New month--putting ideas to work

In the library, my stats are down compared to next year. I'm not to worried yet...We did have computer problems at the beginning of the year (anyone out there using Follett). Many of my classroom teachers have classroom libraries. Some students are not checking out because they are reading a novel in class, and don't want to get the plots mixed up. Oh, did I mention the library down the street?

The first 20 min of the day are at the descretion of the teacher--so the kids can be doing homework, reading, or __________. SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) is not longer required. To tell you the truth, besides myself and a few other teachers, I don't think SSR (or anyother guided reading activity) was done in every room

Reading levels are down building wide. We are now looking at Lexile levels (AR was put to the side the past several years).

We definitly need every student checking out books. When talking with students in school, I have found that if they do not like to read, they won't. I often hear, "You don't have anything that I like," or "I don't read!" putting books in these hands is getting tough...Now my task for this month is to try and book talk (I do this anyway) to the kids. I'm hoping to "Sell" books through advertising...Maybe a voicethread, or slide presentations, Animoto. If you have other ideas, I look forward to hearing them. Sorry the voicethread and animoto are not linked. I'm trying to make them work.