Reading Reading Reading!

I have had an opportunity to read many books this summer, though I still don't feel caught up to some of the Ridgecrest students. I will be asking them for more recommendations when school starts, but we can start now and have most of August to do some last-minute beach/vacation/backyard reading before school starts September 2nd. Leave your recommendations in the comments section below.

Parent Education Night

This Thursday, March 12, from 6:30pm to 7:30pm in the library, Ms. Freeman will hold a Parent Education Night. This evening will focus on online resources you can access with your child to help them in school, and online safety for children. There will be laptops available for your use so you can experience these resources while we are discussing them.

Please join other parents and family members in learning about how to best support our students in this rapidly evolving online world.

Global Reading In-School Challenge

The Global Reading Challenge at Ridgecrest will take place on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, from 1:30PM-2:30PM either in the lunchroom or the library.

Parents and/or classrooms may attend to support the 4th and 5th graders on the five teams we have at Ridgecrest this year. The winning team will go on to represent Ridgecrest at the District Challenge from 10:30AM-11:30AM on February 26th at the Shoreline Center (room to be announced).

Award-winning Books

This past week the American Library Association announced the winners of its Youth Media Awards, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medal and Honor winners. Sometimes these books are surprises, sometimes they are expected, but either way it is always exciting to watch the web broadcast. ALA used Twitter to announce some of their awards.

• Newbery winner (for the most distinguished contribution to children's literature): The Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean
• Caldecott winner (for the most distinguished American picture book for children): The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes and written by Susan Marie Swanson
• Coretta Scott King Award (recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults): We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson & The Blacker the Berry illustrated by Floyd Cooper, written by Joyce Carol Thomas

There were many other awards announced last Monday, you can find them on the ALA news webpage. The Ridgecrest Library will have these books as soon as they can be found in local bookstores. Not surprisingly, many are sold out after the awards are announced.

What are your favorite award-winning books? Make Way for Ducklings? The Westing Game? The Tale of Despereaux? Where the Wild Things Are? Share in the comments below.

Library OPAC (Online Catalog)

Ridgecrest and several other Shoreline schools now have a new OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) for our library collections. You can access them from any computer with Internet capability and a browser.

The benefits of this online catalog are immense, including:

• students can see covers of many books, increasing interest and their ability to find the book themselves
  
• student use of the OPAC has increased noticeably because it looks familiar to them, more like Google or Yahoo!
• students can reserve titles that are currently checked out
  
• access to the OPAC from home to see what is available in our library at any given time
• links are available on the OPAC home page to AR databases to see if we have tests for books from home or the public library
• the ability to read a short description of a book if it is included in the OPAC
  
• seeing if the library has a book on the research topic your child is doing and comparing that with what is available at the public library (King County Library System online catalog)

The OPAC does not allow you to see what your child has checked out or to pay fines online, like the public library, but we are pleased to offer you this increased access to the Ridgecrest Library collection.

If you as a Ridgecrest parent or guardian would like a Ridgecrest Library card, please contact Ms. Freeman in the library (email: joanna.freeman@shorelineschools.org) or stop by and we would be happy to make you a card and send it home with your child within a few days.

Link to Ridgecrest OPAC

Library-home connections

I enjoy talking to parents who come into the library to talk about their child's needs or interests, in hopes that I can help them select appropriate books that will capture their interests. But this year I have been hoping to make more library-home connections than in my previous six years at Ridgecrest. To accomplish this I am publishing a monthly library newsletter (in conjunction with Mr. Woods, who is publishing a PE newsletter), writing these blog entries, increasing my email messages sent home to families, and I am planning a series of Parent Education Nights in the library.

I would love to talk with you about your child or anything else related to the library. Please feel free to email me at joanna.freeman@shorelineschools.org if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions. I hope to get to know your families as well as I feel I know your children. I can help you navigate the information age we live in, as well as help find wonderful books your family can enjoy together.

Parent Education Night Survey

I am planning to offer a few Parent Education Nights to be held in the library to provide some extra information or resources that may not be readily available to parents on a variety of topics related to information skills, reading, and the library. An additional goal of mine is to get to know more Ridgecrest parents and families. I know your children, now I want to know you better.

I have put a short survey online to help inform my decisions about the Parent Education Nights, including what days of the week and times are best, and also a list of possible topics from which you can choose.

If you are interested in possibly attending a Parent Education Night, or if you want to see what possible topics are listed or offer your own topic, please complete the survey. It will take no more than five minutes of your time.

Parent Education Night Survey

Thank you very much.