Lesson, Subs, and One-to-One

As a middle school librarian, I see many, many students every day, but I don't have my own classes to teach. That's why it's so exciting for me when I get the chance to flex my teaching muscles and go into classrooms to do lessons. This past week I had the privilege of visiting all my eighth grade classes to help them out with a research project they're doing--mainly how to use the databases, do citations, and evaluate websites. Here's the Google Slides I made to go along with the lesson:






I always try to think, If I were a student, would I be bored? Would I actually remember and use this later? Did I accomplish anything in class? This last one is particularly important to me, because I know that any time I spend in another teacher's classroom is time taken away from their instruction time, so I better make it count. And as I had the ability to reserve school laptop carts for this lesson, I was able to make everything very hands-on, and the students had something to show for their work during class that they could use in their project. Now I'm looking forward to age-modifying this same lesson for my seventh grade classes these next two weeks!


Other library happenings: The Library Advisory Board club started up last week. They're a fun group, and I'm interested to see where they'll take the club this year. It's my goal to make it something useful and not just a socializing hour. I'd love to depend on them for library displays and getting some student book reviews/recommendations out there--some things I'm not particularly good at doing myself. Yay for library nerds!


I also had my first experience being out all day with a substitute here in my place. I do feel for the sub, and more for my AV Tech who kind of functions as the library para. Unlike classroom teaching, I do a lot of this and that throughout my days, and this job really requires a huge bank of knowledge and skills (which I wouldn't expect a run-of-the-mill substitute to have) plus initiative to think of "stuff" to do (which is extremely hard to do as a fill-in).


A program I'm excited to be involved with getting off the ground is the "Digital Learning Program" (DLP)--our school's version of BYOD--which is debuting in 7th grade for second semester this year. I was able to attend a mini-workshop last week, and I now have a few things on my to-do list for that, including getting a website and book study up and running.


Checkouts for the past 2 weeks: over 311.


What I'm NERDing right now: DLP. A program fraught with obstacles...but I believe one-to-one in schools is the future!

Up and Running

I feel that I finally have my feet under me and things are running as they should be in the day-to-day workings of the library. After a few weeks of running hither and thither doing orientations (I think I can now say that I have at least talked to every student in the school), I had some down time last week to catch up on some library function essentials.

As a recent graduate from library school, my mind is all full of great ideas for being a school leader, bringing innovative programs and ideas to the library, and crafting lessons and materials for information literacy and digital citizenship. One thing is assumed, though--circulation. It's the bare bones of librarianship, an area that usually falls to a library aide and really shouldn't waste the time of a Master's degree Teacher-Librarian like me. (Sarcasm intended, because I have to say, circulation is one of my favorite parts of the job--strangely, I love the repetitiveness of handling books and keeping up on records. I know--NERD, right?) However, not having an aide dedicated to circulation tasks, and still being the "boss" of the library, I have found that I have decisions to make when it comes to circulation. And being completely new to being a librarian, at the start of the year I wasn't quite sure exactly what materials I would need to make circulation run smoothly. So I had been getting by with a massive pile of disorganized notes scrawled on scraps of paper...until last week.

Happily, I had time last week to put together some documents to keep on hand that will make circulation run more smoothly. I have them linked up here. (I'm sure to add more and modify as time goes on.)

For students...

• who want a certain book (I use it for keeping track of holds, ILL, and books that might be good to add to collection)...Book Request
• whose book they put on hold is in...Book on Hold
• who have a book that is missing (over 2 weeks overdue)...Missing Book

For teachers to send with their student to the library...Library Pass

For me...

• to stick in books that are on the Hold shelf...Hold For
• to keep track of ILL requests, in and out...ILL Request Tracking
• to keep track of the myriad issues that arise in student account, including removing fines from their school account...Accounts that Need Attention
• to set out for students to write their magazine's info down if they want to check it out (instead of barcoding everything, I'll slap a barcode on them as they're wanted and enter info from this document later on)...Magazine Checkout

Other news for the past two weeks: In addition to finishing with 6th grade and 7th/8th grade library orientations, I have partnered with the 6th grade L&L and I&S teachers to support an interdisciplinary unit they are doing. It was exciting seeing all the 6th graders again and teaching them about finding public domain photos and giving proper credit (or citations) for them. I found that my plans were not quite structured enough for all the tech skills involved, but after the first day I was able to change things up into a smooth and fun lesson. I linked up my presentation here.

I'm currently working on planning another collaboration lesson and was able to schedule a whole bunch of times to teach in 7th and 8th grade L&L classes. After sitting in on TLC meetings last week, I was able to get a good idea of what the teachers want out of the lesson, and I'll be preparing to begin teaching about evaluating resources next week.

Some other odds and ends that have been filling my time: a very helpful meeting with an awesome district techie about iPads and purchasing apps; finding the right people to ask various website, ILL, and school/district questions; and taking care of some random matters that have been pending for a couple weeks (library club, purchase forms, public library card applications, etc.). I have also had the pleasure several times of welcoming two pairs of students who seem to enjoy eating lunch in the quiet of the library, plus 5 Bridges classes and more than 232 students in the past two weeks visiting for checkouts. I spent my entire afternoon Friday putting together overdue and missing book notices for Bridges teachers to hand out. The first round of the year turned out to be quite time-consuming! I'm also running through my mind possibilities for where to put the 20 computers I'm told we're getting hand-me-down from the computer classroom second semester. This library space needs a makeover, but it's probably a project for the next few years!

What I'm NERDing right now: Mundane circulation tasks.