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Regional News ArchivesThis page was created November 2014 to maintain an archive of regional news submitted for sharing via SCASL.net after regional news was relocated from the Media Center Messenger to the website. Pictures have been stripped from the archive, but can be found in the SCASL Flickr sets.
Spring 2015
Liz Hood, Librarian at Saluda Trail Middle in Rock Hill - York District 3 hosted author Eric Berlin with her students in the library.
 Congratulations to LMS Elizabeth Graham who has received a $750 Travel Grant sponsored by Bound to Stay Bound to attend her first annual AASL Conference being held in Columbus, Ohio this November. Elizabeth is the librarian at Woodland Heights Elementary in Spartanburg District 6. Way to go Elizabeth!
Author Sara Pennypacker visited two of Florence 1 Schools, Moore Intermediate School and Lucy T. Davis Elementary. She inspired students to write and told them all about the fabulous life of an author. She is pictured here with Lucy T. Davis school Librarian Debbie Heimbrook.
Two of the Aiken County library media specialists were also chosen as the teacher of the year for their schools! Congrats to Ginna Vedder- Oakwood-Windsor Elementary and Anne Sidey - North Augusta Middle.
FOX Carolina 21 is featuring the Honea Path Librarians in their adventure to sleep over night on the roof of the school as students met a challenge of reading books during the school year. Melanie Hahn is the media specialist at Honea Path Elementary - Anderson 2.
Congratulations to Jessica Felker Wheeler (Nursery Road, Lexington Richland 5), Cathy Jo Nelson (Dorman High, Spartanburg 6), Adrine Weaks (South Pointe High, York 3) and Donna Roberts (Rock Hill High, York 3) for being accepted into the Discovery Education Network Summer Institute planned for Washington, DC July 12-17, 2015. It is a unique weeklong residential style professional development opportunity that brings together Discovery Educators from across disciplines and geography with a common mission to energize their own teaching through the power of collaboration, technology, and fun. The application process is competitive, so we congratulate these four for being selected! Two of the Aiken County library media specialists were also chosen as the teacher of the year for their schools! Congrats to: “PaperCutz,” the Pelion High breakfast book club, helps Pelion Elementary students connect with books. PHS Book Club Members and PHS Media Specialist Debbie Jackson acted out Melinda Long’s book, “How I Became a Pirate,” during the PES observance of Children’s Book Week. Pelion is part of Lexington District 1.  Susannah Hogan, librarian at Wellford Academy (Spartanburg District 5), has been selected to attend the National Endowment for the Humanities' Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop Gullah Voices: Traditions and Transformations in Savannah in July. She will receive a $1200 stipend and spend a week in Savannah examining the artistic expressions of the Gullah, direct descendants of slaves who worked the rice plantations on the coastal islands off the shores of South Carolina and Georgia.
The School District of Oconee County recently held its 5th Annual Battle of the Books competition. Teams from ten elementary schools competed, including Blue Ridge Elementary (Fredda Shaw, LMS), James M. Brown Elementary (Tonya Stancil, LMS), Keowee Elementary (Rachel Smith, LMS), Northside Elementary (Mary Anne Robbins, LMS), Oakway Intermediate (Sallie Wigington, LMS), Orchard Park Elementary (Paige Price, LMS), Ravenel Elementary (Cindy Edgerton, LMS), Tamassee-Salem Elementary (Tracy Whaley, LMS), Walhalla Elementary (Joy Waller, LMS), and Westminster Elementary (Melissa Farmer, LMS). Northside, Oakway, and Walhalla were matched in the final round for the championship, with Northside bringing home the 1st place trophy. Congratulations to all who participated!
Librarians Karen Hill and Jamie Gregory at Byrnes High School (Spartanburg 5) completed a mini-grant funded by the Junior League of Spartanburg. Titled When People Become Pawns: Investigating social injustice in selected contemporary literature, students read fiction and nonfiction titles related to various examples of social injustice. They participated in gallery walk activities, an author Skype visit with Kim Purcell, and a visit from SWITCH, an organization working in the Upstate to fight against human trafficking and prostitution. We also watched the documentary Outlawed in Pakistan to discuss honor killings as a social injustice. Students concluded the project by writing letters to their state congressmen urging them to take more action against these issues. An English teacher also used the book titles downloaded to our Kindles in literature circles. We plan to continue this activity next year by adding new titles! It was a great hit among teachers and students! (Pictured: The group shot shows the SWITCH organization presentation, and the other one shows media center service learners completing the social injustice gallery walk.)
