Books, Books, & More Books!

We had a number of retirees at our school and due to that,  and some shifts in school boundaries and such we aren't filling one of the retiree positions...and that particular teacher left EVERYTHING to whoever wanted it, so...I scored a ton of lower level chapter books to fill out my class library! YEAH ME!!  I also scored a large rug to replace my absolutely old, gross, raggedy rug that I have been wanting to replace for the last 2 years.  DOUBLE SCORE!

So...I'm starting the first days of my summer holidays, processing those and the stack of books that were already waiting to be processed.  It takes some time, but it is so worth it.  The books are levelled, entered into a database that can filter according to genre, book location, OR reading level.  I'm thinking I'd like to try publishing my database online, so the kids can search for particular books to see if its in the class library...although I pretty much can tell them if it is, and where to find it (ie. which basket location).

I'll be going in next week to finish up 'tweaking' the book baskets.  I made new labels and reorganized some of the baskets to make it easier for kids to find some of the books.  Some colleagues at school shake their heads at the amount of time my teaching partner and I spend on our library, but I think it is so worth it when students can find books that are their 'just right' reading level by looking at the colour code at the front of all the baskets, or finding a particular series or genre the same way.  It helps us too, because students find it easier to put the books back in the correct spot so the next person can easily find it!

Where, Oh Where, Has This Little Blog Been??

Well, for all my good intentions, I totally fell off the Blog-Wagon sometime before Christmas and never managed to get back on it...until now.  I don't even really have a good excuse, like:  "I had a baby", or "I was working on my Master's and just couldn't find the time", or "I found out I was suffering from an incurable disease and was trying to deal with that"...oh...wait...I've been there, done that...so I guess I can't use that one again!  Nope!...I have no good reason.  Part of me felt like I didn't really have anything blog-worthy to say...but that wouldn't really be true because I just finished an incredible first year using Daily 5/CAFE!  But with summer here, I'm planning to plunge into the world of blogging again, with a recap of my Daily 5 experience, my plans for next year, and who knows, what else?! So, stay tuned.