Day 20: Loathe to Leave

Though I'm glad this day has come, I'm also disappointed the time has gone so quickly. You know it is a good place to be when you have given up your employed school's spring break and are still enjoying being at a different sort of work! I'm taking this as a sign that I am headed towards the right career!

We expected today to be a little crazy with students checking in/out books before the long holiday; however, the library was mostly quiet. Students had been checking in books they knew they wouldn't need or choosing books to check out that were a little bit longer or more complex in preparation for the ten days away from school. I have really loved to see how excited the students are about taking books home and reading them. This is so foreign from my experience of reading at the high school level and one of the most attractive things about the elementary level LMS position. I think this largely has to do with student choice. When I give my students choice novels, there do talk about the books more and actually read the books more. Less read than at the elementary level, but I am gladdened to give the high schoolers the opportunity to be engaged in reading again even just for one unit.

Even as we were completing the final evaluation and paperwork, I was still asking Cindy questions about how or why she has implemented certain behaviors and practices in the library. Especially details about finances and ordering priority are still something I am learning. As she was filling out the evaluation, Cindy said that some of the details I really won't be able to have a full handle on or a full opportunity to do until I am in the LMS position itself. Having gone through a practicum/student teaching in undergrad, I know that this is the truth. From my English teacher perspective, I learned that classroom expectations, grading on assignments, order of curriculum, and other classroom-specific details were all left to me unlike in my practicum experience. I was the end of the line in the classroom. I imagine I will feel the same way as I enter into a LMS position: I will be the end of the line! While in both situations, teacher and LMS, there are guidelines, expectations, and other decision-makers involved, the sort of daily routine and habits are really established by the teacher/LMS herself. I am looking forward to being "in control" of the library I serve but am certainly grateful for the patterns of paperwork and procedure that Cindy has shown me and that she told me to call and keep her updated!

I think I've grown the most with my understandings of procedure and protocols of the LMC. Going in, my biggest goals were to understand the catalog-circulation-ordering-weeding relationship, text selections, and financial practices. I have certainly learned about many books appropriate for elementary, both for specific titles and for how the books are supposed to "feel" in length and content. I have practiced using the Follett software to generate varied reports, update the collection, order resources, and run varied aspects of circulation. I have generated a wish list for a section of nonfiction after completing inventory and weeding the section based on age, relevance, and circulation. I have been introduced to texts the students love to listen to and are appropriate for varied seasons and ages. I have read children's books I'd never heard of and loved them. I have met with the school's bookkeeper to discuss account use and balancing. I have created an order on a limited budget, learned how a Book Fair works and affects the library, and used filing systems to maintain transparency and order in the library. I think I've certainly met my main learning goals for my library practicum and done more activities than I ever expected to accomplish in twenty days.

At the heart of the library, of course, is sharing the resources with the students. I was less worried about this aspect because of my teaching background, but I was so glad when I got to step in today to read to the kindergartners one last time. Cindy had to step out to address a teacher need and wasn't back when the first class arrived. I stepped in and pulled out the book she had chosen: Betty Bunny Loves Easter by Michael B. Kaplan. This is a story where Betty Bunny "is a handful!" She loves Easter so much that she wants to grow up to be the Easter Bunny. In her frolicking finding eggs, she realizes that her older brothers and sister help her find eggs! She had always found the most eggs at the hunt, but now realizes it was only because of her family's help! So Betty Bunny is determined to find eggs by herself, but only finds three. They "mean more to her" because she had found them on her own, and she still has the dream to be the Easter Bunny one day.

What a lesson for me to keep, too. I'm about to (hopefully) run a LMC as its leader and director. I've had help from Cindy, from Toni, from my professors, from my family...and will continue to have their support in my career. But now, I'm going to be taking a determined step and making the decisions myself. I hope that even if I have three "eggs" of success, I'll see the growth and continue to build a LMC program that best serves its school community.

Day 19: Username Troubleshooting

On my last day in February, the school was starting to distribute Chromebooks to all of the second grade classes. This week, the students were beginning to log in with their own usernames and passwords provided them by the district. Each of their usernames was generated by writing their whole first and last names together. Their passwords were generated:
1. first and last initial
2. lunch number (tied to SSN)
3. "SDOC" (School District of Oconee County)

This is extremely secure! This will protect the students' information! This will be nigh impossible for second graders to remember and type!

One of the teachers, Mrs. Guill, was logging in her computers to do the Destiny catalog lesson with Mrs. Edgerton. She sent a student down as a cry for help getting these kids to log on. When I went down there and tried the username and password on the computer, it had zero problem. When I had students type in the information, I had lots of problems.

The biggest problem was that the usernames and passwords were being typed incorrectly. The students have not yet developed their typing skills (still one-finger typists) so struggled with the lengthy passwords that were taking longer than the teacher expected. Even then, the usernames/passwords they typed often had mistakes of mis-keys and of wrong spelling. Especially the students with long last names spelled their own names incorrectly (as the teachers don't require last names written on classwork). One girl even had a hyphen in her name! How do you expect 7-year-olds to know all those nuances! Then came the problem of students that do not go by their legal first name. One student just could not understand why he couldn't change the username to the name he wanted to be called.

I normally spend my time with high schoolers who better understand the principles of their pre-generated school emails, but who still mis-key or fail to follow directions at sign in. These usernames and passwords must be secure and complex, but are also not best suited to the populations of school aged kids. This is the conundrum of the personalized accounts.

Technology has two sides: the benefits of assessment, access, practicality, diversity and the issues of troubleshooting, internet connectivity, user error.

Perhaps students as young as second grade don't require their own profiles for the county system. The students are not turning in major assignments like papers and projects digitally; they are not logging into the district programs for email or testing. There are other programs the students log into that are not affiliated with the county-generated account (i.e. PebbleGo, MAP testing, schoology, etc). As the district moves forward, I see the profiles being entered at an age above seven. Both for realistic purposes and to save the district money on profiles!

Day 18: A Slow, Stormy Day

To be honest, we haven't had any slow days in the library during my practicum experience. My first week was back from a break and almost all the students came through the library, the second finished with Battle of the Books, and the third prepared for the Book Fair. This week, the only big event is Spring Break next week! Today was also a big storm day in Georgia and South Carolina, so many students were checked out of school early. Spring Break plus few students made for my first slow day in the library!

This meant it was a perfect week to do the inventory/weeding/ordering and compare my SLIS 720 Program Analysis project with Mrs. Edgerton. This is what we focused on today. We looked into the End of Year report that Cindy makes for the principal each year to see what highlights Mrs. Henderson looks for. The report predominately focused on finances, Accelerated Reader, and circulation numbers.

