Welcome Teachers to Your Library Help Page!!!!

Here you will find resources to assist you and your students in using the library to its best advantage. We want to collaborate with you any time that the library figures into your lesson plans. Maximum advantage can be achieved if you will meet with us prior to your arrival. In advance we can pull resources both printed and electronic or show you how to utilize our teaching theater for maximum educational advantage.

BOOKING THE LIBRARY Click here to book the library. Please note that the Teaching Theater requires that you attend an in-service on its use. Your librarians would really like to meet with prior to your bringing students to the library. Often we can show you resources, both printed and audio-visual, that will enhance your students' library time. Contact us!!!

BOOKING AUDIO-VISUAL EQUIPMENT Click here to book audio-visual equipment. Guidelines for booking A/V equipment: *LCD projectors are at a premium. Please do not book more than 3 consecutive days in any one week. *Remember that we have VCR/TVs combos, or VCR/DVD/TV combos, or DVD/TV combos. Please be sure to specify what you want. *Remember that A/V useage is particularly high shortly before holidays and major testing dates. We will not accept bookings more than a month in advance, so please don't book in August for Winter Holiday.

DATABASES FOR TEACHERS Click here for HISD teacher databases. Teachers be aware of two HISD provided databases that will make your life easier: 1. Turn-It-In.com will help you identify plagiarism in your students' submitted work. You will need to contact Debbie Hall at dhall1@houstonisd.org if you wish to use this service. 2. WilsonWeb.com provides access to full length professional journals and other media, a site especially helpful for anyone working on an advanced degree or certification. 3. ABC-Clio is a database providing social studies support. Teachers will need a user name and password to access the teacher functions. See Ms. Albright or Mr. Casteel for needed user name and password.

LIBRARY SERVICES FOR THE TEACHER Your librarians, Janice Albright and Carl Casteel, manage a collection of over 26,000 items. But managing the collection is only a small part of what we do. We are educators as well and want to help you and your students find, evaluate, and manage information. We want to increase reading among all Bellaire's students. Here is a list of offered programs that advance those goals: Research skills: C. Casteel teaches a unit on the "Independent Investigation Method" in which students learn a step-by-step process of attacking a research problem and developing strategies to write the paper. Research skills: C. Casteel teaches a unit on analyzing a website for validity. Introductions to the library: J. Albright and/or C. Casteel will gladly introduce your students to the services available in the library. Databases: No matter what your students or you are looking for, there are one or more databases made available through HISD that will provide information. Let us introduce you to them and how to search efficiently and creatively. Book Talks: Almost monthly new and interesting young adult non-fiction and fiction is published that your students will want to read. Let J. Albright or C. Casteel give brief book talks that highlight the more interesting books available to your students.