Listen. Connect. Empower.

Our entire school is focused on being thankful this month.  Daily announcements suggest ways we can express this in our school and recognize students who are exemplifying this.  The gym and wellness teacher is playing games and starting conversations about what this looks like.  We are showing what we are thankful for in our library classes. We began our library class by reading  We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga.    We practiced saying the Cherokee word and every time we saw it in the text, students read it with me. I shared with students my reasoning for choosing this book.   The author's note explained how the Cherokee culture puts great value on being grateful all throughout the year and not just on one Thursday in November.  I wanted to see what another form of giving thanks would look like in another culture.  Students were intrigued with the Cherokee language (how it sounds and how it is written).  Following the reading...

Our school is beautifully diverse and we celebrate this every November with an International Night.  I like to celebrate in some way in our library as well.  Last year's celebration included reading Yuyi Morales' Dreamers , and virtual traveling with Legos and green screens.  This year, I was inspired by Yamile Saied Mendez's Where Are You From? This made for an ideal read for me because  It is about a young girl with big questions, much like many of my students.  Identify and belonging drive the story which felt so natural to read as we celebrate our heritage.  The poetic use of language made it an exquisite read.    We lingered over the word choice. I read this page slowly, deliberately.  There is no other way to read it. We finished and students asked, "But WHERE is she from?"  After reading more about the author, we decided that perhaps the girl in the story was just like the author, from Rosario, Argentin...

The focus of our school in November is empathy.  To prepare, I had our 1st-3rd graders look at books as "mirrors" and "windows." Day 1 I shared some mirror books with students, demonstrating how certain books: looked like me as a child. reminded me of me dancing everywhere (from Angelina Ballerina). shared my favorite food. (from Saffron Ice Cream) took place in a favorite place of mine (from Saffron Ice Cream). I asked students to find a mirror book and bring it to the rug.  I asked students to share their mirror books with us and what makes it a mirror book. My mirror book looks like me. This is a mirror book because I have fun friends. This is a mirror book because I am sneaky. This is a mirror book because my dog looks like this. After sharing, students had the option to take their book home.  Many students DID choose to take this book home. Day 2 I shared my window book (which also happened to be one of my mi...

One of my goals this year is to get to know my students better and provide more focused interactions to help them find books.  I love one-on-one interactions, but with many students and little time, it will take me weeks to conference with everyone.  I decided to try mini-groups so I could address students' interests but do so in a way that will allow me to reach more students in less time. 3rd-5th graders began class by reading about 4 different genres. Students then wrote their name on a post-it and placed it on the genre that most interested them.  I broke them into 4 groups according to like genre interests. Groups rotated through 4 stations: B3 (Big Book Bonanza) - looking at books of their chosen genre  Book checkout Jokes Read it/Do It (looking at active non-fiction books) We had only 5 minutes at each station, but this kept everyone moving.  Each group had a "Paper Manager" and a "Navigator" to help keep the group organiz...

We are now six weeks into our school year and it is time to reflect on the whirlwind that was "back to school."  I am making a concerted effort to "make my yeses count" (thank you, Matthew Winner ).  This means I am carefully making choices so I can focus my time and energy on the items most important to me, my students, and our library program.  Relationships Developing relationships with students is first and foremost on my mind.  My goal is to love them first and teach them second.  Actions I have taken this year to do this: I asked for "breakfast duty."  Every morning you will find me in our cafeteria, sitting at a different table of students talking about anything and everything.  (Thanks to my 10-year-old son, I was able to hold my own in a WWE conversation last week).  Here I can find out what makes students tick and what really matters to them. I started a binder of notes about what students are reading.  Inspired by Melan...

Over two weeks this spring my 3rd graders explored the poetry of color.  My goal was to share poetry of primarily diverse authors and illustrators (see my previous post ). We began class by reading author Malathi Michelle Iyengar's note in  Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown  about how she vividly remembers scrubbing her brownness off in the bathtub as a child.  She shares with the reader her shame turned to pride in the color of her skin.  As I read, you could hear a pin drop. I then read several poems from Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown .   We listened for descriptions that appealed to our senses. We then read the poem Brown from Hailstones to Halibut Bones.   We shared all kinds of luscious smells, sights, and sounds of brown.  Students then went to tables to read poetry or try their hand at writing color poetry on paint chips. Day 2  Day 2 began by reading All the Colors of the Earth. We ...