I also used TitleWave online and the ABDO paper catalog to finish the development of the biographies section. We focused our order on three things: low level texts, Explorers/Revolutionary War/Civil War curriculum content, and current pop icons.

TitleWave has an "advanced search" option that we set for K-3 levels, published after 2014, and included at least two reviews. I had to manipulate the search terms a bit to garner enough new results that weren't already part of the collection at Ravenel. I also had to include levels 4-6 to browse further texts. Especially as the fourth grade students research for a wax museum of Revolutionary War people, some of the texts in the higher range would still be appropriate. Once I searched all three topics, 12 books could be added to the collection.

The ABDO catalog organized texts by content, then by series. Unfortunately, the page organization was not organized by age range, but still by series. Essentially, each spread was on one topic (i.e. athletes, musicians, presidents, etc), but the pages alternated or sometimes randomly listed grade level appropriateness. It was a little challenging to read through the catalog this way, so we had to be extra attentive when looking at which books to order.

Both methods were fairly easy and seem to offer some excellent biography sections to add to the library.

Day 17: Analyzing and Spreadsheets

Today was a paper-pushing kind of day. It is one of the things I both dread and love in the same breath: I love the organization and productivity and mental focus you can achieve in paperwork, but only if the tasks serve a relevant and useful purpose. Thankfully, today was just the kind of desk work I love!

Yesterday, I began inventory on the biographies, as my assigned part of the collection to weed. I have already looked at a specific section of the biographies with my SLIS 720 Collection Analysis assignment, but this week's task spans the entirety of Ravenel's biography collection.

Today, we actually weeded about 100 books! It started out with a "Shelf List" generated by the Follett software. Cindy printed out a list of the whole collection and brought me a highlighter. I kindly (I hope) asked if the program generated Excel spreadsheets as this data could be manipulated easily to narrow the around 1,400 titles to just the potentially outdated or non-useful texts. Thankfully, the program does, so I got to work. Using the conditional formatting tool, I first labelled texts according to dates established by Karen R Lowe's weeding formulas, the "queen of weeding" according to Cindy. Then, I conditionally formatted texts with less than two circulations in the last five years. I had to play around with the sorting filters until I was content that both the oldest and least used texts were in the top 10% of my spreadsheet. From there, it was much more hands-on and slightly more tedious. I first looked at the 0-checkout texts in the "red" and "orange" date ranges ("weed"/"aging") and entered the barcodes into Destiny to see how many lifetime checkouts the text had and when the text was added to the collection.

Interesting trends started to happen. Almost all of the texts that were both old and unused were entered into the collection on April 28, 2006! I asked Toni what might have caused this, as she and Cindy were in charge of the library at that time. Toni remembered that the office and the side storage room were FULL of boxes and boxes of books that had never been added to the collection by the previous librarian. 😞 The timeline both she and Cindy remembered seemed to fit with this date in the catalog. Evidently, these texts were unnecessary purchases (donations?) to the collection that were never offered nor advertised as part of the collection. This made pulling texts fairly easy for several of the books to be weeded. The second trend we noticed were for pop icons or sport athletes that were popular for a short time and were no longer relevant to today's children. For one collection of texts published in the 1990s, we asked a handful of students, "Do you know ___?" Some names like Enrique Iglesias, Brandy, N*Sync, Hillary Duff, etc, were named. Besides blank looks, shaken heads, and "no"s, one student said, "These aren't the people we study! I know about James Madison!" 😆😆😆 Those got weeded as well.

The last task we completed was the actual pulling of the books and removing from the collection. After I collected the books onto a cart, Cindy took a last thumb through each of the texts, determining if the text was still valuable despite the catalog (perhaps teachers use the book or she used the book in the library) and to determine potential books to send to other teachers or areas of the school that would find more use for the texts (old art or music books, role models for guidance, etc). All but three were determined "weed" material. The actual process of removing these texts from the catalog was as simple as a scan! Tomorrow we begin the process of pulling barcodes and other identifiers from the books themselves before looking at how to improve the biography collection moving forward.

Day 16: Puzzle Pieces, Teaching Destiny, and Biography Inventory

I am so excited and sad to start this final week of my internship! I can’t wait to receive the degree and be available to take a position in a school library near me.

Today started with a reading advisory project that is being sponsored by the art teacher and an initiative unique to Ravenel: Artists on the Green. This program brings in local artisans to share their craft and work with the students, organized through the art teacher. She asked each of the teachers to create a giant puzzle piece to represent their area of the school. For the library, we decided to use some book jackets that were sent by the distributors to create a collage of reading and new titles. At first, I was super hesitant to cut up the covers but chose to recognize that the book jackets would have been destroyed easily over a few circulations and the books themselves already have versions of these covers embedded in their hard back, shelf editions. Once I got over the initial “heartbreak” and my own nerves about creating the piece, I actually really enjoyed picking out some of the fun and engaging artwork from the book jackets’ front and back covers and inner flaps. To maximize the amount of material on the puzzle piece, I used the spine labels for the book titles and authors/illustrators to add reference in minimal space. Overall, the collage turned into a modge-podge of fiction texts that spans all elementary grade levels. I titled the piece “Characters Around” as the cover art focuses largely on a diverse set of character illustrations.

As I was finishing this project, one of the first grade classes came for library time. Cindy had planned a lesson using the school’s new Chromebooks to teach these students how to use the online Destiny catalog. I was glad to see that the lesson was structured much like my own collaborative lesson with the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders. The first half of the lesson was largely focused on learning terminology and location of buttons on the catalog screen. Then, Cindy used some interactive, formative questions to test if the students had paid attention to which search button they should use (keyword, title, author, series) and what section the call number belonged to (easy, fiction, biography, nonfiction). Lastly, the students worked with a partner to find four call numbers that Cindy had specified on a small worksheet addressing the four search functions they had just learned from the catalog.

Overall, I thought the lesson went as smoothly as possible for students both new to Chromebooks and still developing skills like spelling and reading. Thankfully, my presence as well as the teacher returning a bit early to the library made troubleshooting and answering student questions much much easier. I think I would keep this in mind when I teach the younger-grade students something complex or foreign to the students: enlist help! Maybe even pairing upper-grade students during these lessons would be helpful to the students. I have seen older students help younger students with finding a book in just this way. It would be really cool and rewarding to the older students to mentor the younger students as a potential program for my own library. Even still, the lesson as is seemed to make sense to the students.

