encouraging students to become competent 21st Century learners
This is the first episode of the St. Philip the Apostle School Social Studies Podcast. While listening please note that issues with recording and editing have been left in place, in subsequent episodes many mistakes will be edited out. The first episode was used as a tool to show the students who are participating what... Continue Reading →
Over the next few months I'm going to be putting together book talks for all grades. I've been wanting to do these for awhile but couldn't quite figure out the format I wanted to present them in. Until I came across Mrs. ReaderPants' booktalks. She uses Prezi and book trailers to explain the books. I... Continue Reading →
It's almost Halloween and that means it's almost time to dress up as something you've always wanted to be or wish you could be. I love coming up with creative costumes and this year thought it would be fun to try my hand at making some literary costume ideas! I picked some of the more... Continue Reading →
We are getting ready to place some book orders and we want to know what books you would like to have in the library. If you are a St. Philips student please fill out this form as many times as you like with book suggestions!
The Jr. High students have been asking about our new Go Pro so we set it up and tried it out for the first time!
Welcome back everyone. I am so excited to start this school year and I'm sure you can guess why. In thinking about what to write for this first blog post I kept remember all the changes I have seen at St. Philip's. If you didn't know I am a former student and have always felt... Continue Reading →
Last year I had quite a few students telling me that they were going to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. This year I haven't heard from anyone that they are going! If you are going come by and tell me. I'd love to hear what authors you plan on seeing! If you were... Continue Reading →
Because I teach K-5 library classes I focus on the Caldecott Medal and mention the Newberry to my older students. It's not that the other awards aren't for my students it's just that it is easy to hold a Mock Caldecott for all the ages that go through my library. The day I can figure... Continue Reading →
The results are in! St. Philip's students have spent the past month voting for the Mock Caldecott. You can read about the books they read and critiqued here. All in all I'd say we had a lot of fun. This is the second year we have held a Mock Caldecott and I am starting to... Continue Reading →
It's really cool when you think about how a book is illustrated. Sometimes the illustrator is the author of the book but other times an author writes a book, submits it to their publisher who then matches them up with an illustrator. The Illustrator is chosen because their work fits with the mood and theme... Continue Reading →
It is time for our now Annual Mock Caldecott! We had so much fun last year that we are doing it again. I'm still a teeny bit sad Mr. Tiger Goes Wild didn't win last year but have started to appreciate Locomotive's merits and can see why the Caldecott committee chose it. This year we have... Continue Reading →
The School Library Journal came out with their list of best books from 2014. They look at Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Nonfiction book that have received stared reviews and narrow it down from there. In the end they selected 70 books out of the 250 stared books. "These 70 books distinguish themselves... Continue Reading →
The Falcon's Fables 