EdCamp Library 2018

As a school librarian, you are the only librarian on your campus. You go from being a classroom teacher with many other peers, to the only one of your profession on your campus. That is the reason that professional development with other professional librarians is so important to your career. Being a school librarian is the BEST job in the world, in my opinion, however the hardest part is not having another librarian next door to discuss work issues with. 

EdCamp Library is one of the best professional development days for this very purpose. Hundreds of school librarians gather together for this "unconference", build a schedule together based on the current needs of those attending. If you've never been to an EdCamp, I highly suggest it. Upon arrival, the attendees make the suggestions for sessions over topics they are interested in. Attendees can also sign up to facilitate a session on a topic they are passionate about, excel at, or are just highly interested in. You don't have to be perfect or a pro at the topic, you are simply there to faciliate the session and keep the conversation going. 

The schedule is built on a google spreadsheet, and the collaborative notes are linked. 

Sessions 

After the schedule is built, we get to choose our sessions that we want to go to. The best thing is, if you get to a session and it isn't what you thought, you can go to a different session during that time. 

Digital Badging

The first session I went to was over Digital Badges. I met some new librarians and had some great conversation. Two of the librarians had used digital badges with their students and their teachers. I learned a lot, and I cannot wait to implement this next year. These ladies were so awesome to share their amazing resources!! 

Genrefying the Library 

Next session was over genrefying your library. Most attendees were secondary librarians, but a few were elementary. This is something I am definitely thinking about next year, and I love that now I have other librarians as a resource to turn to for questions. Students are constantly asking for a certain genre, and while a few librarians said "Why can't they just look it up in the catalog", I try to be more positive and think of how I like to look for books. Public libraries and book stores are all organized by genre. Everyone has their favorite genre, and while I believe we should encourage children to read multiple genres to find their favorite, by 4th and 5th grade those good readers usually know their favorite genre by now. 

I'm really excited to start my genrefrication journey!! Stay tuned...

Self Checkout 

The next two sessions I agree to facilitate and guide the conversation. Self checkout has been an amazing life-saver for me, which is why I wanted to facilitate this session. Some of the attendees also used self-checkout, but several were wanting to implement the process an had several questions. I'm glad I had a picture of my self-checkout station to show, which several people said was helpful. 

One question that was posed by an attendee was, "How do I talk this up to my principal so he will allow me to do this in my library?" I'm thankful that my principal lets me run the library the way I feel is best for our students, but I know many principals like to have a say. So, we discussed reasons why you should implement self checkout:

• Opens up the library for more check out time.
• Frees up librarian to work one-on-one with students.
• Allows for more co-teaching time.
• Teaches students independence. 
• All ages can utilize self-checkout. 

Collaborating with Teachers

If you've been following my blog, or following me on twitter, you know how passionate I am about collaboration with teachers. We had a fabulous conversation about collaboration and the importance. We first talked about the obstacles and ways to overcome them. I always like to get the obstacles out of the way first. :)  Many questions were how to get teachers on board. While many teachers forget that we are also teachers, we have to remember that student success is our goal. Start small, maybe only one teacher or grade level at first, and let others see how you can TOGETHER impact students.

Smackdown

At the end of the day, everyone meets together to share highlights from the day. I like being able to hear ideas others got from sessions I did not get to attend. Plus, we get doorprizes. :) I won this cute shirt from FlipGrid! 

School Library Month Wrap Up

As School Library Month now comes to an end, I would like to reflect on ways that school libraries make an impact on students. This year's theme was Making Connections, so lets talk about all the connections that happen in a school library.

Making Learner Connections

This is probably the connection made most often in my library. Students constantly come into the library specifically looking for a book recommendation. Several students have found their favorite book by just chatting with me about books. I love this part of my job! 

This past month, I held a 'book tasting' with the fifth grade students to encourage them to read more genres. At each table, I had a different set of books that were a certain genre. Tables had scary, historical fiction, realistic fiction, literary nonfiction, free verse novels, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The activity went over very well, and it sparked some interest in kids that had not really read a book in a while.

  

Also, to celebrate both School Library Month and National Poetry Month, I put a reading challenge in Biblionasium for students to read 3 or more books of poetry. I had a few students tell me they had never really read poetry before except when doing STAAR passages, but they had really enjoyed reading the poems for fun. Makes this librarian heart happy!

Look at these smiles! All because they shared their poem with me. 

Making Educator Connections

Educator connections is my passion, and I love to talk about connecting with teachers. I believe this is one of the biggest impacts we can make on our campus. While I make connections throughout the whole school year, this month in particular I made a point to reach out to more teachers to collaborate with. I was able to pull my first grade teachers in for note taking and research lessons. I also sent out several Smore newsletters this month highlighting different activities we could to together with a collaborative partnership. 

Making Community Connections

Community connections happen all school year at my school. This year we have hosted a school wide Read-A-Thon, a book drive for schools in the Houston area impacted by Hurricane Harvey, and a family reading night just to name a few. During the month of April, my favorite community connection was made during kinder and first grades lunch. Some of the parents were asking me about books for their students. During our conversation, I invited them down to the library to check out a few books to read with their students that week. They were extremely grateful! 

