Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian

Kung Hei Fat Choy! I don't know about you, but the Goat was not kind to me last year, though I did blog about the mighty ram ! Therefore, I'm excited to celebrate this Chinese New Year. Cock-a-doodle-doooooo! Welcome to the Year of the Rooster! May it be a wondrous year full of good luck! Here are a few snapshots from our "day of absorption!" Then we did a wee bit of research and learned these fun "superstitions" courtesy of China Highlights ... Please enjoy our "digital dejavu" of how much fun we had! The Year of the Rooster in the Library! from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo . Next, we fed our brains and coordination skills with The Story of Chopsticks , provided by GetEpic : #FlyHighFriday fun: Learning how to use #chopsticks ! My princess did it! WOO-hoo! 👏🏾 #HISD #chinesenewyear pic.twitter.com/dgr7i3ia6I — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) January 27, 2017 To conclude with some sizzling knowledge, this new year celebr...

Recently, I came across an article where community libraries in Spain had a prep-kitchen for their patrons to use! I thought what an ingenious idea! So I put together a proposal slideshow and video. Please let me know what you think... Additionally, I came across this clever little tool for easy voting, VOTESY! It's like social media voting polls from your global community. I'm thinking you can use this a variety of ways...which book will we read next? Which new class rules are most important? Field day t-shirts? The sky's the limit. See more in the video: Check out this one I made for community kitchens... And this little jewel for favorite childhood fairytales... Please leave me a comment and check out how simple it is to use Votesy!

Would you rather be a poet or a rapper?? To some of us...there's little difference. How many times have you heard a lyric in a song so poignant and poetic that it rivets your soul? Like some of you, I can listen to a song and travel back in time. So...being a kid of the 80s/90s and loving all genres of music (like I love all genres of books), I thought I'd collaborate and combine my two great loves: poetry and music...specifically rap music! I came across the idea a couple of years ago via Book Riot's post: Poetry Line or Rap Music. We begin the lesson with a few foundation questions via a Gallery Walk! With 8 poster size sticky notes and the following questions, we were able to build a foundation for the poetry vs. rap: 1. What are some characteristics of poems? 2. How do you encounter poetry in your everyday life? 3. What is poetry to you? 4. What makes a good poem? 5. What makes poetry easy? Difficult? 6. If poetry was a food, then which food and w...

Tomorrow, I present at the Fort Bend ISD's Digital Learning Conference . So get ready for my tweets to follow #FBISDDLC ! What's the topic? Glad, you thought that! The presentation covers how I used social media and web 2.0 tools to advocate for my library. Most of in encompasses what I blog about, for those just mastering the ins/outs of technology, I do have "how-to" instructions for starting a blog, creating a vine and of course Twitter! Rather than bread-crumb you step-by-step, here's the presentation: BIG UPDATE: Thank you to all 28 of you lovely ladies that came to my session! Your presence touched my heart! Because of you, my nightmares vanished! Mad love for you! Come join me as we use #socialmedia to propel our #libraries into the #21stCentury for #learners ! #FBISDDLC pic.twitter.com/hkrilckLAw — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) June 9, 2016 I'm ready for the #FBISDDLC and #Robin has found her #Batman ! #FBISD Digital Learning greatne...

The end of the year is THANKFULLY near! WE MADE IT!!! To couple along with the relaxed pace (now that testing's finished too), we're slow-jamming in the library with Cedella Marley's Every Little Thing with illustrations by my wonderful friend, Vanessa Brantley Newton !

Here's my recap of the Texas Library Association's Annual Conference . Let me begin by saying, I loved the reflection of "Black Leadership" on some panels for TLA! Loving #blackleadership in literature @TXLA ! @levarburton @earlsewell @EricDeanSeaton #MinorityHeroesEXIST ! #txla16 pic.twitter.com/Iqb8P2ijGZ — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) April 20, 2016 TY @TXLA 's #BlackCaucus breakfast! @earlsewell , "Are you a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?" #txla16 pic.twitter.com/Moe8ystc1j — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) April 20, 2016 Thanks to @EricDeanSeaton I'm bringing a #SuperheroLikeMe back to @Goodman_Owls ! #txla16 pic.twitter.com/RIXo1EEL5c — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) April 20, 2016 Also, I was blessed enough to win a full collection of The Legend of Mantamaji! Woo-hoo! I'm super excited to share with my older kiddos! But the BEST example of black leadership...me! :) Congrats to librarians @a...

