Lessons on Library Rules

In week 1, I tried to think of a fun vehicle for delivering the rules message, but in week 2, I wanted to actually make sure that the message had gotten across.

Regardless of which video students watched (Pigeon for K-1, Despicable Me for 2-5), we started off class reviewing some of the rules that had been featured. Students did a great job remembering what we had talked about, even a week later.

But how to really reinforce the message? I devised games for the older classes, and continued with read-alouds for the younger grades.

Kindergartners heard an adorable book, Read it, Don't Eat It, by Ian Schoenherr. It's a simple story, but offers lots of natural pauses for students to understand the rule and talk about why it is important in the library. Bonus: HarperCollins provided several reproducible extension activities. We worked on the matching worksheet together, using my document scanner.

1st Grade heard Shelf Elf, a library classic by Jackie Mims Hopkins. We practiced using shelf markers, and being good library helpers when we are browsing for books. 1st graders got their first chance to check out books, which they were very excited about.

2nd and 3rd Grades demonstrated their knowledge of library rules and book care with a game of library bingo (loved this site for helping me create customized bingo sheets for free!)

4th and 5th Grades played Library Jeopardy! Each class was grouped in 4 teams and they were able to work through all the clues to show that they had paid attention last week. Some students were a smidge more competitive than others, but everyone seemed to get into it. Was grateful to the folks over at Elementary Librarian (this has certainly been a useful subscription thus far) for the idea, which I was able to tweak to fit my library's needs.

Play at home and test your knowledge!

FALL into a good book

It's not feeling too much like fall yet in New England, but I still love looking at the display my 4th and 5th grade students helped create during their first week of library class this year. I supplied the tree, and they added leaves with their book recommendations on them. Students often head to this area after they've checked out their books, so hopefully some of the suggestions will inspire a new book check out!

A New School Year Begins...

It was a busy first week in the Loker Library!

Kindergartners visited with a familiar feathered friend and watched a funny spoof on a favorite story. The video helped open up discussions on how we should take care of our library books.

1st Grade read Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. This story helped introduce some of our library rules (and let them have a ROARING good time).

2nd - 5th Grades had some despicable help remembering our library rules. We brainstormed what they liked about library class year and what they hope to do in library this year. Younger grades played Library Rules Bingo to reinforce what they saw in the video, and older grades visited a number of stations to get them back into the library state of mind. 

Drumroll, please...

It's been a while since my I updated my blog, but the big news is that I am now a certified school librarian! After finishing my practicum last fall, and then my LAST class in the spring, I began my search for jobs, and ended up landing an awesome role at the Loker School in Wayland.

As part of my new role, I wanted to create a blog to share what's happening in my library and wrestled with whether or not to resurrect this one, or start anew.

Ultimately, I think the blog title still holds. Being a school librarian (or any type of teacher, for that matter), is a constant work in progress. There is always some element of "becoming" as you hone your craft and find new ways to reach your students. Especially through my experience of being an older student, I hope that I'll always aspire to keep on learning and becoming the best LMS I can be.

Pre-Practicum Musings: Final Visit

This week was my last pre-practicum visit. From a skills perspective, it was a little more on the administration side. The good news of the art show from a few weeks ago is that many new books were donated to the library. The bad news? The books need to be processed. But I'm a pro at this by now, so printing the book plates, adding the new books to the catalog and shelving them were no big deal.

It's always interesting to see which books people selected to donate - in a sign of the times, this book was one of the first to be selected which I was pleasantly surprised to see. When I was getting the books ready for display during my last shift, I hesitated for a minute because you never know what is going to offend some people, but I am glad that my hesitation was unwarranted (it helps that I live in MA, I suppose!).

I did have a chance for a couple of philosophical conversations that helped tie together some of the things we have discussed in my class throughout the semester:

Pre-Practicum Musings: Penultimate Post

The home stretch is near...only one more pre-practicum session until I have completed my hours.

Today's work centered mostly on a district-wide art show that is held at the Middle School. All students, from pre-K up to HS have the opportunity to have their work displayed. And...the middle school library has a large table to solicit book donations from those who attend the art show. It is a lovely event and very well attended by all sorts of members of the community.

My job today was to help the LMS get the books set up for display. The goal, obviously, is to solicit donations for the library. Supporters can do this in one of two ways: 1) Donation cash that the LMS can put towards future book orders or 2) Select a specific book(s) to donate in honor or memoriam of someone. Approximately 50 or so books had been ordered so I went through and decided how they should be priced for donation. This is always a fun task, because I like seeing what books have made the cut from the Destiny wish list to actually being purchased for the library. After much debate, we settled on a price point of $15 for fiction books, $20 for non-fiction, curriculum-based books and $40 for a few titles that were solid, coffee table-caliber books.

It's days like these where it really hits home how tough it is to be a sole practitioner - preparing for an event like this is out of the scope of "normal" activities in the library yet it's important, and must be done, even while all those "normal" activities can't be neglected. On the one hand, you get a lot more autonomy by being the one-woman show but I can't help but think about how much more the library program can achieve if there are multiple people to share the load. It's definitely been food for thought as I think about what type of library I'd like to work in, and I hope I can experience a larger staff during my next pre-practicum assignment.

Today's hours: 2

Total hours: 23

Pre-Practicum Musings: Part 8

A little more Nook preparation today (just powering down the fully-charged devices and putting them aside for distribution to students next week) which prompted a good discussion about what this program brings to the table for students.

This is the 4th year the Nooks have been in use (they were a donation to the library) and at the time, the LMS identified a new teacher that she thought would be enthusiastic about introducing this technology to his 6th grade students. She was right; he has done a nice job of integrating the benefits that e-books can bring to his students' understanding of historical fiction.

The most differentiating way the students use the Nooks (vs. paper books), is by thoughtful and frequent use of the Notes & Bookmarks features available on the Nook (this is a requirement while they are reading). There is a large discussion component of the book in class, and the LMS noted that it's great to see how students will flip through their Nooks to argue their points and back up their opinions throughout the discussion. While this is certainly possible with a book through the use of Post-its or other bookmarks, it is certainly much easier to do so with the electronic features and overall promotes better discussion and understanding of the book they are reading. So even though it's a lot of work getting the Nooks ready to go each trimester, the benefits do seem to make it worthwhile.

An interesting model that had relevance to this discussion was the SAMR model, which was new to me. Essentially, this model provides a framework to help educators determine how a new technology will impact student learning:

• Substitution - Technology is a direct substitute; no functional change
• Augmentation - Technology is a direct substitute; some functional improvement
• Modification - Technology allows for significant task redesign
• Redefinition - Technology allows for creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable

The LMS I am working with noted that she really tries to push teachers to make sure that at the bare minimum, technology they introduce is at the Augmentation level (i.e. not using technology just for the heck of it, or solely for trying to increase student engagement) and the use of the Nooks I think hits this level. When possible, she seeks out opportunities for Modification (I think the virtual museum qualifies here), but she's yet to truly observe/enact Redefinition in her library. Regardless, she recommended the model to me as a good one to remember and to try to incorporate when providing resources to teachers, or planning my own lessons, so I include it here so that I might have a chance of remembering it down the road.

Today's hours: 3

Total hours: 21