New School Year

 ** I forgot to post this back in September, so here it is late. 

Adjusting to a new school year 

Last school year was a huge adjustment with over fifty percent of our students learning from home. This school year, everyone is back at school in person. It was like the first year teaching again in some ways. Adjusting back to lessons in person instead of on a screen, and back to a full house in the library was necessary for all. 

I open up the library every morning before the first class begins. Together, the students and I decided that we needed it to be a quiet space in the mornings. The majority of students coming in were wanting to get away from the loud noises in the cafeteria each morning. Other rooms, such as the band hall and theatre room, were also loud. We discussed it, and it was decided that the library would provide a quiet area. I think it is important that I let the students help me make that decision. 

Banned Books Week

During the last half of September, we celebrated Banned Books Week. This year I teamed up with the 6th grade Social Studies teachers and tied it in with the Nazi Book Burnings. We disussed reasons why Hitler wanted to burn the books and why some people try to ban books from libraries. There were some really good conversations. The the kids are always really surprised to find out that Captain Underpants from their elementary years had been challenged multiple times. 

October

October is one of my favorite months! I like to highlight the scary books that we have, even though it is my least favorite genre. Middle school students just seem to flock to the scary books, and some of my reluctant readers get excited about the scary books. 

With the classes I did a lesson over Edgar Allan Poe. Together we researched his life, but then groups had to solve the mystery of his death. We learned in our research that his cause of death is unknown, but there are several theories of how Poe died. Groups took the clues from their research and came up with the theory they agreed with based on their information. They had loads of fun! This is definitely an activity I will repeat in the future.