Meet Cynthia Rylant!

The HHES Library “Author of the Month” is Cynthia Rylant! Check out her website.

Cynthia is one of those children’s authors who was working in a library, reading lots of children’s books, when she realized she wanted to become a children’s author. Our library has a nice selection of Rylants books in the “Everybody Section”. They’ll be out on display for September! Swing by and take time to read one. Better yet, check one out and enjoy it with your family at home.

Where In The Library Is…..

Waldo will be playing a big part at our elementary library this year.

First quarter the library focus will be working with students of all grades on how to locate resources in and beyond their library. “Where are those fiction books kept?” “How about the biographies, or atlas’?”

Preschool/Kindergarten kids will begin with tasks as simple as learning where to check out a book. As students get older they will be learning to use the dewey decimal system so they can locate the library materials they want,on their own. Older students will add on to those skills using internet search engines effectively, and becoming familiar with good quality web sites that can help them in their classes.

For me, the big challenge is being able to teach these “life long learning skills” while dove-tailing what they are learning in their classes. I want my lessons to support the classroom curriculum as well as the library’s. So if I can dive in and teach a little about biographies when a class is learning about Thomas Jefferson, that’s the icing on the cake.

Oh! And where in the library IS Waldo?!

Waldo is hiding Somewhere @yourlibrary! Come dive into some great books and who knows, you may find Waldo along the way!

“The Resources To Strike It Rich”

Check out the bulletin board my volunteers wrapped up yesterday. It will be a nice display to kick off the year. “Our Library Has The Resources To “Strike It Rich” In Alaska’s History.

Check Out The Gold Nuggets!

One of the exciting new online Alaska Resources that’s getting lots of publicity right now is the collaborative project between “Learn Alaska” and the “Alaska Digital Archive“. These two organizations joined forces and have created lesson plans for schools to use involving scanned historical photos. Teachers and students will be able to incorporate authentic pictures from Alaska history into research they are doing in their classes. What a great way to bring history alive!

Introduction To Alaska History Standards

Our state has been working on the Alaska History Standards. I’m always looking for ways to support the district goals and teachers lesson plans through our libraries. I decided this will be the year for our library staff to evaluate each library’s Alaska collection, begin updating the collections with input from the teachers, and look for ways the library para-professionals and I can support the Alaska History Curriculum by introducing students, parents and teachers to some of the great Alaska online resources. There are some excellent ones. More about those later…..

To kick off the Alaska History theme, my parent volunteer is creating a fun bulletin board to help make teachers aware of the new Alaska History Standards. Take a peek at how the “Strike It Rich Using Alaska Resources” bulletin board is coming along at our elementary library!

Volunteers Are Wonderful!

It’s that busy time of the school year. There’s so much to do to get ready for the first day. As school librarian I want to support the staff by getting the books, materials, and equipment they need to kick off their new school year. That doesn’t leave much time to spruce my library up. This year a parent called to see if she could help. I couldn’t pass up on that wonderful offer! Bulletin boards are time consuming but can really set the climate of a library. We collaborated on some ideas , I got the supplies she would need ready to go, then stepped aside and let her run with it. We’re fine-tuning along the way. Check out the pictures of my super volunteers!

It’s Time To Take The Leap!

No more procrastination! It’s time to take the leap into the world of blogging. I envision this as a place for students, teachers, and parents to come and find out about curriculum related activities taking place at the Brendan J. Larson Library. I also hope to share links to recommended books, authors and cool websites.

So let me introduce myself. My name is Barb Bryson and I have the wonderful job of district librarian at a K-12th grade school district. Though I technically over-see all three libraries, I spend the majority of my time working with students and teachers at the elementary school. We are fortunate to have two excellent para-professionals running the junior high and high school libraires.

One of my biggest challenges is trying to support the faculty with resources through collaboration. I prefer gearing my library classes around what the teacher is doing with students in the classroom.

Where The Wild Things Are!

“The library of the Hermon Hutchens Elementary School in Valdez, Alaska could be mistaken for a natural history museum. ” During the 1980’s, HHES teacher, Brendan Larson, was primarily responsible for our unusual school library. Mounted birds and bird skeletons hang from a revolving rack which are fastened to the ceiling. The skeletal remains of a rare dog-toothed whale is suspended from a beautiful wood support system. There are alot of other people who deserve credit for this unique library. Pat Londo and Dave Winney, both local residents, assisted with taxidermy. Alaska Fish and Game were also very supportive of the project.

During the 1990’s another HHES teacher jumped on board, taking things to the next level. 4th grade teacher, Steve Richardson, had his students research each of the animals in the library and put their findings in an online format so people could learn facts about Alaskan animals and how each one ended up in our library. Check it out!