So it's July 5th, which according to retailers means- BACK TO SCHOOL. Teachers all over the state cringed as I typed that! How does summer just fly by like that?
I went to a workshop a little over a week ago in Austin at our region's office and the first thing we did was record our accomplishments of the school year. Here's what I wrote:
- weeded our reference room/collection
-created a makerspace
-weeded our fiction collection
-weeded our easy and junior fiction collection
-opened up our Bluebonnet program to 3rd-6th grade
-removed the wall dividing our library between elementary and intermediate
-organized a successful book fair
All in all I feel like I got a good amount of work done but I'm ready to do more.
This year we've got a new principal, new assistant principal, new campus instructional technologist, new teachers, etc...So, in a way, I'll be starting over again this year. Here's what I'd like to do this upcoming school year:
-weed our nonfiction and junior nonfiction collections
-clean out our magazine "room"
-start an after-school "Bluebonnet Book Club"
-promote the Texas 2x2 book program to my Kinder-2nd grade classes
-partner with the campus intructional technologist to help teachers
-meet with teachers more often
-help grade levels with research
-hold a school-wide storybook pumpkin patch
-create reading challenges for the winter holidays and spring break
-create a "March Madness" reading promotion activity
-have this year's book fair be just as successful as last year's
-create a new schedule for the library: Last year, I saw all 45 classes throughout the week due to the fixed schedule I created. Pre-K rotated between classes every other week. Kinder-3rd grade met every week with a 15 minute mini-lesson and 15 minute checkout. 4th-6th grade met every week but alternated between a 30 minute lesson and 30 minute checkout each week. After reflecting, I've decided a fixed schedule for my 4th-6th graders is not the way to continue things this year. I felt terrible about taking away 30 minutes from each class every other week with a short lesson...by the time you get the students in and seated, then have them clean up and transition out in the end- you really only have 20 good minutes. I never felt like that was enough time to dig deep into a topic or skill. I'm debating going to some sort of flexible schedule...that way any teacher (not just ELA teachers) can schedule the library and I can have more time to meet and co-teach with other teachers.
I've got a lot of new ideas I want to try this year- some may work, some may not but I'm ready to give them a try!
I promise to update more this year :)
