Growing Vegetable Soup!

Did you know that God was a gardener? Genesis 1:29 "Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." and Genesis 2:8-9 "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food."

Today in library Miss Shrader talked with the preschool students about how God planned the seeds to grow up to look just like their parents! Miss Shrader dressed up like she had been gardening, and showed the students her gardening tools. The class talked about all of the things that are needed for seeds to grow up to be fruits and vegetables. She read the story Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert, and then showed the children vegetables that were featured in the story. Afterwards, the students enjoyed smelling and feeling the different kinds of vegetables.

Library Media Center Changes!

I deeply apologize for not updating my blog sooner. As some of you know I had a very bad case of pneumonia last spring and was close to death. I thank the Lord that I was spared! It took several months for me to fully recover from my illness, and then I got right to work with a huge project that most of you have heard about, combining the two library media centers into one!

What a huge project combining the two library media centers and making just one LMC has been. I started the day after school was over for students, and didn't finish until one week before the teachers had to return. Whew! Just made it. Along the way I had a lot of help from my super-duper LMC volunteer Mrs. Peggy Benton. My lovely daughters were reluctantly helpful, but I couldn't have done it without them. And a huge shout out to Jeff Hoffman, First Assembly of God Maintenance Director, and his crew that helped me to get the big stuff moved, everything painted, hung and looking pretty. I still have some small stuff that needs finishing, labels, direction signage, etc. But the place really does look great. Here are some of the changes:



All of the reading area is in the main part of the LMC now.












The circulation desk from the middle school was moved over. This desk is smaller and more appropriate for the elementary students that use the LMC the majority of the time.






All of the chapter books and nonfiction books are in the main section of the LMC.

The storybook corner has been moved to the new reading room, that is for the younger elementary children.

All of the books for our youngest readers are in the reading room, along with the storybook corner. The little ones just love their new space!

Library or Media Center

What do you call it, library or media center? When I was growing up, there was no such thing as a media center. Our school had a library. There were books, magazines, newspapers and a card catalog to find it all. Strictly paper and ink, as far as the eye could see.

Then technology began to change. More than printed media was available to library patrons, and eventually even the beloved card catalog became a memory. And with that change in libraries, came a change in the name. School libraries decided (without even asking my opinion) to call themselves Media Centers, and librarians were now Media Specialists.

When I came to Fort Myers Christian School in 1987, there wasn't much of a library, just a few hundred old books from what used to be the church library, and not a card catalog in sight. I had just finished my degree in library and information science, and some of my instructors were so old, that they remembered having to take special classes to learn the proper penmanship to hand write a card in the card catalog (I'm so happy we had typewriters by the time I got my degree.) So, even though it was becoming the trend to call a school library a media center, I chose to be old fashioned. I was a librarian, and this was my library.

I pretty much continued in that mind set until one day a freshman at Fort Myers High who had graduated from our school came back to see me. I had seen the library at Fort Myers High; it was impressive compared to what we had back then. So, I asked her if she had been to the library yet. She said that she had not, but that she would check it out and report back to me. A week later I saw her again, and again I asked her if she had seen the library. She said that she hadn't seen it yet because she didn't know where it was. However, she saw signs in the hallway for the Media Center, and she thought the library might be close to the media center.

Part of me wanted to giggle, because they are the same thing, but a bigger part of me was ashamed that one of our students didn't know that they are the same, because I never taught her that they were the same. Well, that was the end of that. Starting that school year, I started calling our library the Library Media Center, and I (much to my own chagrin) had my name tag changed from Miss Shrader, Librarian, to Miss Shrader, Media Specialist.

So what do you call it?

Mrs. Peggy Benton

Did you ever wonder why the library media center, especially the elementary library media center, always looks so neat and tidy and well decorated? Three words, "Mrs. Peggy Benton."

Mrs. Benton, a retired teacher, has volunteered at both of our media centers for many years. Every morning, Mrs. Benton comes in an puts away books that have been returned by students, many times that's over a hundred books in a day! And, I hate to break it to you parents out there, but our students are not always the tidiest of people, so Mrs. Benton spends a lot of her time putting fallen books back where they belong, and straightening the shelves to make them look nice and orderly. She also takes it upon herself to change the decorations in both media centers to keep in the spirit of whatever season we happen to be in.

One day, Mrs. Benton decided that the middle school media center wasn't being used enough by our students. She said, "Its just a shame to see all of those wonderful books just sitting there and not getting used." So early this school year, Mrs. Benton began opening middle school library media center three mornings a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m.-8:30, so that middle school students may check out books before their school day begins. Well, that would be enough volunteering for most people, but not for Mrs. Benton. When she leaves the media center, she works with some first grade students as directed by those teachers, and also spends hours a week making copies in the copy room for several teachers, and sometimes when she is done with all of that, she returns to the media center to finish putting away books!

So, let it be known, yes I am the media specialist, and I do work very hard in the media center, but I really couldn't keep the place looking so fantastic if it weren't for the efforts of Mrs. Benton. So, thank you Mrs. Peggy Benton. Thank you for your love, devotion and hard work for our school. I really don't know what I would do without you.