Lastly, I started conducting inventory on the biography section of the collection. This is the section that Cindy wants me to weed and analyze for assessment and potential growth. The inventory was super easy to set up. Follett has a program feature in Back Office that allows you to set parameters for the section. From there, I went to the biography section with a laptop and a hand scanner to scan the books present. Boom! That’s it (for today)! I had to put on some latex gloves after the first row of the first shelf as my fingers were becoming caked with grime from the books themselves. I knew that it would be easier and better for my hands if I finished the collection scanning with gloves. Though there were students participating in circulation, I was fortunate enough to just focus on inventory because Cindy and Toni were present to run the standard library functions. I imagine that, again, volunteers could be beneficial to this process or designated time would need to be assigned to complete the inventory process most efficiently in my own library.

While weeding, a few books immediately stood out to me as potential weeding material: some old and yellowing texts and some outdated “pop icons” (like Enrique Iglesias and N*sync). I went ahead and pulled those aside as I will be working on weeding later this week. Otherwise, there were only a few titles out of place (Es in the Bs) and a few missing over-barcode tape strips. The real problem came when I had less than ten books left in the section. Whoosh! The power dropped due to heavy rains and winds in the area. In fact, the power is still out as I type into Word on a laptop—how ironic! The power just resumed as I typed that sentence! Being the end of the day, though, and with the network still down, I will start my inventory analysis tomorrow, looking to weed and to fill any curriculum gaps in the biography section. We did get to hunker down in the non-lit, no-windows closet for a while and generally relax as all technology and power halted projects needing completion. Thankfully, this laptop was available to continue working on my Practicum Learning Outcomes and this reflection.

Overall, I’ve learned that flexibility is the key to success in this environment: especially on crazy, unexpected days like today!

SCASL Conference Notes

R David Lankes: Keynote

Notes and Quotes:

• don't be "too modest"
• share clear collaboration and announce its benefits
• recognize opportunities and potential to be involved and grow
• "boundareis are temporal and passable"
• we have an obligation to lead thought change
• "you can aspire"
• encourage communities to make smarter and more informed choices
• "bring the world into our classroom and bring the classroom to the world"
• every proposed filter is a moment of opportunity
• the core of librarianship is sharing instead of data technology
• repetition of "knowledge"
• developing and sharing the best practices with each other
• we have a "social mission" of values and ethics and service and intellectual freedom and civic discourse and...
• our goal is to generate great supporters of libraries
• not about an individual program or school, but about a community and world and workers and and and

Response:
Dr. Lankes keynote address certainly set the tone for the conference. It was both empowering and realistic about the goals and roles we have been studying in the MLIS program. I did feel a little like I would need to be Superman in order to fulfill the sort of social role and responsibility Lankes was suggesting. Sure as a whole group I suppose we can accomplish these major goals of leading a "revolution" in the "values" that he talked so much about. I know that those of us in that room certainly do value the things he talked about. I think that Lankes was offering collaboration and establishing connections as the new leader of the LIS school, which will no doubt benefit both USC and the schools in the state.

Passive Programming by Leigh Jordan: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• "I Spy" to acquaint students with the library
• one month program
• prizes rotate through the day/week
• 3-year program rotations (middle school)
• Big focus and programs during April's National Library Week
• One station per week in April
• Activity Ideas:
• Fortune teller template to recommend books
• Spine poetry
• craft/maker space
• duck tape website
• 9 Hole Golf course through the shelves
• Lego build & write 
• Memory with books/authors/characters
• Candyland through the stacks
• Use materials or texts or genres as themes for activities
• Advertise activities throughout school/on newsletter
• Summer drop in for middle schoolers and siblings
• 4 times over summer
• paid via district stipend
• open 2 to 7 PM

Response:
Ms. Jordan had many creative ides for her library. Some seemed rather involved and requiring several materials. Jordan did suggest that most were collected through donations or bought at second-hand stores, but would still require quite a bit of prep to include into the library program. One of her biggest suggestions was to develop the program over the course of a few years to really collect this many activities. I liked the creativity she displayed; however, I felt that most of the presentation could have been drafted into a suggestions list that could have been easily published and distributed for SLMS use and reading at our leisure. Additionally, "Passive Programming" was not at all what the topic of this session was, so I was a bit disappointed once the lecture actually began.

Reading Using Technology by Eve Heaton: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• Seven Sneaky Ways (to get kids to read)
• digital timer
• "realistic time"
• students to set timers to give power
• challenges and badges
•  build from easy to harder challenges over school year quarters
• ClassFlow for interactive lessons via Promethean
• "MicroCredentials" for skills building
• multimedia books
• i.e. Patrick Carmen, videos follow at the end of each chapter
• 3:15 series of short stories
• advertise as a "Scary Book Club...don't come, it's too scary!" (reverse psychology)
• online libraries
• free AT SCHOOL: epic!, Big Universe
• subscription: OverDrive
• gamify reading
•  BookAdventure.com
• Book Scavenger
• size matters
• DOGO News!
• Newsela
• ReadWorks and ReadWorks Digital to teach Text-Dependent-Analysis and test literacy skills
• transcripts and closed captioning
• have students listen only, then watch video
• have students watch video without sound to read captions
• Flocabulary (subscription)
• CNN Student News
• Discovery Education (subscription)
• YouTube (CC)
• My Simple Show
•  copy of her PPT: https://goo.gl/J0g9hw

Response:
Let me tell you, I was more than a little miffed when, at the end of the session, Ms. Heaton said that her whole presentation could be read on a published website. What a waste of an hour! At least I had some tasty hand pies from the Hyatt and got free swag from her room! Despite this, several of the ideas I have used in my own classroom before and have found them effective. I did learn of a few resources, but again, this could have easily been distributed as a published list rather than required a whole session of the conference.

Day 15: Teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th

Today was a marathon! I taught all three of Mr. Dent's English classes about how to search using WebPath Express and why using Google and Wikipedia isn't the best method for searches. As I was planning, I tried to create a logical approach as to why these simple-to-use resources weren't the only easy resources out there. Here is the PowerPoint that I used to outline the reasons why Google's exponential results and Wikipedia's authors aren't the smartest ways to research.

Third grade was up first. They were excellent at taking notes and focusing on what I was telling them through the lesson. Especially for a group of all-but-three eight-year-old boys, the students stayed on task with very little prompting. About halfway through, we did an activity on GoNoodle to take a mini brain break to help them stay focused. I was glad I planned this into the lesson because they definitely needed it! When I got to the portion that the students were practicing searches on their own, the students really struggled with following the directions and replicating the results. After seeing the other groups, I think this is because the students aren't developmentally ready to do this sort of research on their own. Their follow along papers and answers in class showed that they knew what I was talking about, but then they still needed the step-by-step instructions to complete an individual assignment.

