The library staff is happy to provide a variety of services to teachers. These services include: pulling books and/or audiovisual materials from the collection for use in student research or professional development; development of a class project page to support student research; and co-planning and/or co-teaching of units involving research skills such as citation of sources. We are also happy to give your students a booktalk -- a short, snappy talk introducing a bunch of books on a particular topic or theme -- or set up an activity in which they can participate (e.g., readers' theater). We can do things either in the library or, in some cases, in your classroom. Obviously, the more involved the project, the more advance notice we'd like to have!
Resources You Should Know About:
THE COLLECTION -- In addition to our collection of general-purpose books, reference books, magazines, audiovisual materials (VHS/DVD, and a few audiotapes and CDs), the library has a good-sized professional development collection. Come in and browse for some new lesson plan ideas or help with classroom management.
ONLINE DATABASES -- The library subscribes to EBSCOHost , an online database of magazine and journal articles that you and your students can access from school computers. EBSCO may be useful for a variety of research projects. You may also use World Book Online , which offers the same information as in the print version, but with extra resources such as links, video clips, etc.
ONLINE VIDEO -- The district subscribes to a large online database of streaming video clips called United Streaming. The database is searchable by subject and grade level; make sure to watch the video before you show it in class. Some of the files are very large - you may want to download the file to your classroom computer and playing it from there rather than live over the internet. Teachers, you must get a passcode from the library to access United Streaming for the first time. Once you've done that, you will be prompted to create your own user name and password.
OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES -- " Recipes4Success is your best resource for supporting project work with students. Recipes4Success includes software tutorials and reference guides, online tools, and a step-by-step process for implementing project-building with students."