Skip to main content

Summer Ends, School Begins

This summer was full of family and school.  I was able to read a couple of professional books to help improve my library program and my teaching.  I attended the Model Schools Conference in Atlanta and was so proud to teach at Lewis & Clark as I listened to Dr. Palmer and Mrs. Lawson share our very own Model School story.  I learned from other educators in our district at our Liberty Leads PD sessions and shared my MakerSpace/Genius Hour experiences with a few other area library media specialists (even one that I met in Atlanta!)  My family took a short vacation to Chicago, I (mentally and financially) prepared to send my first kiddo off to college in another state, and sadly we said goodbye to my father-in-law.

For the last few weeks, I have been really focused on what the 2015-2016 school year will look like in our library.  Last April I began jotting down a list of things to remember or do for this year.  I have slowly been working to cross things off of that that list.  Some are a result of things that needed improvement from last year and some are a result of what I have learned this summer.  Even after 27 years of teaching, I am always looking for how to grow and learn.

A welcome surprise came this summer when I happened to be working at school in late June when the tech guys were picking up the last of the staff desktops around the school (all staff now have a MacBook Air).  I made a quick decision to remove 18 desktop computers from our library. As of this year, every student in our district will have a device, so I didn't feel that I still needed all the desktops. WOW...there is so much more room in our library with those 8 tables of computers gone (I also took the 12 laptops off tables and moved them to a charging station to use as needed). All of the sudden I had extra tables and space!  So I changed up the tables in my "teaching" area with more narrow tables and was able to set up a few more work stations for kids to move to as they worked.  I have some really low tables for kids who like to work on the floor,  some tables with stools, and some comfy chairs grouped together for collaboration.

Of course I added a few Pinterest projects to the space as well.  I spend so much time at school that it is really important to me to have a pleasant space to come to each morning and the kids always comment on the atmosphere in the library.

I have also spent some time mapping out my year with each grade level.  I am sure I will not be able to fit everything in that I want to do, but I will try my very best!  I also created a template for planning that helped me focus on what objectives I want to teach in each "unit" and an outline for each day of learning.  I am really looking forward to our second year with our MakerSpace and the continuation of Genius Hour mixed in with some new, exciting learning I have planned.

Today I am officially back to school.  I love that even after teaching for so long, I am still excited and thrilled to try new things and put into action what I have imagined!

So...here is to an amazing year in the Lewis and Clark Library Maker Center!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Last Post!

This will be my last post as a teacher-librarian for Liberty Public Schools.  After 30 years of teaching, I will be retiring at the end of this school year.  I will continue teaching next year at Kansas City International Academy.  I will totally be switching roles and can't wait to help middle school students work on their reading skills.  I have already started immersing myself in middle school reading by viewing webinars, rereading several books on the topics of reading and literacy ( The Cafe Book and The Daily 5 ),  and reading several new books that will help me manage the structure necessary for successful guided reading. On the other hand, I am also going full speed in the library as well.  We are ending the year by wrapping up Genius Hour projects, art bots, creating books on topics we are passionate about, introducing next year's Missouri award books, and getting summer reading off the ground so our LC kiddos keep on reading!  Several of us are also totally reva