Library Lions Roars for seven years of posts featuring outstanding youth librarians in schools and public libraries! Thanks to each and every one of you for your commitment to excellence in education and your stand for literacy. Let’s welcome this month’s guest kicking off the new year.

Hi, I’m Judy Patneaude, teacher-librarian at Leota Middle School in Woodinville (Northshore School District). We serve about 900 students from 6th grade through 8th grade. I’m honored to be a Leota Lion and help students to find their next great book!

I love interacting with kids, and helping them see the library as a place they can come and share the book that they’re reading, tell me about the last book they read or just tell me what they did over the weekend. I want all students to have the skills they need to be successful at navigating the digital world. Leota library is a place where we want all kids to feel welcome and find their home.

 

A Mighty Roar!
We circulate TONS of books. Being able to offer students what is fun, exciting and NEW is one of the ways to keep the thrill of books alive. Leota participates in the Evergreen Teen Book Award (grades 7 & 8) and the Young Reader’s Choice Award (6th grade) programs. We start the year off with watching video book trailers for each of the titles. This generates a lot of interest. Kids put the books on hold and they circulate all year, and the buzz for these titles keeps excitement high. We’re open before school and at lunch for kids to come in and find their next best book.

We receive money not only from our district and building to buy books, but our fabulous Leota PTSA grants us money every year, and our ASB also provides us money to purchase books. This year we also received a grant with the help of a Leota student from Northshore Schools Foundation With our whole community holding books and reading in high esteem, the pay-off for our students is big!

Library Laughs
One of my more fun moments from this year is when I was talking to a new 6th-grade student. He was telling me about his favorite book. He starts telling me the story with lots of excitement. As he goes on, I can tell exactly what book he is describing. I start walking him over the section where the book is shelved – and I ask him is this the book? Someone Was Watching is the book he was talking about. I hold out my name tag and ask him if he recognizes the name. He looks at the book – and then at my name tag – and yells out “Do you know David Patneaude?” I said, “Yes, I do – He is my husband!” I was an instant hit!

A Lion’s Pride of Programs
We run all students through two digital citizenship lessons using Common Sense Media. Students are exposed to topics such as understanding their digital footprint now and in the future, learning how technology affects your body and your mind, dealing with cyberbullying and evaluating free web sources for credibility.

In Northshore, we as librarians work together to plan, assess, and improve our curriculum. We have support at the district level, which makes a big difference. Being able to build on our collective knowledge helps ALL of our kids.

We also have a Maker Space station where students have the opportunity to put a puzzle together, or color bookmarks, or work on any of several different building activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the big favorites is designing with
duct tape.

 

 

 

 

Readers Roar

Library Links   Leota Library Website

Thanks so much for Roaring in the year for us and for giving us a close look at your bustling middle-school library at Leota Middle School, Judy P.

Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Email Janet via the Contact page on this website to set up an interview.
Note to Authors: If you’re interested in Roaring for Libraries on this blog, contact Janet.