Jazz it up! Recycle and Reuse

Our school has some really old looking AV carts rolling around in it. When the teachers come to check one out and we try to give them the old green cart instead of the newer black ones, they whine, "Can I have that one over there? It's prettier". This drives me crazy so I started thinking about how can I give these poor unattractive carts a make-over. Here's what I came up with. Details:

Can of black spray paint - Wal-Mart $0.96.

2 Grip-It-No-Slip Placemats on Clearance - Targets $0.25 each.

Can of green paint I picked up from the school yard the Sunday after Homecoming. I try to go out to the school the weekend after homecoming. Kids have taken apart their floats and have left wonderful treasures behind.

A little creativity and about an hour of my time total. (10 minutes spray painting it black, 45 minutes painting dots.)

Ta Da! Now every teacher wants to check out "my little Pygmalion"

Options: I have also just painted them a pretty color and used one roll of the Grip-It-No-Slip shelf liner from Dollar Tree to cover the shelfs. ($1.00 per roll - one roll will make a runner down 3 shelves). If you don't have the time, energy, or talent, send the carts to your art department and let the students jazz them up.

Give us your ideas

Mini Workshop, Classes and Events

Lucy and I love to hold small workshops, classes or events for the students, during lunches or after school. We believe that learning can be fun. Some of the workshops and events we have shared over the last few years are listed below. We keep the library open to the rest of the student body during most of our workshops. Sometimes a student is too shy to attend the class or workshop, but will watch intently. This is ok with us because they are getting something from the activity and maybe next time they will join in. All teachers and instructors donate their time. We have no budget for these activities. You can get started by finding out what special skills or talents your staff has, and talking them into sharing those skills or talents with small groups of students. Let us know what you are doing. We are always looking for another great idea.

Knitting Lessons (during lunches)

Lucy has given knitting lessons for the past 3 years. There is a fee for yarn and needles or the student can bring their own, and then the class is free. We invite all the faculty that can knit to come and help with the lessons.

Calligraphy Classes (during lunches)

We have several of our faculty members who can do calligraphy. During lunches, once a week, for a month, we held a mini course in calligraphy. (The teacher who was the instructor had a planning bell during our lunches). There was a fee for this class, $2.00 for a calligraphy pen or free if you brought your own pen. We had faculty and students signing up for this one and about half were boys.

Ballroom Dance Lessons (during lunches)

A month before the prom one year we held dance lessons during lunches. Our theater teacher had planning during our lunches and came in to do a mini dance lesson on a different dance, once a week for a month. We did the Waltz, the ChaCha, the Rumba, and even a little swing dancing. Believe it or not, one week we had to send the boys to the lunch room to find girls to dance with. Yes, we had more boys than girls. After this month of moving tables we went out and purchased Magic Sliders for our tables, so they would move easier.

Line-Dancing Class (after school)

Another year, the week before spirit week we held a line-dancing class to get ready for the big homecoming dance. Once again we had a teacher who could teach us some line dances. We had her teach "The Hustle" (because Lucy and Ethel danced the hustle when they were in high school) and "The Cha Cha Slide". (Lucy and Ethel were clueless to this one, but liked the music.) I brought the CD called "30 Greatest Party Songs Ever" (from Drew's Famous Party Music Series). After the lesson we even had a little fun doing the "Macarena" and the "Chicken Dance".

Chop Stick Workshop (after school)

We have a small Thai community in our county. We asked a couple who had owned a Thai Restaurant to come in and teach us how to use Chop Sticks. We had about 16 faculty and students sign up. The fee was $2.00 for chopsticks and the food to practice with. I got the chop sticks from the local Chinese restaurant for .10 each. We also had a student who had lived in Japan for 6 years and an English teacher on hand to help teach. This workshop was great fun.

