Smart Librarians

January 24

Every Other Thursday, you’ll get this short, fun, relevant newsletter.  It will contain a quote about the library and those who love it, an idea you can use to promote your library or reading in general, a Common Core implementation idea and occasionally a shameless plug for the programs I offer.  Enjoy!

Quote

“Having fun isn’t hard,
When you’ve got a library card!”

Arthur Read and friends

(see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg516PSgG5I for one minute and 42 seconds that will make you smile!)

Promote (From the “Getting the Work Done” Section of 45 Ideas in 45 Minutes)

With your principal’s permission/support, set aside a morning for admin and PROTECT it. One reason you end up doing so much at home and on the weekends is that you don’t have time during the day to do office and administrative stuff. The reason you don’t have time during the day is that there is no time blocked out on the calendar for that important stuff. It’s part of your job. You should be able to do it at work. It also validates the time you spend doing admin work, because you prioritize it. And if you have it written on your schedule, when a teacher says “Can you come by my classroom and fix the internet?”, you can say, I don’t have an open slot on my calendar this morning. I’ll come by at 1:00.”

Common Core Connection

Did you know that the state of Georgia DOE has now put the Common Core Standards on their website? Check out http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Curriculum-and-Instruction/Pages/CCGPS.aspx for webinars, print resources, videos and much more.  Share this information in bite sized pieces with your teachers or have it ready to share at the point of need and you’ll be a hero!

Shameless Plug

It’s time to start thinking about THE BIG TEST!  Whether your elementary students take the CRCT or the Stanford Achievement Test and the Alabama Reading and Math Test, I have a show for you!  We Can Do This! is a Big Test PREP Rally that gets your kids excited about doing their best on the test AND gives them strategies and tips to help them excel on this important assessment. 

Using interactive media, magic, puppets, and old fashioned question and answer, we look at sample test questions, talk about preparation and strategies for the testing days and discuss the importance of the BIG TEST for your students, teachers, and school.  Admittedly, most of the 45 minute assembly program includes stuff your teachers will tell your students, but there is something about having a magician tell them that really reinforces what they have heard. 

Here’s what some of your colleagues said about I Can Do This!

 
"All of the information was extremely relevant to the CRCT. The strategies were the same ones we have been stressing to our students, but I think it helps to hear it from someone else and in another format."

Carrie McAtee, Mimosa, Elementary School, Roswell, GA

"We just had Tommy Johns perform his CRCT assembly program, 'We Can Do This!' for the entire school and he was great. 'Awesome' was the comment of one of our teachers!

Tommy is very professional and entertaining. He weaves magic and puppets into important messages about preparing and taking the big test and the children loved the program. This is just what our children needed after taking benchmark tests; a positive, upbeat message. Another teacher commented that she really appreciated the fact that the assembly was academically oriented."

Karen Liebert, International Studies Elementary Charter School, Albany, GA

"The students heard from you some of the same things that their teachers have been telling them. I think it's a good reinforcement."

Helen O'Brien, Level Grove Elementary School, Cornelia, GA

 If you are only testing some grades, I can bring a different show for the other students to fill up the half or full day of programming you need. 

Let me know how I can help!

Encouraging kids to read, I am
Tommy Johns
Educational Entertainment Specialist
www.TommyJohnsPresents.com
tommy@tommyjohnspresents.com
Call (770) 640-6509 or Toll Free at (866) 490-READ
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