Listen. Connect. Empower.

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...