Library and Lab - John Muir Elementary

Muir Library and Computer Lab

2009-2010 Upcoming Library/Lab Events

Our first RIF book giveaway will occur in the library on December 16. Every student in the school will get one free brand new book to take home and keep. These books come from the generosity of our wonderful PTA and the Federal government. So thank you PTA and President Obama!

Our in school playoff for the Global Reading Challenge will take place on February 24 at 1:30 PM in the lunchroom. All are welcome to attend. The one winning team from John Muir will then advance to the semi finals which are held at the downtown Seattle Public library.

Library News

GLOBAL READING CHALLENGE

The titles for the 2009-2010 Global Reading Challenge will be announced on November 5th. It's a good idea to start forming your teams now. Remember each team has to have 7 members which includes the Captain and Alternate. We will be able to have up to 10 teams this year! The Global Reading Challenge is only open to 4th and 5th graders.

Congratulations to Muir's Roaring Readers! They placed 3rd out of hundreds of teams in the final International Global Reading Challenge competition. Arissa Lee, Cindy Luong, Alexis Simmons, Sophia Boyd-Fliegel, Vivian Tat, Elise Van Deventer, and Becky Keomany YOU ROCK! YOU ROLL! The Roaring Readers have SOUL! Keep your eyez on the prize for 2010!

Missing/Lost Books?

Remember to take responsibility and talk to me about your missing/lost books! You will need to either pay for them or make a partial payment or otherwise replace the missing item. If you don't take care of this then unfortunately we will need to hold your report cards until you do. Remember part of being a STAR is Acting Responsibly!

RAMW Read A Million Words The idea is a simple one – to challenge our students to read a million words per year, and to encourage reading for pleasure. R esearch indicates a good way to increase student achievement is to encourage reading. The more children read, the easier reading becomes. The practice of reading helps people of all ages to learn about the world and helps create better readers. All types of reading encouraged, including newspapers, magazines, books, websites, and digital text.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKS

Book Donation and other Thank yous...

Jake Hull, Room 8 donated 2 copies of the book My Japan by Etsuko Watanabe in loving memory of his Jiji. Jake's grandfather passed away this summer, but his memory will always be with us in these beautiful books about Japan. Thank you very much Jake.

Lucy Kerr and Annie Dinh, Room 6, are morning library helpers. They log in the circ desk computer, turn on the computers in the lab, check books in, and generally staff the library during morning recess. Thank you Lucy and Annie!

Carolyn Miyake-Hull, mom of Jake, Room 8 has courageously returned for a 2nd year of putting up with me and helping out in the back room. She is joined this year by a new volunteer, Jeannie Wong, mom of Isabella, Room 2 . Jeannie works a night shift at Harborview and says she doesn't really need to sleep. These are wonderful people!

Also helping out this year with the Kindergarten classes in the library and lab are: Jeannie Wong (again), Alison Fenzl (Soren's mom), Julie Shryock (Mack's grandma), and Cheryl Lee (Amir Brown's grandma). Thanks to all of you.

Lucy Zajonc, Room 17, continues to be a major supporter of the Muir Library. At this point I am losing track of all the books she had donated! Thank you Lucy!

Noel Treat, the mom of Anna in Room 2 and Sam (hi Sam) donated the following titles from our Muir Wish List on Amazon.com: Five Little Gelfiltes, Shlemazel And the Remarkable Spoon of Ponost, and two titles from the Secrets of Droon series: The Great Ice Battle and The Sleeping Giant of Goll

Our wonderful and humble Librarian (Me, Me, Me!) has donated: A Penguin Story, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Sophistacated Ladies: The Great Woman of Jazz, Larry Gets Lost in Seattle, and Seattle ABC. Feel free to give him a pat on the back! (Just not too hard.)

Jim Peterson, who is also our RIF Coordinator, donated Lois Lowry's new picture book, Crow Call.

Thank you, Jim!

Circulation Statistics

During the 2009 - 2010 school year we circulated:

September: 1,236
October: 1,663
November: 651
December:
January:
February:
March:
April:
May:
June:

2009-2010 Year to date: 3,550

2009: 12,955
2008: 12,284
2007: 14,665
2006: 13,615
2005: 13,928
2004: 12,447
2003: 12,046

2009 we lost 129 books

The Wall of Fame (The Top Circulators!)

