Join Us Next Week For Our Follett Content Webinar On June 17th...Weed, Order, Refresh: School Library Collection Development For Fall!

Friends, I would love to invite you to our upcoming Follett Content webinar next week on June 17th, Weed, Order, Refresh: School Library Collection Development For Fall. 

As shared online, 

While the hallways are quiet, join Shannon McClintock Miller for a hands-on webinar designed to help you audit your collection, make confident weeding decisions, and build an ordering strategy that sets students and teachers up for success on day one.

This year, Shannon isn't just teaching it, she's living it. As she moves her library into a brand-new space, she's bringing real-time, firsthand experience to every strategy she shares.

You can register here for our webinar.  

Summer is your season, school librarians! We can't wait to see you there on June 17th.

Many Faces, One Community: A Collaborative Mural Where Every Story and Voice Matters!

 

I love dreaming up new ways that our community can connect. 

When I saw this idea for creating a community mural of our faces, I knew we had to do this at our school to kick off the year. 

Like in this video, I wanted to create a big mural for all of our students and teachers to have a place to share a tiny self portrait of themselves...a place to make their mark. 

Today, I created a giant mural in Canva.  I made it 36 x 75 inches.  I will print three of them to have room for all of our students and teachers.  

I made one that said, Many Faces, One Community.  Every Students. Every Story, Every Voice Matters.

And one for Dot Day, which is September 15ish every year.  

You will find the Canva template here where you can use or make a copy to adjust for you and your community. 

I can't wait to do this with our community as we kick off a new year, and a new library, Makerspace, STEM and art room in the fall. It's going to be such a special collaborative project and one that our everyone will love.

Read For Change With The Chispa Project and Help Fund a Children's Library In Honduras, Friends

Friends, I have a very special organization to share with you. It is called the Chispa Project. 

Earlier this week I met with two amazing people from the Chispa Project to learn more and see how I can help support this amazing organization. In fact, we can all get involved in Read for Change that is happening this month in June.  

I asked them to share more about Honduras and the Chispa Project so I can share with all of you. 

Books in Honduras:

Honduras is a book desert. Public libraries are virtually nonexistent, and books cost between $20–30, nearly a week’s wages for many families. This cost prohibits most households, communities, and public schools from owning a single book and profoundly impacts kids’ futures.

About Chispa Project: 

Chispa Project is a grassroots literacy initiative in Honduras deeply rooted in the belief that books change the story. We spark joy around reading, inspiring children to become lifelong readers and learners.
To address the immense need for books in Honduras, we create school libraries, designing an inviting, exploratory space filled with captivating book collections — often the children’s first experience reading for pleasure. We equip teachers and parents with research-backed strategies to develop reading habits. And, we provide two years of hands-on support so schools can fully embrace a culture of reading. This community-first approach ensures Chispa libraries are used, loved, and sustained by those they serve. 

Learn more about our work at: www.chispaproject.org

Read for Change:

This year, we’re celebrating 10 years of creating libraries across Honduras! In this time, we’ve worked with over 125 schools, but we have over 700 requesting a library of their own. 

In the spirit of celebrating our 10 years of impact we created Read for Change, an initiative where you can help us create our next children's library, just by reading! 

From June 1 - 30, every minute you read with Chispa Project will unlock 25¢ of sponsor support. With your support, we will give 601 kids in Honduras a vibrant new library with over 1,200 books this July! 

We’re on our way to our goal, but it isn’t too late to sign up. 

Register at www.chispaproject.org/read to read with us and bring our next library to life!

You can find out more about the Chispa Project here. My family and I are very excited to get involved in supporting children, families, and libraries in Honduras. We hope that you will too, friends.