Listen. Connect. Empower.

Our school participated in the Students Rebuild initiative two years ago for the first time and I found it to be a wonderful opportunity to integrate picture books and artivism into our thinking. This year's theme "Unique & United" spoke to my heart. This would be a wonderful way to explore identity and community while creating and communicating with each other to raise funds for non-profits. (Through this organization, with every piece of student work that is created, $5 is donated to a non-profit).  While the culminating project (shoe creation) came from the Students Rebuild resources , the opening activities and read alouds were designed by myself and my colleagues. We began with a read aloud. These books celebrate our unique selves. Students were then tasked with creating a self portrait. They could draw themselves as a Lego mini-fig or build a self-portrait with Legos. I was surprised that so many chose the drawing option - I thought for SURE Legos would be an o...

 4th and 5th graders are beginning a new series of lessons where they learn to better use our library catalog. The essential question is  How can I find what I want in the library?  I used a series of puzzles as clues in a call number scavenger hunt to launch the unit. It served as a fun and engaging entry point, and students were able to successfully apply the learning the next week. 4th grade students work through their clue. Ultimately, I want students to be able to  Identify their need or interest  Use their skills to find a book using the catalog  Locate what they want/need In the past, I have found students to be moderately successful using the catalog, but not nearly as successful locating the books they want. I found students frustrated.  I decided to start with the ultimate goal and practice these skills first. After a brief conversation about the different library "neighborhoods" and what we could find there, students broke into teams and beg...

Every year I examine books as mirrors and windows with my students.  Every year I tweak the exploration and this year was no different.  This year's additions included sticky notes and reflections.   Day 1: Mirror moments Sticky notes I created with Tony Vincent's template (link below) After modeling mirror moments (and having students make "me too" signals), students identified a mirror moment from a stack of books at their table.  "This is like my sister and I.  We fight all the time." - 3rd grader "When my mom tells me to clean my room I just sit because I don't know where to start." - 3rd grader Day 2: Window moments In the next class I modeled "window moments" and we drew windows in the air when we heard moments that were "not like us."   Students identified "window moments" at their tables with sticky notes. Students shared their "window moments" through the window we passed around our sharing circl...

It is a joy to be back in our library and have students buzzing about choosing books and checking themselves out.  Yes, they do it themselves.  In the mornings our library is open for students to pick out new books and check in with me for a book recommendation.  I am able to match readers and books while books fly off our shelves, all because of self-checkout.  Self-checkout was the best decision I made for our library. Students help each other check out Why student self-checkout?   Self checkout helps students... have greater ownership of their library and their checkouts exercise independence respect our books, policies (how many they should be taking out), and privacy Self checkout frees me up to help other students find what they want/need! The challenges Privacy - Students were seeing the account of the person before them and sometimes checking books out to them. Solution: During 1 class have students demonstrate to me how they check themselves out. A...

Here we go! Every year I like to set the tone or create a mission to drive my planning and keep me focused.  This year's ... community and learning and being together The opening weeks of our library year are dedicated to "Building a Library Community." During this time we will  Set the tone of our library as a welcoming environment Develop/review routines  Create expectations Welcoming environment Oh, how I love/hate bulletin boards!  I love a meaningful/pretty bulletin board, but I just won't give up precious time to compete with Pinterest.  When there is no volunteer to step up, I fill them with student work.  This year I filled ours with some of the promises we made to each other after reading Lebron James' I Promise.   Students wrote promises to themselves and could either take them home as bookmarks, or leave them in the bin to be hung up. (Consent is important - I don't want to hang something that they don't feel comfortable seeing on the w...

How can we see ourselves and learn about others in the books we read? To answer this question, my 3rd graders and I went on a multi-day journey about how books can be mirrors and windows.  Standards: AASL: Include/Create II.B.1 Interacting with learners who reflect a range of perspectives. Social Justice Standards: 7. Students will develop language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully describe how people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity groups. Day 1: Books as mirrors I introduced the concept of "mirror" books.  We read and made the "me too" signal when we had mirror moments like, "my best friend moved away too."  Day 2: Books as windows I introduced the concept of window books. We read and drew "windows" in the air when we had a window moment like, "they have mud for walls and I do not."   Day 3: Applying the thinking We applied our learning to the books we ha...