Freedom to Read Stations

 The month of September I like to celebrate Banned Books Week. I feel like this year was more important that ever with the amount of book challenges we have seen in our state. Thankfully, we have a district that follows policy and has a committee decide instead of just pulling books. 

I wanted the students to understand what was going on with the book challenges. Most of the time, this encourages them to read. When they find out adults are trying to take books away, they want to read them. You would think adults would figure that out by now. 

Banned Books Week Stations 

I found stations on Twitter that @Mrs_Bongi had created. I took hers and changed them up to fit my students and time restraints. She had 6 stations, but since I only see the classes for 45 minutes, I knew I wouldn't be able to do all 6. 

Station 1

At station 1, students looked at the Pros and Cons of books being challenged. I explained that no matter the issue, and no matter our opinion, we should always have an open mind and hear the other side. You probably won't change your mind, but at least you looked at both sides. 

I copied an article from our Gale Opposing Viewpoints database in TexQuest. Students read the article, then formed their own opinions. 

Station 2 

For station 2 I created ten cards with book summaries. Eight of the books had been challenged, and two had not been challenged. The students' task was to decide which two had not been challenged. They were surprised to find out some of the books that had been challenged and the reasons. 

Station 3 

At station 3 students had a choice between two articles: Police protests two novels on summer reading list and Texas banned more books than any other state. 

After reading their choice of article, they were to write their reactions on post-it notes and stick to the poster. 

Banned Books Week Stations by Joni Harris

Our Banned Books Weeks display

FREADOM bulletin board outside the library. 

Back to School 2022

 How did this happen? I am starting my 24th year in education, 8th year as a librarian. I spent 16 years in an elementary classroom, then 4 years as an elementary librarian, and now I'm in my 4th year as a middle school librarian. I still think I have the BEST JOB in the world! 

First day of school 

August 8th we welcomed our students back on campus. The first day of school I usually only see the kids in the hallways. I spend passing periods helping the 6th graders and new students find their way in this new building that is twice the size, or more, of their elementary school. Most of the students are looking for a smiling face. 

Teachers are setting the procedures in the classroom, so students don't get to come check out the first day, which is fine. There is usually still lots to do to get ready. I spent the day finishing up the new library passes and creating book lists for students. 

I got the idea for the book lists and this display from Melissa Corey and LibrarianBookEnds on Twitter. If you don't follow them yet, you should! They have tons of ideas for school libraries. 

Check out the books 

On the second day of school, students were starting to come visit since the teachers now had their library passes. My goal the first week of school is to get books into the hands of as many students as possible. In order to do this, I make a video with library procedures and send to the classroom teachers. The teachers show the video in class, then come for a 20 minute check out. This allows me to book more than one class in a period. This week, I had over 500 students visit to check out books. This is a little over half of our student body, so I call this a SUCCESS! 

Another goal my first week with students is to train my student aides. In our middle schools, we do not have paraprofessionals to help us in our libraries, so we have student aides. These student aides help me check in the book, shelf the books, and make book displays. I have a great group this year, and I cannot wait to see what they come up with for book displays. 

Bulletin boards 

I have 2 bulletin boards outside the library in the main hallways. This year I got an idea from pinterest and took an idea from a recent TikTok trend. 

My Pinterest find was a cute welcome board that I think I will keep up all year. It has a word cloud of all the things you can find and do in the library. 

The second bulletin board was an idea from the recent TikTok trend "He's a 10 but... " I wasn't really keen on the idea of our students rating each other, so I changed it to be "They are a good friend but...". So far it has been a hit and students have even requested some of the books. 

How is your first week going? What success did you have this week?

March Madness in the AAE Library

 March was a short month for our district. This school year we had 2 weeks for Spring Break, then the last week of March had 4 testing days which shut down the library for the entire mornings of all 4 days. When I ran the statistics for this month, I was surprised that we still had almost as many books checked out as last month! 

March Madness 

One of my favorite activities in the month of March is our Tournament of Books. We base this around the college basketball March Madness bracket. It is really simple if you want to run your own Book tournament, and it fosters a lot of literacy conversation in the hallway. 

To get started, I look up the top 16 books that have been checked out for the school year. If there are duplicates, such as 2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, then I skip the second one in that series and just go down to the next top book. I match them up in the bracket: book 1 with book 16, book 2 with book 15, etc... 

I create a google form for students, teachers, and staff to vote in each round. You can get your copy of the google form and just add your books for voting! 

I create a bracket online to share in the daily campus announcements using Google Slides. 

I also put the bracket just outside the library, which is in the main hallway. I love it when the kids stop and discuss which book they think will win. I also very often hear them convincing others to read and vote for certain books. This is a great way to build a community of readers. 

Women's History Month Breakouts 

Our students LOVE ❤️ breakouts. This month I had digital breakouts for them to complete over exceptional women in history. While solving the clues to break out of each lock, students learned about Bessie Coleman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Carolyn Keene, Serena Williams, Amanda Gorman, and Eugenie Clark. It was lots of fun, especially seeing how excited they were when they solved all of the locks! 

March Statistics 

March was a short month for sure, but we were still busy. The circulation was a little down from other months, but we were only in school 3 weeks during March. One of the weeks was a testing week, so the library was closed every morning for 4 days in a row. 

