Auntie Librarian: featured

Showing posts with label featured. Show all posts

This post is is from 4 years ago. I never hit the publish button!

Last year, story time was a big challenge for me. Coming from two decades in the middle school arena, it was new. I stumbled through my own ideas of where the children should sit, wether I should sit or stand, which books were the best choices for story time, should I use a document camera, etc, etc.

In this second year of story time I now understand: the purpose of the story time rug, the story time chair and having a special corner or area for story time. But the biggest revelation for me was just how important story time actually is. Don't get me wrong, I have always known that story time is a big deal and that reading aloud to children is hugely important, but the richness of it and the depth of what story time can be and do is much more than I originally gave it credit for. I underestimated it. Story time is an educational playground chock full of opportunities to teach vocabulary, literary elements and much more. It is also a time to personally connect with students. It creates a shared, community experience that can be referenced and built upon. I bet whole college courses could be done on story time, maybe they are.

I now have a story time chair for the reader - that's usually me! And, I have moved the area where we do story time to the back of the library, away from the distracting flow of checkout, visitors and chatting teachers, closer to our beanbag reading area near the big windows. I remember first seeing the tiered area in our library with the bean bags and thinking that was the perfect place for story time. Now I know better. That area is too large and spread out for my version of story time.

I still don't have a story time rug, because I haven't found one that I like just yet. But, I do understand that the students need to sit on the floor to improve their ability to focus on the book and its' illustrations, and that being close to each other is important. The rug defines that area and makes it special. Children need to see the reader's facial expressions, and the reader needs to see the children's facial expressions. The setting is intimate and special. This is one of the reasons I have chosen not to use technology during story time. I believe it would create a barrier between the reader and the student and that face to face experiences in our world are becoming a luxury.

I have always believed in doing the voices and making sounds when reading a story. Now I also find that putting my own reactions into the read aloud is often effective. The look of shock, surprise or anger on my face when a character does something unexpected is entertaining and often helpful to children in confirming their own reactions to the story. It is also fun.

I certainly have much to learn about the art of an effective story time, but I have come a long way. At the very least, I now have a more comprehensive understanding and a deeper appreciation for the goodness and importance of reading picture books to classes of students.

I recently joined a yoga studio with the goals of increasing my strength and flexibility, finding a community of like minded people, and stress relief. This is the first step on my journey back to fitness. Enthusiastic and optimistic, I signed up for a variety of yoga classes: restorative yoga, yin yoga and hatha yoga. I posted to Facebook about my new found yoga studio, and texted my friends.

“It even has one of those classes where you hang from the fabric like Pink!” I texted my friend Lori. Though at the time I had no intentions of ever joining one of those classes.

However, after perusing the studio's course listings I changed my mind. The description of the antigravity restorative yoga class for all levels sounded appealing even to someone who hasn’t been exercising regularly for the past year. Words like: no prerequisites, gentle, healing, levitating meditations, and floating sivasana lured me in. The real clincher was the phrase, “It offers accessibility to students with physical limitations” Perfect! Just a click and I was signed up for the class.

Up until the moment I walked into the studio, I was excited about doing this new thing, taking risks and being brave. I was plucky and proud.

I checked into the studio, stowed my jacket and shoes and began to wonder exactly what I was doing taking this class. Nervous, I tried to chat up some of my fellow students, many of whom seemed to already know one another. They sat in the fabric hammocks that were suspended from the ceiling as they chatted. I stood off to the side, noticing that I was older and heavier than most of these people. Confidence shrinking now, I asked one of the students how long she had been doing the zero gravity classes. “Oh, three or four months” she said with a serious and unfriendly face. “You don’t belong here!” said the voice in my head. A few other people trickled into the class and everyone took a fabric hammock as the teacher took her place at the front of the room.

All of the hammocks closest to the door were taken. No easy escape for me. It took me three or four tries just to get myself hoisted into the hammock like everyone else. The teacher came to each student to check the height of their hammock. It turns out mine was too high for me. Relief flooded my mind. She lowered the hammock and I hoisted myself up. Now I was swinging around just like the others! Hooray!

Our first instructions were to lift our right leg up and over to straddle the hammock like a saddle or a giant wedgie. I lifted my leg as high up as I could, and I put it back down and looked around to see that everyone else had managed to straddle their hammock. I shifted myself in the hammock and tried again. Eventually, I resorted to trying to grab my right foot as I lifted my leg. It took me three times to catch my foot. After considerable struggle, I was in the correct position. This was going to be interesting. We didn’t stay in that position as long as it took me to get into it.