The Byrnes High School Rebels are ready for Book Bingo, our summer reading program for 2015! Students and teachers are invited to use the bingo handout or the Google form to complete various reading activities, such as reading a Printz award winner or donating a book to the public library. The student who reads the most books this summer from the 2015-2016 SCYABA list will win a special prize! Other prizes include Barnes & Noble and Amazon gift cards. All participants will be invited to a pizza lunch when school starts in August.Jamie Gregory and Karen Hill are the librarians at Byrnes High School and their school is in Spartanburg District 5.
Susan Dicey of Hillcrest Middle (Greenville County) is one of the recipients of the DonorsChoose Flash Funding by Stephen Colbert. The title of her grant is Making for Middle Schoolers ($816) and will provide a 3D printer and filament for the library makerspace. Springfield Middle's School Library Month Activities were mentioned on AASL's social media sites as part of their SLM celebrations. Also, a student at Springfield Middle was chosen as the grades 6-8 winner of AASL’s 2015 School Library Month Digital Storytelling Contest. Melissa Keefer is the librarian at Springfield Middle from York District 4.
Judy Garner at Fort Mill High (York 4) recently learned that her audiobook grant was funded, which will provide numerous audiobooks to students next year as part of our upcoming “Walking Book Club”
Liz Hood, School Librarian at Saluda Trail Middle School (York 3) received the Veterans of Foreign Wars Regional Teacher of the Year Award Saturday, May 9, 2015.
Saluda Trail Middle School (York 3) received a $25K Grant from Verizon for Collaborating Teacher Jenn Greene and School Librarian Liz Hood to work with app developers and students on beta-testing apps and learning about app/game design. On Monday, April 13th, M.H. Herlong, author of Buddy, this year's South Carolina Children's Book Award winner, visited with 3rd-5th grade students at Fork Shoals. Ms. Herlong spoke with students about her life as a writer, living in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, and the importance of accepting "no excuses" when working toward a goal. Here is a YouTube video featuring pictures from the visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlw6wXTxQ-M. Kelly Knight is the school librarian at Fork Shoals Elementary in the Greenville County School District.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Rosewood Elementary School (Richland One) had children's poet and author Brod Bagert visit. Along with sharing his poetry, he also talked to students about the process of writing by saying "write your worst first and each rewrite you make a little bit better." Working with the fourth and fifth grade students he wrote the poem "DNA Double Good." His presentation was engaging, entertaining and musically infused. A great time a was had by students and teachers alike. The school librarian serving Rosewood Elementary is LJubica Arceneaux, Information Technology Specialist.
The Lancaster County School Library Media Specialist Association held their last meeting of the year on May 4th. We wish Kay Watson (front row on right) well in her retirement! Thank you for your many years of service to our district and as our representative to Olde English Consortium!
Peggy McQuade, LMS at Dorman Freshman Campus in Spartanburg 6, was recently featured in tv ad about her recent battle with Pancreatic Cancer. Here is the short written blurb that accompanied the video: Peggy didn’t fight Stage 2 Pancreatic Cancer alone. She had friends, family, and Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute. “I felt really good about the support that I had. They were really doing a great job and they really cared about me.” While the feature is focused on Gibbes Cancer Center & Research Institute and Peggy's successful battle with Cancer, we are proud to have one of our featured in this positive campaign.
Please help us congratulate Emilie Woody of Wando High (Charleston County School District. She was just named the CCSD 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year!
Jamie Gregory and Karen Hill, librarians at Byrnes High School (Spartanburg 5) found a unique way to celebrate School Library Month! Checkout these videos from their 3rd and 4th blocks!
Cathy Jo Nelson and Melanie Dillard of Dorman High School (Spartanburg 6) "virtually" hosted Romily Bernard in their Lunchtime Book Club. The students were able to talk live with Romily about her SCYABA15-16 nominated title Find Me, get the inside scoop on her next title, and learn about the writing and publishing process.
