Media Center Rejuvenation (part two)

As most educators this school year, I feel like time has flown by during one of the busiest years yet! Things in the media center have been wonderful and it has been so fulfilling to see students and staff alike enjoy the space again, along with all of its updates.

During June of last school year, I ordered brand new whiteboard tables, lego sets, Keva planks, StickTogether sets, and a Promethean board. All of these additions have not gone unnoticed! Our staff have loved the interactive aspects of the whiteboard tables because we have plenty of dry erase markers laid out for use! Classes have come in to take advantage of this workspace during various activities and assignments. Students have also got into the habit of doodling or leaving encouraging messages for one another. It’s fantastic to see them being used in so many ways!

As far as our “mindfulness” stations go (puzzles, Keva planks, legos, et cetera), they have been a huge success as well! Students have thoroughly enjoyed unplugging and taking on a task that allows them to decompress while in a peaceful setting in the middle of their school day. I would say that our StickTogether sets (seen in photo) have been the most popular—I couldn’t replenish them fast enough sometimes! It has been great seeing our teenagers put down their cell phones and have a nice chat with one another while completing a challenge as a group. We plan on continuing with these stations and adding new options—like knitting—next school year.

Our Promethean board has been another exciting addition to our media center. It has been so successful in use that our technology department has ordered ones for classrooms in the building! We found that we “self-advertised” through our research lessons while using it. One teacher overhearing our lesson on databases and citations would become interested and schedule time for their own classes to take advantage of this “service” we provide. One of our science teachers even successfully encouraged his grade-level colleagues to all schedule time in the media center after his own students benefitted from our database and NoodleTools lessons. It’s been wonderful sharing our resources with so much of the school community, and we plan on more outreach next school year!

Now more than ever, it’s so vital to offer pockets of peace for our school community. Not only is it a welcoming place of solace for our “regulars,” but it also opens up opportunities to get to know one another and all that the media center has to offer. We look forward to seeing what 2022-2023 will bring in the media center rejuvenation process!

Media Center Rejuvenation (part one)

During this challenging school year, when students and staff were limited in their physical activity within the school building, we decided to give a much-needed ‘makeover’ to the media center. We wanted to open up the space and ensure that all of our resources were up-to-date for our students and teachers. To accomplish this, the first major step would have to be weeding through all 30,000 titles we had and reconfiguring their organization and shelving. This would not only ensure that proper books remained, but would also open up a lot of floor space that can be utilized for new furniture and technology.

I began the process in early winter and I am happy to be closing in on the weeding process and starting to select updated furniture and new technology for our school’s population to take advantage of. While I was weeding, I wanted to make sure that not only were the books a priority, but that anyone perusing the shelves would be aesthetically pleased. Before, there was definitely some overcrowding and it was sometimes difficult for our students to locate the book they needed. While weeding, I made sure to leave some breathing room and even tried to display a book on each shelf to make it more inviting to every person that enters our media center.

Although it completely goes against the old adage, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ as human beings, we tend to do this, especially with books. I wanted to use the possibility of displayed books and lure any potential readers in that way. I also made sections more pronounced, so that items such as practice test books, would be readily available for students to quickly locate and check out. Circulation and readership must always remain a priority for anyone that leads a media center.

I am looking forward to unpacking our new furniture and technology soon, and completing this entire exciting process. I am truly happy with how it is going, and I can’t wait to see my students’ and coworkers’ reactions!

Remote Learning/Teaching

As educators, we have been through a lot since March 2020. From the very beginning, we took on large challenges to the best of our ability, and very last minute. From administrators to teachers, everyone gave their all to provide an education for their students, during a pandemic. Thankfully, my district went one-to-one a couple months before we were forced to close, which was unbelievably good timing. Additionally, we were conditioned to slowly start adopting Google Apps for Education, and flew with that once we were all working/learning from home.

My past work experiences allowed me to be a Google Certified Educator, which was truly invaluable during this entire process. As the media specialist, I immediately set up a Google Classroom for my staff members to receive information and tips/tricks in a centralized manner. I found myself, without being in my physical space of the media center, becoming tech support in a lot of ways. Being there to help out staff and students who were dealing with a variety of ‘hiccups’ felt good. These have been such stressful times for everyone, so any assistance I can provide was great.

