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I walked into the new school library at Chatham Grove Elementary School for  the first time in May 2020. There was so much space! It was incredible! We  could host a square dance in between the eighteen double-sided rolling  shelves, four book carts, and two rolling chairs. The furniture looked so  small all by themselves. [...] You may view the latest post at https://knowledgequest.aasl.or g/when-you-give-a-school-libra rian-an-empty-space/

I stripped the walls in the library of all decor. Don’t get me wrong, they looked good - really good, but I’d had a passport theme up for the last three years and it’s time for a change! I’m keeping the same color coding - Yellow - Fiction Blue - Nonfiction Red - Picture books Why am I doing that now you ask? I don’t know. It’s legit crazy with inventory and DLMI and all the books being returned and county orders coming in, but sometimes you have to do what you want to do and not just what you have to do! I’ll share the progress in a few days. 

So, I'm behind (mwahahahaha) and Title 1 is coming for a visit in a couple of weeks, and inventory in the classrooms starts when we get back from Spring Break. So this weekend, it's cataloging at the kitchen table time. Two hundred twenty Spanish books purchased with special funding. Little things most of them, but every one has to be cataloged, processed, checked out to a teacher. I'm down to about a dozen. Woo hoo!  

I always start with the end in sight. I wish I could remember what class I was taking when I realized this was a great way to operate! So. . . What do I want this station work to look like when it's fully implemented? I want the students to Choose a station independently. Work with their peers cooperatively. Use voice levels appropriate for inside. Clean up thoroughly. ;) Start, pause, and stop as needed for other things that may happen (like class ending, a fire drill, checking out books, etc.) I also need a couple of station ideas with which to start. Hopefully, these can come from something I already have at the library - like games or puzzles. Yes, those are simple things. They won't win any prizes for deep thinking activities, but what we are trying to establish is routine and procedure. We'll develop those thinking skills after routines are automated. Week one (and probably two and three) in year one: I assign the students seats. I like groups of three, an...

It's that time when our brains are shifting back into gear for school (welcome or not, it's happening!). As those thoughts emerge, I'm getting more and more questions about stations and maker spaces. I'm just going to call them stations from now on. I'd like to write about everything that happens, needs to happen up front, and where you might end up, but that won't happen in a single post. People come to the OTES library and ask: How did you decide to use that? How did the kids know to go there? How long does this last? And lots more. What they are seeing is years of trial, error, and success, so I'd like to share some of the process so you can decide what will work for you, and hopefully, some of the trial and error part can be minimized. I'd like to address: choosing & managing the materials how to get started with the students managing the day-to-day routines What else do you want to know as I move through this? Let me know and I'l...

So you need some hard evidence that what a school librarian does grows students. I get it, we are data driven as an educational society. My largest fear when data is requested is to show the librarian link to student learning, there is at least an implication that the learning impact is reflected in test scores. I want to step back for a minute and consider the job of a school librarian. What school librarians do is highly individualized. We work closely with students, teachers, and parents to make sure everyone is being helped in a way that is most beneficial to each. We have been perfecting individualized learning for ages. Needs at my school are vastly different from the needs at the school just a few miles away. Even in one school, one year the librarian may work more closely with students. Another year, the teachers may get the lions share of the librarian's time. So, here are a few ways that librarian impact on student learning can be measured: Long range plans including sc...

I want you to meet Ann Fay Honeycutt. She lives on a farm in NC in 1944. When her father goes off to fight in the war, Ann Fay is left to fill his boots. I want you to see her standing there in her overalls ready and willing to fill in even while she knows the job is just too big. When you meet Ann Fay, you'll learn about farming and what a wicked beast that beautiful wisteria can be. I want you to meet her family, neighbors, and friends. Some with hearts big and brave enough to love through all kinds of heartache. Some with hearts that seem small and scared. All I can say is thank goodness for Junior and Bessie! Make sure you have a box of tissues handy. If you are like me, you will laugh quite a bit with Ann Fay, but there are times when you'll have to sort through the heartache with some tears. The tissues will come in handy then.

One of the highlights of the trip was the  AASL Awards Ceremony. We got to meet our digital leaders, grant winners, and librarians of the year. This year, the AASL Distinguished School Administrator award went to Mike Daria , Superintendent of Tuscaloosa City Schools. Last week I was at ALA in the humongous conference center in New Orleans! Always a great event. Although the conference center was so very large, that I didn't see many folks from NC. I wouldn't have even known they were there except for Facebook. Dr. Daria understands the value of school libraries to the culture of classes, schools, and districts at a level that is rarely seen. Please read what he says in a recent edition of  Knowledge Quest . I talked with him for a few minutes after the awards ceremony. I repeated what he already knew - that so many in the upper ranks of education have no idea what a difference a good librarian can make in a school. He told me that he didn't either, until he li...

My principal wants me to level our school library. What's the best way to do this? I see this question way more often than I should. I want to share my views on why leveling isn't the answer to any academic woe. Before I start, I do understand the reasons to level a library. I just don't think they are any good. I understand how intense pressure from administrators can be for increased test scores and programs (like AR) in which they've invested a boatload of money. With that said, the rest is my thoughtful opinion on the why it's not a good idea to level any library. The number one argument I hear in support of leveled libraries (classroom and the main one) is that children become better readers when they read in a range close to their current reading levels. Why do we even have levels? For years, we had readers (at grade level) and trade books. While it's true they were simpler for younger grades and more complex for older ones, they were not leveled. Levels w...