Congratulations to Will Straight, Teacher-Librarian at Spartanburg Day School for the piece I saw on this morning’s WYFF-4 news that he was a Golden Apple Award Winner! I don’t know him, nor ever met him, but it lifts us all up to see one in our profession receive that kind of recognition. Thank you, Will Straight for being awesome in your school. View the video here: http://www.wyff4.com/…/golden-apple-winner-will-st…/32035782
Congratulations to Elizabeth Graham, school librarian at Woodland Heights Elementary in Spartanburg 6. Her students' art works were featured in a national webcast for the "big reveal" of the next Diary of a Wimpy Kid book release. Elizabeth tweeted this out herself recently, and shares a link to the write up of the recognition and the activity in her school library's blog. Click here to read and see pics of student entries!
Region 1A Anderson, Oconee, Pickens At Centerville Elementary School (Anderson 5) the media specialist has been using www.smore.com to connect parents with the happenings of the media center. Media Happenings is an online newsletter that is sent to all the parents on the school’s distribution email list. This has been an easy and efficient way to let parents know about guest readers, tips on helping their child with reading, and library circulation stats. Eric Litwin visited Concord Concord Elementary, IB World School (Anderson 5) recently and gave 2 outstanding performances, one for K-1 students and one for the older classes. He spoke about using imagery, rhyme, and repetition in his writing. The children from Kindergarten through 5th grade were enthralled with his guitar and harmonica playing, fun stories, and engaging personality. Meng Sheridan, the media specialist at Whitehall Elementary (Anderson 5) has a group of fourth graders who visit the library during their lunch time. She reads a good read-aloud chapter to the students while they eat. Then she and the students discuss. At the same time, the students are reading a book on their own that has to do with the same topic. Then when she finishes the read-aloud, they discuss the book that the students are reading independently. The students think it is cool because they get to come to the library and eat. She has 8 students each session. Librarian Linda Couch welcomes Intern Lindsay McKay to Robert Anderson College and Career Academy (anderson 5) during spring semester. Lindsay, media specialist at Pendleton Elementary, is completing her MLIS at USC in May. Region 1B Cherokee, Greenville, Spartanburg On Monday, January 26th, Fork Shoals School in Greenville County (Librarian, Kelly Knight) held a truly spectacular event. Family Reading Night brought together six local authors, and those authors shared their books with all who attended. (One author, Jonathan Miller of Charleston, spent the entire day at the school and presented his books to every student and teacher.) The featured authors were: Paul Hohmann (The Tale of Tango), Jeffrey Lefko (Solomon Squirrel's Amazing Washington, DC Adventure), Beth Templeton (A Coat Named Mr. Spot), Fred Baus (Oh, Those Holiday Lights!), Kate Salley Palmer (Palmetto: Symbol of Courage), and Jonathan Miller (Sammy the Wonder Dachshund). Each author spoke with students, parents, and teachers about their books, the writing/illustrating process, and the importance of reading. Authors were also available for autographs at the evening's conclusion. As a special treat, the grade level winners of the school's 2nd Quarter Reading Challenge had a wonderful dinner with all of the Family Reading Night authors prior to the event. Both students and authors had interesting conversations about what they were reading and writing. Pam Owens, SCASL Regional Network Contact for Spartanburg 2 shares the following: Spartanburg District Two has had a successful beginning to their EXCEL 1:1 Initiative. Since October, we have distributed iPad minis to all middle school students at Boiling Springs Middle, Rainbow Lake Middle, and Chesnee Middle. The picture is of Superintendent Dr. Scott Mercer rolling out the first device.