Tie Your Tie Workshop (How to tie a necktie) (during lunches)

In this workshop we teach students how to tie a necktie. This workshop is free, but we asked the students to bring in a necktie. It turned out most did not bring their own ties. I put up a flier at my church for the men to clean out their closets of their old, out dated ties and donate them to the library. I now have over 60 ties to use for this workshop. We get faculty members and retired men from the community to come in during their lunch to teach. We set up some full-length mirrors, print off a few handouts they can take with them after the lesson. Voila, we have another workshop. We also pass out the ties to the boys who show up to Graduation without a tie.

Heads Up Workshop (How to get and keep good posture) (during lunches)
After the first tie your tie workshop we thought we should do one mainly for girls. I wanted to have a "How to Walk in Heels" workshop, but it turned into a good posture workshop. One of our local chiropractors sent us his assistant to talk to the students about good posture, heavy backpacks and other spinal issues. This workshop was free to students.

Yoga Class (after school)

One of our teachers taught a yoga class after school, once a week, for a month. This class was free, but we had some money left over from the chop stick workshop so we brought some yoga mats and had a drawing each week for a yoga mat. Then we turned down the lights, turned on the music, and twisted our bodies into pretzels. We thought this would mainly be a girl attended class, but 50%, who attend were boys.

Yoga for Stress relief (during lunches)
One year we held this workshop the week before exams. We had the same teacher, who taught yoga come in and talk to students about yoga posses they could in their seats, or at a 3 minute stretch break, during exams.

Afternoon at the Movies (after school)
Our school has a Public Performance Copyright License for movies. Sometimes we show a movie after school just for fun. Our school runs late buses at 4:50, so our movie must be fairly short. I look for movies that run about an hour and a half. Be careful with the time. I researched the time lenght of Hitchcock's THE BIRDS and it would work in my time schedule. However, I had looked up the time on the VHS tape and then I rented it on DVD. The DVD had added footage that the tape did not have, so the students had to leave before the movie ended. The movie is free and we serve all the popcorn they can eat. We sell drinks and that covers the popcorn cost.

Scary Smelly Cheese Tasting (after school)
We did this around Halloween and the students paid $2.00 for the cheese tasting. We showed about 5 minutes of a video called "The Cheese Nun" about how the mold in cheese is different from region to region. We talked to the students about veined cheeses, then we had a tasting of four different cheeses.

Mexican Hot Chocolate (after school)

We sold Mexican Hot Chocolate for Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15 - Oct 15th

Macarena Mondays (during lunches)

A quick and easy event is to have Macarena Mondays. Durning the last 5 or 10 minutes of each lunch move your tables and put on some music and everybody now, LET'S MACARENA. (LIMBO anyone?)

Library Media Bonanza!

We got this idea originally from a middle school in North Carolina -- she had a presentation about her Media Bonanza day at a NCSLMA conference several years ago. We have since adapted it to our library. This is our second year! Library Media Bonanza is a day we close the library (except to check out books), and host a staff development opportunity for our faculty. We talk our tech department into participating as well. This is a self-paced staff development where teachers can move from station to station at their own pace, and ask questions along the way. We also put out displays of new or notable books, DVDs, and Videos. This year, our stations included Ethel on Finding Curriculum-related Podcasts, Lucy on how to operate the presentation carts and smartboard, a tech on mobile lab training and questions, our tech supervisor on Groupwise Mail and Calendars (and any other tech discussion). I am posting below some of the photos. We tried to lure them in with hot spiced apple cider and door prizes. I would love to say it was wildly popular and attended by all, but it wasn't. Teachers could come in either during their planning bell, or after school. The 28 (out of a little over 100) members of our faculty who did attend seemed to learn something and enjoy it. Ethel and I are still puzzling over what it would take to get faculty to attend! We'd love to hear comments from others who do successfully offer staff development.

Warning: our pictures are a little dark--our flash did not go off. We thought you may pick up ideas from even our displays and signage. Our easels all come from Dollar Tree. We also used discarded books with bubbles we printed that prompted teachers with questions we often get.

