Miss Bee's Books

As soon as I read about HP Reveal (previously Aurasma) I got super excited.  I envisioned a teen wandering around her school library.  She isn't sure what she should read next, so she's just scanning titles to see if anything catches her eye.  Her gaze lands on the cool mint spine of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl.   She's heard of this one; wasn't her friend Emma reading it awhile back?  She pulls out her phone, pops open HP Reveal and points her phone at the cover.  Suddenly, Emma is right there on her screen, gushing about how much she loved Fangirl . "Oh my god, this book is life," Emma says, sitting cross-legged on her couch, waving the book at the camera.  Her hair is long, she must have recorded this Aura before she cut it.  "I feel so seen.  Oh, and if you like this, you have to read  Carry On and Wayward Son  which are basically the slash fic Cath is writing the whole time in Fangirl." Back in the library, our teen puts her...

A few years back the school district I taught for decided the school needed a Makerspace.  They bought a big cart, some Littlebits , and some  Code and Go Robot Mouse  sets.  The library was the natural home for this cart.   Unfortunately I was in only my first or second year of being a school librarian and hadn't started my MLIS yet.  I had only really heard of Makerspaces in passing and didn't have a lot of extra time to figure it out.  I wish I had access to Teach Outside the Box back then. So You Want to Start a Makerspace Educator Brooke Brown recently published a gloriously extensive intro to Makerspaces.  Having begun hosting a Makerspace five years ago, she recently decided to share all that she has learned along the way.  The post begins with a definition of a Makerspace and why they are important.  The rest of the blog is broken down into her 5 S's of a Successful Makerspace: Space, Stuff, Schedule, Structure, ...

I recently got the chance to visit a local elementary school's Literacy Night.  Students rotated through a series of literacy-themed stations: a book tasting, the local library, 2 real-live children's authors (!), and Flipgrid book reviews.  Before this night, I had heard about Flipgrid, but hadn't seen it in action.  Students sat at computers and browsed book recommendations their peers had made using Flipgrid.  The effect was both charming and incredibly engaging.  Students were delighted to see videos made by their friends and to show their own video to their families.   https://www.pexels.com/photo/boy-watching-video-using-laptop-821948/ by Bruce Mars Flipgrid is accessible online at  flipgrid.com .  Flipgrid is free to use.  Educators need only sign-up, then provide their students with a Flip Code.  After entering the Flip Code, students can make a short video based on a prompt recorded by the teacher. Much like popul...