Jamie Gregory, media specialist at Byrnes High School, Spartanburg 5, had a learning plan published in the February 2015 issue of School Library Monthly. Her learning plan, titled "Developing an Argument," presents ways English, Science, and Social Studies teachers can incorporate nonfiction research and argument skills into their classrooms by having students take on the roles of various community stakeholders about an important, debatable issue. Way to go Jamie!! Elizabeth Graham, Media Specialist at Woodland Heights Elementary in Spartanburg District Six, has had four Donors Choose Projects funded this school year. The projects brought needed resources and technology to the library. Projects funded were: Legos in the Library, Create Book Buzz with Book Trailers (1 iPod Touch), Making Books Buzz with Book Trailers (2 iPods) and Fire up 1st Grade Readers with Graphic Novels. The Spartanburg High School Library (Spartanburg 7) welcomes Kellie Smith as an intern. Kellie is a graduate of Clemson University and is currently working on her MLIS degree from the University of South Carolina. She is the Media Assistant at Chapman High School in Inman, SC. She is also the Football and Basketball Cheerleading coach at Chapman. In her free time, she enjoys reading science fiction, taking road trips, running, and attending conventions. The Spartanburg High School Library is running the 7Reads summer reading program which is in its tenth year! There are seven great books students choose from, and each student gets to take home the book of his/her choice. We are pleased to announce that Brendan Reichs - cowriter of Virals - will be at our Region 2 Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Saluda Region 3 Chester, Lancaster, Union, York Congratulations to Connie Horton of Lancaster County who has taken an Assistant Principal position at AR Rucker Middle School! Connie was the Media Specialist at Andrew Jackson Middle School (Lancaster County) Region 4A Fairfield, Lexington 1-4, Newberry Region 4B - Columbia Area including Richland One, Richland Two, Lexington/Richland Five; USC SLIS Congratulations to Laura Haverkamp, Dreher High School, Richland One, for receiving one of the Richland District One's $500 Innovation Grants. The three recipients of the district’s Spring 2015 Classroom Innovation Teacher Grants were recognized at the January 13 meeting of the Richland One Board of School Commissioners. The $500 grants allow teachers to implement innovative projects to enhance their classroom instruction. Laura used the grant money to purchase Fit Desks for her media center which include a strap to hold a laptop. Richland One has Destiny's One Search feature set up with our district online databases and some of the Discus ones as well as the free databases available. This is an excellent tool to use for research on all levels as opposed to Googling research topics. Laura Holladay at Webber Elementary (Richland One) has received a $10,000 grant from International Paper Company to create a Learning Commons area in her media center. She will be presented the check at the Feb. 24th Board meeting at Lower Richland. Let come out and celebrate with her. WJ Keenan students, under the instruction of Vanessa Briggs and Technology Educator, Zebulun Dinkins, created an independent film that will be released on February 19. Laura Holladay at Webber Elementary (Richland One) has received a $10,000 grant from International Paper Company to create a Learning Commons area in her media center. She will be presented the check at the Feb. 24th Board meeting at Lower Richland. Let come out and celebrate with her. As part of Family Literacy Night at Hand Middle School, the media center was transformed into the Reading Lounge, complete with soft jazz music and cozy reading spaces. Our families enjoyed special time spent reading picture books aloud. Carolyn Masek, NBCT is the Media Specialist at Hand Middle School. See all eight photos Carolyn shared here. Look what's new in the media center at Hand Middle School. Carolyn Masek, media specialist at Hand Middle School worked with 7th grade art students, under the direction of Art teacher Sharlyn Turlington, to transform an ordinary book end into lovely works of art. Richland Two Pontiac Elementary School (PES) in Richland School District Two kicked off a school wide reading incentive on September 25, 2014. First – Fifth grades read The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. In conjunction with the incentive, teachers provided numerous learning experiences such as making posters of figurative language found throughout the novel and predicting and counting seeds found in lemons. Lemonade was sold at our Fall Fest on October 24, 2014. The profits were donated to City of Columbia Animal Services. Officers from City of Columbia Animal Services brought a furry friend, Kurt, to help kick off the event. In addition to selling lemonade, PES students and staff also collected items for the shelter’s wish list. Some of the students even made a quilt to keep the animals warm. Kristie Haltiwangeris the media specialist at Pontiac Elementary School (PES) in Richland School District Two.
Media Specialist, Kristie Haltiwanger, at Pontiac Elementary School (PES) in Richland School District Two read The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. On the 100th day of school, February 2, 2015, relatives were invited to help the school reach their goal to have 100 relatives read to the students. Mrs. Barbara Montgomery, the school’s former media specialist, started this tradition before she retired. The students have enjoyed keeping the tradition going each year Region 5A Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg Cathy Hessalink of A. L. Corbett Middle School (Aiken County) submitted a proposal entitled "Readers Are Leaders". I requested funds to purchase low level/high interest materials for our struggling and reluctant readers. I requested the maximum amount ($4000), however we received $3000. This is the first time I have ever written a grant (other than a school based mini-grant (PTO). Dollar General Youth Literacy Grants are awarded to schools across the nation. The recipients are listed on their webpage:
Cathy Shares, "My book budget at ALCM is less than $10 per pupil. Receiving this funding will definitely make a huge impact on our collection development plan for 2014 -2015. I am excited that we will be able to offer a great selection of low level/high interest materials to our students. I am anxious to see if this will be effective in bringing up their reading scores, as I proposed. Due to the success I had with the Dollar General Youth Literacy Grants Program, you can be assured that I will be writing more grants."