The fourth graders were the best to work with. They were excited before I even got started, but were also focused and prepared to do this work. I think these students got the most out of the lesson. These students had recently completed a research project for a wax museum. Their resources were pre-selected books from the library as well as informational websites pre-posted on the library's homepage. This made the students familiar with the research process, but not knowing all the things about how to search on their own. When they got to the independent practice portion, the students could complete the activity with little assistance. A few of the students would struggle with one step or another, but the rest of the table group was really good about leaning over and giving an extra hand or direction. They were definitely the most fun group to teach, and I think they got the most out of this lesson.

The fifth graders were attentive and added great experience and knowledge to the class discussion and lecture. On the other hand, the students thought they already knew what to do with research, so their follow along papers and independent practice was the least accurate of the three classes. When I said this to Mr. Dent, he also suggested that since these students are gifted-labelled they can sometimes act this way with lessons on any day. Despite this, I think that the concepts I was teaching were both well received and well understood. This lesson took the shortest of the three classes, but the students had independent reading they continued once my lesson was over.

Overall I thought that the lesson went well, especially considering I had not taught any third, fourth, or fifth graders before. I would definitely break up the lesson for third graders and make sure the lessons developed over more time and multiple units. I think this way would help the students learn better and more effectively. Clearly, this lesson was best appropriate for fourth grade. I think that all of the students got something out of the lesson, but the fourth graders definitely benefitted the most from this message. By doing the same lesson with multiple grades, I learned a lot about the ability levels of each age as well as the sort of emotional/presentation tactics that appeal more to younger or older students. Even though there are less than three years difference between most of the students' ages, the outlook on learning, social habits, and performance ability were vastly different for each grade level. Mr. Dent's only constructive criticism was the length of the lesson--not that the students were engaged for too long, but that most teachers would be unwilling to "sacrifice" that much of their instructional time to give for the LMS. Especially as the only students that come to the LMC on a regular basis are K4, K, 1, and SPED, I was not surprised by this comment. However, in my own LMC, I will want to make my instruction a regular part of the curriculum and growth for the students year to year. 

Day 14: Finalizing Plans

Today I spent more time than I expected finalizing the lesson for tomorrow. A big reason this took longer than expected is to prepare for the guests Ravenel will be hosting tomorrow. Literacy coaches from the district are coming to observe in several classrooms for the day to see practices and behaviors of the students and teachers. I asked if this required me to teach on another day, but Mr. Dent insisted that they were interested in all aspects of the curriculum. Thankfully, I teach the same and am comfortable regardless of who is in my room! (Not that I'm not a little extra nervous to have a few more intelligent adults present for my first lesson to eight, nine, and ten-year-olds!) Because they are visiting, I created a more detailed rationale lesson plan to have available for these visitors.

I had also planned to teach the students via real-time modeling. The internet had been having connectivity issues earlier in the week, so i decided to add screenshots to a PowerPoint to make sure that the students could at least see the portions of WebPath Express that they would be using. This was an easy addition to the lesson, but did take some time to create and crop screenshots.

I also wrestled with the copier for a bit. Such inevitable moment of an internship! Though I had had some problems with copying the bookmarks/book handouts during my booktalks in February, I again struggled with sending a document digitally to the copier. Between all the drawers and passwords, it is one of the most complicated systems in the library!

Unfortunately, finalizing the lesson and pulling resources for teachers was almost all I got accomplished today. I was thankful that Cindy recognized this need and allowed me to focus my work. I also apologized to Toni for not being able to help with the books' circulation. This is something I will have to work toward as a full LMS: not feeling guilty for doing my parts of the job while an assistant shelves books, etc, and better using my time to prepare for lessons and curriculum development.

Day 13: Professional Development and PLCs

The Ravenel teachers had the opportunity to meet and discuss/learn about successful STEAM projects in the classrooms here within the school. I decided to attend one of these groups as the STEAM initiative is a central part of the ONE Seneca ideal. Let me unpack that. ONE Seneca is the high school district within the school district of Oconee County. There are two other high school districts that each have their own feeder elementary/middle schools. STEAM, which is the rarer form of STEM, represents Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics, a program that encourages student learning through discovery and application challenges. I have seen many magnet schools or other specialty schools encourage the STEM program, but increasingly I see various elementary schools incorporating the program as bonus curriculum or as growth initiatives.

I have seen various programs both during my internship and during my teaching career that are half-hearted, unpopular, or unsupported; however, the STEAM program at Ravenel seems to be gaining both momentum and enthusiasm from the teachers and students. I spoke most specifically with Mr. Quarles, a fourth-grade math teacher. He chose to create box cars with his students using the ideas of parallelism, force, and distance to base his “mathematics” lesson on. Quarles ordered a kit that came with “wheels” made from push-pops, straws, rubber bands, and balloons. The students then had to measure and build a car that could go five feet in a straight line. The fundamentals of keeping both sets of wheels aligned as well as how much to inflate the balloon and where to put the balloon were all factors to a successful car. While many teachers focus on the STEAM lesson over a single week or other compacted unit of time, Quarles “spirals” his units, teaching and re-teaching specific skills with increasing rigor and difficulty. He chose to develop this STEAM lesson over the series of a few weeks, adding different skills and curriculum-based lessons into the intermediate time. Quarles said that the students had fun as well as learned essential skills for mathematics and science based on the problems they encountered with their cars. It sounded like a fun unit both for him and for the students.

The library has not yet experimented with the STEAM curriculum, but does have a few books that have been used in other classrooms. CIndy and I have talked about the SLIS 720 Grant Writing project possibly looking into materials on STEAM lessons and resources to use in the LMC. The ideas she and I have talked about at this point mostly revolve around Technology, Arts, and Mathematics using the resources already available in the library.

I also used today to create a tech video to introduce some of Google's features. The teachers have had Google all year, but many of the teachers are still unfamiliar with its processes and options. I decided to show them how to add a picture to their profile and to create multiple login profiles via Google Chrome. The pictures were really a feature both for fun/personalization but also for use with the multiple profiles on a computer. Many of the teachers use Google as a personal account and now have the school's account. This way, the teachers can keep student information secure on the Oconee network, as the safety brief I got on Feb 6 required.

I wanted this video to be about two minutes, but when I recorded the first video it was a little over five. I decided to change up some of the order and pre-open some tabs, but the video was still about four and a half minutes. I wanted these videos to be brief so teachers would have time and be willing to spend the time on watching them; but it seems like to fully understand what is happening and explain the whys and hows required that little bit of extra time. I decided it was worth the extra three minutes and will be sending the video out on Tuesday for Tuesday Tech Tips! Hopefully these are received well by the staff!

