Library Media Services
Newsletter
February
Embedded Files
Library Media Services
This month in GCS Library Media Services:
District Data
District Data
We are short of being on track to meet the goal of 1 million circulations this year!
What can you do to boost circulation at your school?
We ahead of our goal of reading 10 million minutes this year!
What are you doing to build a reading culture at your school?
We are improving our digital book usage!
What can you do to encourage more use at your school?
School Shout Outs
School Shout Outs
Congratulations to our top circulating sites for January! Great job Sarah, Jennifer, Tiffany, and Chesley! (Standard 2.a, 2.b, 4.c)
Congratulations Megan Lyons-Lehman, winner of a Dollar Tree gift card sponsored by GASL to fund the next STEM Challenge!! (Standard 2.a, 2.b)
Congratulations to our top Beanstack sites! Thanks for moving us toward our goal Jason, Patty, Margaret, and Colleen! (Standard 4.c)
Nat Greene students showing off their windsocks they made in the January "Any Way the Wind Blows" STEM challenge!
Next Up
Next Up
Next Monthly Meeting
Location: Teams
Date: February 3
Two time options:
12:00-1:00
3:00-4:00
One of the meetings will be recorded each month.
Next New SLMC Meeting
Location: Teams
Date: February 13
Time: 3:30-5:0
New SLMC meetings are for any SLMCs in their 1st, 2nd or 3rd years with GCS LMS.
Upcoming Dates
2/3: Monthly Virtual Meeting
2/6: Destiny Training
2/13: New SLMC Meeting
2/27: SLMC PLCs
3/3: Monthly Virtual Meeting
3/6-7: NCTIES Conference
3/13: New SLMC Meeting
3/20: ES SLMC/STEM Collab
3/26: Destiny Training
February Responsibilities
Hold third MTAC meeting (before end of 3rd quarter) (1.c)
Share 2nd quarter data and activities with Admin and MTAC (1.c, 3.b)
Plan Women’s History Month display/activities/lessons (2.a, 2.b)
Plan next year budget proposal for MTAC and Admin (1.c, 5.a)
Update Destiny Discover homepage and library website as needed (1.a, 3.a)
Tabulate time spent on technology and non-evaluated* tasks (1.c)
File or archive artifacts for evaluation
GCS Reads
GCS Reads
Great job! We are almost to our
10 Million Minute Goal!
See how your school compares for total minutes logged.
What reading counts toward the goal?
Student self-selected reading
At-home reading
Non-required class reading
Partner reading
Any reading in which the student is allowed a choice!
Any reading done for fun!
(Standard 4.c)
Beanstack also offers regular virtual trainings and recorded webinars that you can access anytime.
Upcoming webinars:
How to Train (and Engage!) Your Teachers
Date: February 11, 2025 at 1:00 pm ET
Audience: All - School Admin, District Admin, and Teachers
In this 45-minute train-the-trainer session, learn how to effectively train your teachers to use Beanstack and get buy-in. Attendees will walk away with a customizable slide deck they can use for their own training with teachers.
Beanstack EDU: Student Reading Responses
Date: February 24, 2025 at 3:00 pm ET
Audience: All - School Admin, District Admin, and Teachers
Want your students to engage more thoughtfully with their independent reading? Learn how to support that engagement through book reviews and activity badges, and how to use student responses to deepen your school's reading culture in this 30-minute webinar.
ALA Youth Media Awards
The annual American Library Association awards announcements was held on Monday, January 27. SLMCs can see the full list of award winners in the press release.
American Library Association Announces 2025 Youth Media Award Winners
Battle of the Books
Rosters are due February 3!
Coaches for traditional and STEM BOB should submit their rosters using the form in the BOB Google Site.
(Standard 4.c)
Virtual Preliminary Competitions for Traditional BOB begin on February 19!
Please sign up to help with the virtual competition!
Access the BOB Google Site for support resources and important dates.