Also, on November 20, 2015, Chris Rylander, author of "The Fourth Stall" series met with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Corbett Middle School (Cathy hessalink, LMS). He talked with them about the importance of reading and writing and shared personal anecdotes with illustrations. After meeting with each grade level, he posed for pictures and did a book signing. He was amazing! I was really impressed how much time he was willing to spend talking with students individually after the presentation.
Region 5B Allendale, Calhoun, Orangeburg Region 6 - Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee, Sumter Lugoff-Elgin High School is hosting an author visit on March 6th. As part of reading across the curriculum our Spanish classes are reading Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango.Laura is flying in from Colorado and Maria Virginia from Ecuador. The public is invited,several bookclubs, students from Lugoff-Elgin Middle School and the South Carolina Virtual Charter School will also be attending. In the evening Laura and Maria Virginia will chatting and signing books at our local bookstore Books on Broad in Camden.The LMS at Lugoff-Elgin High school is Anne Lemieux. Region 7 Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, Marlboro Marianne Gaskins of North Vista Elementary School in Florence School District 1 shares about the move into a new building in August 2015. The new library in this school has the newest in furniture and technology. It has a computer lab with 20 desktop computers, touch screen self check in station, a TV production room, and the new SMART 6065 interactive panel. All of the furniture in the library has charging stations, which allows students and staff members the ability to charge mobile devices they are using for class or during meetings. The entire community is already making the library one of the central parts of the school. Classes use the computers for conducting research or working on school projects. Families have enjoyed coming in to the library for family reading night, where they are encouraged to read using a variety of print and electronic media and participate in literacy activities. Students and parents also participate in a family book club where a different book is discussed each month. Once the book is discussed families participate in book related activities that correlate with standards in the classroom. (Pictures below)
Region 8 Georgetown, Horry, Williamsburg Georgetown County School District is doing its own Read-In. It will be the same day as Columbia, but going there is cost prohibited ~ so you know what they say ~ if you can't go to the Read-In in Columbia, then bring the Read-In here. We have committees, every school will participate, logo contest in process, etc. We will have a parade down Front Street with lunch, activities and community speakers in East Bay Park. It is our first attempt at doing this, but we are hoping that it, too, will be an annual event (like Columbia!). At LMS Paula Canine's school - Waccamaw Elementary - 2nd graders celebrated 100 Days of school in the library by dressing up as 100 year old readers!
Anna Fox has the unique distinction of being the Teacher of the Year at 2 schools in Georgetown County! She is the LMS at both Plantersville ES and Brown's Ferry ES and has been elected TOY at each for the 2015-16 school year. Anna Fox is the proud mother of little Emma Louise Fox, born December 6, 214.
WASA (Waccamaw Association of Space and Aviation) club at Waccamaw High School is getting ready for the Georgetown County School District TECH FAIR being held at Waccamaw Intermediate School on May 22. WASA won in the Innovation Category last year and we hope to win again this year. Alan W. Pritchard, LMS at Waccamaw HS, is the team advisor. Region 9A Berkeley, Dorchester Laura Linder of Cane Bay Middle (Berkeley) shares about her awesome lunch bunch book club for January! The seed for the idea came from an ad for free crochet kits sponsored by The Craft Yarn Council and JoAnne’s. Laura signed up her school to get 20 kits. Since the program was meant for students in 8th-12th grade, she knew her middle school would target 8th graders, and Laura’s assistant suggested they use them with the 8th grade lunch bunch book club in January, and as they crocheted they would talk about books, authors, characters, etc. The book club was extremely successful, and they even had five guys join their group of fifteen. As a result of the crochet book club, all are still crocheting and one of the guys even used crocheting as a form of stress relief prior to the state wrestling tournament. See the pictures of 8th graders Ralpheal Inge and Micah Staggers crocheting.