If you haven’t adopted the Google tools as an educator during distance teaching, I truly recommend it. Also, Screencastify has been a lifesaver for me! Creating short video tutorials to walk my colleagues through using online tools and/or websites was phenomenal. I even began an unofficial YouTube channel to house all of these tutorials.

The thing I have learned the most this past year is creativity. I have been working through avenues I have never explored before, because I have never had to! I know I am not the only one to have done this in the past nine months. I guess the old adage is true, “necessity is the mother of all invention.” I have needed to do many things to provide for my school community, and I have certainly invented new ways to go about doing so!

I know most, if not all, of us are impatiently waiting to go back to ‘normal teaching,’ but I do believe we have learned many new skills that we will carry with us when we finally do return.

Stations are not just Elementary

Puzzle Station

This past January I returned to my roots, and began working as a high school educator once again.  I am working as a media specialist in a large high school, and I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of such a big, diverse community.  Of course, when you’re a cog in a huge wheel, it can sometimes be difficult to find new ways to contribute without having the fear of disruption.

I decided to give myself about a month to simply get to know how the media center functions and how the students and staff utilize the space.  I came to the conclusion that it would be best to start with something small that can engage people when they enter the media center.  I thought the layout of a puzzle could be something that would not add stress to being a new staff member, but can also serve as a centerpiece for a relaxing setting for productive socialization.

I simply put out a sign that read, “Like puzzles?  Try this one!” and laid out the pieces along with the box.  Within a period or two, students were gravitating towards the table and asking if they can work on it.  From that moment on, I had many students who would beeline to the puzzle when they walked in.  But, my favorite moments were when I saw staff and students sitting together chatting and working on the puzzle together.  It made me happy seeing teens and adults working on something together for the simple joy of it.

With time, students and staff were inquisitive and complimentary about this idea, and I became proud of this great start to the introduction of stations to the high school media center.  My background in elementary was paying off, and I was able to pay those skills forward to the older levels.

Once the puzzle was completed, after a couple of weeks, I decided to switch up the station, to avoid it becoming stagnant.  I had witnessed many local public libraries offering “coloring clubs” for adults through which they can find solace from their crazy lives and take part in something social.  Additionally, I became aware of the fact that many of our students suffer from depression or anxiety, and I thought maybe this could be a way for them to relax for a few moments during their school day.

I created a new sign (shown below), laid out coloring supplies, and spread out various coloring sheets, and hoped that once again, I can spark something through a simple station.  I am happy to report that I have had to replenish coloring sheets at the “Calm Coloring” station almost every day since I introduced it to the media center.

I haven’t witnessed as much staff involvement with the “Calm Coloring” station, but student interest has definitely been high.  And, I am already getting questions about the next station!

Sometimes we want to reach for the moon when we try to make changes in our schools, which is wonderful.  However, this can sometimes diminish the smaller ways we can create positive change for our students.  Sometimes starting small and working your way up can become the most effective way to harness power to create better spaces for our kids.

Coloring Station

Book Clubs at All Levels

For as long as I have been a library media specialist, I have ran a Book Club for my students.  Whether I was working in a high school or an elementary school, I loved supporting literacy and fostering the love of books.

I have posted in the past about my experiences with a high school level Book Club, and even delved into how that club sprouted another one.  The Page to Screen Club began when students were requesting to have movie nights based off of some of the novels we read.  So in addition to our regular Book Club meetings, many teens became avid members of our monthly movie nights during which we screened movie versions of popular books.  It was wonderful to be a part of the discussions that took place and how we all thoroughly enjoyed comparing the films to the novels.

It is because of this excitement, that I was adamant about starting up a Book Club when I began working at the elementary level.  Every month, I hold two different meetings for my third and fifth graders who want to be in Book Club.  I choose two novels and those groups come in during their lunch period and we sit and eat and discuss the books.  I love seeing how many students enjoy books so much that they are willing to sacrifice recess time at such a young age.  I leave it completely optional, on a month-to-moth basis, and every month I get quite a lot of students who would rather sit with their peers and librarian and talk about a book.  At times, we will do activities or watch a short clip in relation to our book that month, but even just going around the group and sharing our favorite parts is fun!

Sometimes children see reading as an obligation or punishment, which is why I think fostering an appreciation of books is so important.  When they feel they can “just read,” and not worry about an assessment or project, students will dedicate their attention and affection in amazing ways!