1,647 books were checked out from the library this month and 21,000 minutes were read on myON eBooks. 2, 219 student patrons visited the library to check out, read, study, or get tech support. 45 classes came to the library for lessons. The lessons this month were Digital Breakouts, Read Across America diverse books, Women's history month research, and Historical Fiction. 

We ❤️ Books in February

 February is one of my favorite months in the library. I could do without the middle school pre-teen dating drama, but there are so many fun activities to do the month of February. 

Speed Dating with Books 

One of our favorite activities is Speed Dating with Books, also known as Book Tasting. Same concept, I just call it speed dating because I do it in February. 

Each table is a different genre, and students rotate around to each table. They have about 3 minutes at each table to browse the books. They can keep the book if they are interested to check out at the end of classtime.  

This is really easy to set up. I cover the tables with pink and red tablecloths, and put a small centerpiece in the middle of the table. The centerpiece isn't necessary, but I found some cute ones at the Dollar Tree. Each table had a sign with the name of the genre and a definition of the genre. The morning of, I set the books out, but have a cart of books set aside to replenish the tables throughout the day. 

During the event, it's fun to play Oldies Love songs to listen to while they browse the books. The students love it, and most of them find a book from the tables that they are excited about. 

Blind Date with a Book 

This one is a little more difficult to set up, but it is worth it! The students get so excited about the mystery! 

I've seen this done up more fancy with actual wrapping paper, but I don't have time for that. So, we just use a brown paper bag and decorate it with markers. One year I used the white paper bags, but this year I couldn't find them. It was just as popular as any other year with just the brown paper bags. 

One the pink label, I put words and phrases that describe the book. This helps the students pick out which one they want. I also print out the barcode label without the title to put on the outside of the bag so it can be checked out. 

After they read the book, students fill out a review and their name is entered into a drawing. 

Monthly Statistics 

Adjusting to Virtual Life

 We are now 3 1/2 months into our hybrid learning, and it is still a daily adjustment. Not having over half of your student population here on campus is definitely a challenge for this librarian I definitely feel like the role has shifted more toward teacher support more than student support, and I'm feeling pretty successful. 

Teacher Support

Our district has moved to Canvas as our Online Learning Platform, which was a huge change for our teachers. In previous years, we have used Google Classroom. However, with the current pandemic and need for remote learning, our district made the shift to Canvas. 

Let's be honest for a moment, while Canvas is amazing, it was not easy to learn. There is a MUCH BIGGER learning curve involved when it comes to Canvas. So, most of my hours have been spent helping teachers adjust. I am really enjoying that part of my role. After working in education for 20 years, and all 20 of those focused on the student, it is refreshing to be able to support the teachers more. That is my silver lining from the situation we are in right now. 

Virtual Library 

In the past, one of my favorite activities to set up has been a book tasting. I love setting the books out on the tables, and students rotate around the library to preview the books. It is always a BIG hit with the students. I've done this activity in elementary and middle school settings. 

This year, we could not do this in person for two reasons:

1. over half of our students are remote learning from home. 
2. we can't go around touching all the books and rotating to tables. 

So, I got my creative juices flowing and made a Virtual Book Tasting. 

The students are really enjoying it!! I've had several come into the library with screenshots asking to check out the book. Most of the books on the activity are checked out. 

Copy of Virtual Book Tasting

Fall in Love with a Book

February is going strong in the AAE library! I have had lots of fun with the activities and displays this month. I broke in my new Cricut, and made a saying for the circulation desk.

Blind Date with a Book 

This year, I thought I would try the "blind date with a book" display. I really didn't think it would be as popular, but I had over 70 of these checked out. My student aides helped me decorate the bags, instead of using wrapping paper. Using the bags made it so easy. 

On the front of the bag I wrote the barcode number so we could check out the book, and I wrote some words and phrases to describe the book inside without giving away the surprise. The students were told to not open the book until they got home, then when they return the book their name is entered into a drawing. 

Speed Dating with Books

In the past, I have done book tasting with my elementary students, but I thought I would try something different with 7th graders. So, I found the idea on Pinterest to do "Speed Dating". It is the same as book tasting, just with a different theme. I threw some red plastic tablecloths on the table, and put a centerpiece in the middle. I decided to categorize the tables by genre, so I made a genre sign for each table as well. 

During the activity, students moved around to the different tables. The directions were to:

1. At your table, look at the book covers and see what appeals to you. 
2. For 3 minutes, spend time with a book to get to know it. Read the summary on the back or the back jacket, or read the first couple of pages. 
3. If you find a book you want to spend more time with, take it with you. You can always change your mind if you find a better book along the way. 

While students browsed the books at the tables, I played oldie love songs. They loved it, especially when SWEET CAROLINE by Neil Diamond played. 

Mindfulness 

Students in middle school today are really stressed and have a lot of school work they have to do. I try to relieve that stress as much as possible by providing them a quiet, relaxing place to come to. This particular morning I set out coloring pages and provided markers. 

It makes my heart happy that so many of our students enjoy coming to the library and know that they have a relaxing place to come to when they need to chill out.