Auntie Librarian

I read the book  Wonder by R.J. Palacio  after hearing Donalyn Miller book talk it at the SCASL conference.  I enjoyed the book and especially loved the quotes at the beginning of each section. Of course, I passed the book on to my students and teachers, urging them to read it. Not long after I finished reading Wonder, our school began forming and training an anti-bullying committee. I knew this awesome book would  perfectly compliment our school's anti-bullying efforts.

Dr. Lodge McCammon was a featured speaker at the Upstate Technology Conference in June. I enjoyed his keynote address as well as his engaging enthusiasm and energy. While I had heard about the concept of flipping the classroom before, I had never been presented with compelling data to support it, and I had never seen it done in McCammon style. Flipping the classroom essentially moves the lecture to being homework and the application, drill, practice and activities to being classwork. It makes sense. In a flipped classroom the teacher spends more time with students practicing a skill or concept and less time lecturing. The lecture is video recorded using a simple flip camera and white board tiles or chart paper rather than power point or movie maker slides as seen in the video clip below. No fancy technology is needed.


After listening to Dr. McCammon speak I think that even if a classroom or a school isn't completely flipped, there are benefits to using McCammon's flipped classroom techniques to improve teaching and learning. According to McCammon, a 60 minute in-class lecture is equal to an eight minute video lecture. This is purely due to classroom management. I am not saying poor classroom management either. It is simply the regular management of 25 or more students in a classroom that makes delivering content take a long time. Most teachers know this as their daily reality.

In a truly flipped classroom students view lecture videos at home as their homework. Let's just say the  issues of students choosing not to watch the lecture or being unable to watch the lecture due to lack of technology at home make doing this unrealistic for you. Even recording lectures and playing them during class is  worthwhile.  If a teacher video recorded her lesson and played it to her students even during class, this would reduce lecture time, enable easy repeat viewing in class or at home, and allow the teacher to spend less energy giving the same lecture four to six times a day. In addition, there would essentially be two versions of the same teacher, one that is live and one that is on video. This would enable the teacher to be the ultimate zen master of classroom management during the lecture. The lecture would be able to be paused, repeated, forwarded, and used again. This approach would lessen teacher fatigue and enable the teacher to use her energy in a more meaningful way.

One of the points that McCammon made that really stuck with me was that the relationship with the classroom teacher has a direct influence in the student's learning and performance. McCammon provided convincing evidence that content is much more meaningful and powerful when it comes from the student's own teacher. That realization makes teacher-student relationships in traditional classrooms something to emphasize and re-evaluate. It gives weight to that old saying, "Your students will not care what you know, until they know that you care."

After hearing Dr. McCammon speak, looking at his website and videos, I am convinced that teachers can benefit from learning about this concept even if they have no intention of trying it out in their own classrooms.

In June I  attended the amazing and free Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, SC. Of course, I learned about the conference through my invaluable SCASL network. Silly me, I neglected to register for the conference. I heard rumors of a limited amount of first-come-first-serve onsite registrations. So, I decided to get up at the crack o' dawn and head on over to Greenville to see if I could snag one of those onsite tickets. Lo and behold, I was one of the first people there, which means I also got an awesome parking place. I enjoyed the oatmeal and coffee I brought while I waited for the conference folks to get the tickets. I later learned that they turned away over 100 people after the onsite tickets were gone.

I got a golden ticket!

Now, would this conference be worth the early morning rise? I had never been to one, so I was was eager to find out. It was most definitely worth getting up early for. The conference is extremely well organized, and the variety of sessions offered are unbelievable. Below are some session notes.

This year I decided to check out books to students over the summer. "You'll never get 'em back!" says the wicked witch in my head. It reminds me of the "You'll shoot your eye out! You'll shoot your eye out!" sass from Ralphie's teacher in A Christmas Story. I thought it was a revolutionary idea, because all I ever heard was, "You'll never get the books back." Well, it's NOT a revolutionary idea and lots of great librarians do it. I posted a query to the SCASL list-serv asking, "Do you check out books over the summer?" and one person replied "as many as they want. . " that's when I knew I had to do it. Here are some other reasons:


1. The only students who are going to check out books are the ones who love to read, those are my regular customers and they are pretty reliable about returning their books to the library. We need to make more students who love to read. But for me right now, the number of students interested in summer book check out is not overwhelming.


2. Which is more important? Getting all the books back or kids reading over the summer? Students reading over the summer is much more important than the potential loss of a few library books.


3. I used it as an incentive for students to clear their library account and return all of their books on or before the last week of school. Students could not check out books for the summer unless they had no check outs or overdue books or fines on their library account.


4. Checking out books over the summer helps build a culture of reading.


5. I decided to allow only the 6th and 7th graders to check out books because they will be returning to the school next year. I did check out a few books to 8th graders who asked about checking out books and told them to return the books to the High School library or our public library.


All in all this has been a positive experience that I will almost certainly repeat next year. I started a summer book club with four books to choose from and scheduled meetings on the two dates I opened the library.
Even if we don't get many people, this is a start. I will be able to kick the year off by continuing the summer book club into the first two weeks of school.


Check out the SMS Library Blog to see what we read and some of the activities we tried.

We just hung a beautiful sculpture in the library. There's a story behind it, and in honor of my Mother I am going to write about it.

I went to Florida the summer after my mother passed away. I drove down by myself. I guess you could say I was looking for my mom and for myself too. The trip was magical. Weird things just seemed to happen. Beautiful things.

