Teacher Librarian's Corner

I am counting down the days to the end of the school year. I have been busy with inventory in the midst of fighting off spring fever for both myself and my students. There is so much more I want to tell them, to teach them but my time at Hardy is coming to a close.

While I will miss Hardy, I am looking forward to going to my new school. I attended a PD today that literally had me wanting to start planning now for next year. There is an energy in my new school that I just can’t explain.

With the change in schools, I have decided to change blogging platforms. I love tumblr but unfortunately it does not clear the school filters. I will be launching a new blog on blogger in May. This account will be archived. Thanks so much for being part of my journey. When the new blog is up and running, I will post a link here.

I love Poetry Month! This past week I enjoyed discussing a wide variety of poems with my students. I always enjoy listening to their thoughts and insights about what the poem is saying. This week we enjoyed reciting and discussing: Emily Dickinson’s Bee! I’m expecting you!, Robert Louis Stevenson’s My Shadow, Isaac Watts How Doth the Little Bee and Lewis Carroll’s The Crocodile. Fifth grade enjoyed two poems full of onomatopoeia: Galoshes and The Washing Machine.

I can’t wait to introduce them to a couple of technology tools next week that will allow us to create and share our own poetry creations.

One more day of school until spring break. I am ready. I plan to rest and relax in preparation for the last push to prepare for the state test. The months of April and May are full of special events and activities. I plan to help my students finish up a few long term research projects that they have been working on for the last few weeks. April is National Poetry month and May is when I begin to promote summer reading. There is so much planning to be done, but it can wait. See you after the break

Recently, I discussed library organization with my students. I asked two questions. Why is the library organized? and What are some other ways that we could organize the library?  I wanted them to think about why the library is organized the way that it is. I asked them to discuss the questions in their groups and then to post their responses on the chart paper.  Nearly every group answered the first question this way: “So we can find the books we want.” I got several different answers for the second question which included: by color, size, shape, level, and genre.  We discussed why color, size, and shape didn’t make sense.  Later, I went through the sticky notes again and realized that many groups had listed genre and level as their response to the second question. Are my students trying to tell me something?  I think that they are most definitely telling me that the library is difficult for them to use because they are thinking in terms of genre not author.  They ask me: “Where are the scary books?”, “Do you have any football books?”, “Can you help me find a mystery?”  They are searching by genre.

I believe that the core mission of the library is to provide access to information. Patrons need to be able to find information and books that they want and need.  If students are using genre as an access point then I need to help them by organizing the library by genre.  This is not going to be an easy task but if the end result is students finding the books that they want to read then it will be completely worth it.

By the way, I am not getting rid of Dewey.   The books will still be classified as fiction and shelved by the author’s last name. The initial access point will be genre. I am not going to bother the nonfiction section because it is naturally shelved by subject and my students are finding the books that they need.

Wish me luck.  I’ll keep you posted.

So is Easy Fundraising an oxymoron? Fundraising is one of the most difficult parts of my job. I am constantly on the look out for grants.  When I find one, I have to really work hard to create a project that the committee will want to fund.  I have been successful in getting 2 grants funded the past two years for really fun projects. Special thanks to Allied Arts of Chattanooga and Unum for supporting my library.  Grant writing season is upon us.  This year,  I would like to update our state and country books which have an average copyright date of 1989.

This is the project that I am most likely going to propose: Students would research a chosen state or country using the new (assuming the grants are funded)  state and country books. Students would create a display or multimedia project to share whate they learned. The school community would gather in the cafeteria where students would share their completed projects.  The problem is that most state and country book sets cost over $1000.  One mini grant opportunity is $750 and the other is $1000.  This is not quite enough to fund the new books and supplies for our projects.  So I want to share with you an easy way to help me purchase these books.

Have you heard of Box Tops for Education?  Each box top is worth 10 cents!  Every 10 box tops is $1.00.  Those little pink and white coupons add up fast.  If you are not already supporting a school would you consider sending your box tops to my school? Or perhaps, you shop online. You can create an online account with Box Tops For Education Marketplace and earn boxtops for my school by going through links on Marketplace page. When you create your account, be sure to select Hardy Elementary in Chattanooga, TN as your school. Often many of these businesses in the marketplace offer discounts.  This is easy fundraising, especially if you normally purchase the products that have Box Tops or shop the online stores in the marketplace. My goal is to collect 10,000 Box Tops by October 20.

You can send Box Tops to:

Cristol Kapp, Librarian

Hardy Elementary School

2100 Glass Street

Chattanooga, TN 37406

My reading list includes a variety of books about instruction, and instructional methods, classroom management, and library management. I am currently reading Making Thinking Visible by Ron Richtart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. The book is divided into three parts: Some Thinking About Thinking, Using Thinking Routines to Make Thinking Visible, and Bringing the Power of Visible Thinking to Life.

This was one of those books that jumped off the shelf at the bookstore and grabbed my attention. I wanted to know how I could get my students to share what they were thinking about the research process. How could I get them to share what they were understanding? How could I assess them effectively in the brief time that I see them each week? The subtitle is How to Promote Engagement, Understanding and Independence for All Learners. I was sold.

This is a book that challenges my educational paradigm. Thinking about the thinking process has caused me to think about how I convey information to my students. Am I talking to much? Am I asking thought provoking questions? Are my students thinking to learn? Is learning the rote memorization and recall of facts or does it go beyond that?

The nice thing about a blog is the ability to go back in time and read previous posts. It can do a lot to encourage you and remind you that the picture is a little bigger than the current moment.