Volunteering at the Roseland Library/Bookstore

I am very excited to be a part of all the great things going on in the Roseland community by volunteering with Ms. Katrina in the Roseland Library/Bookstore this year. As a school librarian and former reading teacher, I know how important it is that kids have access to books (and lots of them!) in order to improve literacy at all levels. Therefore it is really exciting to have a place in the community where kids, parents, and families can come to read, enjoy, and even buy books.

Ms. Katrina did a great job last year of building rapport with a lot of kids and has made the library a welcoming place to visit! Ms. Katrina also has a lot of creative ideas on how to get the kids more engaged with reading and literacy. For example, she is doing "Map Mondays" in which they will focus on exploring different places on the map around the world. The first week's focus was "Texas" so the kids read books about the state of Texas, learned songs like "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and created a book about Texas (shaped like Texas) as well as a Texas flag. Katrina already has other neat ideas in the works that hopefully you'll be reading more about in the weeks to come.

I'm also looking forward to doing a book club with the MTU boys on Thursdays. We will be reading the spinetingling and interactive novel called Skeleton Creek. Katrina and I will also be doing a girls' book club on Wednesdays in which we will be reading Money Hungry by Sharon Flake.

One thing I have learned as a teacher and librarian is that most kids start out by just thinking they don't like reading. But I have discovered that almost all kids are voracious readers when they are connected to just the right book! I look forward to seeing these "aha!" moments over and over this year!

By: Rachel Embry