Hi, everyone! Cue here with a blog post to kick off Spring 2022. April is right around the corner which means--Let's Celebrate School Library Month! I recently participated in a webinar with library rockstars Amanda Jones, KC Boyd, Blake Hopper, Fallon Farokhi, and Martha Bongiorno. It was a great opportunity to share and learn about all the amazing activities you can potentially carry out in your library during the month of April. To access the recording, check out this link. During the webinar I mentioned that I do a School Library Month bingo activity with my students and staff. I received numerous emails and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share it here. I first created the bingo call cards on Canva. You can check out of the card download file here. This is the template I have on Canva if you'd like to edit for your library. I then upload the images on Bingo Baker and generate the amount of bingo cards I need. Once the design is set, I share a link to the "game" on the library's Google Classroom stream. When students or staff click on the link, this allows them to generate a unique card. I then call a couple of cards each day on Google Classroom, morning announcements, and via email. The cool thing about using this website is that I can check out bingo cards on the "back end" and verify their win. For an example of how the cards look like from a bingo player's point of view check out this link. Now, maybe online bingo isn't what you had in mind. Perhaps you were considering more of a "challenge". I decided I was also going to offer that opportunity and make the prize a little more enticing. What will the prizes be? I'm still not sure. BUT...this is the SLM Bingo Challenge Card I created on Canva. You can find the template here. "Okay Cue, but how are you going to share it with students? Do you share it by printing them or digitally?".
That's a good question. I don't plan on printing these in color on cardstock because that's a lot of ink and cardstock. I thought about it, but hey if you have the resources go for it! This year, I am going to post this link on Google Classroom which forces each student to make a copy of the card. Once they earn "bingo" they submit on our library's Google Classroom Help Desk. The help desk is really just a fake assignment which purpose is to serve as an area within the LMS to ask me questions privately. If you're interested in how this works--check out the video tutorial I made my students. Now, you definitely do not have to run your bingo or challenge this way, but feel free to use any of the template links to adjust to your library's needs. I hope this information helps and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram @cuethelibrarian. Wishing everyone an AMAZING School Library Month! With Thanksgiving around the corner, I wanted to share a little something with you all. First of all, this year has been far from what I imagined. Regardless of many obstacles we all have had to face these crucial months, the truth is we all succeeded. We did the best we could and continue to to the best we can to ensure the success of all our students. However, don't forget to take time for YOU. Set limits, take breaks, disconnect, and most importantly, remind yourself that you are doing the best you can. Working from home has forced me to stay organized and you'd be surprised how creating a custom background for my desktop with an updated calendar helps me out tremendously. Plus, I keep all of my computer files nicely organized. If you feel like this would be beneficial for your workspace, feel free to download the background I'm using this month by clicking on the image to direct to you the download. I hope these help and while this month is extremely busy, if you need anything at all don't hesitate to reach out. Thankful for you, my wonderful PLN! Oh! & if you want last year's November bookmarks you can find them here.
I love December so much!!! It's a month that I cherish because it's a wonderful time to share what brings us together as family, friends, and as a community. My dad and sister both have birthdays this month and it's always fun to gather at our ranch and share funny stories and eat cake. What's a party without cake, amiright? Not to mention the fun time I have Pinteresting holiday dessert and drink recipes and text messaging them to my mom so we can come up with our annual Christmas menu. The presents are fun too, but above all it's the moments I get to spend with my family that I look forward to the most. It's also a great opportunity to meet up with friends who I don't get to see often. One of my FAVORITE things to do during the month of December is the holiday romance book swap that Lispy Librarian (check out her vlog lispylibrarian.weebly.com!) and I do every year!! It's become our annual tradition and it's been SO FUN reading a book together and then pouring out our emotions. I highly suggest you do the same with a friend, or group of friends, because it's such a cute thing to share with people that you love. This is our third year doing this so we've only read two, but this year's is a modern take on Pride and Prejudice which paired nicely with last year's because it was a modern twist on A Christmas Carol. Below are the books we've read/are currently reading-- I can't wait to get through this year's novel and share all my emotions on my blog and Twitter. I'll be adding a review of the book to my digital bookshelf Wakelet collection "Cue's Book Queue" that you can find by clicking here. And in case you need something to help you keep your place in all the amazing books you'll be reading this season, feel free to download some of my free December bookmarks! I wish every single one of you the best this holiday season and an even better NEW YEAR! See you in 2020!
October may be over, but November inspires a sense of a calm and clarity. Although Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what for what we are most thankful, I try to make it a habit to count my blessings as often as I can. My life is pretty cool. I have a great home, a wonderful and supportive family, and a wicked awesome job. And because my job is so wicked awesome, I want to dedicate this post to the best PLN and library crew a little librarian could ever ask for. This is for all the amazing RGV librarians who work tirelessly to bring the best library programming for our students. They do this on ever decreasing budgets and they do it with a smile and with an enthusiasm that lights up a thousand suns. You all bring a type of tenacity that is so inspiring and I hope that we can find opportunities collaborate more in the future. So, with that said, keep doing what you're doing because you're doing a FANTASTIC job. I'd like to also add a little freebie to this post in case you all would like to use it in your libraries for the month of November. I want to make this a little monthly custom because I love celebrating all the possibilities a new month brings. I wish you all a great November and very Happy Thanksgiving!
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