LIGHT by Michael Grant — Official US Book Trailer (3 of 3)

LIGHT by Michael Grant — Official US Book Trailer (3 of 3)
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Grand Opening of The Internet Lounge!



Before





Before



It is ready! Our Internet Lounge is ready to go!



We think the pink chairs pictured date back to when McCullough was built, 1976! It was definitely time for an upgrade!



After!



I saved up book fair profits for several years, hoping to get enough to buy some new furniture for a reading lounge in one corner of the downstairs library. After three years I felt I had enough saved up. Our wonderful CISD Purchasing Department personnel, Chris and Courtney, showed me some options in their bid-vendor-friendly catalogs, and suggested several sales reps.



They could see I did not want the same-old library furniture. I wanted something hip and trendy for our tech-savvy young teens here at McCullough! I also needed something within our budget. David Jones from Educator's Depot came to the library and showed me some amazing Bretford furniture that has built-in technology! Plus, the upholstery and paint colors Bretford offered were exactly what I had in mind!

The furniture has built-in AC power outlets, and powered USB ports. The tables have built-in Powermats, and we can charge our cellphones, iPads, and other eReaders and tablets using portable Powercubes!



The EXTREMELY cool area rug, along with huge quartz rocks from Mexico, an interactive globe, a coffee table book The Earth from Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, and some modern lamps, contribute to the finishing touches!





After!



The Internet Lounge is open every day during school hours, and all students, staff, parents, and visitors are welcome to come read, relax, and charge up their iPhones, smartphones, eReaders, iPads, and tablets!























Diary of Anne Frank Mobiles

Ms. Meyer was not the only teacher who allowed us the honor of displaying her students' projects in the library. Mrs. Roberts hung her Diary of Anne Frank mobiles from the library ceiling, and they are amazing! We get so many visitors to the library who are drawn in by the fun displays and student work that are lining the shelves and hanging from above!

Lord of the Flies Crime Scene Investigation Project

Ms. Meyer's 8th grade classes teamed up and went undercover as crime scene investigators. During the course of reading Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the team members were assigned different jobs to investigate if their assigned character was a bystander, rescuer, perpetrator, or victim.

The different types of jobs that this project included were: the CSI Detective (assigned to provide tangible evidence), the Lexicographer (assigned to provide textual evidence), the Historian (assigned to develop a timeline), the Psychologist (assigned to do a characer psych evaluation), and the Topographer (assigned to create a map).

The students made their own crime scene, including evidence, timelines, psych workups, and maps

The Internet Lounge

During our bond renovations at McCullough I asked to have the old white bookshelves removed from this downstairs area. The library was repainted and new carpet was put in. I had a fantastic book fair the last two years, and I have saved the profits for something I have wanted since I came to McCullough eight years ago: an internet lounge!

BEFORE

Right now we have our old 1976 pink/burgundy chairs down there. Even that is an improvement and we have received some  compliments on how open and fresh it looks. However, this is not the permanent furniture.

I am placing the order for our new funiture from Educator's Depot. The furniture is manufactured by Bretford. Our district purchasing department ladies Chris and Courtney directed the company rep David Jones our way, and it has been a very nice experience working with him. He has a lot of patience, because he had to work with four women trying to decide on fabrics and colors. I think what we all put together is going to be just beautiful. I can't wait to post the "After" pictures in about six weeks! 

The reason it is called internet lounge is because the furniture itself will be wired for USB and AC, plus there will be Apple charging pads on the tables! Students, teachers, and visitors can charge their devices right in the furniture!

Can't wait for everyone to see it!

Banned Book Week September 30 - October 6

During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to censorship of books by displaying challenged books.

I am surprised every year to realize that so many of the books on my library shelves have been challenged at one time or another, not here at McCullough but in other parts of the country! We always put a nice display of our own "banned books", and our students, teachers and parents are amazed to see the works of good literature that have been banned or challenged.

Some of our challenged books are:
Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Scary Stories Series, by Alvin Schwartz
Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline Cooney
Goosebumps Series, by R. L. Stine
The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
How to Eat Fried Worms, by Thomas Rockwell
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
Killing Mr. Griffin, by Lois Duncan
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
1984, by George Orwell
The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle

A more complete list is available on the ALA  website: ALA Most Frequently Challenged Books

 

School Starts!

Getting the McCullough Library up and running is going to be a bit of a challenge, due to the bond renovations during the summer. We are told quite firmly that we were not allowed into the school at all this summer. There were of course safety issues, and plus they just didn't want the teachers to get into the contractor's way! It was wonderful to have a nice long summer, but now we have to move triple-time to get the library back into kid-friendly mode. I pride myself on have the library open on the very first day of school. I am not going to let the the fact that all the library books are packed in boxes, the circulation desk computers are stored somewhere, I don't know where, and the electricity is off and on again, stop me from inviting the students in on day one!

The very first order of business is the Required Reading Book Fair. I have about 24 ELA teachers (more or less), and they make a list of their outside reading for me in May. My wonderful PTO Book Fair volunteer, Sally, helps us get the teachers' lists together, and by July we submit our list to Southwest Book Fairs out of Stafford, Texas. I can't say enough about Sally's diligent work getting this huge project together. She has a large, busy family, and I can't begin to count how many hours she puts into this volunteer job. Sally and I work together so well, and I will miss working with her when this year is over. However, she has twins coming up to McCullough in a few years and I have already made her promise to come back as book fair volunteer!
I also want to praise and recommend Southwest! They have an impossible task of supplying us with thousands of books, and some of the individual titles requires 500-600 copies each! We give them a number of copies for one title based on the teachers' lists, and they fulfill it. As any experienced librarian knows, this is a huge task: first of all to get a book fair company to accept the lists, then to have them actually fulfill the order. They do a great job and I will be glad to pass on their contact information if anyone wants it.
This book fair is held during Student Orientation, the week before school starts. This is where parents and students can pick up their schedules and other things necessary for the first day of school. My administration promotes Student Orientation in order to have the students ready to get to work and start their learning on day one of school. My book fair only offers the ELA Required Reading. We do not have the usual fun books and toys that the traditional book fair offers. Unfortunately the gyms will not be ready, so the textbooks will not be given out during Orientation this year only.

I will have to run get my annual super-sized desktop academic calendar for the year. The only place I can ever find them is Office Depot or a teacher supply store. If I wait too late they will be sold out!