Librarian
- Reading Promotions: The Eisenhower Library promoted literacy and cultural diversity through a variety of reading promotions. The promotions were centered around heritage months such as Hispanic Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Poetry Month, and Asian Pacific Islanders Heritage Month. The librarian used book displays, trivia challenges, bingo, and digital choice boards.
- Library Activities: Students frequently visit the Eisenhower Library before school, after school, & during lunchtime. While many come to have quiet time to read, many come to hang out and chat with friends. Some other interests are working on the computer, playing games, and checking out books. The most popular activity, other than checking out books, has been the jigsaw puzzle table.
- Student and Faculty Book Clubs: Two book clubs were offered this year, one for students and one for adults. The students read James Ponti’s City Spies books and met 2-3 times a month. The staff read a variety of middle-grade and adult titles chosen by the book club and met once a month to discuss.
- Book Fairs: The Eisenhower Library held two book fairs this school year. The fall book fair was held during the week of Greenback Night and allowed the community to shop for diverse books for their families. The spring book fair provided students with an opportunity to purchase books for summer reading.
- Author visit: The Eisenhower Library hosted author, James Ponti. Mr. Ponti spoke to four groups of ELAR classes about the importance of reading and about his own experience as a reluctant reader. Mr. Ponti also met with the student book club where he answered questions from the students and got to know them.
12,707
print books in collection
print books in collection
21,047
ebooks books in collection
ebooks books in collection
9,471
print books checked out
print books checked out
1,707
ebooks books checked out
ebooks books checked out
Teacher
- Science Landforms Breakout: As part of the Generals Academic Camp, the librarian prepared a breakout over landforms for all grade levels. Students worked as a team to solve puzzles, answer questions, and read for clues. The teams had to use critical thinking skills to determine the various codes to unlock five different types of locks.
- ALE Class Visits: The librarian invited the ALE classes to the library for a read aloud and a craft activity. Students were read a book relating to what they were studying in class or one that pertained to the season. All students were helped to create a craft that they then took home with them.
- Ancient Egypt Breakout: As part of a day of GT enrichment, the librarian prepared an ancient Egypt breakout for all 50 GT students. Students were given 45 minutes to use their critical thinking skills to complete various puzzles, riddles, and ciphers in order to open the five different locks to “break out”.
- Skyward & Google: The librarian taught students through their PE classes how to access and navigate Skyward. The librarian also taught students how to organize their Google Drive by creating folders, color coding folders, and using emojis in titles. Students were then taught how to type an email and then were assigned to send an email to a teacher and CC the librarian.
- Library Orientation: The librarian reviewed basic library information with students before leading them in a Goosechase scavenger hunt through the library. Students worked in teams to locate important areas of the library including the Maker Space, book return, circulation desk, and library catalog.
Lesson Spotlight
Students in ELAR classes came in to learn about conducting research by primarily using the library databases for their information. They were taught how to search for their topic, where the citations are found, how to save the article to their drive, how to have the article read aloud, and how to create a works cited page. They were also taught how to evaluate websites for their reliability by completing a checklist over a sample website. Students chose from a list of websites and then completed
the 5 W's of Website Evaluation checklist. The students worked with a partner or group to determine the reliability of the website. The class then discussed the results of each website so that they could choose reliable websites for their research if needed. The librarian emphasized that the library databases are reliable and should be the primary source of their research.
Campus Leader
- Lunch n Learn: The librarian created a brief self-paced tutorial for Teaching Books and Discovery Ed for Eisenhower teachers to utilize during their lunch break. They were given some time to brainstorm ideas for implementation in their specific subject areas and to ask questions.
- Greenback Night & Eisenhower Showcase Night: During the spring Eisenhower Showcase Night future Eisenhower students and families were welcomed to tour the library where they received a pamphlet about important library information and were given scratch art bookmarks to take with them.
- Library Newsletters: Monthly newsletters using Smore were shared with staff and the community. They contained highlights from each month, upcoming event information, and other resources
- Academic UIL: The Eisenhower Librarian supported the campus Academic UIL team by coaching Maps, Graphs, & Charts. Participant numbers increased this year and several of our students placed at the top at the district meet. The Eisenhower Academic UIL team placed 2nd in the district in January 2022.
- TLA Conference in Fort Worth: The librarian attended a variety of sessions about collaboration ideas, leadership, and new books for the middle-grade reader.