My absolute favorite activity that connects the community is our annual Book Swap! It takes place closer to the end of the school year, but it is an event where students find gently used books at home they don't read anymore and bring it to swap for a "new to them" book. Parents in our community bring me boxes of donated books for our students. Last year, I received enough donated books that EVERY student, whether they brought a swap book or not, was able to choose a book to take home. It was AMAZING!! I even had a designated place in the library where parents and teachers were able to swap their books. 

Making Global Connections 

Throughout the school year, we had several global connections. With 3rd grade, the teacher and I conducted a book tasting focusing on books that take place in another country, or have a character from another country. With 4th grade, our biggest connection was with a meteorologist to talk about forecasting the weather. 

Most recently, we had an author come to visit our school and speak to every grade level. Ellen Leventhal did an amazing job of speaking to our kids about using your imagination, being creative, and writing down all those ideas. 

Another connection made was a second grade student came to me about a book series that he had been reading by Doreen Cronin. He wanted to know how he could ask her a question. So, together, we wrote a letter and I emailed it to her. We are crossing our fingers that we hear back from her very soon!!! 

Throughout this month, I really learned a lot by looking over the AASL website where I got a huge variety of ideas for my campus. Making connections is important not just during the month of April but all year long! Some yearlong ideas would be:

• Dot Day
• Global Read Aloud 
• Book Clubs
• Family Reading Nights
• Book Fairs
• Book Swaps 
• MakerSpace with a Cause 

I also learned a lot and made many connections at TLA in Dallas this year. I met some amazing authors and other amazing librarians. Attending conferences, such as TLA, helps build our Professional Learning Network and makes us better in our profession. 

What connections have you made recently to impact your school? I want to hear your ideas. 

Being a Future Ready Librarian

In the last few weeks, I have had numerous inquiries about my flexible schedule and how I started it. Most people have been very positive about it and want to start it at their school. Unfortunately, not everyone has been positive, so I want to take the time to clear up some things about flexible schedule and being an instructional partner.

What is the purpose of a flexible schedule?

A flexible schedule opens up your daily library schedule to allow time for collaboration and co-teaching. The main purpose is not to allow students to come check out whenever they want. While a flex schedule does allow for this, I don't feel like this is the main reason why you should move to a flex schedule. The main reason to have a flexible schedule is to allow time for co-teaching lessons and allow classes time to come for research and inquiry as needed. Library time is more meaningful when we collaborate with the classroom teachers. 

 

Before anyone takes what I just said the wrong way, I firmly believe that it is important that students are allowed to come to the library at their point of need. This is an important part of flexible schedule, however, in the Future Ready Framework librarians build instructional partnerships. While having open check out all day is important, being an instructional partner is the MOST important part of being a future ready librarian. 

Be an Instructional or Collaborative Partner

I recently gave a presentation to some of the Future Ready librarians in my district about being a collaborative partner. We discussed how to start on a flex schedule, but also how to be a partner if you are on a fixed schedule. Flex schedule is the best schedule to allow for collaboration, however, if you aren't on flex schedule you can still collaborate and be an instructional partner.

Maybe you are still in rotation during the teachers' conference times. This is a hard thing for you to change, however, you should still advocate for the change. However, it may not happen right away, and I understand that. But, you can still tie that library time into the curriculum and make it more meaningful. Look through your district's curriculum, or talk with the classroom teachers. More than likely they will love for you to touch on something that students need from the curriculum. There are so many options!!

We have to get out from behind the circulation desk and be instructional partners! 

Teachers won't bring the kids! 

This is absolutely not true, and it is my least favorite argument that other librarians give when telling me why flex schedule is not for their school. Many teachers are used to the fixed schedule and don't realize what librarians can do for them and the curriculum. You have to let them know! Some teachers may not even realize that school librarians were teachers first before being a librarian. Let teachers know what you can do for them and invite them to bring their class to the library. 

• START SMALL - You may not be able to get every teacher on campus on board in one day, but if you can get one teacher to bring their class to the library to co-teach a lesson with you, you will be amazed how word will spread! 

The Biggest Obstacle

The argument I hear all the time is: "Teachers don't want to give up their extra 30 minutes". OK, I'm going to be ugly honest here for a minute. If you are not in the conference rotation time, library time is not an extra planning time for teachers. It is a time that is best utilized for conferencing with the students about what they are reading. Why would teachers not want to come in and get to know their students' reading interest? 

This was my biggest obstacle when I first started as the librarian. The librarian before me had allowed teachers to drop off their students and leave for the entire 30 minutes. I saw a problem in the older grades because the ELA teacher would get sometimes 3 "extra breaks" on library day, while the math and science teacher got zero extra breaks. We also used the Accelerated Reader program, and teachers weren't using the library time to conference with students about what they were reading and their AR goal. 

We have to be an advocate for the students, and if you are on a fixed or a flexed be an advocate for what is best for the students! Library time should be an extension of the classroom. 

I'm not saying to go tell your campus everything is changing tomorrow. I do urge you to look at the Future Ready Framework and advocate for a flex schedule and become an instructional partner.