BELS Library Consortium

East Rutherford 7th Graders and the Manifest Destiny

abigailthelibrarian — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:17:05 +0000

Zach Majsiak’s 7th grade students at the Alfred Faust School have been analyzing primary and secondary sources as part of their study of Manifest Destiny and The Westward Expansion. Mr. Majsiak gathered documents together using ABC-CLIO’s American History database, pulling out excerpts from the writings and speeches of key historical figures like President Polk and Andrew Jackson, and scholarly writers examining these topics in connection to slavery, Mexico, and the Louisiana Purchase. Mr. Majsiak has his students separate into two groups, each one designated as either “primary” or “secondary” sources. He then calls on individuals to explain why a specific document should be included as either a “primary” or secondary” source by a student on each side of the room.

After completing the document analysis, students were asked to create an outline and four paragraph essay on The Westward Expansion. Later in the year, these 7th graders will learn how to navigate ABC-CLIO on their own and locate a relevant source. This assignment, however, allows the students to get exposure to a variety of content in a manageable way, appropriate to their grade level.

To access Mr. Majsiak’s lesson plan, head over to the shared Lesson Plans folder here.This lesson is called “Manifest Destiny” in the shared folder. You can also view some student sample work here.

Cliffside Park MakerClub Gets a Green Thumbs Up

abigailthelibrarian — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 15:24:49 +0000

By Andrea Romano, Cliffside Park HS Media Specialist

The Cliffside Park HS MakerClub usually meets each Monday but can often be seen in the media center a few times each week. For this year’s project, Andrea Romano, the Cliffside Park Media Specialist, bought a self-watering plant care kit through BELS bulk purchasing and got some additional supplies from the science department. The club is coding an Arduino to modulate plant watering based on temperature, sun exposure, soil moisture, and humidity. Mr. Danho, the science supervisor, has been very helpful with the club’s many questions. The garden is growing in the library on a bookcase near a window, with tomatoes, lettuce, and blue ornamental grass. If everything grows successfully, the club is going to have a party and eat salad! If it grows very well, they will share their veggies with the culinary classes.

To see more about the self-watering kit, check it out here

To read more about Cliffside Park’s other Media Center projects, check out their monthly Smore newsletter here.

Hoboken’s Student + Pearson Book Club

abigailthelibrarian — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 14:32:31 +0000

By Michelle McGrievey, Hoboken HS Media Specialist

Pearson Publishing has a large office in Hoboken, NJ and their staff have a volunteer day every year during which they reach out to assist in the local community. In 2016 our district had a lot of Pearson employees help with painting, planting and reading to elementary students, but at the high school level we decided ask them to participate in a book discussion. My vice principal asked me to coordinate it within the school so I rounded up ten students for the project. We read The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, and so did three Pearson employees. After reading it, we were invited to lunch at Pearson’s office and held a discussion. It went great and I thought we were done, but then the folks at Pearson said they wanted to do it again. We are in now in our third year and just discussed our seventh book with them, Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. As students graduate, I find replacements from among the incoming students, keeping the number around ten kids each year. It has been a great way for us to create a connection with an international company, and to have a forum for our kids to connect with adults over literature!

Hackensack Middle School Collaborates with JPL

abigailthelibrarian — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 17:21:45 +0000

This October, Maureen Carroll, from the Hackensack Middle School, invited her colleagues at the public library for a monthly booktalk program. Keri Adams, YA librarian at Johnson Public Library, presented throughout the day to groups of middle school students about exciting books that spanned many genres. She delivered summaries of each book’s plot, shared book trailers, and gave students helpful insight into the books based on their interests and other similar books they had read. Students were given book slips, pictured below, where they could check off which of the books they were interested in reading. They then returned at the end of the school day to register for library cards (for those aged 13 and up) or to check out books using an existing BCCLS account. Keri and Elisabet Kennedy, the JPL Social Media Coordinator, brought in bags and suitcases full of books for the students to check out from among the titles highlighted in the booktalks. They also told the students about the ongoing programs in the library and how to participate in them. Last year, Maureen nominated Keri for NJLA’s Amy Job Partnership Award, which they were successfully awarded for their accomplishments together. Students came in to the media center in a constant flow to attend these booktalks – the Hackensack Media Center is undeniably a popular place to be!

