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! 

Day 7: Book Talks LIVE!

The Ravenel Library is set up with a section for popular series, to make frequently circulated books easy to locate and shelve. Many of the students go first to this section which contains series titles such as:

• Big Nate
• Spirit Animals
• Magic Tree House
• Geronimo Stilton
• Series of Unfortunate Events
• Junie B. Jones
• I Survived
• Bad Kitty
• etc.

While this is an excellent system for helping kids easily find titles and interesting books, the series with less books or with less familiarity are often overlooked by the students. Cindy asked me to conduct book talks over some of those series that she felt could be well-received by Ravenel's upper grade population.

Using Amazon’s Editorial Reviews sections, Goodreads reviews, the book jackets themselves, and the upcoming Book Fair previews, I combined some information to present to the students live in Mr. Dent’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade "gifted literature" classes. I tried to vary the books I presented within the list that Cindy suggested of less-circulated books, appealing to both boys and girls, offering shorter and longer stories, and ranging story contents. I decided to pick four titles per grade level, using one title to mention the Book Fair availability.

I first generated mini "speeches" that I would give during the book talks and then created handouts to go along with each presentation. My original intent was to create bookmarks with these titles on them; however, my computer and copy skills did not quite follow along! You can see that my handouts became more like my original vision as the grade level (the day's schedule) increases. Despite my tech-flubs, the students did not seem to notice one way or another the way the pages were written.

Booktalk Handouts 3rd
Booktalk Handouts 4th
Booktalk Handouts 5th

Once I was in the rooms to present, I found that the script I had created was too rigid to "perform" live. I still plan to record these book talks, so the scripts can still be useful; however, the reactions/interaction with the students required more flexibility. In this situation, I found the students both engaged and potentially excited in response to the titles. In the moment, I realized that the students needed some interactive piece to these book talks: STARS! I directed the students to draw one to five stars based on their interest for the title. This spur-of-the-moment thought worked exceptionally better than I expected, as the students enjoyed trying to draw stars, added twenty-two stars for some they were VERY excited about, and talked with their table-peers about which book interested them the most. Both the students and the teacher seemed excited about at least some of the titles which had them talking even as I was leaving the room!

I knew that the book talks were at least some success when several students came to the library to either check out or reserve the titles I had suggested. One student even came in with the handout to remind him of which one he wanted! Though a little intimidating and requiring a good bit of energy to hype the books up, this seems like a practice worthwhile for a few times over the year in my own library career.

Day 6: K4 is Exhausting!

Today, I started to feel like a real librarian--which sounds a little cheesy, but is still, nonetheless, true. First on Wednesday's agenda are the two K4 classes. The first group Cindy taught, so that I could see how she handled the students for behavior and engagement as well as watching the instruction of the books themselves. There were a few cute outbursts that were either showing the students' young understanding or showing the wisdom of innocence! Cindy started with 1-2-3 Valentine's Day which had the kids really involved counting and predicting the next number and repeating the rhyming phrases as they came. Then she read Love Monster which is a more traditionally structured story that was less interactive. As the students had more time at the end, Cindy also read them Love Monster and the Perfect Present.

When it was my turn, I knew that I wanted to work on timing. I also wanted to read Love Monster first so that I could get the K4s more excited and involved after they had been sitting still for a bit--I certainly have seen how restless their little bodies get trying to sit for 30 minutes! When the class came in and I pulled out Love Monster, many of the kids started exclaiming how they had already read this book! "Oh no!" I thought for a minute, but I tried to settle the kids down by pulling out and the Perfect Present to build off of! They were actually so excited (and maybe even four-year-old-impressed) that I had another one so related and ready to go! 😝 The rest of the time went rather well, though I and their aide had to move a few of the children that would not stop touching others or rolling on the floor. After the lesson and the students had left, I asked Cindy if those behaviors were normal. She said that that particular class is still a little immature, even for their age, and that the practices and directions given were appropriate. It will be some time before I am totally comfortable and familiar with the expectations and behaviors of different grade levels!

Day 5: Filling in the Roles

Today, I taught another class of first-graders, reading Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink. They LOVE this story! Not only do the students respond to the moments of the story, but they also relate to the message of being kind to one another and the consequences of writing mean things. The biggest curve I will need to learn is timing. I did go a little over the teacher's allotted time which potentially sets his/her own plans back. From teaching for six years, I know that timing is something that comes with practice: practice with the student groups, with the materials, with the environment, with teachers' expectations. I have a few more times with this story with different classes, so will try to focus on appropriate timing and interaction.

I also had my first experience with adding books to the catalog. These books were ordered from Bound to Stay Bound, and Cindy pays for them to be prepped for shelving. They came already with call numbers and barcodes, though we added some information within the pages. We stamped the Ravenel ownership "watermark," wrote the AR reading level/points, and put the spare barcode on the first end page. Cindy also writes the vendor and the fiscal year on the inside spine to keep easy track of inventory sourcing. She then puts the packing list or invoice in a binder organized by date. This way, she says, if the bookkeeper requires any additional information for review, Cindy can pull up the form easily. Though much information is now digitized, Cindy says that this "ledger" has saved her spending lots of time searching for information. This way, it is tangible and brief to record and retrieve information for orders and inventory.

