This has been quite a month! Students have been busy in the library creating various STEM challenges, getting their pictures taken at our Valentine's Day Photo Booth, Making Valentine's Day cards and working on completing the reading challenge Blind Date With a Book.

You will also notice that many things have been moved around in the library. There is no longer a reference section. The reference books are now part of the regular nonfiction area, with the exception of the reference series books. Those are now housed at the end of the nonfiction area. The Young Adult section has been moved to the tall shelves next to the copier. This creates a separate space for our 7th/8th graders, and is less confusing for our 5th and 6th graders. Teacher books and classroom book sets can now be found at the end of the nonfiction shelves that sit behind the library tables.

Thank you everybody for all your help and support.

Anastasia

The library now has electronic books. They are accessible through our new digital platform, MackinVIA! In addition to housing the ebooks, MackinVIA also holds any of our password protected digital programs.

To see all that MackinVIA can do to help your students click on the video below. To login to MackinVIA, please visit http://www.mackinvia.com, type in Indian Mills and choos Indian Mills Middle School. Next type in your Google username and password.

I have been working with students during Information Literacy to learn how to use this program. Please let me know if you would like me to show you any and all of the things this wonderful program has to offer.

World Read Aloud Day is coming up on February 16! A day when we celebrate reading all around the world. Diane Carr's 5th grade classes will be Skyping in with four amazing authors. Dee Romito, Lauren Magaziner, Sarah Darer Littman, and Katy Kelly. Mrs. Carr's 2nd period class will also be Skyping with a Kindergarten class in Athens, Georgia to share a fantastic book together. During the 5th grade Lab Period the fifth graders will be participating in read alouds throughout some of the 5th grade classrooms and the library. Skyping is a great way to make global connections and giving students a voice in their learning/education.

World Read Aloud Day Flyer

Next week I will begin sending out my new blog "Tech Tool of the Week" This will be a blog with helpful tutorials for using 21st century tech tools and gadgets. Of course online tutorials never fully substitute face-to-face tutorials, so I will make myself available several Mondays a month after school if any of you would like to see the programs in action. Please look for the new information on all of this early next week.

This newsletter was created and designed by Anastasia Hanneken using Smore.