Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian!

On my campus, my principal stresses the importance of great writing. As a former senior English teacher, my students can attest to you, how much I stressed the value of active writing over passive writing. I forbade the following "To Be" verbs from their essays: am, is are, was, were, be, being, been, became, become, seems appears and got. THEY HATED ME...at first! But over time, I had them slinging essays and poetry books like it was nothing... all without "to be" verbs! When they graduated--AND as this Facebook post will attest to--they knew the power of writing concise and with direct/active purpose: Though they complained, I always wrote with my students following all the rules I assigned. I did it to keep my edge, to model and to show them that I wouldn't ask them to do anything that I wouldn't do myself. There's an article titled "Do You Write with your Students?" Here's a wonderful graphic, courtesy of Edutopia , that c...

Welcome to my 2015 SPOOKTACULAR: The Library of Gloom!!! For those that follow me, you know how much I enjoy this time of the year! I've created a non-fiction, but superbly spooky interactive video! Scan the code below and BE FoReWaRnEd!!! This post does contain frightening and unnerving videos as well as kid-friendly resources. However, please take caution if you're sensitive to scary movies...as there's plenty of that here! This next little feature is specifically for my students who wonder where "Robert the Doll" is...here's the book that started the madness about Robert! Here's a classic video on carving pumpkins... I've grown to LOVING GO NOODLE! For Halloween, they have a #GoNoodleween contest! Here's our "Bones" doing his dance! Lol! :) Need some tips on How to Write Horror? See what R.L. Stine says when writing fiction... I love R.L. Stein-- and it's not because Goosebumps is coming out o...

I can't say how much I enjoy making a newsletter using Smore.com ! Please take a look at our October Newsletter. You will find a few lesson resources and helpful tips! My next post is my HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!!

Scholastic Book Fairs hit the nail on the head this Fall with it's Monster Themed Book Fair! I've spent all this week building up the excitement for the fair. Plus, I've set the campus high goal of $8,500.00!!! I'm super nervous and hope that my kiddos can reach that goal! In exchange I've gotten the "OK" from our principal that if we reach the goal, the students can come to school for one day only dressed as MONSTERS! Don't worry, I promise to upload pictures! Until then, enjoy these pictures and of course the fantastic video of my little cousin as "Beepo the Monster!" Here's Beepo... Our GRAND TOTAL for our Fall 2015 Book Fair was $7,761.03!! Though we didn't make our goal, I'm proud because we did set another CAMPUS RECORD! BRAVO LITTLE OWLS!!

A few weeks ago, I posted about Egyptian Mummies. The kids were AMAZED that beneath the pyramids were a labyrinth of mazes! That was the beginning of this week's lesson: MAZES! Yes...I was one of those kids that would complete a maze book in one day! Therefore, it was off to Amazon.com to find them: Then I had the grand idea to have the students compete on a poster-size and laminated free maze: And that was the beginning of the end...the kids went ZONKERS! Here's a video archive of the day... What I most enjoyed was the concluding activity: I chose 2 volunteers. One person acted as the "hands," the other were the "eyes." They had to work together to complete the maze. This was TEAMWORK at its best because one had to listen (because they were blindfolded) and the other volunteer had to articulate clearly. It's amazing how well they can listen when they want a treat! And yes, that pun was intentional! As my new, beloved principal say...

So we've reached the 3rd week of school here in Texas, and it's not quite eye-rolling time, but some of the kids are not playing nice in the sand-box! :) However, I'm not discouraged. I'm pressing forward and would like to offer these resources: for the disgruntled tween: for the 2nd graders trying to decide what's a good book: Helping #students "Choose the Right Book" today in the #library ! Here's cute video resource: https://t.co/OllQCC9ynT pic.twitter.com/Zc0K8bMTWx — awakenlibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) September 8, 2015 and, for those kids that hate books: The better news is that Halloween is next month and in case you don't know, I LOVE scaring the kiddo's. Here's last year's Halloween blog post ! Libraries and fear go so well together!

I've discovered a new book... AND I'M IN LOVE! In this one book, I will cover all subjects in learning (music, art, language art, social students, science, technology & PE-via dancing), ready? Here we go... Here's a small video I created to put on the morning announcements to entice the students: And, what kind of librarian would I be without including a book review: Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert My rating: 5 of 5 stars I absolutely loved this book as it's the perfect platform to cover every subject taught in school. Without giving away too much, Mummy Cat was the victim of vengeance and now awaits to be reunited with his owner, the Queen of Egypt! The fluidity of Marcus Ewert 's choice of words is wonderful. Please check out my blog post, as it has the blessing of both author and illustrator: Mummy Cat! And, did I mention that illustrator Lisa Brown has fantastic illustrations that allude to the text seamlessly? View all my reviews Then, I beg...