Day 12: Book Fair Delivery

Today, the Book Fair arrived from Scholastic. While Cindy taught classes in the reading center, Toni and I prepared the rest of the library for the incoming cases of shelved books. Typically, the library has many volunteers that come especially for this day to un-box and set up the displays, books, and other fun. This year, for varied reasons (mostly sickness), only two volunteers were available and in attendance. Thankfully, the janitors of the school and a few teachers on planning offered their help, even if it could only be 20 minutes or so. There is no incentive for volunteers at this point for Ravenel's LMC, but Cindy said most parents just enjoy doing this event. Several years ago, Scholastic allowed librarians to assign some discount percentages for volunteers/teachers, but Cindy said that any "discounts" would now come out of profits.

Thankfully, the delivery men from Scholastic and the janitors wheeled in the giant cart/shelves into the library. Each cart was also laden with boxes filled with more materials to be set in the Book Fair shop. Once the shelves were in about the right place, the Scholastic employees required a signature and were off, leaving us to move the sometimes heavy boxes off of the highly stacked carts. Again, we were so grateful to the custodians as they lifted the heaviest boxes and set them on the floor.

The unloading was a bit chaotic. Each box has a title of content based on pseudo-genres and grade-level appropriateness. At first, we were piling boxes just by those content, but we were also trying to place them under or near the tables they would be displayed on. This worked for the most part, until people started pulling the materials out of boxes. Then, it was like Christmas morning in a family of twelve! Books and materials starting cropping up everywhere! As we were all placing books on display, we also realized that the size of tables wasn't always appropriate for the amount of resources in the boxes. This led to shuffling of books that were already set up in display! About halfway through the process, we saw that some areas were densely crowded, while other spaces had large gaps. This then led to trouble keeping the pseudo-genres together. In addition, the Scholastic genres were not necessarily genres I would understand or categorize based on. This made collecting and redistributing texts onto the displays an extra challenge. Too, Cindy had pulled a few books off of the shelves to rearrange, which made some holes on the shelves themselves. Phew! I honestly was a little panicked at the state of the fair, but just reminded myself that I wouldn't be present for the full fair and that it needed to suit Cindy and Toni as the true leaders of the fair.

First what I noticed about content, then what I would do for my Book Fair.

Holy bobble pens and kooky highlighters, Batman! It felt like more than half of the fair's goods were cheap novelties like funky erasers, giant pens, and character-topped highlighters. Cindy and Toni cover this table up when the students come for a wish list walk-through to focus on the books available to them. Secondly, almost all of the novels were paperback: I'm sure to make the texts affordable to the general child shopper. There was a fair range of texts and topics, though empires like Marvel, Lego, and Disney dominated many tables and shelves. I am sure this ties back to Scholastic's corporate deals and maybe even ownership. Despite this, there were many books that were excellent choices that I had both heard of and seen good reviews for. All of the books were new or recently new titles with the exception of Harry Potter. Even still, the Harry Potter texts were the new artistic covers and were matched with movie books and Fantastic Beasts materials, a recent film. The picture books were a little more diverse, with a specific requested selection of SCASL Children's Book Award nominees present for sale. My last big notice were some larger, higher level texts available for sale, but not in the "adult" section of cooking books and biographies. These books were mostly about presidential history, science industries, and compendiums of sports facts. Not only did these books seem not appealing, they also were greater than $40. I was a little confused as to why they are present at a elementary book fair, but imagine Scholastic is both trying to make money and potentially appeal to parents who come through the shop.

One great thing Scholastic did this year is create a box for students who had no money at the book fair. Cindy said that she had always gathered some books that they purchased through donations (donation can included in the setup kit) to give to students without money or with little money. There was also an overflowing table of "discount" books as the spring book fairs are headed towards selling off all inventory to buy new inventory for the following year. Both of these options made the book fair more accessible to all students, which I thought showed some recognition of reality from even a business like Scholastic.

Content-wise, I am sure that I would not have made all of the novelties available to the students. There were so many character iterations on the tops of pens that my own head was spinning! I know as a child, these attracted me, too. And why wouldn't they? Colorful, characters, useful! But as an adult, I can see that the prices are rather excessive for something you could get for a quarter or may never use at all. I would want to both protect my students from those buys and encourage them to buy texts or project kits that would develop learning and experiences from the book fair. Additionally, I think I might have to take the first delivery day by myself or just have volunteers move the boxes down. At least for my first year, I think I will want to know what is going where to keep my own head straight during the sales process. Perhaps the Scholastic genres will be sufficient; I just want to understand them first!

I am so grateful to have been present at the setup of the Book Fair. This is one of the things that I think may be most practical to help me, especially if I end up as a middle or elementary LMS. As one of the biggest events within the library and one of the most complex (especially financially), this day has been extremely helpful in my LMS formation.

Day 11: Experimenting with Lessons and Discipline

Today ran so smoothly! I was really impressed with some of the students that had to come today for library due to the shortened schedule for tomorrow to set up the Book Fair. This is out of their routine, which I have learned is a BIG part of elementary school, especially in the younger grades. During the first week, I did not do much behavioral correcting as I was still observing and getting a "feel" for how the students acted at each age. Now, I have seen teachers, Mrs. Edgerton, and even the principal chastise students for certain behaviors like not sitting quietly, running to line up or complete tasks, or talking out of turn. I have a little bit of a challenge balancing my eagerness to support their excitement for learning and exploring with the understanding of the need for rules, expectations, and protocol. Especially at this younger age, the students are prone to blurt out irrelevant stories, continue talking through instructions, or other disruptive behaviors they just have not had to learn yet. I have been starting to ask students to sit on their bottoms and face the front and other sort of respectful behaviors during the instructional reading time; yet, they also need some reminders about how not to play with materials (books, shelf markers, alternative seating, etc.) when they are in the library. I told Mrs. Owens I was already tired of a few reminders: "Walk, not run!", "Sit on your bottom", "Scan the Ravenel barcode, not the store's", just to name a few.

4K was fun to teach both classes back-to-back. The students really like to incorporate more knowledge than just reading the stories themselves. Love is a Handful of Honey has three little mice on each spread of pages. Once I noticed this trend, I decided to have them look at the pages for the occurrence of mice. This also got the students to speak with clearer descriptions of locations on the page: at first, the students would answer, "Right there!" I would point to a random spot on the page and say, "Right here!" a few times until they realized they needed a more specific answer. Finally, students would start using identifying markers on the pages: "In the log!", "Next to the bear!", "On top of the tree!" A week ago, this would have felt much too easy to even discuss with the students. Now I know that this is exactly the kind of interaction to give to the youngest grades during story time.