Let’s #Scratch!

Over the last summer, I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Scratch Conference at MIT.  It was absolutely amazing to see all these educators coming together from literally all around the world for one thing:  coding with Scratch.  Before I attended the conference, I was a complete novice to the coding system.  I coded before using similar tools, by arranging blocks to achieve a simple end goal, but this was a whole other world for me.  At first I was overwhelmed, because Scratch forces its users to think a different way, and it challenges the user to be more thoughtful and creative during their coding project at hand.

Throughout the conference, there were various sessions to choose from and join, depending on your interests.  The first session I joined was one dedicated to learning how to animate your name with scratch.  This is presumably one of the easiest projects you can work on with Scratch, and I felt comfortable enough to tackle it.  The presenter was fantastic, and within a few minutes asked us to break into small groups and code a name, word, or short phrase.  Coincidentally, the two women I joined were also new to Scratch, so we had some work ahead of us.  But the next hour or so was fun!  We ended up animating “#ScratchMIT2018” and it was interesting to learn the ins and outs through our trial and error technique.  We then did a gallery walk around the room to see what the other groups coded.  At the end of the session, I felt empowered and energized to learn and explore more, and already had ideas to take back home to my own students in the fall!

I used this session to guide my own students.  I introduced Scratch to them, I had them create their own accounts, and then introduced their first coding project on this platform.  They dove right into coding their own names, and I was so pleased with their creativity and eagerness.  Once they got their feet wet, and grew comfortable with this new coding tool, I had the students push themselves further and create something of their own imagination.  I told them they could code ANYTHING as long as they pushed themselves and put forth their best efforts.  And, I was pleasantly surprised by just how far they were able to go with Scratch in such a short time.  On just their second projects ever, students were able to code simple games and interactive messages.  It was fun to see what they came up with on an individual basis, and they seemed to really enjoy it as well.

I took this entire experience as a life lesson, both as an educator and in my personal life; don’t ever be afraid to dive into something new.  I remind my students of this every day.  Especially when they’re coding with Scratch! 

Being #FutureReady

For the past two school years, I have been on the Future Ready Committee at my school and it’s been a wonderful experience.  I am lucky enough to work in a district that consistently embraces the newest technologies and methodologies in education.  This allows our students to be immersed in a blended learning environment throughout their school days, which they can all take part in thanks to our 1:1 program.

We are located in New Jersey and were able to take part in their Future Ready Schools certification program.  Each school in the district must apply separately to receive their own certification, and once again, all of our schools were able to achieve this!  It’s a great reassurance to know that you, your colleagues, and students are all working together to prepare for the future.

The Future Ready Schools of New Jersey look at various aspects within in each school that fit into one of three categories:  Leadership, Technology Support & Services, and Education & Classroom Practice.  Topics such as “Local and Global Outreach,” “Digital Citizenship,” and “Equitable Access” are all explained and guidelines are set.  It is then the job of our own school committees to provide information and examples to prove that we are meeting all set guidelines.  If a school can show a certain number of these characteristics and qualities within the school community and practices, then the school earns Future Ready status.

It has been an interesting learning experience as an educator to think about everything we do in and outside of the classroom on such technical terms, but at the same time, it is extremely validating to know that what we do has tremendous worth.  For instance, last fall, I attended the NJASL (New Jersey Association of School Librarians) Conference, and they had a Future Ready panel encouraging every school librarian in attendance to assist in getting their respective schools and districts involved.  I was proud that my school and district were already certified, and felt a sense of happiness in my educational and professional experiences. Working on the Future Ready Committee at my school has informed me of so much. I have learned about what my fellow teachers do in their classrooms and the tools and techniques they utilize. I have learned about what my administrators and technology team do “behind the scenes” to assist in ensuring everything is up to date and prepared for our students, staff, and overall community. And, I have learned that we are all taking great steps to be the best we can, in order to give our students the strongest support possible. As a school, we are constantly taking risks and willing to “teach outside the box” in order to learn and grow altogether.

If you are working or are associated with a school and/or district that is not yet involved in the #FutureReady movement, I urge you to become informed about it soon!  It is a wonderful process and bolsters everyone that takes part!  After all, isn’t our number one job as educators to prepare our students for the future?

Full #STEAM Ahead!