Authors Engaging Students
Videos for the spring AES series are recorded and shared. All but one of the books for spring authors should have arrived at schools by. The final book, Akeem Keeps Bees, should arrive at schools by mid-February. The recordings, picture book lesson plans and author resources are accessible from the Authors Engaging Students Resource Site. (Standard 4.c)
STEM Challenge Book Club Resources
Activities for the 2024-25 NCCBA books have been added to the STEM Challenge Book Club Site. A set of the books has been provided to all elementary schools. Materials are not being provided this year.
Past activities are still available on the site for use in schools. (Standard 2.a, 2.b)
Read Across America
Launched in 1998 by the National Education Association (NEA) and guided by a committee of educators, NEA’s Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. This year-round program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources that are about everyone, for everyone.
Read Across America offers limitless opportunities for involvement in children’s reading throughout the year. The year-round program can fit reading fun into your calendar daily, weekly, or monthly and includes big celebrations of reading on March 2 and throughout National Reading Month in March.
There’s a growing need for schools and libraries to include and promote diverse books. Students need books that provide both windows and mirrors if we are going to create more readers, writers, and people who feel included and recognized, and who understand that the world is far richer than just their experiences alone. NEA recognizes the need to work with a more diverse array of organizations and publishers to fulfill this need, and the Read Across America brand is now one that is independent of any one particular book, publisher, or character.
Share your Read Across America Plans in Teams!
News to Note
News to Note
Summer Work Teams
There are two opportunities for SLMCs to participate in summer work teams in June. Complete the form below to express your interest in being selected. Work team responsibilities are detailed in the sign up form.
This form will close on February 14. Contracts for summer work will be issued by the end of February.
Please carefully consider if you will be able to commit to the specific days outlined for each work team before signing up. Once the contracts are signed and the funds are encumbered substitutions cannot be made. Due to the nature of some of the projects, alternate dates are not available.
Each opportunity pays a stipend of $135/6 hour workday.
Black History Month
The 2025 Black History Month Theme is African Americans and Labor
The 2025 Black History Month theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.
The theme, “African Americans and Labor,” intends to encourage broad reflections on intersections between Black people’s work and their workplaces in all their iterations and key moments, themes, and events in Black history and culture across time and space and throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. Like religion, social justice movements, and education, studying African Americans’ labor and labor struggles are important organizing foci for new interpretations and reinterpretations of the Black past, present, and future. Such new considerations and reconsiderations are even more significant as the historical forces of racial oppression gather new and renewed strength in the 21st century.
Share how you are observing Black History Month in the school library media center in Teams!
Library Donations
SchoolCash
The New SchoolCash Online system has a special donation set up for each school's library media center. You may ask your school treasurer to run a report to see if donations have been made. Donations are logged at the district level first and the treasurer will then move the donation to your school library media center's 302 account. This account can only be used to purchase materials for the school library media center and rolls over from year to year.
American Institute of Architects
Mandi Clift (mclift@jhyatthammond.com) and Kim Janiszewski (kjaniszewski@cplteam.com) of the Piedmont Chapter of The American Institute of Architects Piedmont Chapter, organized a donation of The Perfect Plan and A Girl Can Build Anything for GCS elementary schools and Biomimic Building for Middle schools. Please reach out by email if you have any questions, volunteer opportunities with STEM programs, or just want to say thanks.
Destiny Catalog Clean Up
The contract between GCS Library Media Services and Follett for our library manager software is limited to using it for circulating materials. The contract does not include using it for inventory management. Since 2018, GCS SLMCs have been directed to discontinue cataloging equipment and other non-student circulating materials, including curriculum and class sets.
In order to bring GCS into full compliance with the terms of the contract agreement with Follett, SLMCs will be given the opportunity to clean up and remove any out-of-contract items from catalogs this spring. Final catalog clean up will be done over the summer by the Library Media Services Department.
Steps for cleaning up catalog records and call numbers will be the topic of the February 3 virtual meeting. All SLMCs are encouraged to attend.
Professional Learning Opportunities
When requesting professional development leave to attend a conference you will now be asked to complete a prior approval form. This form must be completed 60 days in advance. Administrators may give you the form to complete or simply ask for justification for conference attendance to put into the form. You can preview the form to be able to prepare responses when submitting requests.