Lucy, Ethel, and environmental awareness

Lucy and Ethel try to model sound environmental practices to our high school students and faculty. We run recycled paper through our printers (we did warn our faculty that we were doing this). We took apart our vertical files (gasp), and reused the paper in it, even though some of it was 15 years old. We found a site we'd like to share with our fellow media folks, as it contains a fundraising idea-selling reusable grocery bags, an idea we really like. Check out the ChicoBags fundraiser site by clicking here. You'll also find a shopping site there as well--Ethel has tried and uses their green bags for produce. She gives them high marks. I am going to purchase 1 reusable bag for each family member for Christmas! We are waiting to hear from ChicoBags --we'd like to sell them to make a little money for the library--and to educate our students along the way!

Thoughts on shelving and student input....

Lucy and Ethel have found that in our media center, opening up the shelves by rearranging books, constantly weeding, and even purchasing more shelving has increased our circulation of books, especially in the non-fiction section. We try to put as many books on display with fronts forward as we can. I, Lucy, am a weeding fanatic--I have no problems throwing away books that either haven't circulated in several decades, that are nasty looking, have ugly covers, etc. If you have trouble weeding, or need suggestions, check out Florida's amazing Sunlink site! They also have a new book out on weeding. If you have problems throwing away a book, get your teachers to do an altered book project with some of your undesirables! If you don't know what an altered book is, click here. I have purchased several books from Amazon on making altered books--my teachers beg me for my discards, we are keeping books out of landfills, etc.



If you're like Ethel and me, you have at least one library pet peeve--one thing that just drives you nuts. Ours pet peeve is when some darling teen walks along our shelves, and slams all the books to the back of the shelves! (Isn't it amazing what can annoy a person?) If this is your pet peeve, try the solution that Ethel came up with. She has had our techs save every bit of the white Styrofoam packing material that comes with computers. She then placed it behind the short books on our shelves and now our books can't be pushed to the back, nor can a darling student throw books behind the others! It also keeps the stuff out of the landfill. Ethel is thinking of some way to make these more attractive--when she comes up with that idea, I'll post it!

Slam Board help!

In an earlier post we explained our Slam board. This weekend, Lucy and Ethel and 2 other friends went shopping and found Teen Tabletopics at this super cute store. It has provided us with a whole box of topics to use. You can buy them online--and there are boxes for adults as well!
Go to http://www.tabletopics.com/ for more info!

The Goddess of YA Literature

Lucy says...if you haven't been to The Goddess of YA Literature, you are missing an amazing opportunity to explore the world of YA literature! It is like taking a YA lit class featuring the best of YA literature with honest reviews! I have ordered almost everything she has recommended for my high school crowd! She recommended Before I Die, I bought it, and it is flying off the shelves! Three cheers to Professor Nana!

Free Rice

We want to explain our link to http://freerice.org/, and how we have used it in our media center. Our students can come in to the media center during their lunches (we have ). We started teaching our walk-ins about freerice.org, as a way to have fun, learn something, and contribute to society (we don't let them surf the net or play online games). Ethel had the idea to pull out computers from our mobile lab cart during the lunches (if it is not being used by a classroom), and let the students play on Free Rice during lunches! It was a hit--especially with the guys.

Curing the Overdue blues..Lucy and Ethel's December scheme

We have quite a few overdue books because we circulate a LOT of books! To bring them in, Ethel came up with two successful ideas--we used them last year, and they do work! We have a contest each nine weeks where we randomly draw a class--the first class we draw with no overdue books wins a party of some kind. Last nine weeks, we drew through third bell classes, and the class won a ice cream float party. This nine weeks we are drawing for a Christmas party catered by us (we are doing hot-dogs). We have had a huge response to this--it is in the announcements, and kids are renewing more than ever! We also are having a contest called the 12 Days of Christmas. It starts December 5th, and runs 12 days prior to getting out of school. Each day we randomly pick a student name, and if that student does not have an overdue book, they get to come to the library and pick out a prize from our prize box (which we replenish with Dollar Tree items and Target's dollar items). Yes, sometimes we do pick a student who has never checked out a book, but it was rare last year, and the student did have to come through our doors to claim the prize. The winner's name is announced each day on the loudspeaker as well! They loved it!

