Studying for NBPTS Tests

Yikes... The countdown begins to test day and although I have been doing my background reading, I am way nervous about the tests! And began tackling the studying. Ethical & legal tenets, collection development & information literacy. I have been reading the rubrics to understand what my essays must contain to achieve a 4, and researching notes to study... Now is the hard part...all the trapping memorizing! Several things I have put into practice from my studying is open access. Teachers really want kids to be choosing books at their personal level, or reading level, but really we r pulling away from interest also. Which is where they need to be pushed as well...not pushed, but allowed! The statement that kills me is when kids come in and ask, "where are your 3rd grade books?" yuck! Thank god I get to tell them that the library is not organized like that! It is by interest/ subject in Dewey and by author's last name in fiction! Or Picture books! Yucko to think that kids can only read leveled books! And at their level...never mind what their interest is! There needs to be a bit more balance:) Better get studying!

Parent Workshop

The parent workshop went well as we had a full library and had to bring in more chairs! The difficult part was talking over the kiddos! That was a bit hectic for me even though some school aged kids went out to the playground for a awhile. I generated a PowerPoint and an evaluation sheet for the workshop which gave good feedback as to what went well. Parents learned importance of kids choice when reading and the importance of talking about what they read with their kiddos. Also modeling reading with them! I would love to do a follow up regarding some good summer reads. And also get more parents in to check out books. I know it is nearing the end of the year...but I would love to get them in the computer and start off next fall with parents checking out on back to school nite! I am not sure how I will do this at both sites, but I really want to! The difficult part of the workshop was the flow with the second teacher who translated in Spanish... I felt disjointed in the communication. I did go thru a district translator at my other site and for some reason it seemed better. I am not sure why. I was glad to have a fellow teacher, good for the parents to make that connection, it just seemed awkward to me. Parent response sheets were positive, so maybe it was me. Since then I have had several families check out books:) exactly my intended outcome!