Football season is back! This means it is time to kick off our Monday Morning Quarterback! What is MMQB? This is a chance for us to invite students to the media center who may otherwise be reluctant to visit the media center using the excitement of football. The number of students you invite is at your discretion, however, you want to have a manageable group with which to work. This activity is designed to meet with students before their school day officially begins. For example, if your school doors open at 7:30 and instruction begins at 8am, students can join MMQB for 30 minutes before reporting to their homeroom class.

The idea is to expose students to the reference tools available to them through My Backpack as they answer questions about the upcoming Atlanta Falcons' football game. The questions range from city population, location and historical facts about the cities to many more topics. This is ideal for students in grades 3 -12. Reading maps, diagrams, statistics and factual information is being reinforced with this activity.

Materials needed are: MMQB question sheet, MMQB answer sheet (for facilitator), pencils, access to MyBackpack.

Be sure to take pictures, post them on Twitter and tag @apsmediaserv and #MMQB.

The first game is on Thursday, September 6 as the Atlanta Falcons take on the Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!). You may choose to have a dry run of MMQB before this game (as we will not be in school this Monday) or you can simply begin with the 2nd game as the Falcons take on the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, September 16 at home.

The expected level of performance is for the school library media specialist to consistently serve on decision making teams in the school, provide professional learning and contribute to a shared vision of teaching and learning that leads to school improvement.

Are you on your school's leadership team? Are you a member of your school's GO Team? These are teams in which media specialists are encouraged to join. Perhaps you are not able to join either of these teams. This does not diminish your leadership role. As a school leader, you are leading from the middle. This means you know the pulse of the school. You know what leadership expects as well as what teachers need to ensure the success of their students.

How can you lead from the middle? You can provide training sessions during faculty meetings or in small group settings (think grade level meetings or after school). What kind of training can you provide? You are able to share AR initiatives, how to pull AR reports, website training, Biblionasium training, MyOn training, My Backpack resources and many more. We, as media specialists, are well versed in what is available to teachers and students in APS. Do you need a refresher on any of this information? Contact your ETS (educational technology specialist) or Media Specialist At-Large (Jennifer Saunders) to help you prepare for a training session.

The Milner Award and the Fulton County Library System team is proud to announce the 2018 winner of the Milner Award will be (drumroll please) ………….

Christopher Paul Curtis, Newbery Medalist, is the author of The Journey of Little Charlie, BUD, not BUDDY and The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963. Mr. Curtis will visit us at the Rialto Theater in downtown Atlanta for two special programs on Tuesday, October 2nd.

As you will remember, we made a few of small changes last year to help ease the challenges of the transition from 1st to 2nd programs. We will continue with this new format in 2018. We will once again have TWO PROGRAMS, the first will be at 10 a.m. and the second will be at 12 p.m. This allows us a full hour between shows to help students exit to their buses safely and allow students to enter the theater safely. Due to transportation limitations around departure times, we will have all Fulton County Schools take part in the 10 a.m. program and all Atlanta Public Schools take part in the 12 p.m. program. All private and charter schools will have the option of joining either program.

To sign up to attend the program, as in years past, priority will be given to voting schools first. We would like to include as many schools as possible, so please refrain from signing up multiple grade levels or entire schools when registering to attend. Please contact Claudia Strange via email at Claudia.Strange@fultoncountyga.gov to register your group. Please include your school name, number of students you wish to bring to the event, cell phone number, and session you would like to attend. If you are a Fulton County or APS school, please indicate that in your message so we will know where to place you.

We will once again partner with Little Shop of Stories to order autographed books for students. Once we have the final books selected and an order form, we will send it right out to all of you!

THANK YOU for being a part of the Milner Award. We hope you’ll enjoy another exciting program with us and that you will encourage your students to vote throughout the school year for the 2019 Milner Award winner. If you have not had the opportunity, please take a moment to like us on social media and visit the website for more information and resources (we are currently updating both with the current author information and hope to have everything up and running next week). We look forward to seeing you in October.

Biblionasium is an exciting tool to use with our students as we build a culture of literacy. As we continue to move to seamless integration with this program, please send all instances of concerns (i.e. missing teachers, missing students, etc.) to Patrice.

The training videos for Biblionasium can be found in our Google Drive.

Have you kicked off your AR incentive program? Are you monitoring books read, words read or points earned? Here's an idea from Tommy Johns: If you are monitoring words read, you can have a million words challenge! Here's a template to use as a reward when a child has read one million words! You can access the number of words read through Renaissance Place reports. Imagine how excited your students will be to see their face on a million dollar bill!

Thanks to those who paid your sunshine dues, however, we are still missing a few of you!! If by chance you forgot, it is not too late. You may pay by check or cash APP. Your dues are needed for the continued success of activities (Media kick-off Luncheon, birthdays, retirement, Librarian Week, etc.) and for us showing a little “Sunshine” for each other

Dues may be paid by:

· Cash

· Check payable to: APS Media Courtesy Fund

· CASH App : $drbrucewilliams

If you need to drop in school mail, send to: Dr. Bruce Williams

BEST Academy

Media Center

Patrice Laird-Walker, Ed.S

Media Services Coordinator

Jennifer Saunders, Ed.S

Media Specialist At-Large

Click here to request support

Email: plwalker@atlanta.k12.ga.us
Website: https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/library-media-services
Location: 130 Trinity Avenue Southwest, Atlanta, GA, USA
Twitter: @APSMediaserv