Melanie Brock has worked as the media assistant at Jackling Elementary School for five years and in Granite School District for the past eleven years. [Read more…] about Library Spotlight: Melanie Brock, Jackling Elementary School
Nikki Gregerson
Library Spotlight: Beehive Book Awards
Beehive Book Awards
The Beehive Book Award is an annual award sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association of Utah (CLAU), given to one book in each of these five categories: Children’s Fiction, Informational, Picture Book, Poetry, and Young Adult. Committees of teacher, librarian, and parent volunteer readers create annual short lists of 10-12 books in each category. These short lists are announced in March and then school and public libraries work to get students to vote on their favorites for the following school year. The winner in each category is announced the following year in April.
Granite School District Elementary School Libraries work hard to promote the Beehive Book Award program and encourage students to vote for their favorite books. They do this through displays, community engagement, and library promotions.
Displays
At Hillsdale Elementary School, Angela Pratt has a display for the 2015 Beehive Book Awards and highlights each category on a different shelf. She uses this display when doing story time and encourage her students to check-out the books nominated. Truman, Woodstock, and Rolling Meadows have also set up displays to draw attention to the books.
Community Engagement
At Rosecrest Elementary, Vala’dee Tanner, the media assistant, collaborated with the librarian at the Holladay library to come do a book talk for all students 4th-6th grade. Each grade came to the library and the public librarian spoke to them about the Beehive award nominees and encouraged them to participate in the voting process. Many schools rely on their PTA to help them buy copies of the Beehive nominees and to help track voting. At Driggs Elementary School, the PTA buys copies of each Beehive Book Award nominee and create a plan to read them in the classroom.
Promotion
Many media assistants have set up ballot boxes to help keep track of votes. Dian Morrison and Kim Liston, the media assistants at Woodstock Elementary, have a glass ballot box set up by their Beehive Book Award display. Students enjoy voting because they like to submit them in the special box, and like to see the votes build up over the school year.
Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor
Library Spotlight: Pam Jensen, Elk Run Elementary
Experience
Pam Jensen has worked as a Library Media Assistant in Granite School District for eight years. She has worked at Oquirrh Hills Elementary, Plymouth Elementary, and has been Library Media Assistant at Elk Run Elementary since it opened in 2011.
Favorite Book
Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-this-World Moon-Pie Adventure by Tony DiTerlizzi
Favorite Quote
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…
-Dr. Seuss
Featured Project: Creating a yearly theme for the library
Elk Run Elementary has artwork from different cultures, all over the world, displayed in the hallways. Pam started to think about incorporating that idea into the library and designing a theme for this school year that would challenge students to think about the world outside of their community and to inspire them to investigate those cultures. She picked the theme, “Book a Trip around the World,” as her starting point.
Pam then integrated that theme into her displays, her handouts, and storytimes. When you enter the library, you get a sense of cohesiveness and it is exciting to see all of the creative ways that it has implemented. Here are some examples:
Each teacher received a miniature globe with a tag that read, “You’ve got the whole world in your hands,” a bookmark made from an old map, and a little treat to sneak on a hard day. This connected the teachers to the theme of the library and acted as a great way for Pam to reach out to the teachers.
Pam set up little displays throughout the library, using old globes to create different variations on the theme.
Behind the check-out desk, Pam made a banner out of old maps, and it hangs above a display made from old suitcases.
She also created a large display by the storytime rug that shows a map of the world, flags from different countries, and little illustrations of children from all over the world.
Every month, Pam will pick a new place for Elliot the Elk, the school mascot, to visit. For the month of October, Elliot visited France. Pam set up a display to show where Elliot is visiting, and incorporates the country he is visiting into her story times. While visiting France, the students will learn French words and will listen to a story that takes place in France.
Seeking Inspiration
Pam used Pinterest as her main source of inspiration for her displays, a great place for finding ideas of how to recycle items for displays. Instead of getting rid of globes that were no longer accurate, she was able to use them in an inventive way.
Interactive Tour of Elk Run Library
Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor
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