I was thrilled to find out that I was a finalist for our state's Teacher of the Year award. I believe that I am the first librarian to ever receive this recognition in South Carolina. I'm so proud to represent school librarians and all teachers. Part of the competition is to have a lesson recorded for five minutes and a panel watches and asks questions about the lesson before judging. I knew exactly which lesson I wanted to have them visit to record. One of our SC YABA nominees is Glow by Megan Bryant. This book is about a girl who buys an antique painting at a thrift store. When she gets it h ..read more

This year our book club participated in several literacy service projects. Our Books and Barbers program gave away hair cut coupons and books for the first day of school. Our Books and Braids with Spearman Elementary went really well. Our students visit the afterschool program students, read to them, and braid hair or paint nails. For midterms and finals I invited the SC Dog Therapy Group to our school. It was a huge hit and fun stress reliever. We were so proud to give over 25 bags with new pajamas and a book for students in our area in need. This was our first annual Bedtime Story Pajama ..read more

This year some of my favorite reading promotions has been: 1. Unwrap Your Next Read I created a Google Form with reading interest questions for our faculty and staff. Anyone that wanted to participate could take the survey and I would choose a book for them based on their answers. Then I'd wrap the book up for the winter holidays. They could take it home for the break and return it with a short review for a book display. 2. Skype visits. This year our Forensics class read Blood, Bullets, and Bones and Skyped with Bridget Heos. Our book club Skyped with Megan Miranda for The Safest Lies, Kati ..read more

I have had the pleasure of serving as our district Teacher of the Year this year. That comes with many perks and responsibilities. One of the perks was attending the SC Teacher Forum in November. This was a great opportunity for us to network with teachers from all over the state, hone our leadership skills, and learn about the State Teacher of the Year process. My favorite part was the friends I made in those few days. I was also excited to hear from our current State TOY, our State Superintendent of Education, and the National TOY, Mandy Manning. I was thrilled to find out that I was a recip ..read more