Emilie Woody, library media specialist at Wando High School was surprised at school Friday, March 6, 2015 by Charlie the Riverdog and other Charleston County School District dignitaries as she was notified she is a finalist for the Charleston County School District Teacher of the Year. Emily is the driver pictured here with her principal, other school people, and Charlie the RiverDog of the Charleston Riverdogs Minor League Baseball organization.. Region 10 Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper November-December 2014 Region 1A Anderson, Oconee, Pickens Region 1B Cherokee, Greenville, Spartanburg Greer High School celebrated a November Teen Read Week with three workshops being offered to classes in the library last week. First, students were invited to expand their horizons by reading the Young Adult Book Award books. They could stop by the library and pick up a list of books, watch the "trailers" online and then read to see "the places you will go".Second, students could visit the library's new CAREER CENTER, exploring all the books available about careers. Students could take the online test to see what best suited their personality as they make the all-important decision of "what you will be when you grow up".Third, classes could learn about DISCUS, our online 24/7 internet library as well as the public library's OVERDRIVE. Students could also learn about their EBooks. Greer's goal for Teen Read Week was to let students know the world is at your fingertips FOR FREE everyday all day long! Librarians at Greer High (Greenville) areLeAnn Kiser and Harriet Kicker. Fork Shoals School in Greenville County had its best Scholastic Book Fair ever this fall. The event coincided with the school's Dynamite Dads breakfast as well as the school-wide Thanksgiving meal. The librarian, Kelly Knight, also dressed in costume (as a knight, obviously) one evening and had a medieval themed photo booth for students, parents, and teachers. Parent and teacher volunteers created lovely decorations to go along with this year's theme, Sir Readalot's Castle. “I Read…What’s Your Superpower?” was the theme of Teen Read Week at Woodmont High School, celebrated this week to coincide with the release of the next Hunger Games Movie, Mockingjay. The week was full of activities inspired by superheroes and Hunger Games. The media center sponsored two movie nights, so the students could see the first two Hunger Games movies before the third was released. Also, one morning they had the art teacher teach a special class on how to draw a superhero to the morning crowd in the media center. Throughout the week, students received treats when they checked out and logged books for the Wild About Reading program. Students also started the Wild About Reading Bingo program that will continue until late April. Students who read a BINGO will be invited to a special library program in May. Finally the week ended with the 2nd Annual Hunger Games! Twenty-two students competed in a fun Hunger Games style tournament! Mrs. Brundage (LMS), Mrs. Broome (LMS) and Mrs. Emerson had a blast showing their alter ego and their superpowers for this fun week!!! You can follow our adventures on our Facebook page: WHS Wildcats Read!
Cathy Nelson, Dorman High School, successfully renewed her National Board Certification in Library/Media. Elizabeth Graham at Woodland Heights ES (Spartanburg 6) held a family night during her November bookfair. We especially love the shout outs to her school's business partners in her thank you post on her own library blog. Way to go Elizabeth!!
Region 2 Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Saluda Region 3 Chester, Lancaster, Union, York Guess who got a visit from the Rock Hill Foundation today! Samantha McManus (Sullivan Middle School/Rock Hill)wrote a $1,000 grant to fund interactive books and they funded it. "I'm so excited and it was wonderful to have a class of sixth graders in the room when they awarded it. Thank you, Rock Hill School District Foundation!" exclaimed Samantha McManus. Dr. Lisa Tait, LMS at Lewisville Middle (Chester County) had a busy year. She renewed her National Board (2015-2025) and completed her Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching. In her words, she shares, "Now I finally have time to read a book!" Melisa Smith, Mount Gallant Elementary School, (York 3-Rock Hill) successfully renewed her National Board Certification. SCASL member and Union County High