We came back from Spring Break to a very busy schedule! Since most students are on campus, we are back to being a hub/overflow during free periods and lunches. It has led to some fun conversations and bonding with kids that we certainly missed this time last year. We’ve also helped with a junior research paper, freshman research paper, 6th grade presentation on Shakespearean times, and in 6th grade Geography. We attended the virtual AISL conference and Whitney was part of the Student Leadership in Diversity Conference. We helped 8th grade pick out books, and finished our 4th round of personalized book boxes. April saw the biggest turnout with 70 box requests! Our school completed a modified spirit week, modified prom, and even a door decorating contest (which we won!!!). We also prepped for Battle of the Books competitions this week and took requests for a new Manga collection. All throughout we’ve still be running books clubs, Community Life, and added on a MS United Spectrum club. Just under a month left of school, but who’s counting?!
The Push to Spring Break
We made it!!! As everyone is saying these days, it’s incredible to think of all the adaptations and changes that happened in the past year. We finished off quarter 4 of last year completely virtual, returned to a hybrid model in the fall, and this quarter 4 will be completely in-person (except for students opting to remain virtual). I’m a little nervous for the return of all students, but we’re as prepared as we can be! We spent much of today reworking our seating to the new 3-foot rule, helped a cutie group of 8th graders throw a surprise baby shower for their math teacher, and ran around prepping for the break.
Whitney also spent the week in 6th grade English classes, helping with a research project on Shakespearean times since they’re reading The Shakespeare Stealer. I also attended some professional development opportunities and placed a new order of fun fiction books!
And now time for a much anticipated spring break!
Week 24
This week has been full of junior researh paper appointments. Students are writing on topics as varied as the 18th amendment to First Ladies’ dresses to the 1980 US Hockey Olympic team. We’re getting good mileage out of our ebook subscriptions and our new video streaming service! Since students are required to utilize Primary Sources, it’s been fun seeing what’s out there. My personal favorite was watching video news coverage of the Lindbergh baby from the 30’s. Another highlight of the week was 8th grade book club discussing the first section of Tuf Voyaging. The student who nominated the book bribed everyone to read with the promise of homemade bread. While certainly a first, I’m hoping it won’t be the last 🙂 This group of kids is always so much fun, and I’ll miss when they move on to US next year. Additionally, we had virtual games club and raced to find Wikipedia articles, and Whitney’s Community Life team recorded a presentation that will be show to the whole MS.
Weeks 20-23
Here we are again! The start of the 3rd quarter has been a busy one in the library. We’re helping out a long-term sub in 6th grade English with a mini-essay/research project on Afghanistan. We’re consulting individually with juniors on their US History term papers. We also decorated the library with quotes from Amanda Gorman’s inauguration speech, put up displays of books featuring Black Americans, and hung posters of prints by my favorite artist (Alma Thomas). Whitney has been helping launch a new club in the Middle School for United Spectrum and has been in talks for planning an author visit next year! It’s looking promising!! Other than that we’ve been getting vaccinated, I’ve been reading books for the Quick Picks for Reluctant Reader group for YALSA, and we’re putting together our next round of Book Boxes. In February we sold out our 50 boxes in 2 days and had immediate interest for more, so I’d consider that a success! Hoping everyone is staying safe and healthy and warm 🙂
Week 19
We’re back in person! After a 2 week virtual spacer post-winter break plus a day off to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, we are back to hybrid learning. We’ve been busy planning our budget for next year, which entails a lot evaluating what we already have and what we may need moving forward. A major shift for us was adding Infobase’s video streaming service, weeding half our DVDs, and now we’re looking to add tables for more students working space! We are also working on the transition of our catalog to merge the lower school with our own campus so we can start sharing resources better.
On the teacher-y side of things, Whitney went into 8th grade classes to discuss the importance of reading diverse authors, and students came to the library to check out a book by an author of diverse race/sexuality/ability. She’s also been in Psychology and Spanish classes and started planning with some US History teachers. Sprinkled in we’ve had lots of book clubs, a Battle of the Books meeting, staff meetings, and Community Life lunches. It’s nice to be back in the land of chatty students 🙂
Week 15
Long time no type. Here’s what we’ve been up to:
- 6th grade Science citations lesson
- 7th grade History paraphrasing lesson
- 10th grade History Noodletools lesson
- Interviewing candidates for an open position
- News Lit Camp with the Texas Tribune
- ISS Web Chat on Programs Aplenty webinar
- Webinar on Lifting Voices
- New Beanstack challenges – Winter Reading and Black Eyed Susan competition
- Battle of the Books introduction meeting
- 6th grade book club for Hunger Games
- Virtual games club
- Community Life meetings
- Starting a merger between our catalog and the LS catalog
- Decorating and swapping out bulletin boards
- Brainstorming book boxes to mail out
- Crafting individualized book bags for winter
Fingers crossed for one last week of productive, fun, HEALTHY, work before break!
Week 11
Our week started off with Parent-Teacher conferences, but since we didn’t have any virtual meetings set up, we had the time to shift books! After listening to the ladies from #DisruptTexts, we decided to get rid of the “Classics” section because what really counts as a classic?? In its place, we decided on a short stories section. This required recategorizing all the classic books and pulling all the short stories from their various genre locations. We also shifted the professional development books and replaced them with new non-fiction books and the yearbooks. Hopefully we’ll get more check-outs and interest this way!
This week we also wrapped up the 8th grade chemist research project and continued to set up Noodletools accounts in the Upper School. We also had a lively discussion of Six of Crows in 8th grade book club – probably our best yet this year! The busy weeks continue… 🙂
Weeks 9 & 10
As quarter one came to an end, we went sprinting into quarter two! As teachers are finding themselves unable to teach from campus, we’ve been called upon to cover classes. No complaints here – just trying to balance schedules!
Whitney has been setting up NoodleTools and teaching about citations in US History classes and also taught in MS Science where the final product was an infographic about the science of Covid. She also hosts weekly Community Life meetings which seem to gain in popularity as time goes on 🙂
I have been working in 8th grade science on a chemist research project and gained another level of respect for teacher’s workload. Between balancing Zoom students and in-person students, back-to-back classes, and eating lunch with advisees, it’s tough to find time to go to the bathroom let alone take a breath! This project teaches the kids how to use Gale’s Biography in Context, share a NoodleTools project, create in-text citations, and upload documents in OneNote. Technology wasn’t my friend at the beginning, but things seem to be smoothing out now. I even heard a student say she loved databases because you could export citations directly to NoodleTools. Welcome to the dark side of loving research!
Next week includes 2 days of Parent-Teacher Conferences so we’ll be working on more of the physical space of the library while students are gone. Stay tuned for more info.
Week 8
This week involved:
- 7th grade book club – we played 20,000 dollar pyramid!
- Community Life Meeting
- Student council inductions
- A day off (Monday)!
- Halloween door decorating judging
- Website updates
- Advisory grade check-ins
- Beanstack challenge updates
- Reading!
Week 7
This week held another rousing 8th grade book club discussion of Ender’s Game. Now if we could just get all the kids to read the book….I’m excited they chose Six of Crows for next month! It’s also been a week full of professional development: MASL Conference on Leading the Change for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, SLJ’s Day of Dialogue, and the continuation of ALA’s Leadership for School Librarians. We put up a new Halloween display, finished up New Kid Jamboard discussions in advisory, weeded some of the travel and reference books, and dipped our toes into pulling holds at the Lower School. Since neither of us are too familiar with the collection down there, it took some time but I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it. Nothing better than getting books into the hands of excited kids 🙂
Book, Line, and Sinker 