Contest Flyer

Bringing kids into the LMC--with a Slam Board

Remember back in the day when we had Slam books--those composition books that had one question per page, and you wrote your favorite singer, or cutest boy, etc. on each page? Well, Ethel adapted this idea to our media center board, and it is a hit! We have an blackboard our reading area. We've made it a slam board--each day we are posting a different question, and the students run in to put up an answer (using sidewalk chalk)! So far our questions have been: what is your favorite candy? what superhuman power would you want? who is your favorite teacher? what makes you LOL? what's your middle name?

Lucy and Ethel firmly believe that if we get students to love coming to the media center, we'll eventually get a book or magazine in their hands!

Native American Heritage Month

Lucy says..while helping a teacher design a research project for her 11th grade U.S. History class, I ran across these terrific sites I thought I'd share.

Smithsonian American Art Museum's Campfire Stories with George Catlin

This could serve as a springboard for the assignment--have them select an image in this collection--a chief, an image in Ancestral lands, Catlin's quest, the Western landscape, to find more information about--composing not only a 2 or 3 page narrative or reaction paper with more information (from various sources that are cited in the works cited page) about the image, but within the narrative, describing everything they see in the image that gives clues about Native American life at that time (they must choose and image of Native Americans, or Native American life, not images of Catlin and his party). Within the paper, they could also investigate this question--can you find how encroaching movement from East to West affected the life of the person, or the image? Can you find a picture of this area, or a person from this tribe today?

Here are the lesson plans from the Smithsonian site:
http://catlinclassroom.si.edu/lessonplans/contents.html

Also, I love, love, love this activity:

It has them search through primary source documents, and other websites:

Library of Congress

http://www.edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=268

http://edsitement.neh.gov/monthly_feature.asp?id=133

There are many more out there--just thought I'd share these! Feel free to discuss other great sites you've shared with your teachers!

What are Lucy and Ethel doing in the land of blogs?

First, who are Lucy and Ethel? My name is Mary Simmons (aka Lucy), and I have worked as a library media specialist in Virginia and then North Carolina for around 20 years. I have been at all levels--elementary, middle, and high school. My co-author is Beth O'Briant (aka Ethel), and she is my library assistant (as well as my neighbor and good friend). I got my B.A. in history at the University of Richmond, then took what seemed like one-million library classes at ODU, where I received my masters degree. I was very well schooled there to always remember PR, PR, PR (public relations) no matter the level I served. Beth is the creative genius at the library--and together, we are always plotting and scheming new ways to entice students into the media center (that is where folks started calling us Lucy and Ethel--and because we are kind of zany!)

We want to tell you what this blog is..and what it isn't. This blog is not a site where we will wax poetic in educational mumbo-jumbo about the grand scheme of all things library related. Our sole purpose is to share with other high school library personnel practical ideas we have used to bring high school students to our media center. They don't always come in to check out a book--but we both strongly believe if we ever once lure them in, and they visit us often, we will eventually connect a book or magazine with that student--even if it takes us years! We believe our library is for our students--and we try to keep in mind what will make them comfortable. We want our kids to come to the library--even if it is just to be their refuge from the larger world of a big high school. We want them to have fun, read, and maybe just learn something in the process.

We want this blog to be a forum for sharing ideas -- if you have tried something that worked to bring students in to the media center--let us know!

Remember, not all of our ideas may work for you in your situation--but we hope you can find something we do that may work for you! If you have a problem that you'd like us to help you solve--we'll be glad to try and help you solve it!