School Librarian Pam Sloss was recently elected to the Union City Council. Congrats pam! Region 4A Fairfield, Lexington 1-4, Newberry Region 4B - Columbia Area including Richland One, Richland Two, Lexington/Richland Five; USC SLIS Richland One Betsy Russell, ITS at Bradley Elementary School in Richland One, did a little digging to bring history to life for her 5th graders. Knowing they were studying the industrial titans of the early 20th century, she surfed the internet to find out if there are any local Model T clubs. Yes, there are but they didn't seem as easy to contact as the local Model A club and Model A's are much nicer looking. Mr. Porterfield and Mr. Cockerill agreed to visit and that's how this living history came to Bradley. As you can imagine, the kids were intrigued by the beauty and simplicity of these early autos. They'll remember sitting in the cars and hearing the aa-ooga of the horns for a long time! Read The State Newspaper article here. http://www.thestate.com/2014/12/18/3881882_columbia-5th-graders-take-a-drive.html?sp=/99/205/&rh=1 Carolyn Masek, LMS at Hand Middle School, Richland One successfully renewed her National Board Certification. (Nov 2014) At Pine Grove Elementary School, LMS Angie Enlow facilitated one of her teachers, Ms. Crawford's first grade class in a video conferencing session with NASA's Kennedy Space Center about the sun. See her short highlight video! (Nov 2014) Richland Two Amy Whitfield and Crystal Smith, Library Media Specialists at Blythewood High School in Richland School District Two along with the school’s Technology Learning Coach Tami Lenker and Ridge View High School’s Technology Learning Coach Cheryl Hunter applied for and completed the first round of Richland School District Two’s innovation incubator-R2 Innovates (http://r2innovates.blogspot.com/). Fifteen teams were in the first cohort, working on innovative ideas. Each team had to make a sales pitch in front of a panel similar to a “Shark Tank” pitch. “Wreck that PD” was the title of the pitch that Whitfield, Smith, Lenker, and Hunter presented to the panel. Their team was one of nine teams to advance. “Wreck that PD” is an innovative idea to reconstruct the delivery of professional development. (November 2014) Longleaf Middle School (Richland 2) has a new makerspace that includes origami, perler beads, knex and snap circuits in which the students come during their lunch or free time to tinker with the DIY items. We also have a book club on Wednesdays in which students come together to discuss the 2014-2015 SC Jr Book Award Nominees. This was shared with us by LMS Cynthia Johnson. (November 2014)
Region 5A Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg Congratulations to Michelle Wells who renewed National Board Certification. Michelle works at North Augusta High School in Aiken County. Corbett Middle School (AIken County Schools) recently hosted author Chris Rylander, and it was a huge success! Cathy Hessalink is the LMS at Corbett MS. Chris Rylander did an outstanding job, giving three separate presentations (one for each grade level), answered students questions, posed for pictures with the students, autographed books, and spent lots of time talking with the students. He was exceptionally good with our special needs kids. The local paper, the Aiken Standardcovered this and provided a picture. Here is the article from the Aiken Standard: http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20141122/AIK0101/141129837
Heather Loy, LMS at Wagener-Salley High School (Aiken County Schools) has created a mini maker fair that features duct tape crafts! Students have been visiting daily since last Thursday during lunch to explore the craft ideas being generated. Students have made pencil/pen cases, phone caddies, bracelets and more with the funky duct tape made available for the center. These are TOO CUTE!! Region 5B Allendale, Calhoun, Orangeburg
Region 6 - Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee, Sumter
Region 7 Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, Marlboro Dillon Gordon Elementary 5th graders have been busy making models of cells. They proudly displayed them in the library. In social studies they are studying western expansion. So in come the covered wagons! Each month students have a chance to earn a game day in the library by using good library manners. The librarian at Gordon Elementary is Gail Carter. Gordon Elementary is in Dillon School District.