 

Back in the summer, when I was mapping out my curriculum for my library media center classes this school year, I really wanted STEAM to be the foundation of everything we do.  For those of you not in the know with this trending educational acronym, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (and was formerly known as STEM).  The first big project that I did with my fourth, fifth, and sixth graders was Designing Your Own Dream Playground.  Students had to first sketch out a blueprint for their designs and placement of their playgrounds.  Then, they needed to build a small model of their designs using recyclable materials (see left photo above).  The entire process was fun and I was rather impressed with the finished products.  The sky was the limit in terms of their imaginations, and many of my students pushed themselves to create amazing playgrounds.

I also implemented Free Time Activities this year.  Because most of my curriculum relies heavily on project-based learning, my students work at their own pace.  And, as anyone who’s ever worked with children knows, kids work at various speeds and abilities.  I wanted my students to be productive from the minute they walk into the library media center, to the minute they walk out.  So, Free Time Activities seemed like the perfect solution!  I created a chart in the corner of my room that colorfully displayed the various tasks that a student could choose from once they’ve completed their required assignments and/or work for that day.  These activities range from blogging and reading to building with Legos and K’nex.  Additionally, I implemented a makerspace area to help make many of these tasks available.  It is simply a shelving unit filled with any item that could possibly help create, such as yarn, pipe cleaners, tape, markers, and paper tubes.  Certain Free Time Activities are also supported by “challenge cards.”  For example, the Lego station and K’nex kit come with baskets filled with cards with a number of challenges written on them; and the makerspace area has a basket of STEAM challenges.  The students have really enjoyed having the right to choose and navigate how they want to explore and learn (see right photos above).

So far I’ve loved the changes I’ve implemented this year, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves with time.  I recommend giving it a try in your own classrooms and seeing how you can make room for activities like these.  Take that risk!  I’m sure you’ll be amazed with the wonderful results!

The Power of Flexible Seating

Some may have some doubts or concerns when they see a set of ‘bouncy balls’ in a classroom, which is quite understandable.  However, I saw it as a chance to enhance not only the furniture and overall look of the space, but also to further student engagement in all aspects of study during my lessons.

This week, provided my first chance to test this all out.  Along with the colorful, bouncy balls, I also provided area mats, floor pillows, and a small ‘cafe’ table.  Upon entering the library media center, the students’ enthusiasm and excitement were visible instantly.  There was a lot of celebration and questions, and they were all very eager to try out all these new things.  But, there was a catch…

They had to earn it.

I took the opportunity of it being the first days of school to test the waters with all of my classes.  I had them sit on their ‘old,’ regular tables and chairs for the majority of the class.  I explained to them that if their behavior was great during the first half of class, I would allow some free reading time in a seat of their choice.  Most of my classes took the challenge head-on.  They wanted to get to move around and try out new things.  Their maturity and dedication was rewarded, and they were able to choose their seats at the end of class.

As seen in the photo above, the end result was amazing.  It took them a couple minutes to get settled and find balance, but after a quick ‘tutorial’ on how to sit on them without slipping or falling, the students were loving it!  They found the happy medium of light bouncing or rolling while reading their books.  It made my heart smile watching the risk pay off.  Instead of trying to talk, making noise, and interrupting their peers, my students focused their energy into their new seats.

Flexible seating will work.  It just takes some patience.

MinecraftEDU-ing

My school is welcoming MinecraftEDU to its library media center curriculum.  After getting all the details and kinks ironed out, we were able to introduce it to the six graders.  Suffice it to say, when they walked into the LMC and saw Minecraft on the desktops, they were literally jumping from joy.

I will admit, I have very little knowledge about the Minecraft world and all the fine points in mastering the creation and survival modes.  However, this was not the least bit of a concern with these groups of kids!  It was spectacular to see them working together as a group–creating worlds, building and gathering, cooperating and communicating.  All the student-driven skills that educators strive to see and ‘make happen’ in their classrooms was organically occurring.  And it was all thanks to Minecraft!

Because we rolled it out just a couple weeks before the end of the school year, I was unable to see its full potential.  But, I am already gathering and preparing lessons that can incorporate Minecraft into my curriculum, and with my students, I hope we can create worlds that mirror famous scenes from books.  We can bridge that connection between the gamer world and the literary world.  And with time, I hope we can expand this technology to the other grade levels as well.  Let’s spread the joy!