This lesson is courtesy of my little Plants vs. Zombie Kings (PvZ), Julian and Adrian! They inspired me to create a themed lesson based on the addictive game! It's free on iPad / Android . Look for this ugly guy: If you are STILL lost, then please enjoy this PvZ video: Plants Vs Zombies 2: It's About Time! Game Trailer from Wolf & Crow on Vimeo . The lesson lay-out is fairly simple. Students either work together as a whole table (group of 4) or in pairs. One person/table writes a rhyming poem from the POV (point of view) of the plant. See below: The remaining partner/competing table writes from the POV of the Zombie. See below...as I had MUCH fun composing this poem! The POETRY SMASH part comes in with the lyricist battle! Either via volunteers or members from competing table, the "Plants" battle the "Zombies!" You could have some parent volunteers judge the winners, ELA teacher or it can just be the students rating themselves. ...

Oh yeah...today is READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY! It's also known as Dr. Seuss' Birthday! Woo-Hoo! Please enjoy our celebration of the wondrous talent of Theodore Geisel ! Here's my son as "Thing 1!" Celebrating #ReadAcrossAmerica today! #FBISD TY @awakenlibrarian for your support! See here: https://t.co/AaWxsoFeKF pic.twitter.com/YXS25A8u0j — Goodman_Owls (@Goodman_Owls) March 2, 2016 Check out this blog post on the Seuss Memorial in Springfield, Massachusetts ! Here's a Vine of my students reading aloud on "Read Across America" Day! I'm super proud! We've a FANTASTIC update: Epic Reads responded to our tweet! Way to go!!! @awakenlibrarian This is adorable! Thanks so much for resending it, we're so glad we got to see this! We agree, he's amazing! :) — Epic! (@EpicKidsBooks) March 11, 2016

Today's #WorldKindnessDay! I'm overwhelmingly excited because all this month on campus, I've celebrated in every way. I've infected my campus with an energy that has a wondrous ricochet effect. Whether it's "paying it forward" or being a blessing to others, when someone goes above the GOLDEN RULE and, consequently, exceeds to the ENRICHED RULE my mouth hits the floor in shock! What's the Enriched Rule? Adding an extra "oomph" to an already good deal! That's like going to the bank for a loan, and getting that loan interest free for 10 years-no strings attached, no credit approval required! :) Yep, all that AND a bag of chips! Lol! I'm such the 90s kid! So...to get my kiddos psyched about kindness, I offered a "High-five" award for any students displaying random acts of kindness. Every morning via the announcements, I encouraged them to show kindness by performing various thoughtful acts, anywhere-anythime. Here ...

So you heard that I've been living it up at  TLA (#txla15) for National Librarian's Week? Yep, that's true...when you're reaching for the stars, it doesn't hurt to touch the ones you already admire! Here's the low-down: Mutual Inspiration: After reading and scaring kiddos with his books, it was a dream beyond belief to meet Michael Dahl ! We shared scary stories & I shared the Halloween lessons we did, leaving him inspired. You don't believe me? Like his Facebook and ask him what lesson he took from "Duchess the Librarian?" And before I forget, for my kids at Goodman ES, Mr. Dahl isn't just a scary writer...recognize these books: Another year visiting & supporting the wonderful writing of Don Tate! Thank you Don, Chris and Jen Burton and EVERYONE at Eerdman's Books for Young Readers (Anita & Kathleen)! Andrea Pinkney challenged us to embrace diversity and write a "Letter to Diversity," as she shared her own...