Listen. Connect. Empower.

The crafter and engineer in me LOVES origami. That has rubbed off on my students. Students' love of origami grows and evolves in our library Why origami? It is active! Active nonfiction books guide students through DOING something. It has a different feel from most books that share facts.  It supports literacy - both spatial and the traditional literacy. Origami encourages reading through the visual appeal of the pages - no heavy text is required to read to be successful. Captions or short directions do the trick. Short spurts make students feel successful! Leadership! Student leaders will emerge from the group and become "coaches" for the others. It is often the least likely candidate who will lead these groups.   Paper knows no language barriers. Students can sit side by side and fold together despite the fact that they do not speak the same language. Folding is its own language! It is practically FREE! Students can borrow a book and grab a stack of paper to take home a...

This lesson was about making a visual representation of our reading selves.  We drew, we laughed, we learned about each other as readers, and started building a reading community.  We did this on a remote day.  *This was developed in conjunction with my brilliant colleagues.* Standards:  AASL: Inquire/Share I.C.1 . Interacting with content presented by others. I decided we needed a theme to tie a disjointed year together and settled on the question:  I spent much of my summer thinking about "identity" but needed a concrete landing place for those big, abstract thoughts.  I wondered what would happen if we thought about "identity" through a reading lens. We read Reading Makes You Feel Good We practiced looking at two options and showing our choice for where we like to read by holding up that number of fingers. Next, we moved on to our directed draw. When we were done drawing, we had a big reveal.  Students were tasked with looking for someone with ...

I enter the 2020-2021 school year in a very different place. I am feeling like a new teacher again. Oh wait, that's right. I am! This is new to us all. I have read passionate letters and tweets expressing the anxiety and concerns of many educators. Here, I decided to do something different. Here, I air my concerns, talk myself off the proverbial cliff, and share my "plan" for surviving another turbulent pandemic season. Why?  These thoughts have cluttered my brain for months.  Then, they made it to a notebook in colored marker where they became a little more real.  Posting them here makes them REALLY come alive and challenges me to hold myself accountable.  (You are now officially my accountability partner).  Here we go. Worried me: Planning .   It runs in my family (just ask my sister).  However, I can't plan for the unknown.  I don't know what teaching will look like or how I will be able to develop relationships with students through a m...

I was honored and humbled to be interviewed by Amy Hermon for her fabulous podcast School Librarian's United.   Our initial conversations revolved around the topic of nonfiction which is near and dear to my heart. This post is a departure from my traditional blogging of a lesson or a unit that happened in our library, rather it is a compilation of thoughts and activities about nonfiction.  Here we go! How our library supports what is happening in classrooms. And the data to prove it. #msla #tlchat #UAELibrarians pic.twitter.com/37DDP3q4tU — Wendy Garland (@dancelibrarian) January 17, 2020 The #nonfiction section of our library. Can you tell the entire school is reading nonfiction books? Shelves are very empty. What remains is an unorganized disaster. I love it! They are reading! #msla #tlchat pic.twitter.com/NsgI9aKyih — Wendy Garland (@dancelibrarian) January 17, 2020 This was my January.  Nonfiction books were flying off the shelves.  Studen...

I just love it when multiple ideas/concepts come together.  Our coding experience was an example of that this year. We have been celebrating the Hour of Code for the last 7 years.  I love the problem solving and teamwork I see when students code.  However,  I have been struggling with where and how this fits into our library program.  It was feeling like an isolated unit that didn't authentically fit.  I was inspired at #AASL19 by  Ashley Cooksey's  work and how she integrated picture books and coding.  I decided this was the year for change.  I used the month of December to read diverse picture books and problem solve (code). Diverse picture books for coding Wendy Garland's favorite books » Share book reviews and ratings with Wendy, and even join a book club on Goodreads. Why? One of my goals for the year was to audit books chosen to read aloud to stu...