Back in early 2019, I reorganized the fiction section of my library, categorizing books into genres and labeling them with colored stickers to help students find them. You can read more about the exact process I used back here, and I’ll include more genrefication resources at the end of the post. Since that time, … Read more
This is my 12th school year as a teacher librarian. That also makes it my 12th year of teaching some type of library orientation to my students. Things have changed a lot over the years – from a pretty boring PowerPoint my first year to having to go to each socially distanced classroom individually … Read more
This is a multiple post series. In Part 1, I gave an overview of what my school has been doing during COVID and how my library’s physical space has adapted. In this post, I’ll be sharing about programs I’ve done to encourage reading, plus collaborations with teachers. For Part 3, I’ll share how we’ve adapted … Read more
To say it’s been an interesting school year so far would be an understatement. This has definitely been the most challenging year of my career. I consider myself lucky to be working at a school that has the resources and leadership to keep us safe. I know that many, many schools have been left … Read more
Banned Books Week is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness about censorship and the right to read. There’s tons of great banned books activities and displays out there, but many of them work best in-person. Since the pandemic has most schools meeting either virtually or in a hybrid model, students likely won’t be able to … Read more
How to Dream Big With a Library Space Analysis It may seem like an odd time to be reimagining your library space. You might currently have limited access or might not be allowed on campus. If you are having in-person learning, your library might not look like it normally does. To help manage social distancing, … Read more
It’s back-to-school season! Some schools have been back for several weeks while others are gearing up to go back. But no matter when you start back up, your mind is likely buzzing with the possibilities of a fresh school year. The beginning of the year is a great time to try something new, whether it’s … Read more
At Stewart, we had a pretty loud library. There were robots racing through the stacks, the rustle of tubs of LEGOs being dug into, and the chatter of excited students talking about their favorite books and collaborating on projects. At my current school, the previous culture of the library had been one where a whisper … Read more
3 Myths About Libraries, Makerspaces and Books Even though they’ve been around since 2013, school library makerspaces still have a lot of misunderstandings surrounding them. This confusion can come from administrators, teachers, students and the librarians themselves. Unfortunately, believing these myths can often cause decisions to be made about libraries that are detrimental to the … Read more
You can’t design a library space and program that meets the needs of your teachers and students if you don’t know what those needs are. It’s hard to develop an effective library collection if you have no idea what genres and books your students want to read. Using surveys with your teachers and students can … Read more