BPS School Library News
Fall 2019 Review
Table of Contents
- BPS Menu of Services
- Library Sponsored Events Around the District
- Building Highlights
- Conference and Committee Work
BPS Menu of Services
Library Sponsored Events Around the District
Our libraries come together to support reading, research, and lifelong learning in many ways throughout the school year. Here is a list of things we were excited to provide for our learning community:
- Battle of the Books with Baldwin Public Library (BPL)
- Birbery with BPL
- Who Was History Bee
- Author/Illustrator Visits
- First Grade, First Card with BPL
Building Highlights
Berkshire Middle School
- Hosted hour of code in the Berkshire Media Center, December 9-13th
- Invited Mike Yermian, computer programmer from Amrock to speak about his career in programming and how he got started.
- Students rotated through stations using block coding, JavaScript and Python. They handled Ozobots, Sphero, Bolt, Bloxels, Airblock Drones, OSMO, Cue, Microbits and Scratch.
Candace Greer-Jefferson
Berkshire Middle School
Beverly Elementary
- Students participated in makerspace challenges.
- We launched the Battle of the Books for 4th and 5th graders.
- Students voted on which books were worthy of The Great Lakes, Great Books Award.
Susan Arslanian
Beverly Elementary
Email: sarslanian@birmingham.k12.mi.us
Twitter: @MediaBeverly
Bingham Farms
Started indoor recess STEAM stations for grades 3-5.
Grades K-5 are all reading or listening to the MRA’s Great Lakes Great Books Award nominees. In January, each child will be able to vote for their favorite book. Our votes will be tallied with all other votes from across Michigan to find the top three favorite books for their grade level.
Author Jim Benton came to talk to the 3rd and 5th graders about the writing process.
Kimberly McManaman
Bingham Farms Elementary
Birmingham Covington School
Digital Citizenship lessons with 5/6 students -- considering how we balance media in our daily lives, how to have safe digital friendships
Launched two reading programs -- Battle for 4th and 5th and Birbery for 6-8
All-School Community read: Restart by Gordon Korman
3/4 students are researching Michigan’s Native Americans
Students work on creating “Character Collages” about the many characters in Restart.
Students find many different reading materials to suit their interests in our library! Novels, magazines, and audiobooks are all popular.
Ann Truesdell
Birmingham Covington School
Derby Middle School
- The entire 6th grade created Noodletools accounts and are working on properly citing information, and Creative Commons licensed images.
- We launched the middle school mock Newbery reading challenge and Birbery
- We hosted the Scholastic Book fair fundraiser and subsequently added 57 new copies to the Derby library collection.
Sarah Sindelar
Derby Middle School
Greenfield Elementary
- Teamed with Kindergarten and Reading Specialist to host a Zoo Phonics Literacy Night workshop for Kindergarteners and Parents!
- Added advanced first grade Accelerated Readers that take quizzes online every Monday morning in the Greenfield library.
- Second graders coded Ozobots as floats to parade in a Thanksgiving Day parade to go along with the biography Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet about Tony Sarg; inventor of the first helium Macy balloons!
Annette LaBelle
Greenfield Elementary
Groves and Seaholm High Schools
Student-centered Library Media Activities:
Launched two reading programs
Chapters & Chips @ Groves
Breakfast Club @ Seaholm
Establishing partnerships for two literacy programs
High Five @ Groves
Read Up @ Seaholm
Conducted Book Speed Dating sessions at Groves
Mignon Claybourne
Harlan Elementary
All K-5 students at Harlan honed their coding skills as they participated in Hour of Code for National Computer Science Education week December 9th-15th.
Harlan 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are challenging themselves to read as many biographies from the Who Was? series as they prepare for our Who Was? History Bee on December 13th.
4th grade digital citizens learned about a variety of media choices; they tracked their choices for a week and had reflective conversations with their peers.
Pembroke Elementary
- K-2 students Skyped with author Supriya Kelkar for #classroombookaday.
- 5th grade students Skyped with author Sarah Weeks to discuss their summer read.
- 1st grade students are participating in the Global Read Aloud by reading books by author/illustrator Yuyi Morales and will be connecting with other readers around the world using Flipgrid.
Julie Green
Pembroke Elementary
Email: jgreen@birmingham.k12.mi.us
Twitter: @PembrokeReads
Pierce Elementary
- Digital citizenship lessons with students K-5.
- Students grades K-3 vote on which book characters their librarians should dress as on Halloween.
- Read Up is a peer-to-peer reading program between Seaholm High School students and Pierce Elementary School students. Students share a meal, read diverse literature, complete a book activity, and develop trusting friendships. The Read Up Program promotes the fact that any destination is possible during each meeting.
Terry-Ann Whitfield
Pierce and West Maple Elementary
Quarton Elementary
- Computer science standards integrated into the library curriculum. Quarton receives ALA libraries ready to code mini-grant with CS First Hour of Code.
- Engineering and design in the library makerspace.
- 5th grade STEM recess in the library.
West Maple Elementary
- Launched the new World Language Library (WLL) with book donations from our collaborative Fourth grade persuasive writing project.
- Introduced coding to our K-2 students during digital learning week.
- Made our mark on International Dot Day.
Carrie Betts
West Maple Elementary
Email: cbetts@birmingham.k12.mi.us
Twitter: @westmaplemedia
Conference and Committee Work
Conferences
- Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME) Annual Conference
- American Association For School Librarians (AASL) National Conference
- MACUL K-12 Summit on Computer Science
- Scholastic Reading Summit
- Maker Summit
- Oakland Schools Best Practices in Library Media 2019
- nErDCampMI
- MAME Summer Workshop
Committees
- Integration and Coding Guides
- New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning (NPDL) Team
- Maker Leadership Network and Classroom Ambassador
- Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) District Team
- Michigan School Library Workgroup (State Appointment)
- Scholastic Book Fairs Customer Advisory Board
- District SALT Committees for Social Studies, Language Arts, and Science
- MAME Board Parliamentarian and Marketing Chairs
- Character Education Liaison District Team