At a recent professional development day in my district, one of the workshops focused on creating displays that promote literacy and reading in your library. One of the examples was a “get caught reading” display, where the media specialist took pictures of students reading in the library and displayed them. This got my gears turning. On Pinterest, I had seen several pins of Instagram displays, and I loved the idea of bringing something digital into a physical form. Thus, the #StewartReads display was born.
I’ve been using my @MrsRendina account for about a year now to promote things that are going on in the library with my students. It’s been an amazing tool – my students love to see themselves being pictured at different events, seeing something they made in our Makerspace featured, finding out what new books are out. And I post an occasional cat picture too 🙂
But not all of my students have Instagram accounts. And Instagram is blocked by my district’s web filtering, so the only way my students can see the posts is by using their data plans or checking Instagram at home. Which they do, but I still recognize that this doesn’t reach all my kids. After thinking about the display ideas at the workshop I attended, I had the perfect idea – create a physical board of Instagram photos. And focusing them on reading and books – catching students reading in the library, pictures of new books, bookfair activities, etc. We’ll be using the hashtag #StewartReads on all of these posts, so the digital version will be easily searchable.
I love that this display will be both physical and digital. I think that it’s going to be a great way to engage my students with what’s going on in the library. I’m really proud of how it’s come together – it makes for a compelling visual display, and it’ll be constantly changing as I post new pictures on my Instagram account.
That’s awesome, Diana. I love it!