I also experimented with Love is a Handful of Honey to one of the first grade classes, to use this opportunity to gauge if books that appeal to the youngest audience could also be used with slightly older students. At first, one of the students said she saw me reading this to kindergarten, but I reminded her that books can be enjoyed on many different levels if we looked at different things. She seemed to accept that answer. Instead of just witnessing the book and being focused on the characters of the story like the K4s, the first graders also started predicting what would happen on the next page or in the next scene. They, too, liked finding the mice on each page (which I suppose we really are never too old for a treasure hunt), but were also more interested in how the characters on the page were interacting in accordance with the story. The experiment seemed fruitful! I do think that the predicting and following the story was too basic for a few of the students, as they were trying to talk or play or roll their eyes during parts of the story; however, these same students had to be chastised when in the reading center for playing or using the furniture inappropriately. I do not think I would always choose a book like this that appeals to the younger crowd, but I also think that the lesson was well spent simply enjoying the book and enjoying the characters and illustrations.

Between classes, we began some furniture rearranging for the Book Fair delivery that comes tomorrow. There will still be children participating in regular circulation, but our main goals are to set up and decorate for Book Fair. Mrs. Edgerton and I also updated patron cards, printed Accelerated Reader reports, discussed the mid-term evaluation, and completed other "odd jobs" around the library. It is clear that a rhythm (if a chaotic, ever-changing rhythm) does exist with more comfort and time within the library. I'm looking forward to the set up and experience of the Scholastic Book Fair tomorrow!

Mid-Term Reflection Highlights

Wow! Ten days in the Ravenel Library has certainly gone fast! I am honestly shocked at how many things I have already been exposed to in a relatively short amount of time. I was very worried on the first days about trying to fit in all of the goals for SLIS 794, but we have certainly checked off many of the experiences and learning in this short amount of time.

For this reflection, I want to rely on the Internship Performance Learning Objectives to focus on my development and experience thus far. I am writing this reflection after meeting with Cindy Edgerton, my Cooperating Librarian, and will focus on the goals and achievements we discussed.

I. Planning and Assessment

I have always felt that planning and organizing are two of my best strengths for working in education. To record and maintain order, I have both a notebook and this blog to maintain goals and task lists that keep me in communication with Cindy. Completing the SLIS 720 Community and School Analysis and working on the SLIS 720 Library Program Analysis have given me specific insights into the school and district policies, publications, and procedures. I have gotten the opportunity to talk to multiple district employees at varied levels and schools (at Battle of the Books, I met all the district's elementary librarians and several district principals; at the district student teachers' orientation, I met the county tech director and other district-level employees; through discussions at school, I have learned local teachers' opinions and observance of the educational environment; etc.). Cindy and I also spent some of today looking over the Proposed Daily Timeline to ensure a plan for the remaining half of this experience.

The area I lack under this heading is a full understanding of library impact and methods in the school. I am definitely "in progress" for these learning goals. I cannot help but be involved with various initiatives within the library: Accelerated Reader, Battle of the Books, catalog/Dewey instruction, reader's interest suggestions, etc. However, I am not fully competent in understanding the full impact and integration that the media center offers the school as a whole. My goals moving forward include: the SLIS 720 LPA assignment to structurally examine Ravenel's library; read and utilize the SCASL "Impact Study" for researched data; discuss the State Department's survey on libraries; and set goals/discussions for Ravenel's purpose as a library. I think that these goals are achievable with the remaining time in the practicum.

II. Program Administration and Management

Since the beginning of the practicum, I have tried to step in and be a part of the library "staff" as if this were my full employment. Especially with the frequent activity in the library, I really had no other choice! I also wanted to "get my hands dirty" and complete the tasks with a "realistic" pressure on myself to truly feel what it is like to be an elementary librarian. Though timing for reading books to classes was initially one of my biggest challenges, reading more books and having more classes has really helped with that particular practice. I know from teaching that this skill of appropriate timing is one of the last to come, with experience.

I thought that I would not be able to look at any budget, processing, or other more clerical duties of the job until April; however, we have received at least three book orders and a few donated books that had to be added to the system and processed. I had done processing of books in middle school when I was a "library helper," but the computerized and cataloging side was entirely new. I have already processed and added books to the collection from Bound to Stay Bound, Follett, and Junior Library Guild. Cindy's and Destiny's process for these documents are much the same, but it has been a pleasant surprise to get to learn these steps and orders so much earlier than I had anticipated.

I still need to learn how exactly to budget and order necessary books to the collection. We plan to focus on this step in April, as the end of the year will be close to tie in weeding and curriculum development. Additionally, I have conducted book talks and participated in Battle of the Books, but I still need to continue to promote literacy in even more demonstrative ways. This last goal (II. 1) is one that Cindy and I are most ambiguous about achieving, trying to find an appropriate and worthwhile endeavor for me to champion for promoting literacy.

III. Collection and Resource Access Management

The reference and source access is something we have been learning in SLIS since 701. I am glad to see that Cindy recognizes my familiarity and understanding of the programs and search tools that translates to the elementary level.

As I mentioned above, we have not yet worked on any goals surrounding developing or managing the collection as a whole. While I have added individual books to the system and further processed materials, our plan is to complete these goals for inventory and selection during my final week at Ravenel in April. We also plan to connect these processes to the analysis of the SCASL Impact Study so as to direct my understanding of resource management on a broad and local scale.

IV. Collaboration for Instruction

While I have been in communication with two teachers for collaborative lessons, it is challenging to exchange ideas and expectations merely through email or through moments passing in the hall. Cindy and I made the bolder step to schedule a precise time to meet with the lead collaborative teacher so as to outline clear expectations for my arrival back in March. It is my plan to discuss specific goals and any resources or standards the collaborative teacher would like covered and to pull any resources necessary for this unit before leaving Ravenel on Friday so that I may work on the unit and present drafts or questions via email in the time before my March lessons. This accounts for most of the "NO" or "I" responses on Cindy's evaluation form. I have begun the collaboration process, but it is still in a developmental stage.

I have had success with teaching the individual classes, using an ELMO and SmartBoard projector, including video clips to advertise the Book Fair, and recording a tech video for the teachers as bite-sized professional development. I am sure these skills will transfer to the classroom once the expectations are clear with the collaborative teachers for the collaborative unit. 

V. Professional Growth, Develop, and Leadership

Cindy basically laughed when she reached this section. I am obviously very lucky to have the education and support of USC right now during my graduate program. This takes care of most of the elements already in this section! I have also created a PD video, as I mentioned before, on some of the newer technologies at Ravenel. We got permission to send this videos by email to make it accessible and easy-to-learn for the busy teachers at the school. I have gotten positive feedback from Cindy, other teachers, and the lead principal (!!!) on this video. I am excited to send out another next week even while I am physically away from the school. The district provided me with an email that automatically connects to this school network. It has made communicating and sharing new skills with others extremely easy. I am hopeful that the leadership I am able to show during this internship with translate into my current professional career and, of course, following my transition into a school library.