Calendar
2024-25 Meeting List and Due Dates -
This document will always be the most
up-to-date, reliable resource for meeting dates, times and locations!
LMS Professional Learning Handbook page
(Standard 5.b)
Grade Level PLCs
Grade level PLCs will be in person during the January quarterly meeting.
PLC Resources and Links to Agendas
(Standard 1.b)
Monthly STEM Challenges Are LIVE! Go to the STEM Challenge site to participate!
SLMCs are challenged to engage their students in low-stakes, low-tech STEM activities this year! (Standard 2.a, 2.b)
The February Challenge is Cupid's Arrow. SLMCs who have students try the challenges and submit images to LMS will be entered into a drawing for a gift card sponsored by GASL. One winner will be drawn and recognized in the newsletter the next month.
How can you implement the STEM challenges in your school library program?
use the challenges in lessons with one of the suggested picture books or find an alternative in your collection
set up the challenge as a monthly center in your library
start a STEM club and work through the challenges using the Engineering Design Process
invite students in for "Lunch and Learn" maker activities
any way you want to!!
To help with future planning, challenges will be published on the STEM Challenge site a month in advance so the materials list will be available. You can preview the next month's challenge by clicking on the link in the left-hand menu of the STEM Challenges Google Site.
Destiny Reminders and Trainings
Asynchronous Cataloging Training
What is it? A self-paced Canvas course to learn how to catalog books in Destiny following GCS best practices.
Who is it for? New-to-GCS SLMCs or anyone who wants a cataloging refresher.
When is it? On your own time, must be completed by May to receive credit this school year.
Where is it? Online in Canvas
How do we sign up? Enroll in the Canvas Course
(Standard 2.a)
Destiny Training
What is it? A series of virtual meetings focused on gaining a more in-depth understanding of the functions in Destiny Back Office and Discover.
Who is it for? Any SLMC who wants to become more proficient with Destiny.
When is it? 4 dates between October and March
The next meeting is February 6 at 3:00.
Where is it? Meetings will be held via Teams.
How do we sign up? Register in Performance Matters and enroll in the Destiny Training Canvas Course.
(Standard 2.a)
High Point Public Library Partnership Opportunities
Teacher Workday Performances
HPPL and Morehead Recreation Center in High Point will be hosting free performances for all ages on teacher workdays throughout the school year. Please share this information with your school community. Contact Sarah Nareau (sarah.nareau@highpointnc.gov) with questions about this program.
Fall and Spring Performances Event Flyer
(Standard 4.c)
Resources for Lessons and Professional Learning
Ideas for Observing the 100th day of School
9 tech-friendly projects from the Class Tech Tips Blog
6 Ways to Support Student Keyword Searches
Ideas for setting students up for success when searching for information online from the Class Tech Tips Blog.
Dig Cit Corner
Dig Cit Corner
February Digital Citizenship Theme: We are kind and courageous.
Lessons on this topic will teach students about the effects of digital drama, cyberbullying, and hate speech on both themselves and their larger communities. They will explore the roles people play and how individual actions -- negative and positive, intentional and unintentional -- can affect their peers and their broader communities. They are encouraged to take the active role of upstander and build positive, supportive online communities, and they will learn how to cultivate empathy, compassion, and courage to combat negative interactions online. Read more about this topic on the Common Sense Education website.
(Standard 1.d)
Monthly activities to teach digital citizenship are available on the Guilford is Cyber Safe website.
Technology Tidbits
Technology Tidbits
Technology Updates from the Quarterly Meeting
January 27 slide deck presented SLMCs and Tech Contacts.
The Technology Services Handbook For Schools is your one-stop shop for processes, resources, and guidelines.
🎯 Pro Tip: Use the Table of Contents to navigate through the document; you can also use Ctrl + f on a Windows device or ⌘ + f on an iOS device or to search by keyword.
Technology Approval and Procurement Process
Use the Technology Approval and Procurement Process request for all technology purchases including
Hardware
Software
GCS ‘standard’ technology
Brand new technology
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