Help my school and Kwame Alexander build a library in Ghana!

www.leapforghana.org

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hogwarts! 

For Spring Break this year we took a trip down to Universal Orlando to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Here are some pictures from the trip!  Spring Break (the week before or after Easter Sunday) is usually insanely crowded but if you stay at an onsite property at Universal, you get the perk of being able to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour before the park opens. It was worth it. 

Diagon Alley

Hogwarts Express

Selecting a wand! 

Fundraising for a Library in Ghana with Kwame Alexander

So.... here's a little update on what I have been up to:

I opened a high school library at a brand new high school this year. I have been busy, but I went to the NOVA Teen Book Fest this weekend and felt inspired to get back into blogging and revamp my social media a bit. I've been tweeting actively, especially since I published another SLJ article in December and have been following a bunch of new YA authors in addition to the middle grade authors I used to follow as a middle school librarian.

Here is something kind of cool that I have been working on. Back in January, the 2015 Newbery award winning author, Kwame Alexander,  visited my high school for a school wide visit. It was fantastic! When it was over he mentioned he was trying to raise some money to open a library in a village in Ghana so I offered our help. His publishers donated 1000 of his books to this project (LEAP for Ghana) which he has signed, and now our students are selling the books to our community in an effort to raise money for his project.

Here is some more info from my school website. If you are interested in helping us, please reach out. Thanks!

Another SLJ Article. :)

Trying to get back into blogging.

Here is an article that was published back in December for SLJ about author visits. It was titled "Six Things that Made my Patrick Ness Author Visit a Knockout Success."

School Library Journal Leadership Summit

So thrilled to be back from the School Library Journal Leadership Summit. I was invited to speak there and gave a 15 minute presentation on my Feed and Read for South Sudan project. 

Above are a couple shots of me presenting as well as a picture of me with author Patricia Polacco. 

Here are some scenes and resources from the summit.

Here is a link to my presentation from the Summit. 

SLJ Article - Teaching in the Cloud

I am back! Another article for SLJ - this time on how librarians can support teaching in the cloud.  

I love writing for them. I will be speaking at the SLJ Leadership Summit about my Feed and Read for Sudan Project. 

Featured in Author Eugenia Sozzi's Blog

One of my talented teacher colleagues, Eugenia Sozzi, is also children's book writer.  This month I was featured in the website portion of her blog! In this interview, I discuss how libraries can help and inspire students to work for social justice. Please check it out. 

Please check out this incredible author and her super cute website. Thanks Eugenia!