The Magician's Hat-Book Review

I got so excited when I saw this title in my book fair preview kit. The theme of this year's AAIM conference is Share the Magic. How perfect?

Author Malcolm Mitchell, of the New England Patriots, has written a beautiful story about the magic of reading. I love that the setting is a library. The Magician performs tricks for the audience whom have gathered for a family event.

He tells about a trip he made to the library when he was a little boy. During that particular trip, he found a book about magic! He begins to call boys and girls up to read into his hat for a surprise, each one pulling out a book of their chosen future career.

I loved that the story features different careers and that each child has found a book about that career! It is every teacher-librarian's dream.

Malcolm's love for reading and interest in advocating for childhood literacy has led to the development of Read with Malcolm.

"The mission of Read with Malcolm is to transform the lives of young students through literacy. The organization’s goals are to introduce book ownership to students in households where reading is not a priority and to improve literacy in schools with below grade-level reading skills."

The Magician's Hat book release date is set for Monday February 26, 2018. Mr. Mitchell has a full calendar of release parties and book signing events.  Check below for the event schedule copied from the Read with Malcolm website. And be sure to add The Magician's Hat to your TBR list!

Visit Malcolm at a public event to purchase your own copy:

Sunday, February 25th at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA (Register Here)

Monday, February 26th at the Boston Harbor Hotel for our UGA and Friends Gathering in Boston, MA (Register Here)

Tuesday, February 27th at American Whiskey for our UGA and Friends Gathering in New York City (More Information) (RSVP)

Thursday, March 1st at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA (Register Here) 

Saturday, March 3rd at The Story Shop in Monroe, GA (Register Here) 

Saturday, March 3rd at the UGA Bookstore in Athens, GA (More Information)

Virtual Library Tours

I love visiting school libraries. They're all so different. During a recent #ArkTLChat, someone brought up how they wished we could all do on-site visits to see how each person had their school library set up. I have had several school librarians in my area of Arkansas come visit my library to observe, and I have gone to others. But, there is no way humanly possible to visit every library in your PLN.

What's a librarian to do?

Virtual tours!!

Using Flipgrid, I've created a grid for Professional Development that I use when I host or teach sessions. I created a topic on the grid for Virtual Tours. We want to see your library. Show us what you're doing.

Do you have a problem space you need help re-configuring?
Not enough storage?
Do you have some awesome library hacks like this one you can share?

If you have never used Flipgrid, don't worry. It's super easy and super fun! And if you would like a *free* trial code to try out the classroom subscription, let me know. As an ambassador, I'll be more than happy to provide one to you. 

I use these awesome directions created by Claudio Zavala (@ClaudioZavalaJr). I love the simplicity of them and the images help guide the littles through the steps. 

Show us your library. We can't wait to visit!

The Power of Online Sharing

This is Rhianna. She's my daughter. :-)

We battle regularly about technology. Mostly how to create presentations. She's stuck in the slideshow mode. You get a slideshow! You get a slideshow! Everyone gets a slideshow.

I almost have to force her to use a different tool for presentations. Last year, she had to research a famous Arkansan and present the information to the class, including photographs. She chose Catherine Tharp Altvater. She chose to research Catherine because she loves art. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you've probably seen a picture or few of her jewelry. Catherine Tharp Altvater was a painter, mostly watercolor.

Picture courtesy of askart.com

For her presentation, I showed Rhianna how to use PowToons. Since many of her teachers weren't using Google Classroom much at the time, I had her post her PowToons presentation to my YouTube channel for easy access. She was also able to quickly search for the video to share with classmates.

A few months ago, I received a Facebook message from someone asking about the presentation. It was Catherine's granddaughter! She saw the video and reached out to Rhianna. After messaging with me for some time, she offered to send Rhianna an original watercolor painted by her grandmother!

It was so cool to see how responsible sharing online could result in that connection!

Hack the Library: Goo on book pages

If you aren't part of the #FutureReadyLibs Facebook page or another Professional Learning Network online, you should think about joining one of the many, many amazing PLNs out there. It's a great way to share, communicate, seek help, and find refuge with fellow school librarians who are in the same boat! If they're not in your boat, I guarantee they have a life line to throw you.

This weekend, as I was browsing posts and pictures, I noticed something weird. It looked like a gross glob of vomit or snot (honestly) stuck to a book. I thought "why in the world is this lady posting a picture of a book covered in vomit-snot". I had to investigate.

As it turns out, the book had fallen prey to Slime trend. You know that home-made goop from glue or contact solution and various other "household" materials? Jen M. Hash-Staley shared a rather awesome hack for removing goo from the edges of books. Not only would this work for slime, but I'm sure it would remove gum, candy, probably vomit-snot. Hopefully, nobody will need to use it on vomit-snot. Just cut your losses and toss that bad boy in the trash.

How about that? If you happen to have Jen in your PLN, be sure to give her a shout-out!

What other hacks do you use in your library? Share them in the comments!