I went to NCTIES last week. Every workshop I went to was fantastic! And I could talk for hours about those workshops, but I've started looking at conferences in a new light. That's probably for a couple of reasons. 1) I've gone to so many this year. This alone is incredible. The more you go to, the more you learn how to conference. And 2) I'm planning the conference for NCSLMA for October of 2018. (Just in case you hadn't heard!) So I'm looking at the things I like, and then thinking about the how in making those my own. This year, I'd really (really, really) like to go paperless at conference. NCSLMA is 100% volunteer. When new leadership comes in, we have to decide what to do with old stuff. So I've been thinking more and more about that stuff. We've got it down to amazingly small pile for the number of members, but still, there is stuff. One of the things I wanted to tame this year was the collecting of CEU papers,  along with it's evil twin -...

I am a strong proponent of public education, but I'll be the first to say I don't like the track we are on. What I see is heavily prescribed learning with little choice for students. We can debate which schools have the better teachers and which schools have the best opportunities. But what we need desperately is for every single school to be place where children flourish.  We don't need a choice of school. This just opens up a whole different set of problems. We need consistency in all schools. ALL schools need to offer high quality reading materials time to be curious a variety topics to explore meaningful techniques of expression other learners, teachers, experts outside of their school wall opportunities to fail instruction in how to write personalized action plans to hear viewpoints that are different from their own a community with shared ideas and plans time for thinking and reading and exploring independence and some choice. We don't need a...

Yesterday, I spent the day at East Carolina University at the Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit! This was the first one I've attended (thanks to Sedley Abercrombie). I've looked at it every year for the past six years thinking I should go, but just haven't made the commitment. Thanks to Alan Bailey and his team at ECU for putting on this great event! Pros: Quality sessions led by NC librarians. Food - breakfast, lunch, and snacks (and it was all really good!) Networking - this was actually easier than at larger conferences Cost - $30 covered opening session with John Claude Bemis, three sessions, door prizes and more food than I could eat. Location - we were all over Joyner Library. (I love being at my alma mater!) Cons: Location - don't laugh. It's a long haul on Friday afternoon from Winston Salem to Greenville. Although not as long because Sedley and I travelled together. Traffic is never as bad when you have someone to talk to. So next year, b...

am I still a librarian? Periodically, I see districts, schools, and other groups trying to come up with a new name that exactly portrays what we do. I get it. Librarians do EVERYTHING. We want a title (other than super hero) that clearly portrays our job to the world. Most every profession has changed. Most every professional in most every field has had to take on new and different responsibilities, grow in their technological awareness, and move in directions that just a few years ago, they had no idea would exist. And yet, we still call teachers, principals, salesmen, doctors, lawyers, etc. by the titles they have gone by for years, and everyone understands that their jobs, roles, responsibilities have evolved. AND here's what I think has happened in all this effort finding the perfect title in the school library world - no one knows what we do. This pursuit of constantly seeking just the right title has diminished our profession. While people are trying to figure out what to cal...

NCSLMA annual conference is this week! We have awesome speakers, authors, vendors. We get to see much missed friends. We get to talk library talk and know everyone will understand! A ton of effort goes on behind the scenes making this event a happening. Many associations have a paid administrative assistant and may even have a director. NCSLMA is run 100% by volunteers. These volunteers are active in their own libraries and give enormous amounts time to help improve our profession. Thanks to their efforts, we have an exceptional organization to represents us! I want to especially thank Brene Duggins, president-elect and conference chair, and Sedley Abercrombie, president. I've learned so much from both and am looking forward to serving with them again next year. This year, NCSLMA, AASL, and NCLA all have vendor booths. Please stop by and say hello!  

Last year was my first at Old Town Global Academy. We spent a lot (did I say A LOT) of time working on procedures and routines. That had a huge payoff semester 2 with quick reviews and lots of action. I did wonder how much time I'd need to spend getting us back up to par this year. We reviewed procedures. Did they remember them? They did. We practiced movement around the library. Did they move correctly? They did! Bingo! Every 1st - 5th grade class got to spend some time in stations for their first class of the year. This year, we are going to add components from Ron Clark's 55 to the mix. Can't wait to see the results!

I love the start of school! I love seeing my educator friends and getting back into a regular routine. I love the organization and planning. I LOVE seeing the kids again! So just what does back to school look like for a school librarian? Meetings - lots of meetings. Some on campus, some off. Some are online. Some I don't have to go to, but they are in the library, so I am kind in those too. We meet as a whole school, we meet as librarians, we meet as specialists, we meet as smaller groups of librarians, we meet to talk about curriculum & schedules. We meet as a district. Don't laugh! The district meeting is something I rarely look forward to only because it takes more time away from the library. BUT we always have a fabulous speaker and this year was no different. Ron Clark is incredibly inspiring - he's innovative and practical. Prepping for open house. Putting up some bulletin boards. Equipment & technology - lots of things have to be checked out t...

The library should be a place of wonder and excitement. I think it should be very different from everywhere else students go. But there are some definite organizational issues involved with seeing classes all day long, allowing for continuous open check-out, and maintaining your sanity. Enter stations as a sanity saver. First. You have to have a plan. What stations will you use? How often will students go to stations? How will students rotate through stations? What do students need to know to be effective station users? What routines will you establish to make stations work for you? Do you want your stations to focus on reading alone or also support a subject area? A regular class: Students come in and sit on the rug or at tables. We talk about expectations and I may do a mini lesson or read a story. Station/check out time. Return to rug/tables for reflection, sharing, and dismissal. When I first started stations, we practiced moving and voice levels. Everyone station was the same - pu...