Making room for more recognition! At East Elementary it seemed that each week the same class was being recognized for earning the most points in Reading Counts. For something new to encourage Reading Counts, LMS Ann Carlsonpurchased 3 trophies for each grade level 1, 2, and 3. Every two weeks she now runs a report to see how many points each class has earned. The class with the most number of points for that grade level has a trophy in his classroom for two weeks. This way, even if a class had done poorly at the beginning of the year, it would have a chance to have a trophy in its classroom by doing well during a two week period. After two weeks, the report is run again and the same trophies go to different rooms. This is working well for Ann’s school, East Elementary. (November 2014) At Dillon Middle School LMS Marcia Bethea administered a reading interest survey to all students, tallied the results, and compiled the data. She then created charts depicting some of the survey findings and sent these to her ELA teachers and to her building administrators. She also has the charts running on her digital sign monitors throughout the school for the entire community and visitors to see. She plans to use some of the survey information to inform her book purchases and programming for the media center this year. Marcia shares, “I also heard from my principal after he viewed the charts; he would like for us to hold a public library card sign-up drive. Here is a sample of her survey results. Click here to see the entire set of results. (November 2014)
Region 8 Georgetown, Horry, Williamsburg Georgetown Donna B. Owens, Carvers Bay High School, Georgetown County successfully renewed her National Board Certification. (Nov. 2014) GCSD LMS Anna Fox is expecting in December. GCSD LMS had a surprise baby shower and all of the gifts were books to begin a new library for her baby! Anna slits her time between Browns Ferry ES & Plantersville ES. (11/14)
Waccamaw ES used their school mascot to help run a successful bookfair! Too cute! Paula Canine is the LMS at Waccamaw ES. (11/14) Horry Aynor High School Media Center Opens 'Maker Space' with 3D Printers, gets Channel 15 Carolina Alive Coverage. Dawn James is the librarian at AHS. Read the article here. (November 2014) Aynor High School (LMS Dawn James) and Aynor Middle School (LMS Danielle West) Book Clubs sponsored book drives during the month of November. New books were wrapped and passed out to children of all ages at the Aynor Christmas parade Saturday. It was a huge success, promoting literacy throughout our community. Aynor is part of the Horry County School System
Region 9A Berkeley, Dorchester Berkeley Kellyanne Burbage, media specialist from Sangaree Intermediate School shares about a successful reading promotion: "We just completed a successful reading promotion called “Read Around the World.” Students were challenged to read a book from 5 different continents. They received a sticker for each continent, which they kept on a passport page in their reading notebooks. After reading the 5 books, each student received a globe keychain and their names were entered into a chance to win an inflatable globe.This was one of the most enjoyable contests we’ve done – it was refreshing to watch the students search for a book that represented a particular continent, for example, a book about koalas for Australia, a book about WWII for Europe." (November 2014)
LMS Laura Linder received a Google Communities Grant for $25,750 to purchase a mobile lab of 30 Dell Tablets for Cane Bay Middle School. (November 2014)
Way to go Charleston County School District! 14 schools received funding through the Laura Bush Foundation for America's School Libraries Grant!
Media Specialist Emilie Woody from Wando High School (Mt. Pleasant) was named Teacher of the Year for 2014. Wando has an amazing faculty, so the idea that they would choose one of the library media specialists to be the Teacher of the Year speaks to the impact that she has on student learning at the school. Nov 2014 One of the perks of living near Charleston is having the authors from YallFest in town for a weekend. Becca Fitzpatrick, author of the Hush, Hush series and Black Ice, visited Wando High School on November 7th and spoke to 9th grade English 1 students about the writing and publishing process. Students are always amazed by the background stories that inspire authors and their writing. (Pictures are of author Becca Fitzpatrick with Wando media specialists Katherine Ware, Laura Judson and Donna Whitlock. The other picture is of Becca Fitzpatrick with students from Ms. Poggioli's class. About 20 YallFest authors visited Charleston County School District Schools, Including Matthew de la Pena, Ellen Hopkins, Alexander London, and many others November 2014
Middle school students from Zucker Middle School walk with their librarian Mrs. Miranda Cary to Lambs Elementary to read to a first grade class. They come once a month to read books with the first graders. Students in kindergarten-fifth grade at Daniel Island School in Charleston, SC participated in The Bert Show's Big Thank You, 2014, writing more than 840 letters to be sent to deployed service members this Thanksgiving. Kelli Friedman is the LMS at Daniel Island School, Charleston, SC See more pictures here. (November 2014)
Region 10 Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper
The following items appeared Between August and October 2014: Anderson 1
Anderson 2
Anderson 3
Anderson 4
Anderson 5
Greenville
Spartanburg 1
Spartanburg 5
Spartanburg 6
Spartanburg 7
Region 2 Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Saluda Abbeville
Greenwood 50
Laurens 55
McCormick County
Region 3 Chester, Lancaster, Union, York York 1 - York
York County 3 - Rock Hill
Region 4A Fairfield, Lexington 1-4, Newberry Fairfield
Lexington 1
Region 4B - Columbia Area including Richland One, Richland Two, Lexington/Richland Five; USC SLIS Richland One
USC-SLIS
Region 5A Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg Aiken
Region 5B Allendale, Calhoun, Orangeburg Region 6 - Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee, Sumter Clarendon County
Kershaw County
Sumter
Region 7 Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion, Marlboro Darlington
Marion
Region 8 Georgetown, Horry, Williamsburg Georgetown
Horry
Region 9A Berkeley, Dorchester Berkeley
Region 9B Charleston Region 10 Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper Jasper
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