Overall, I feel like the internship is going really well. I am comfortable at Ravenel and feel like I am contributing to the library environment, teachers, and students. It is easy to come into a new place and be scared, timid, or unsure due to the newness of it all. It is also easy to come into a new place and feel like you are exempt from the rules because you are someone "special". I think especially Cindy and Toni have made me feel perfectly in the middle. Though I don't know everything about the flow and expectations and procedures, they answer my questions and encourage me to laugh at my mistakes. Even still, they both allow and encourage me to step into their roles to try and fully embrace the experience, without any chagrin or hesitance or their part. I will be disappointed to be leaving Ravenel on Friday for a time and am not extremely eager to return to tenth grade English, but that makes me think that I am moving in the right direction to something I am passionate about and to where I can become excellent.

Day 10: Changing Things Up

Like I noted yesterday, I had to try some new things today. With Mrs. Crooks's kindergarten class, I decided to read No Matter What instead of If Kids Ran the World. No Matter What was my second choice on my lesson plans, and now I know it should have been my first! This story is about a large fox and a small fox; Small is feeling grumpy and wants to know if Large will still love him/her. Of course, Large says, "No matter what!" I had a lot of fun asking the kids to make grumpy faces or silly faces or otherwise show their reactions to the story. In addition, the book progresses through the day, going to dinner time, bath time, and, finally, bed time. Having the students predict the order of the story was sometimes a leap for their understanding. I felt like this was an appropriate lesson for them to experience and stretch their knowledge of plot.

On the page where the characters were looking out at the starry night, one of the students asked if we could count the stars! "Absolutely!" I exclaimed, so excited that the students actually wanted to do more with the text! (This is a far cry from my 10th graders!) We counted them together (I stopped counting after "3" to see if they could do it), and reached 14 stars! And today was Valentine's Day! Perfect! I asked about today's date and then how many stars and suggested maybe the illustrator did that on purpose, to remind us that though the 14th of February is a day for love, "no matter what" we can love each other. I never would have thought I would say something as "cheesy" as this; however, these children are still learning about love and how to treat one another, so they were actually excited and interested in knowing this tidbit!

Today's 1st grade class did so much better with If Kids Ran the World. I decided to try it one more time because this teacher has a more strict teaching style. I thought that maybe the book did not succeed yesterday more because of behavior than because of content. I was partially right... These students were interested in the story and had excellent contributions to the message and moral of the story. They connected details from the pictures and followed my prompts and overall seemed to enjoy the book instead of rolling around on the floor. In the end and with some reflection, I think If Kids Ran the World is a story that is actually more for adults than children! I also think that this story may be more appropriate at a family story time where the parents and siblings can really talk about the message of the story: generosity, kindness, and caring.

PD Email: Google Drive Basics

Hey, all!

I want to offer bite-sized technology PD for you to view on your own time!

This week's episode is on Google Drive Basics:

0:23 (1) G Suite Training App

1:08 (2) Creating a new document

2:08 (3) Sharing a document

2:30      (with editing, commenting, and viewing modes) 

3:36 (4) Viewing as the receiver (Cindy)

5:17 (5) Recap

​

 Two Minute Tech Tuesday: Google Drive Basics.webm

​

I hope that this and future videos can show you some useful skills for your repertoire! Please let me know if you have a request for a tech video!

Have a great Tuesday!

Elizabeth

P.S. I did really try to keep this one to two minutes, but a basic intro needs a minute or two more! Next week, I'll be keeping it to two minutes, focusing on personalizing your Chrome browser!

--

Elizabeth G. Heck

Media Specialist Intern

University of South Carolina 

egheck14@gmail.com

Cindy Edgerton

Media Specialist

Ravenel Elementary

cedgerton@g.oconee.k12.sc.us

Day 9: My Monday as the Librarian!

Today was a bit crazy! (Though I imagine most Mondays are!) Two classes come in very first thing in the morning, but hordes of books also come through the door right away! This is logical and great for the classroom teachers: the students have had the book all weekend/last week and are going to return it as part of the Monday routine. As a librarian, I am so glad Cindy has an aid! Toni was absent today (to try and help me feel what an only-two-member-staff would feel like), and we could barely keep up with the influx of books and needs of the patrons! To manage this rapid arrival of at least 100 books, Toni is in the habit of putting newly checked-in books on the main tables in the center of the library. Students know to look at those books first, especially if they wanted to read something a friend had turned in. The benefit to this method is that students immediately have access to books checked into the system and the popular books remain in circulation without the effort of correctly shelving them. For sure, the pressure of the moment is the drawback. With two twenty-something student classes coming to checkout books and the four to six classes' worth of books being returned all within the same hour: phew! I did have a headache before the first story time even entered the library! Without changing the schedule majorly, I am not sure how I would improve this Monday morning time. Toni and Cindy must have established a rhythm for this time in order to still be successful with it this far into the school year.

My own lessons didn't go as well as planned. I had chosen to read If Kids Ran the World, by Leo and Diane Dillon, because it showed how kindness and love could abound in the world through different acts of graciousness and care. The pictures are also rich, detailed, and respectful depictions of varied world cultures. I knew the text was a higher level than kindergartners, but thought that walking through the story together would still lead to a good read and moral lesson for the week of Valentine's.

NOPE. The kindergarten class I had first was not engaged in the message of the story, but instead focused on all the goings-on of the pictures. The students were excited about story time, but could not contain their outbursts about each page. Even the questions I would ask like, "Have you donated food to someone who needed it?" ended in strings of stories that they all wanted to share and have listened to. PHEW. I knew that something would need to change with tomorrow's kindergartners, but still wanted to try the book with 1st grade so that I could judge if this was merely an inappropriate level to read If Kids Ran the World with, or if the book itself should be binned from the "Story Time Together" pile.

This first grade class responded better on the understanding level of the book, but were difficult to keep focused during the reading time and lesson itself. Several of the students were trying to roll on the floor, or get up towards the bookshelves, or otherwise wander with their bodies and minds. About half of the students responded well to the questions and engagement of the book; the other half could not settle down and focus. Even when I tried to bargain with them about showing a video clip from the Book Fair, the rowdier students only stopped to think for a moment before resuming their activities. When the class was preparing to leave, both Cindy and the homeroom teacher fussed at the children for their behavior. I felt like I didn't get a good measure on If Kids Ran the World with those students, so I may try this book again tomorrow with a different first grade class.

