School Web Site

Oh boy - it's been ages since I posted on this blog! I've been so busy. Our school district is in the process of rolling out an entirely new website (they're calling it a Content Management System.) My school, along with three others, were selected to be the PIONEERS of the district and be the first ones to go LIVE! It's been quite a trip, let me tell you. I am sooooo glad I took LIS 753 Internet Fundamentals and Design! While I haven't had to write anything HTML or create style sheets, I had a good understanding of why things were working the way they did. (I did resort to editing the HTML one time when I couldn't get my link to open in a new window, but that isn't the norm!)


I am so proud to have been chosen (or did I volunteer? I think I volunteered) to help structure and create the library web pages. They're still under construction, but you can check out the Rose School Library pages and Lines School Library pages. Amy Rolain, librarian at Lines and I are each doing 1/2 the pages, then when they're perfect(!) we'll copy them to the schools that haven't gone live yet. That was supposed to save everyone lots of time. So far, it's been sort of frustrating, especially when it comes to my tables. Using the Schoolwires Site Manager I create beautiful tables, but when they get published to the site, they look terrible. I'm sure what's happening is that I'm getting code stuck inside of code and one supersedes the other. I should have paid more attention to the part of the class about what gets priority! I suppose I could delve into the minutia of the HTML.... but not tonight!

Within the same 24 hours that we went live with the new web site we also discontinued using our old circulation system and put a temporary one in place until our new software gets going in March!

Tonight I need to finish up my presention that I'm giving to our PTO tomorrow morning. My Student Impact Plan for 2009-2010 is to establish an audio book collection in my library. I'm making progress! I've gone from ONE audio book on CASSETTE TAPE to now having two novels on CD and about 20 picture books on CD that include either one or two copies of the book. My presentation tomorrow will be a plea for $ to purchase playaways. I also want to highlight some of the great uses of audio books. I heard Mary Burkey speak at the ALA conference this summer and she was very persuasive! I also have been talking to a parent of a struggling reader and she is very supportive of audiobooks. She's seen first hand how much it has helped her child.

My final bit of procrastination before I ... ok, to be honest, I haven't even STARTED that powerpoint for the PTO yet - some things never change... my final bit of info to share is that my students have been voting this week for their favorite Illinois Monarch Award nominee and Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Award nominee. See photos of their posters and voting (I gotta remember to take more pictures tomorrow when the kids vote) here. It's been neat to go from reading and researching the books myself, discussing the books with teachers this summer, book talking titles to students, purchasing titles for the library, reading books to the younger kids, having kids make posters, and then seeing them vote for the books. Someday I'll have to get involved in the nominating and selection of the books on the list.

No wonder I haven't had time to keep this blog up!