After the instructional day, today was a faculty meeting. Our first presenter was for additional insurance. He was goofy and adorable. All the while, the glaring ''CODE RED'' was staring at us all from the projection behind. This meant this presentation was not as well received. The second presentation felt terrifyingly tense for this collection of sensitive and caring elementary teachers. The Sheriff outlined so many scenarios and horrific potential realities that the ''training'' felt like a scare tactic rather than an educational system of protection. Even the officer and the district trainer both said the reality vs. the plan will change. One of the teachers also reflected that the students are often traumatized after their undercover intruder drills, including nightmares, tears, and general terror. Obviously safety training and drills are important, especially with recent events locally and nationally, but there must be a method that is both effective and empowering to the teachers. I don't know what the right answer is for this, but these are my observations from today's training. Two valuable points from the presentation were: (1) do not keep id with a key on it: if left, immediate access and knowledge from where the keys belong; and (2) prepare ''outs'' for each room including cafeteria, recess, etc

Day 4: Pulling Lesson Books and Stepping Up!

Today, my first goal was to observe the Cindy's lessons so that I could replicate them later with the repeat grade-levels. The kindergarten class read Dear Bunny, one of the books I was looking at teaching (!!! Yay! I'm on the right track!), and Cindy focused largely on plot and the elements on each page. A little later, the first grade class came through, and, again, Cindy was reading another book I was planning, Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink! (This is super encouraging!) When Cindy sat down with the book, a visitor came to the library that needed Cindy, so Toni began to walk toward the reading center. Instead, Cindy called ME up to read! Even though I hadn't read the entirety of this book, I knew that I should use voices, point out key plot/thematic ideas, and perhaps any images or details on the pages themselves. The kids were seemingly unaffected at changing teachers to someone they didn't know, and, thankfully, stories have pages that you read until you reach the next one. I thought, if nothing else, you just read the next page and discuss at the end! But, the students' reactions and engagement (or lack thereof) made it clear what we should talk about as we read or what we could continue past. This group of students was a bit unsettled and eager to share personal stories (I think in part due to a sub for the day and from Cindy's assessment that the homeroom is typically less structured), but stayed on topic and on theme with comments and questions. I think the two goals I have for the next lesson I teach are: (1) practice and execute proper timing; and (2) to maintain more awareness of student behavior while leading the lesson. The lesson was comfortable, if spontaneous!

The second goal for today was to pull books for leading my own lessons for the remainder of this week and for next week. I wanted to focus on the two major celebrations in February before the Book Fair comes next Thursday: Black History Month and Valentine's Day. I was looking for stories that show love in diverse ways and how diverse ethnic groups (specifically African-Americans) show those elements of love (acceptance, friendship, supporting one another). I first found a great resource through Scholastic that recommends books based on age level and topics. This is where I found both of the books that Cindy read with the classes today. The lists for Black History Month on Scholastic were excellent for understanding slavery and Civil Rights in America, but lacked the connection I hoped to make with Valentine's being more than just for romantic love.

I had seen an NCTE article pop up on my Facebook feed last night for an initiative/program from NCTE called the National African American Read-In. This seems to be a program that you can really build to a school-wide, month-long initiative within school communities to create a focus and culture of learning about Black History Month. While my own time at Ravenel is not suited for this sort of event, especially as any more sensitive, political, or otherwise specialized topic would need a thorough understanding of unwritten rules and cultural negotiations of a community, the AARI seems like an initiative backed with thorough resources, research, and councils to suggest reasonable and acceptable plans of action. That being said, I did look to the resources to find a booklist of committee favorites and young children's recommendations to add to my list of potential books.

From both topics, I have narrowed down my choices to the following books. I did not include some of the great books on this list because I am only teaching K4, K, and 1st grades. There seem to be many books of more depth and message, but are above the understanding level of the younger children. This is my working list (in no order) to potentially teach this/next week, with citations at the end.

Black History Month

Two Friends--Dean Robbins

Henry’s Freedom Box--Kadir Nelson (3.6)

Of Thee I Sing--Barack Obama

Martin’s Big Words--Doreen Rappaport (3.4)

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom--Carole Boston Weatherford (4.0)

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down--Andrea Davis Pinkney (5.2)

More Than Anything Else--Marie Bradby (3.3)

Something Beautiful--Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Momma, Where Are You From?--Marie Bradby

Both/Sorta

In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall--Folami Abiade, Dinah Johnson, et. al.

Just the Two of Us--Will Smith (2.0)

Valentine’s Day

Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink --Diane De Groat

The Biggest Valentine Ever--Steven Kroll

Dear Bunny--Michaela Morgan
What is Love? --Etan Boritzer

Black Caucus Members. (N.D.) National African American Read-In: Supplemental List for Young Children (18th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Involved/Action/AARI/Young_Children.pdf

Book Lists & Recommendations for Ages 6-7. (2017). Scholastic Parents: Raising readers & learners. Retrieved from www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/book-lists-and-recommendations/ages-6-7

National African American Read-In [PDF]. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Involved/Action/AARI/FrequentlyReadBooks2013.pdf

Student Learning Objectives

Using the SC Department of Education Job Description, I have reflected on my strengths and weaknesses entering this internship. From that analysis, I have written a brief detail on my current understandings and goals for this term. Please click on this link to view these goals.