The Little Librarian That Could: Surveys and Schedules

Work has officially started! Last week I had new employee orientation, convocation, and a work day. This week has been inservices and open house. I forget how exhausting these things can be!

I’m coming into a library program that has been well-established with certain procedures and programs. I would have been more than happy to keep things the way they are, but I felt a little staff input would be helpful. As a result, I created a teacher survey with Google Forms asking teachers if they utilized the library programs in the past and would they want to continue doing them. For those of you who haven’t used Google Forms before, do it! It provides instant feedback and can give it to you in a spreadsheet, graph, etc… As soon as I sent it out I had my computer open so I could keep checking for responses J

Here’s a glimpse of the survey I sent out:

Out of the 40 or so teachers this would have applied to, I heard back from 33 teachers! I received a lot of good feedback and everyone was so open to new ideas. I’d like to do this every year to keep the program evolving.

When I first came into the library this summer, I found binders of notes waiting for me. In those notes were schedules of past years. I noticed that the younger grades came in once a week, older grades came in once every 2 weeks...some lessons were 25 minutes long, some were 55 minutes long. I decided for the sake of the kids and teachers my goal was to simplify things a bit. I met with my principal, AP, and counselor, a few weeks ago to talk about my vision and they were open to EVERYTHING. Seriously, I’m beyond blessed to have a leadership team that listens to me ramble off ideas, sometimes very quickly, and say, “Go for it”. My administration has been amazing.

Once I got feedback I was able to figure out what activities worked, and which ones didn’t. Luckily, as I was going through that data and making decisions I was sent a copy of the coveted MASTER SCHEDULE. For real y’all, this is a HUGE deal. Getting an elementary campus and intermediate campus to merge into one has been a big task and everyone was sitting on pins and needles waiting to see what their day looked like. I was just as eager as well because I’ve never been a part of a departmentalized campus where kids rotate classes, so I had no idea what my day was going to look like. After looking at feedback I decided (if possible) I would have all reading classes come in once a week for a 30-minute block. Kinder-2^nd will have a 15 minute mini-lesson, 15 minute check-out. 4^th-6^th will have alternating weeks. One week they’ll have a 30 minute lesson, the next they’ll have a 30 minute check-out. That way, the older kiddos will get to hold onto their books a bit longer.

So, with the master schedule in my hands, I made my day into blocks of 30 minutes. I tried to give myself and my assistants a set lunch time (something they requested after not having one before) and tried to get everyone in during the first part of their reading class or the last part. It took a few hours and me whining a bit at the kitchen counter (sorry Chad) but I did it. I’ve taken out the teachers names, but each color symbolizes a different grade level. I’m meeting with 42 different classes, 42!!! That’s not even counting the 4 Pre-K classes I still need to squeeze in. I sent it off to my principal who gave me the OK, and sent it out to the grade levels. So far (knock on wood) I haven’t had any complaints other than misspelling someone’s name (whoops). Everyone who’s approached me has been really excited about the new structured schedule and has had only positive things to say. Again, I’m SO lucky to have a staff who embraces change and is willing to try something new.