How to Identify and Reframe Design Problems in Your Library Space

How to Identify and Reframe DESIGN PROBLEMS in your library space | When looking at our library spaces, we can often intuitively tell when something is wrong. By identifying these problems and reframing them in a way that focuses on their effects on students, we can advocate for change.

Figuring out the Design Problems in Your Space In my latest post at AASL Knowledge Quest, I focus on how to identify the various design problems in your space and how to advocate for changing them.  Check out this preview below: Many of us are rethinking and redesigning our library spaces. We have visions of … Read more

How to Get Library Design Inspiration: 6 Places to Visit

How to Get Library Design Inspiration: 6 Places to Visit | Many people think that the main place to get ideas for library space design is in other school libraries. However, we have much to learn from other types of learning environments. Here, I suggest six places for getting library design inspiration. @DianaLRendina

Library Design Inspiration: How to Find it When rethinking and redesigning our library spaces, many of us tend to focus on looking at other school libraries for ideas and inspiration.  However, there’s quite a few other learning environments and resources we should consider when planning our spaces.  Some are more traditional than others, but all … Read more

6 Active Learning Spaces Your Library Should Have

6 Active Learning Spaces Your Library Should Have | On AASL Knowledge Quest, I take a look at six types of active learning spaces from the book, Get Active. I describe how these spaces can be implemented in modern school libraries and why they are essential

6 Active Learning Spaces My latest post over on AASL Knowledge Quest focuses on six different types of active learning spaces in school libraries.  The post was inspired by a section of the book Get Active (my review here) as well as a recent presentation I’ve been doing on transforming library spaces called Making Your Library … Read more

Read This Book: Get Active

Read this book: Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success | In my review of Get Active, I talk about the learning space design theory that this book discusses. In particular, I look into how active learning spaces play a role in school libraries.

  Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success I got my copy of Get Active: Reimagining Learning Spaces for Student Success at ISTE 2015 this summer in Philadelphia.  I love reading about and studying learning space design theory.  I truly feel that innovative learning environments can transform how our students learn.  This book is an … Read more

How to Transform Your Library Space on a Budget

How to Transform Your Library on a Budget | In my post for AASL Knowledge Quest, I share advice and ideas learned from transforming the library at Stewart Middle Magnet over the course of five years on a small budget.

Transform Your Library Space Recently, I’ve been looking back through photos of my media center at Stewart Middle Magnet from the past five years… As I look back over these photos, I’m struck by how the space slowly evolved over this span of time. It’s easy to just focus on all the big sweeping changes we … Read more

5 Easy Ways to Make Space for Innovation

5 Easy Ways to Make Space for Innovation | Innovation is a hot topic in education, and it's essential for educators to find ways to support innovation in our students. In this article for AASL Knowledge Quest, I share five different ways that you can change up your library or classroom space to make room for innovation.

  5 Easy Ways to Make Space for Innovation Our school libraries are no longer made up of the rows upon rows of stacks and hushed, immovable wooden desks. At least, not if we expect them to support the innovative learning styles of our students. The libraries of today need to be interactive learning environments … Read more

6 Ways to Rethink Your Library Space and Make it Amazing

6 Ways to Rethink Your Library Space and Make it Amazing | Over the course of five years, I've worked to renovated and redesign the library at Stewart Middle Magnet. Here, I share what I learn in six lessons that you can apply to your own library or classroom.

Over the past five years, we have redesigned our media center and transformed it into a more flexible, collaborative space.  This is the story of how we got there, and how you can apply what we learned as you rethink your library space. Want to learn even more about transforming your library space?  Check out my … Read more

How to Create an Awesome Whiteboard Wall

How to Create An Awesome Whiteboard Wall | In 2014, we painted one wall of our library makerspace with whiteboard paint, transforming it into an interactive surface. Learn how you can create your own whiteboard wall in this post.

(Post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog) The Story of our Awesome Whiteboard Wall This past week, our library and Makerspace got one more step awesome with the addition of our whiteboard wall.  This was a project that I had dreamed … Read more

The Great Library Makeover: Part 2

The Great Library Makeover Back in August I blogged Part 1 of how we’ve been making over our library this year.  We’ve been really busy since then with lots of good changes, including new computers and narrower library shelves in the fiction section.  Part 2 is going to focus more on our new flexible, collaborative … Read more