One for the Record Books
October 2019
Sharyland ISD Librarians Attend and Present @ Region One Fall Media Fair
On Friday, October 11th, six district librarians and one library assistant attended the Region One Fall Media Fair at the South Padre Island Convention Center. Wenndy Pray's presentation was Establishing A Strong Library Ambassador Program. Nicole Cruz's presentation was TLA and Me: How Can I Lead or Serve. Other sessions included makerspace ideas, booktalking, reading and thinking with tech, Learn360, library scavenger hunts, and more. The keynote speaker was Liv Van Ledtje of LivBits. Olivia is also a passionate advocate for books and using social media to promote student voice and audience. She loves to tweet out messages that help kids love authors, books, and big ideas about life.
TLA Launch Professional Development
Sharyland ISD Librarians Wenndy Pray, Thanya Montemayor, Monica Silva, Oneida Aleman, and Samantha Silva are ready to engage at TLA's first LAUNCH Career Lift Off Conference at South Padre Island. Special thanks to all their campus principals for supporting this professional development.
Reading = Magic @ Bentsen
Bentsen students celebrated their love of reading by attending a magic show. Students that read hard and met their reading goal were treated to a magic show. Student greatly enjoyed the performance of Chuchin the clown/magician. Chuchin always encourages students to keep meeting their goal in reading and in life.
City of Mission Officials and Community Members visit JHS Library to Judge Character Pumpkins
JHS library hosted a Storybook Character Pumpkin contest. Students who wanted to participate selected their favorite book character, decorated a pumpkin, and wrote a short book report. Mrs. Silva invited the City of Mission Officials and community members to judge our character pumpkins. A big thank you to City Manager Randy Perez, BBVA VP Community Relations Officer-Texas Border Robert Rosell, and Mission Economics Development CEO Daniel Silva. All the character pumpkins were amazing.
Get Caught Reading @ RD Martinez
by Oneida Aleman
RD Martinez students “Get Caught Reading” by their parents to promote the fun and love of reading! Librarian Mrs. Aleman received a $500 grant from SPTSO! Ready for some new furniture to foster the LOVE of reading!
Read Blue Club @ Shimotsu
Shimotsu Read Blue Club is going strong!! We are excited to start another year with terrific books that we’ll be reading.
SA3 Battle of the Books Team
The SA3 Battle of the Books Team meets weekly to read, discuss, and test over the five high school titles. Team members from left to right are Isaac Guajardo, Adrian OCampos, Mili Reynoso, and Hannia Balderas. Team Sponsor is librarian Nicole H. Cruz
Digital Citizen Week @ JHS
As we live in the age where technology has become part of our daily lives, we must teach our students the importance of becoming good digital citizens. Students at John H. Shary learned about how to be good digital citizens and how their choices online can affect their future. Students then created a Google Slide on how they would be a Digital Web-Warrior Citizen.
South Texas Book Festival Schedule
SISD Librarians are encouraging staff, students, and parents to attend the South Texas Book Festival. The festival will be held at the Main Branch MPL on Sunday, November 10th from noon to 7 pm. Note the schedule of sessions below. For more information -please visit this website.
Character Development Speaker Series
Sharyland North Library is hosting the Character Development Speaker Series that is new at SNJH this year. The first session was conducted by some of our State Troopers.
Librarian Launches Faculty Lunch & Learn Session
by Wenndy Pray, B. L. Gray Jr. High Librarian
One of my goals this year was providing more faculty professional development. Being part of the leadership committee on my campus grants me the opportunity to plug in and offer my services to target areas of improvement to support my teachers. I knew we needed to target areas of growth and quickly researched ways to improve instruction with tech tools I was familiar with. I've enjoyed bringing Flipgrid and EdPuzzle to my teachers these past two months. I can't wait to bring more tools to help them help our students.
Jessie Jensen AR Celebration @ Starbooks Cafe
O. Garza Annual Fall Book Fair
by Samantha Silva
During the week of October 7th – October 11th the O. Garza library hosted its annual fall Scholastic Book Fair. Along with the book fair the librarian, Ms. Silva, hosted a raffle through out the week. Students who purchased a book were able to earn a ticket for the raffle. Every day two students where randomly selected, and, if their name was chosen, they could chose a free book or poster. The fair was a wonderful success! We had a fantastic turn out, and we thank all students, staff, and parents for making the book fair such a success.