Individuals: Ms. Scott, Ms. Oldham, TyeJohn Ward (room 17), Shelton Wright (room 23)

Classrooms: Room 23 Ms. Autrey's 5th grade

My Current Favorite Books:

Mission Statement

The mission of the Muir Library and Computer Program is to create a warm, welcoming environment where students are empowered to become lifelong learners, lovers of the written word, and effective users of ideas, information, and technology.

Three Roles of the Librarian

Librarians in the Seattle School District:

Teach Information Literacy
Promote Literacy and Advocate Reading
Manage Information by providing appropriate information resources to students, teachers, administrators, and parents

Libraries and Student Achievement

A substantial body of research since 1990 shows a positive relationship between school libraries and student achievement. Fourteen unique state research studies validated that a school library program that is adequately staffed, resourced, and funded can lead to higher student achievement regardless of the socio-economic or educational levels of the community. To read more about the research linking school libraries and academic achievement:

Library Programs Promoting Literacy

Read A Million Words (RAMW): The idea is a simple one – to challenge our students to read a million words per year, and to encourage reading for pleasure. Research indicates a good way to increase student achievement is to encourage reading. The more children read, the easier reading becomes. The practice of reading helps people of all ages to learn about the world and helps create better readers. All types of reading encouraged, including newspapers, magazines, books, websites, and digital text.

The program objectives include the following key points:
-To help students develop the habits of good readers
-To create excitement about reading everyday
-To support students in becoming proficient readers
-To increase academic achievement for all students

RIF, Reading Is Fundamental: In conjunction with our PTA and a grant from the Federal government we give every student at John Muir a free book of their choice and we do this 3 times each year. We have parents who run the RIF program. They order the books and help staff the book giveaways. This is a very fun way to put in some volunteer hours and support the library and school and each and every student. "A book in hand is worth two in the bush!"

Our 2009-2010 RIF Parent Team includes: Jim Peterson; and Lynn Van Deventer.(Thank You!)

Global Reading Challenge: In conjunction with the Seattle Public Library 4th and 5th graders are encouraged to participate in the Challenge which involves teams of 7 students working together so that the team (as a group) will have read each of the 10 Global Reading Challenge books. They then compete against other teams in the District and from Michigan and Canada in a Game answering questions about the books!

Poem of the Week: Most every Wednesday at approximately 9:30 the Librarian and/or selected students get on the PA system and reads poems to the entire school. The poems are selected from student submissions and from traditional and modern classics. Most month's poems are selected in accordance with various seasonal themes and/or historical celebrations.

Student Poet/Readers 2009-2010

October 21, 2009: Indigo Williams, Room 6; Elise Simmons, Room 20.

October 28, 2009: Room 17 Students Susana Davidson, Princess Davis, Aaron Kern, Chardai Thomas performed the Witches speech from Shakespeare's Macbeth.

November 3, 2009: Kameko Davis, Room 6; Mason Ott, Room 10; Tia Little, Room 21; Iyana DaSilva, Room 20; Nghi Quan, Room 15.

Resources

7,259 Titles
14,047 Copies
An average monthly circulation of 1,500 volumes.
3 Print encyclopedias at two grade levels.
Subscriptions to 13 Periodical Magazines.
10 Computers with access to the Online Catalogue, the Internet and Microsoft Office applications.
25 Computer with the same access as above in the lab just adjacent to the library.

Donate Now!

Feeling flush? (Who isn't these days!) I would like to get several Amazon Kindles for the library for student use.

Computer Lab

Historic Overview:

In the summer of 2004 the Muir computer lab was added to the Seattle Schools domain. The original lab was donated by Powerful Schools, but now is the property of Muir and Seattle Schools.

Being part of the Seattle Schools domain, the computers (and students) are protected online by the Seattle Schools effective internet filter system.

In addition student work can be saved on the Muir school server; students can open, view, and work on their documents in their classrooms, in the library, and in the lab!

In the fall of 2007 the original lab computers were all replaced with 25 new Dell Optiplex 740's. They have AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 3800+ Processors and 2 Ghz of RAM.

Current Needs:

Feeling Generous?

We need computer cleaning supplies like: canned air, and cleaning wipes for the monitors and keyboards.

We also need the plastic cable ties that are used in computer cord management.

Would you like to sponsor a pilot program that allows students to check out Amazon Kindles for use both at home and in their classrooms? I WANT to talk to you! :-)

Librarian Contact Information

Steve Marsh, Librarian
John Muir Elementary School (CR-256)
3301 South Horton Street
Seattle, WA 98144

206 252-7410 tel
206 252-7401 fax
smarsh@seattleschools.org
http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/muir

Last update: November 20, 2009