Visions of Lucille Ball trying to keep up at the chocolate factory flashed in my head as I did the best I could to follow along. Everyone seemed to fit in their hammocks with ease while mine felt like spanx. Despite my clumsy pulling and tugging of the hammock and having to make several attempts for each pose, I was able to do some form of about three of the seven poses. Eventually, the teacher came around and lowered the hammocks to about a foot off the ground. I stepped into the hammock, terrified that my weight would pull the thing all the way to the floor leaving no room to swing. It didn’t touch the ground! Alright! Now I would be able to do all of the poses, I said to myself, nearly tripping, as my foot got stuck in the hammock.

One of the poses involved sitting in the hammock and leaning back, letting your shoulders rest on the floor. I got into this pose successfully. Hanging on to the hammock with both hands like a swing, we hoisted ourselves up for the next pose. Use your feet to push yourself four steps back were the next instructions. When I was doing that, I lost traction and began to swing forward in my hammock. I tried to stop myself with my Flintstones feet brakes as I clawed at the fabric of my hammock trying to pull myself more upright, but my body kept swinging as my feet slipped and slid below me like a wet dog scrambling to get out of a bathtub. There I was swinging out of control, trying desperately to stop myself as my still classmates gracefully curved and turned and bent in their beautiful poses. I can still hear the sound of my feet sliding around on the floor as my hammock slowly came to a stop.

Thankfully, I was able to get myself into the position for floating sivasana, our last pose. Lying flat, in the hammock, like a cocoon. The teacher came around and offered to swing us in the darkened room. It was lovely. Tears of joy, relief and humiliation rolled down my cheeks as I drifted back and forth imagining myself one day being able to gracefully go through all the poses. But for now, I did it. I tried this new thing, and I think I just might try it again. After class, I texted my friend Lori. "Guess what I just did?!" Pink would be so proud.

“I’m learning to be brave in my beautiful mistakes.” PINK

I am exhausted. Still. It has been two weeks since our 40th Annual South Carolina Association of School Librarians conference, and I am still not back to 100% Jen. My ear infection is almost cleared up and the house is back in order. Our book fair is over and the library budget is almost spent. Phew! Hubby and I had big plans to celebrate all the hard work that went into planning this event with a spa day at the Grove Park Inn. Since I got sick almost immediately after conference was over, and our dog was having seizures, we had to cancel our spa day. I really want to celebrate, but it looks like that will have to wait.

Planning this conference has been, as Samantha McManus says, "Like being strapped to the front of a speeding train." It had literally taken over my life: work, eat, sleep, exercise, conference planning. And now that it's over I am a crumpled mess by the side of the tracks. It reminds me of one of my favorite Dixie Chicks songs, "Am I the Only One"(Who's Ever Felt This Way). The lyrics "It rung me out and strung me out and it hung years on my face... and now my sense of humor needs a break" hit home for me. It is comforting to know that I am NOT the only one who's ever felt this way. Isn't that right, Diana Carr? And when I see a tweet like this:

It makes it all worthwhile. One rejuvenated school librarian impacts an entire school of teachers and students.

I have to write the conference review, but the conference is just a blur! One of my favorite moments is stuffing the blue plastic portfolios while listening to Wagon Wheel and the sound track that Dawn James made for us. Project Connect was pure awesomeness and I loved it. I wanted to stand up and cheer a few times! Seeing the authors arrive, meeting them and seeing them show up in the exhibit hall for autographing was awesome. I also enjoyed Sharon Flake and Sara Pennypacker's talks at the Author Celebration Luncheon. Other than those moments, the rest was pretty much a stress casserole for me.

I have to make a list of the lessons I have learned and pass them on to the next President Elect. I have to write thank you notes. So many thank you notes. . .

Sharon Flake, Sara Pennypacker and Sharon Dennis Wyeth in the exhibit hall autographing.

Subscribe to: Comments ( Atom )

Auntie Librarian

featured Slider

Cooking with Love: Chicken Pot Pie

Ode to Shortie

Story time is Sacred

Standing Up

Introducing: the Library Sisters!

A Manifesto of Sorts

Dances With Books

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Feeling the Love

A Super Fantastic Friday

Ryan and Craig a Good Choice for Story Time Pinch Hitters

Growth Mindset and the Zero Gravity Yoga Class

Highlights from 2017

A Change Will Do You Good?

Dazed and Confused

ALA - Jane McGonigal

About Me

Search This Blog