Wow!  A HUGE thank you goes to Library Safari for nominating my blog for The Liebster Award!  This is an award which is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers but that “deserves to have many more.”  I appreciate the vote of confidence, and look forward to spreading the “Liebster” love!

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Thank the Liebster-winning blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Post eleven facts about yourself.
3. Answer the eleven questions your nominator asked.
4. Create eleven questions for your nominees.
5. Nominate 5 to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.
6. Display the Liebster Award logo.

Eleven things about me:

1. My husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary this June!  We jokingly tell our friends that we survived our “rookie” year! 🙂
2. I have two crazy yet lovable cats.  I’ve had Kaboudal for almost 18 years, and her way of showing her affection is to drool all over you!  Scooter is my younger cat and loves to play “rub my tummy-sike-now I scratch you”! 
3. I’ve taught third grade for 16 years, and have been an elementary librarian for the past 4 years. 
4. My favorite children’s book right now is Wonder by R. J. Palacio.  I’m amazed (and to be honest a little jealous) that this is her first novel.  I’ve talked this book up so much since I read it last year that all my 5th grade teachers will be reading it for their beginning of the year read aloud!
5. The latest adult fiction book I’ve read was Inferno by Dan Brown.  It was a fast-paced novel that gave me chills and definitely forced me to think about some heavy concepts.
6. I’m an organizational freak….I’ve been known to take color-coding to a whole new level!
7. I love creating things….forms to help me organize, activities to do with my students, posters to review information, etc.  
8. Going hand in hand with #7, I am addicted to Pinterest! (That’s actually how I survived Grad School!  I would give myself 10 minutes of Pinterest once I finished reading an article or writing a paragraph of a paper!)
9. I tend to go “ALL IN” whenever I’m doing something new.  Then I make changes, redo things, and make it better! (This also goes with my love for #7).
10. I love binders as an organizational method (I can’t stand lose papers everywhere!) But of course, my binders have to look pretty!
11. My husband and I may be going to St. Thomas over Spring Break to see a friend get married!

Answers to Library Safari’s questions:

1. What age group do you serve? 
   • Most of my information is geared toward the elementary level (PreK through 5th grade).
2. What is your favorite post on your blog? 
   • My favorite blog was about The Recipe for Research.  This idea came to me one night in a dream (which is often the case) and has really worked well with the younger grades in helping them understand and remember the steps for doing research.
3. How may your readers follow you?
   • My readers can follow me on my blog, or visit my stores at TpT or Teacher’s Notebook.  I do have a twitter account, but am not very active with this right now.
4. Who influenced your decision to become a librarian?
   • I have always loved books, and read-aloud was my favorite part of our daily schedule as a teacher!  You would often find me sitting at Barnes and Nobel, going through their paperbacks, to find books for different topics that I was going to teach.  Over time, I ended up with so many books and not enough time to read them all.  My librarian at the time encouraged me to go back to grad school to earn my degree.  Thanks Beth! 🙂
5. Would you rather read adult books or children’s/young adult books?
   • This depends on how I’m feeling at the time.  I generally like reading more adult books at night as I’m winding down and getting ready for bed. 
6. What library event/program are you most proud of?
   • I enjoy doing the Jumpstart’s Read for the Record event at the beginning of the year.  I usually invite ELE, PreK, and Kindergarten classes to come listen to the story, and then do some sort of art/craft activity.  It helps them get excited about books, and they begin to see the library as a special place.
7. Could you share an idea for organizing a librarian’s “stuff?”
   • I’m a binder girl, so I have binders to keep track of everything.  Here’s just a quick example: 
     1. Beginning of the Year binder (with everything I need from to do lists, Open House information, etc.)
     2. End of the Year binder (with everything I need to do, inventory lists, checklists, etc.)
     3. Budget binder (with dividers for each different account code)
     4. Computer binder (with dividers for different programs such as Destiny, Marc Magician, Noodletools, Overdrive, etc.)
     5. “We Need This Book!” (with dividers for Fiction, Everybody, Non Fiction, Biography, Professional) so students and faculty can write down ideas of books they want me to purchase
8. How do you encourage your students to read more and more and more?
   • I have a “Now Reading” sign by the circulation desk that shows them the book that I am currently reading.  I just take a quick screen shot of the front cover and print that out.   This allows me to talk to them about the different books we have at our campus, and they see me getting excited about what’s happening.  Sometimes I even have to put up a “sign up” list because so many students want to read it after me!
9. Which series does your students love?
   • There are the usuals such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 39 Clues, Dork Diaries, and Tom Angleberger’s  Origami Yoda series.
   • I also got students hooked on Kate Klise’s books (Regarding the Bathroom) and the Willy Claflin books.
10. What’s on your library wish list?
    • I always need more paperback books to put on my paperback shelf for students who forget their library books.  I allow them to take 1 paperback book home (so they at least have something new to read).  They bring the paperback AND their library book back the next week, but sometimes the paperbacks don’t come back. 
    • Since our campus is bilingual, I’m always on the lookout for good companies/places that sell current interest titles. 
11. Which standards (state, CCSS, etc.) do you address primarily?
    • Most of my activities involve Reading skills (Literature and Informational), Writing Skills, as well as Speaking and Listening skills.

My eleven questions: 
1. What do you feel is the hardest challenge in being a librarian?
2. What’s your best advice for a new librarian?
3. What’s your favorite story to read at the beginning of the year?
4. How do you motivate students to return their books on time?
5. How do you like to read best: physical book or online book?
6. Who is your favorite children’s author?
7. What genre is your favorite?
8. What grades do you struggle with the most when preparing lesson plans for the library?
9. Do you have a fixed library schedule or a flexible one?
10. What’s something new you have tried in your library?
11. What do you enjoy most about being a librarian?

My nominees: 
1.  Try Curiosity
2.  Librarian in Cute Shoes
3.  The Library Gals
4.  Beyond the Book Storytimes
5.  Mrs. Mattei’s Book Bits Blog 

Check out these cool blogs when you get a chance, and help spread the love!