Sparking Creativity With Your Outreach Efforts

abigailthelibrarian — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 16:17:16 +0000

This October, BELS and the Elmwood Park Memorial HS hosted a full day professional development session for its members. The day began with a very involved discussion about the future of inter-library loan services for our school libraries, along with various other topics for consideration, including the BELS budget and the 2018-19 Executive Board elections.

Bonnie Lafazan, Library Director at Berkeley College, led our main session called “Sparking Creativity With Your Outreach Efforts: How to Promote Your Library’s Value.” Bonnie spoke about the four essential steps in promoting a successful library program; Preparations, Communications, Building Content, and Post-Event. Preparation includes event planning and scheduling. Communications is about creating materials to advertise and get the word out to the intended audience. Building Content is for creating materials to make participants feel engaged during the event and content to share afterwards. Post-Event is about post-promotion and assessing the event’s execution. Bonnie’s talk was integrated with exercises to evaluate each library’s direction for growth and then setting goals and planning how to reach them. Participants got to share their successes and give both new event and promotion ideas to their peers. You can review Bonnie’s slides and handouts for further explanations of the PR process and to complete the exercises.

The day ended with a choice of two book-related sessions. Grace Cantwell from the new Follett Book Fairs program spoke to our K-8 schools interested in hosting book fairs and the innovations that Follett has introduced to the book fair market. Linda Smith from Booksmiths visited with our high school librarians to talk about eBooks, collections for ESL and students with special needs, and curriculum-based content.

We thank LibraryLinkNJ for generously sponsoring this professional development program and bringing us wonderful speakers to learn from.

Reaching Out to Your School Communities

abigailthelibrarian — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 15:27:05 +0000

BELS Librarians are involved with so many great projects in their media centers and all their participants and visitors know how happening the media center is. But making sure that teachers, administration, the parent body, and not to mention all the *other* students are aware of the library’s initiatives, is essential to having a strong support base in your school community. While this is not always the case, there have been a number of BELS libraries whose recognition and funding have grown as a direct result of the outreach efforts from the library staff. Below are newsletters from Andrea Romano at Cliffside Park HS and Krista Welz at North Bergen HS who put together monthly newsletters to publicize what new things are going on in their libraries.

North Bergen

Cliffside Park

Start sharing your content with your school in a new way and let us know how it effects your visibility and participation numbers!

Meet Our New Members!

abigailthelibrarian — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 17:40:38 +0000

This summer, two new schools joined the BELS Consortium, bringing our total membership up to 37 schools. Maureen Carroll from Hackensack Middle School and Michelle McGreivey from Hoboken High School tell us a bit about themselves and what they’ve been doing in their media centers. Enjoy reading these new member profiles and be sure to say “hello” to our new members when you see them!

Michelle McGrievey – Hoboken HS

How long have you been working as a media specialist?

I started working as a media specialist in 2002, after working for twelve years in public, academic and special libraries.

What is your favorite kind of material to introduce to your students?

I really enjoy creative pursuits and was making things before the “maker” movement. I like teaching them creative technology tricks and also have taught sewing and crafting after school for years.

What do your students do in the media center?

Students come on their own or with classes. We also have an eighty minute Personal Growth Period during the middle of the day where students finish homework, print, work in groups, or just relax in the media center.

What new things have you added to the media center programming since you’ve been in your school?

I added programming like Blind Date with a Book, Book Tasting, and book-themed contests. I also added a lot of AV material, which now is being eclipsed by streaming media. I also acquired a poster maker, which we are currently using to make our own READ posters in collaboration with the photoshop art class. Last year I partnered with our engineering, computer science and biomedical teachers and students to run a Makers Day site in our building. We are looking forward to doing it again this year.

What do you like to read?

I love dystopian fiction and realistic fiction.

What do you do for fun?

My family has been fostering kittens for five years and I love to sew and do other crafts. We recently acquired a canoe built by my father in law and went canoeing last summer.