Lessons from today or goals for tomorrow (in no particular order):

• less complex stories are really okay for kindergarten
• at the end of the day, it's one story time and can mean a lot, but the repetition and diversity of readers and reading material is more important
• try If Kids Ran the World with Mrs. Guill's more strict-led class
• choose a secondary book as the choice for kindergarten
• ask or observe more discipline strategies for young children

Battle of the Books: Promoting Literacy

Oconee County holds an annual "reading incentive" program called the Battle of the Books. This program is based on the national program as a tournament of knowledge and experience with a set book list. The Oconee program uses ten of the South Carolina Children's Book Award Nominees for the year as a reading list for these teams. This year's list included a range of titles, of which I read The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare.

The tournament in Oconee works that several teams are formed in September-ish by volunteers from fourth and fifth grades. Each team is made up of five students, chosen by the students themselves. Ravenel had about five teams by the time I began my internship, but some teams had already been eliminated through lack of participation and readership. Throughout the first semester, these students read the books listed, completed Accelerated Reader tests on the titles, and met on occasion for practice questions and discussion of the titles.

In January, the students competed at the school level to decide which team would be competing at the district level. This is a big readership and literacy night for the school, as the competition is very much a point-based "sport" that results in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams. Once all of the elementary schools in the district have competed within their schools to determine a winner, each schools' #1 team is sent to the district competition, held at one of the elementary schools. On the day of the competition, the student teams go for two rounds against a different randomly-drawn team each time. Once all the teams have competed two rounds, the total number of points earned determines the top three competitors for the final round. Out of ten schools, this three is rather elite! Finally, the three schools compete in the final round to determine the overall winner of Battle of the Books and to receive a trophy for the library and medals for each student.

This program is a huge community event for the librarians at each of the schools. The librarians and students have been prepping for months: first selecting the books and generating questions to the final moments of team practices and the school-level competition night. Yesterday after school, the librarians all met at the assigned elementary school (Blue Ridge Elementary) to set up rooms, chairs, paperwork, and other details to ensure the success of the event today. Once we all arrived this morning at 7:30, we finished set up of snacks for volunteers and technology for presentations and record-keeping.

The students were clearly excited to compete, arriving to their team t-shirt and waiting coaches/librarians. The rounds themselves were respectfully tense, in a good way, and very few teams were overly upset about the results. One reason for this is the hidden nature of the scores for each of the teams. You really only know how you and the team you are singly against are doing. Though Ravenel's team lost both of the individual rounds, we ended up placing fourth in the competition overall. I really like the ambiguity so no one gets so down feeling in last place or feeling so far behind. After these two rounds, all of the teams were given a participation medal before the emcee announced the final three teams competing. I was a little disappointed that so many of the "losing" schools left after the announcement of the final three, but I suppose busy lives with children can only allow for so much.

In the end, Orchard Park Elementary won the competition for the first time since the Battle of the Books Inception six years ago. I only saw one with tears and too many of the others were still excited for having read the books, competed, and won their own school's Battle. During the practices at Ravenel, you could clearly see the students discussing the books and the experiences they had reading each title. Overall, this seems like a giant win for promoting reading and literacy on a recreational, extracurricular level.

After the event, the librarians were discussing potential improvements for next year's program. I began taking notes on this document for the clearly exhausted librarians. They will be discussing this (and other topics) at their next district-level meeting within the month. One of the biggest areas for improvement I saw as an outsider is the limited use of the questions, reading, and effort put into each year's competition. For each year, the librarians have entirely changed the booklist based on the SCASL awards. At their meeting, I would like to suggest two from each of the previous years, cycling in two new titles each year. This way, the titles are still rotating, but good books and hard work are still used and reused for the program. Ultimately, the list could become strong with high-interest novels that would even further promote literacy and recreational reading.

Day 8: Prepping for the Week(end) Ahead

Today, in addition to teaching more of the kindergarten classes, I also finished planning for the week ahead. I laughed when I realized that my initial plan (from Day 4) was definitely more like a classroom plan rather than a story time in the library. I was still thinking in terms of a "unit" rather than an individual "visit." So, I had to rethink my game plan! 

New goals: (1) engaging pages and story for the students to interact with; (2) brief stories with less words on the pages; (3) less "serious" subject matter that would need more "unpacking."

As Valentine's is next week, I tried to choose books on themes of love, different ways to show love, acceptance of others, and friendship. At first, I wanted to avoid this topic, as I figured the classes themselves would be talking about this holiday and I'm not a huge proponent of "romantic" love between elementary schoolers. However, I saw that especially the younger students that come for reading time still experience this holiday as a new, novel experience. Of course! They are only four to six years old! So the books I decided to choose were based on love as a concept or love between non-amorous relationships.

Additionally, the following week is the Book Fair! As this is the last time we will see the students before the Book Fair, I will also be using material provided by Scholastic that uses the authors themselves to advertise a few books available for purchase. The particular titles were chosen based on apparent appeal and creativity of presentation to value thirty-second to two minute clips rather than traditional booktalks.  

Here is the list I ended up with today:
* indicates first priority book, then listed in order of alternate titles for more time.

   K4 (30m without checkout)
       Bookfair​ ​Booktalk WATCH Pig the Pug
       *Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreas
       *No Matter What by Debi Gliori
       I Love You Always And Forever by Jonathan Emmett
       The I Love You Book by Todd Parr
       I Love You, Mister Bear by Sylvie Wickstrom

   K (30m with single table checkout: 1 book)
       Bookfair​ ​Booktalk WATCH Kwame Alexander in Surf’s Up
       Bookfair​ ​Booktalk Pink is for Blobfish--in lib
       *If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
       No Matter What by Debi Gliori
       In Daddy’s Arms, illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
       Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae

   1st (15m with checkout: 2 books)
       Bookfair​ ​Booktalk WATCH Hats Off to You!
       Bookfair​ ​Booktalk WATCH Press Start!: Game Over, Super Rabbit Boy!
       *If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
       *Two Friends by Dean Robbins
       Froggy’s First Kiss by Jonathan London

   EBD (30m with checkout: 1 or 2 books, dependent on student)
       *If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon (AR 3.2, P 0.5)
       *Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae
       No Matter What by Debi Gliori  

After school, Cindy and I traveled to Blue Ridge Elementary, where the Battle of the Books is to be held tomorrow. I will blog more about what the program is, but it was a great experience to see another elementary library within the same school district. This school was built in 2009 and has an expansive space. I would live there, it is so spacious and beautiful! The Blue Ridge library has sections for "popular" series in the high traffic areas like Ravenel, but also has begun "Maker Spaces" with art supplies, large tables, and diverse work configurations. The whole school has also adopted the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as a sort of theme and infrastructure for their discipline and character program. The library has set collections of books focusing on each habit to carry and support that school-wide initiative. It was definitely a cool opportunity to see some of the same programs or library organization implemented in different ways or with different tools to achieve the same goals. I'm looking forward to the program tomorrow!