Dog Man Visits RD Martinez Library
RDM students enjoyed a visit from Dog Man during Family Reading Night Event! A BIG thank you to our supportive SPTSO, wonderful parents/students, and amazing staff for joining us!
First Place in South Texas Book Festival Youth Creative Writing Contest
Ashira James from Shimotsu Elementary placed first in prose at the South Texas Book Festival Youth Creative Writing Contest for ages 11-13. Congratulations, Ashira!! Ashira and all other winners will be recognized on November 10 at the festival.
Region One Fall Media Fair Door Prize Winner
Mrs. Ramos, Wernecke Librarian, had the privilege of attending the Fall Media Fair on October 11th. It was a great way to share ideas with colleagues and to get some updates on services being used by our district. She was also surprised to have won a fruit basket from the Region One booth!
Rapid Review by Darvin Koenig, SNJH Librarian
Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
Noemi Vidal is a soldier from the planet Genesis. She spends her days patrolling the atmosphere, waiting to destroy mechs sent from Earth to attack her planet. Abel is a mech with advanced programming which allows him to evolve. He has spent the past 30 years in a spaceship that was abandoned in the outer atmosphere of Genesis. Their paths will soon cross, but the result will not be what you expect. Gray tale will take you on an adventure that will cause you to think deeply about what a future with advanced artificial intelligence will look like.
SHS and SA3 Students Attend Author Field Trip
On Monday, October 21st, SA3 and SHS students attended an author field trip at the Pharr Event Center. Young Adult Author April Henry shared an interesting presentation on the research she does for her mystery/ crime novels. Students shared that the presentation was engaging and too short. "We could have listened to her for much longer." SHS Book Club President MaryJo Munguia stated.
Rocky Mountain Fundraiser A Success
Mrs. Ramos, along with her student workers and parent volunteers worked hard to make their annual Rocky Mountain fundraiser a success. Her Wernecke students were amazing and helped to add over $6,000 to their library funds! Mrs. Ramos coordinated with SPTSO and rewarded her 3 top sellers Joakim Hernandez (Kinder), Derek Thompson (6th grade), and Curtis Morfin(3rd grade) with gift cards for their amazing efforts to support the library! Mrs. Ramos and her administrators send many thanks to the families and parents who made this such a huge success! Congratulations Wernecke Elementary!
Celebrating National Book Month
by Wenndy Pray, B. L. Gray Jr. High Librarian
In October, I launched Monday Morning Madness in honor of National Book Month. Scholars enjoyed readings from Xavier Garza's (@CharroClaus on Twitter) Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil and Other Stories and other titles. After having to postpone a session and reading during lunch, students were hooked! Monday Morning Madness turned into Lunch Time Madness with readings every day! I love reading to my scholars. Their reactions are priceless! And sharing that these stories are local folklore is always the icing on the cake. "We love it," shares Maggie Harlan, seventh grade student. "We don't miss for the world!"
SHS Battle of the Books Team
The Sharyland High School Battle of the Books team practices weekly at the library. Team members include from left to right Michelle Doomes, Mary Jo Munguia, Arseni Viachera, and Zachary Estes. The team sponsor is librarian Nicole Cruz.
O. Garza Library Celebrates Red Ribbon Week
by Samantha Silva
During Red Ribbon Week students designed their own ribbons for the library bulletin board. Students were encouraged to design their ribbons with a lot of colors and patterns. The beautiful ribbons were displayed on the library bulletin board. Our students designed beautiful ribbons that expressed their creativity and uniqueness.
Sharyland ISD High Schools Are on the Leader Board
Sharyland High School and Pioneer High School are recognized among large 6A schools for encouraging students to access the Region One and TexQuest databases. Both school librarians Nicole Cruz and Elizabeth are promoting the peer-reviewed, credible, and citation ready sources to students and staff.
Nicole H. Cruz, SISD Lead Librarian
Email: ncruz@sharylandisd.org
Website: http://sharyland.ss8.sharpschool.com/departments/library_services
Location: 1216 North Shary Road, Mission, TX, USA
Phone: 956-580-5300
Twitter: @Cruz23Mac