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!