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Must-Have Activities for Teaching Internet Safety to Kids

The internet is a double-edged sword. It’s filled with useful information. We have knowledge and power at our fingertips, and there is a lot of good it can do for the world. But, the internet is also dangerous and scary. There are dark corners of the internet where harmful things lurk. How can we keep our students safe? If you ever use technology in your classroom, it’s imperative that you teach internet safety for kids. What does internet safety mean? Internet safety for kids can mean a wide variety of things, from protecting passwords to not having access to inappropriate content. Essentially, internet safety is about protecting the student (and also equipment) from potentially dangerous content. When teaching internet safety, especially to young students, it might feel a little awkward. How do I explain that the internet can be a dangerous place? However, with younger students, you don’t need

Ideas and Activities for a Successful Literacy Night

Hosting a family literacy night or reading night is a great opportunity to get parents involved in the school and grow students’ love of reading. Parents don’t often get a glimpse of what their child is working on and doing at school each day, but with literacy nights, you can bring the parent into the school and share literacy tips and research. Of course, a well-planned literacy night can take time and effort to put together. I want to pass along some planning tips, literacy night themes, and activities you can use as you plan. What is a Family Literacy Night? Also called family reading night, a literacy night is a chance to provide important information about a child’s literacy skills and share reading strategies with families. It’s also an opportunity to get families involved in the school and student learning. During the literacy night, you can focus on

Caldecott Medal 2023 Predictions

The 2023 Caldecott Medal award winner will be announced January 30, 2023, which means it’s time for my predictions on which book will take home the top prize and who will be runner-up. The ALA awards will be given out sometime in mid-January. Members of the Caldecott committee work hard all year to choose the book they think is deserving of this distinguished award. Members of the committee read thousands of picture books throughout the year. Then they must narrow their choices down to 7 titles each. Once they have this much smaller list, they spend hours debating about which book should receive the top honor. Every year I always come up with my own list of titles that I believe will be contenders. This year I have come up with 15 books that I believe should be on the list (although I have not read nearly as many

5 Christmas Around the World Activities for Elementary Students

As Christmas approaches, you might be on the search for resources and activities to keep students engaged. Let’s face it – the holidays can bring about lots of distractions! Students are looking forward to vacations, presents, and sleeping in. So, why not bring the fun and celebrate the holidays. That’s why I love using Christmas around the world activities. What is Christmas Around the World? People around the world have different traditions they associate with Christmas. With Christmas around the world activities, students can explore different cultures, traditions, foods, and more. It’s a great way to bring together literary and social studies skills. Christmas Around the World Activities Luckily, planning your Christmas around the world activities doesn’t have to be challenging. And once you nail down a few favorites, you can use them year after year. 1. Read Alouds An easy way to bring different Christmas traditions to your

Library Reward Ideas Students Will Love

It’s likely you’ve found yourself wondering at some point how you can motivate students. Maybe you want to encourage positive behaviors or help struggling students meet a goal. In these cases, offering extrinsic motivation may help! One way is to brainstorm library reward ideas. Before I share my different library reward ideas, I was to make it clear that rewarding students isn’t the only way to motivate them. I also advise against simply throwing around awards, especially for expected behavior. When Should I Use Library Rewards? Library rewards can be used in various instances, but here are two I use most often in my library. First, there are class incentives. I may have a particular group that struggles to stay on task or clean up the library. If they meet the set goal, the whole class earns a reward. I also incentive individual students. This works well for students

10 Tips on Classroom Management for Librarians

As a librarian, you might find yourself sitting in PD sessions on classroom management or reading books thinking, “This doesn’t apply to me!” As a librarian, we interact with students in a unique way, and the same classroom management techniques that work for classroom teachers might not work for us. However, I’ve compiled tips on classroom management for librarians that I’ve seen success with. You’ll find that you can use these strategies whether you see students multiple times a week or even sparingly. You can also use them no matter the size of your library, or your access to resources! 1. Mystery Student This is one of my favorite techniques because you don’t need an involved system or even an explanation. For example, you might say, “I have a mystery student. Do you know who it is? This person is quietly reading their book.” When you say this, you’ll

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Motivation

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Reading & Literacy

Must-Have Activities for Teaching Internet Safety to Kids

Ideas and Activities for a Successful Literacy Night

Caldecott Medal 2023 Predictions

5 Christmas Around the World Activities for Elementary Students

Library Reward Ideas Students Will Love

10 Tips on Classroom Management for Librarians

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