One of my first stops was Anna Maria island, a place we often went as a family. It's been over twenty years since I was last here.I passed by the house we used to stay in. I sat on the pier I used to fish from as a kid. I took a walk on the beach my sisters and cousins used to play on. My head was filled with so many wonderful memories. It was sunset time, and the water was smooth. I couldn't help but roll my pants up and walk into the water. Like the air, the water was quiet and warm and still. When I saw the dolphin fins emerge from the water, I could not believe my eyes. At first I was terrified, thinking, "shark!" I was delighted when, silently and slowly, a mother dolphin and her baby swam so close to me I could almost reach out to touch them.

My next stop was Longboat Key, another special place full of memories. While I was there, a manatee swam along the shore of the beach near my hotel.  This rarely happens as manatees prefer mangrove areas and channels. I spotted its dark shape from my lounger, threw down my magazine and ran to the shore line. A crowd of people began to form around me as I pointed to the manatee. 

I have never been so close to dolphins and manatees before.

St. Petersburg was the last stop on my trip. My mother used to live there.  I visited Mary Ann,  a longtime family friend. Mary Ann took me to to see the Morean Arts Center's Chihuly Collection. I have seen a few of Chihuly's pieces in hotels and Casinos and loved them all, but not to the point of emotion.  I had never seen a whole collection exhibited. I was deeply engrossed in the beauty of the glass pieces featured in the collection when I came to the last part of the exhibit, the Fiori. Chihuly makes large pieces of art called fiori, which is Italian for the word flower. These particular pieces are so large they take up an entire room.  I walked into the black room where the fiori piece was. It was like a spectacular glass garden laid out before me. Beautiful, bright colors and shapes sprouted from the ground.  I was so blown away by the beauty of it I had to sit down. It literally brought tears to my eyes.

         I have never seen such vibrant colors and fantastic shapes before. 

Mary Ann and I  also visited a hot shop, and watched a live glass blowing demonstration. The whole time I was in St.Pete looking at all this art, I was thinking of my friend Amanda, who teaches art at my school. I snapped photos and took video clips and sent them on to my art teacher friend. I knew she would love to see all of this. She sent me a text saying, "more!"

      Seeing how much I loved Chihuly's art, Mary Ann gave me a 
    Chihuly poster and Chihuly books and postcards. I put them in 
    my car and headed back home.  

As I am driving home from this wonderful trip, barreling down one of those lovely flat, smooth Florida highways with the music turned up loud, up in the horizon, dozens of colorful hot air balloons are lifting into the air. Another magic moment. This turned out to be an amazing trip.

When I get back home, I bring the Chihuly books and poster to my art teacher friend Amanda to use in her classroom. Soon after, Amanda comes up with this great idea for a Chihuly-like  sculpture for her students to make. 

Amanda and I plan a virtual Chihuly tour in the library's computer lab to introduce the sculpture project to the students. We turned out the lights and tried to replicate a gallery setting. We showed the students examples of blown glass. We watched videos and played music softly in the background. The students loved it. They were excited. The lesson was a wonderful collaborative effort. 

         The art students work on the sculpture. Collecting bottles, 
       painting, assembling.  Two years go by.

Today, a gorgeous sculpture hangs from the ceiling in the library I work in every day. What a gift! The art project started and ended in the library. How cool is that?

And it reminds me of my mother.

And Amanda the art teacher reminds me of my mother.

Because she sees something and she lets it inspire her into creating something beautiful. Just like my mother would. She makes beautiful things. 

The trip I took to Florida was surreal. I felt as if my mother was blessing me with these beautiful treats in the forms of dolphin, manatee, the warmth of childhood memories, Chihuly art, sunsets, good friends, and hot air balloons. I had nothing to show for it but a few pictures, memories and stories. 

Not anymore.

       Most people will look up at this sculpture and see only a 
       beautiful sculpture. When I look at it, I see a journey, a gift, a 
       wonderful collaboration, friendships, and a little magic.


       And I see my mother.

While reading another school librarian Tamara Cox's post on non-traditiional shelving, I began thinking about how I can make my library more user friendly. Sadly, I keep trying to think of ways to help students use their library on their own without assistance from an adult. Students have recently been practicing ratios in math. Maps and map reading are always a part of social studies and even language arts.

© Qtrix StockFreeImages.com & Dreamstime

I came up with the idea of making a map of the library and having several copies of it available near the sign in area to help students find materials independently when necessary. Then, I thought, "Why not have students make the map?"  And so the "make a map of the library" contest was born. Entries were due March 30th and only five maps came in despite the prize of book fair bucks. I think I made my requirements too detailed. I had over twenty required items for the maps.


In any case, if none of the student made maps work out, I will make my own and see what the response is like. Even if I don't make copies, I can post the map for student reference. I definitely see myself using it with my new 6th graders during orientation. This would even be a great project on the school level. What a better way to help school visitors find their way than with a student made map.

I did a book review program last year that I would like to share. I was certainly inspired by someone else, but I cannot remember who or where.  I do not claim that this is my original idea.  It was fun and I am going to do it again soon.


I called my version of this sticky note book review program, "Read! Write! Win!" students had to read a book, and get a numbered sticky note from someone at the circulation desk. Each sticky note had a different number on it. On their sticky note they had to write the title of their book, the author's name and a review of the book. The review had to assign a number of stars to the book with five stars being the best.


I did this program for a month. Each week we drew a number and matched that number with the number on the sticky note to determine who the winner was. The sticky note reviews kept coming in and brought a nice pop of color to the library. They filled up two doors and a door sized column.

When I do this again I will keep a running list of titles and star ratings and post it somewhere in the library and on the library blog. I enjoyed watching students read each other's reviews and use the reviews to get reading suggestions. .

I stumbled upon a great math/art/science YouTube channel by Vihart that has dazzled me.


Flocabulary is also awesome if you don't already know about it.

And the possibilities of iBooks author? Wow, my head is spinning.