to these kids. He is the one who told me that if anyone could make being a librarian cool and get kids to read, it would be me. It is bittersweet to be given such an incredible award and not be able to share it with him.

I used to think that winning Teacher of the Year was an award you win and then that is it. I'm learning there is so much more to it than that. I had an application due early this week to be considered for Brevard County Teacher of the Year. I had to give a description of my job responsibilities, list all the awards and recognition I've received in the last 5 years, explain how I demonstrate all 14 traits of an excellent teacher in 250 words or less (they were serious! Have they met me? I don't say anything in under 250 words), and I had to write what I love the most about teaching. That was my favorite part. Not this coming week, but the following week I'll have to go sit in front of a big committee and interview. I also have to schedule to go have my photo taken. I've heard some teachers complain about everything it involves, but I'd like to share my thoughts with you. I don't have expectations of winning anything, BUT if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do the very best I possibly can because that is who I was raised to be. I want to represent my family well. I want to serve my school well--they choose me for this and I plan to give it my best. I want to represent my profession well. It is a job that is always on the chopping block by politicians and board members because they seem to think that all we do all day is check out books and anyone can do that. My job is so much more than that and I want to do it justice.

This coming week is going to be a really big week! I'm doing something so cool I couldn't have ever even dreamed it was possible. Stay tuned for details!

Author Visits

When I first became a Media Specialist, I heard about other schools having authors come to their schools for a visit. My immediate thoughts were that it would be awesome to do that but...

1. How do you know these authors/get in touch with these authors?
2. How do you pay for a visit like that?

Some schools or districts may work differently, but in my school in my district, I am given funds from the state to purchase materials that circulate (books, maker space materials, etc.) but I can't spend it on anything else. Any other funding needed for things such as basic supplies, processing materials, prizes, promotional materials, events, etc must be fund-raised.

My first year in the Media Center I connected with a local author named Jaimie Engle and we brought her in for Literacy Week. We paid for her to come for the day and we ran four sessions of kids through the Media Center. We worked with our Culinary Department to feed her a nice lunch and used our Young Author's Club to work the event for us.  It was a great event and the kids enjoyed the visit a lot but I think they would have enjoyed it a lot more if they had read her books before the visit. It was still a really awesome day and a great way to get my feet wet.
                                       
Last year, my second year in the Media Center, I met Christina Diaz Gonzalez at our annual FAME conference. She has several books out that are amazing but her book Moving Target was one of our SSYRA books for last year. It is SUCH a great book and my students loved the series so very much. When I started planning our 20 Book Challenge celebration day, I reached out to her to possibly schedule a visit. She lives in Florida so that definitely helped with the cost. Christina was so gracious and incredible with us. We got to have a special author lunch with Christina and all of our finishers and then we did an author session where I brought in other students as well. Even better, I was able to share her with another local school and we were able to split the cost. The students absolutely loved her and it was so much fun!

This week, in my third year as a Media Specialist, we were able to host Newberry winner Kwame Alexander, the DAY his new book Swing launched. If you've read this blog at all, you know how much our students LOVE his books so this was a really big deal.

Kwame and I met years ago when he was the Keynote speaker at a small conference I helped with. He had just published Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band and He Said, She Said was about to come out. P.S. He was just as dynamic then as he is now. We met again at my first FAME conference and he remembered me. The Crossover was an SSYRA book that year and as my students fell in love with it, I began to share that with him on social media. We continued to run into each other at conferences and I continued to share with him on social media. I was able to get on the launch teams for Solo, Rebound, and Swing. Kwame is such an awesome guy and he truly loves kids and wants to make the world a better place. When the opportunity came up to start the tour at our school, I knew I had to make it happen. He has been so gracious with me and so good to our students.

In just two days I was able to find enough support and raise enough money to fund the visit. TWO. That is how much our staff believed in this and wanted to make it happen for our kids. This is the biggest thing I've ever tried to pull off. Ever. I was so nervous and so worried about all the details and not letting anyone down.

We decided the visit would be in the Media Center and we'd put 200 students in there. We've never tried to put 200 kids in there but my Head Custodian is amazing and said he'd help me move all the furniture out and we'd make it happen and that's what we did. We announced to the staff he was coming and Follett and our awesome rep, Sherri Smith Dodgson, donated 100 copies of Kwame's books to our school. I handed them out to teachers like they were Halloween candy. Then, we announced to the students that he was coming. I told them that the first 200 students who successfully logged one of his books in our 20 Book Challenge would get to be in the Media Center. The rest of the school would get to watch through a live camera feed.

His books stay checked out anyway but we had kids coming in every day looking for them. We had two teachers do read-alouds with it and gave their students the opportunity to log the book. My team and I scored these responses until we were blue in the face. I did lessons with the classes on how to answer a prompt, what a response that wouldn't be accepted looked like, what a good one looked like, and how to fix their response if they didn't actually tell me anything about the book. I was up until 1 in the morning many nights scoring responses and giving these kids individual feedback so they'd know if they got in or not.  Monday morning we published the list and the visit happened Tuesday.

I decorated the Media Center to reflect the themes of the new book. We got copies of the book for all 200 kids. Our Art students made incredible banners to welcome Kwame and Randy to the school. Our Show Choir kids created a routine and performed "Be a Star" at the start of the event. We got the Mayor there, lots of important District people there, and District Communications came. I had more volunteers than I've ever seen before and it was THE BEST DAY EVER!

Days later, our whole school is still taking abut it. The kids loved it. Every single student I asked said it was way better than everything I said it would be. It was also such an incredible learning experience for me. I got to work closely with his booking agent, Carmen, who is awesome and I also got to work directly with his publishing company to make sure our books would be there in time. I got to meet the marketing person for a local independent bookstore and she is amazing. I planned and coordinated with another Media Specialist, Ana Woodbrey, who went in on the visit with me. I got to bounce ideas off so many people. The greatest thing I learned is how much support I truly have from the entire community and how much our staff believes in me to do good things for our kids.

The photos and videos from the event are so incredible. Rachel Horst, one of our District Communications people, did an amazing job capturing the pure joy on the faces of these kids. It will be something I will always remember.

While I've only been through three author visits, I feel like I've experienced and learned a lot. If you are looking to host an author visit for the first time here are a few tips:

1. Don't be scared to try!
2. Reach out to authors. They are AMAZING! Really. They love kids and they want to come to your school. 
3. If you can plan well in advance, do it. 
4. Do all the fundraisers all the time so you have money in your account for times like this when a crazy opportunity comes up.
5. Believe in yourself and your abilities to organize and run an event.
6. ASK FOR HELP! 

Y'all. It took a village to make this visit happen and I'm so very thankful for everyone who helped. It makes everything better when we all work together.