My name is Bridget Crossman, I am the Elementary Librarian at Lake George School. This is my 6th year as a librarian, prior I was a 2nd Grade Teacher. My library runs on a flex schedule so I spend a lot of time integrating "literacy skills" into the classroom curriculum. We are a 1:1 school focusing on the 4 C's and New Literacies. I play an integral part in providing PD and sharing resources with both teachers and administrators in these two areas. This is my 3rd or 4th time taking Cool Tools and look forward to having new ideas to share with my school. This class always motivates me and helps to keep my resources and information current.
When I am not in the school, I can be found spending time with my three children & friends, exercising, or running a not-for-profit literacy organization.
Since I started taking Cool Tools for Schools I have been blogging. I even started my own blog for my school where I showcase different lessons/ units in the classrooms for other teachers to see what is happening around the building and potentially get some ideas for their own rooms. If you are interested in viewing it, it is called Inquiring Instructors. Both the High School librarian and myself collaborate on it.
As much as I have been using blogging for myself and in the classroom with students, I am just starting to become better at viewing other people's blogs. Of course I love Joyce Valenza (who doesn't) and I often get ideas from Library Lady and Richard Byrnes, but for this assignment, I took some time to look at the 23 Great Library Blogs. I saw many blogs that I certainly won't be following, because I didn't like the layout of the information or it didn't fit my needs. However, those were helpful in teaching me what not to do in my blogs.
As much as there were several blogs that I didn't love there were some great blogs that I will definitely be following. In case you haven't gone through each of the 23 blogs, the ones that top 2 I would suggest checking out are:
😊 The Heart of the School: Not only was the information displayed nicely, the ideas that were shared were amazing. First off the blog has a beating heart on it with the quote,
“Libraries should be the beating heart of the school, not mausoleums for dusty books.”
Stephanie Harvey
There are lots of ideas for projects based on books, library space, clubs, etc. One of my favorite ideas was her featured project that was an Advent Calendar of books for the month of December. I think I might borrow that idea and display it the week before Christmas. I might even have interested students help me to put one together for each of the elementary grades.
I loved her ideas so much that I am now following her @HeartOTSchool
😊 England Elementary Library: Although this blog didn't captivate me visually (it was bit overwhelming), it had great ideas. Emily Kuoersztoch displayed an infographic with the library statistics, which was a great idea. I would love to do that monthly and celebrate that with the students and staff. She also had a great idea on her blog for an annual reading contest where students could submit pictures of themselves reading in the most unusual spots. This could be a fun contest to run over the holiday break. If you check it out she even has printable forms. You won't be disappointed with some of the ideas she shares on this blog.
I also decided to follow Emily Kuoersztoch @mrslibrarian.
Blogging is a great tool! It can not only be useful as a reflection for teachers, librarians, students, etc. It is a great way to share and learn from others. My goal this year is to utilize other blogs that are available to gain ideas and information from other experts in the field!
