Listen. Connect. Empower.

I knew this year would be challenging.  After my first 3 days of remote teaching I wasn't sure there would be any life left in me to check out a book or have any brain cells left to compose an email.  Seven days later I admit that I still feel stumped and frustrated, but I have had small victories that are worth celebrating.   The Challenge 1st and 2nd grade students did not have the skills to minimize our Zoom and interact with content. The Solution Create opportunities for students to interact without clicking while we develop these skills.  I developed activities that required students to make a choice (think "This or That" or "Would You Rather" type activities).   Introducing Vocabulary  To launch our celebration of reading, one of the books I read was Wild About Books.  There are so many different animals and potentially unfamiliar words in the book though.  To introduce these, we played several rounds of "Would You Rather Be A..." ...

I have never had such a productive spring/summer. What made this one different? I found myself at home. My job as "Mom's Taxi Service" was closed. We didn't go anywhere. The heaviness of the pandemic and the racism running through our culture weighed on my heart. My answer to that heaviness was to dig in and get something done.  I tried to greet the challenges as "opportunities" and look at them with a "what if" mentality. Eternal optimist here chose to think about “what we could learn from this” rather than dwell on what we lost or what we are missing out on. "What if" we can make something better out of this situation? "What if" I can use this to grow something I never would have imagined before? "What if" I can learn something about myself/my students/my community through this? I spent a significant amount of time looking at new tools and looking at features new to me on tools that I was already using. I prep...

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...

If you were to pop in on a digital meet I have with students and our music teacher, you might find us going on scavenger hunts or playing Heads Up, but a huge success came last week when I played Bring Your Own Book with our 4th and 5th grade Reader Leaders. This version has been modified for younger audiences. I played this game once before and don't own a copy of it, but the website had free prompts (when you put in your e-mail) and I gave it a whirl.  We had a blast!  (This feels like Apples to Apples with a literary spin). First, I gave all students 30 seconds to go get a book and bring it back. Next, we declared a "judge" who could still participate, but not "win" the round. I read the prompt and we all dove into our books to find a phrase that would fit (or send us into fits of laughter).  45 seconds later we shared what we found and the "judge" gave the winning point to the best line. Examples: Famous last words "Gre...

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...