Do you have any big goals or plans for media center this year?

I did a major weeding and hope to remove some bookshelves to make room for some maker things.

Maureen Carroll – Hackensack MS

How long have you been working as a media specialist?

Seven years

What is your favorite kind of material to introduce to your students?

I like being able to introduce non-fiction books to the students. They are always amazed when I show them a drawing book, cook book, or animal book that they “didn’t know we had!” I love seeing that they recognize there is a greater informational world than just Google out there.

What do your students do in the media center?

Students have a lot of opportunities in our library for both purpose and pleasure. Students take virtual field trips using VR headsets, borrow independent reading books, and gain the skills necessary to navigate the information at their fingertips. We also collaborate with our public library for book talks and other programs, in fact we received an NJLA Amy Job Partnership Award last year for our accomplishments together.

What new things have you added to the media center programming since you’ve been in your school?

Since I started in HMS, I’ve made it a priority to condense the collection and update the furniture to make it more flexible. This has helped make the library an inviting place that staff and students like to spend time in. We have increased our graphic novel offerings as well as our contemporary Spanish titles to give students more of what they want. We’ve added self-checkout, repurposed the card catalog into a supply cabinet, and added engaging artwork. We’ve also begun our second collaborative poster. Students get a set of stickers each time they borrow an independent reading book. Last year it took us 1.5 months and over 1,000 books before we figured out it was hot air balloons!

What do you like to read?

I enjoy reading mysteries, horror, and the classics.

What do you do for fun?

I have been a volunteer at Camp Fatima of NJ, a program for special needs adults and children for the past 15 years. I also like baking, discovering new pizza, and most recently, restoring my 100-year old home!

Do you have any big goals or plans for media center this year?

We are excited to host our very first author visit in May!

HMS Students tossing all the lunch recess passes from one day!

HMS 5th grades getting the red carpet welcome at orientation!

Parent Meeting on Digital Citizenship Education at Westwood HS

abigailthelibrarian — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 14:45:23 +0000

Mr. Richter began the library media center’s year of Digital Citizenship education by meeting with parents to discuss the goals of the program. Parents discussed a parent-child agreement that would facilitate conversations about these important internet issues. Teachers also began bringing their classes to the library for a series of lessons to enable students to explore the issues surrounding cyber safety and the ethical use of technology. The year-long program enables every student to discuss the issues appropriate for his or her grade level. The incoming 8th grade class for example, learned about their digital footprint, online reputation, and how to write effective student emails to their teachers. Seniors began the year discussing privacy issues concerning their personal information online. All students complete a”Digital Citizenship Advice” Google form at the end of each lesson where they can briefly articulate a tip they would share with others about that day’s online issue.

Camp Half-Blood or Dumont Media Center?

abigailthelibrarian — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 14:11:15 +0000

This year’s theme of the Dumont High School Library Media Center is Percy Jackson’s Camp Half-Blood. Mrs. Jonson, the media specialist, crafted the majority of the decor and was inspired by student appreciation of the Percy Jackson books…and maybe just a little bit of Pinterest!

Lovey Bunny Author and Illustrator Visits NVD

abigailthelibrarian — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 18:38:41 +0000

This May, NVD High School wrapped up their school year with one more event- for the preschoolers. The Northern Valley high schools have preschool programs at each of their locations where high school students from their Teens-n-Tots education program can work with the preschoolers and get some hands on experience in preparation for a career in Early Childhood Education. Kristine Lombardi, illustrator and author of Lovey Bunny, Grumpy Pets, and Mr. Biddles, came to meet with the NVD Tots at the end of May. Ms Lombardi gave the kids a mini lesson on drawing her Lovey Bunny character and spoke with them about where she got the ideas for her stories and about her work as an author.

Ms. Lombardi was fantastic & took time to get to know all of the kids. She invited the Tots up to draw Lovey Bunny with her and also provided Lovey Bunny coloring pages.

For those interested in booking Kristine for either your young students (grades Pre-K through 3) or older students who are interested in the process of illustrating and writing children’s books, please email Abigail for more info.