I love weeding. A well-curated library collection makes me happy. But weeding can be difficult. We attach a lot of emotion to books. Others don’t understand why anyone would ever want to get rid of books. We have to hide our weeded books for fear of misunderstanding from teachers, parents, students, and administrators. Weeding can … Read more
Reflecting on “Defining Makerspaces” Just over a year ago, I wrote my post on Defining Makerspaces. It was inspired after receiving a criticism about how my makerspace wasn’t a “real makerspace” because we didn’t have any power tools. The focus on that article was how a makerspace is defined more by the learning experiences of … Read more
You CAN start a makerspace even if you’re broke In my recent post on AASL Knowledge Quest, I decided to revisit and revamp a popular article that I wrote for the ISTE Librarians Network Scanner about starting a makerspace on a budget. Since writing that article in November 2014, I’ve talked to many more educators and … Read more
When I talk to other librarians and educators about starting a school Makerspace, one of the most common things I hear is: “I’d love to do (insert cool Maker activity) at my school, but we don’t have a budget for that”. What many people don’t realize is that the idea that you need a … Read more
Show me the (grant) money! I’ve written a lot of grant proposals since I became a media specialist in 2010. And while I certainly haven’t received every grant I’ve ever applied for, I have been successful at getting quite a few, including two $5,000 grants and several smaller grants. Like many other schools throughout the … Read more
DonorsChoose: A Hidden Goldmine for Public Schools My first experience with DonorsChoose was in 2011. They had a promotion with Starbucks where gift cards were given out to patrons to spend on projects. I had several successful projects at that time, but I didn’t really use DonorsChoose much again until 2014. It was around the same time that I … Read more
In all the craziness of last year, I forgot to blog about one of the grants we received. Almost every year that I’ve been a media specialist, I’ve applied for a grant from the Hillsborough Education Foundation. In previous years, I’ve applied for more graphic novels, books geared towards reluctant readers, and audiobooks. This year, … Read more
I just found out a few weeks ago that my school is receiving a Lowes Toolbox for Education grant of $5,000 to transform our library! I applied for this grant back in February, with the goal of transforming the instruction/tables side of our library into a dynamic, collaborative, Learning Commons-style space capabale of quickly and … Read more
Are you the type of person who likes to fill in worksheets? Click here to download a FREE printable 5 Questions worksheet! (Post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog) So you want to write a Makerspace grant… It seems like everyone … Read more
For the past several years, I’ve wanted to have a media center fundraiser that involved crafts. Students at my school tend to be very kinesthetic, and they are so much more engaged when doing something with their hands. I’ve also been learning a lot lately about Maker concepts, and I wanted to incorporate some … Read more