July 31, 2013 by plemmonsa

Setting Up a New Elementary School Library (Part 2)

Fiction shelves minus some popular series

Today was our second day of unpacking boxes into our new school library. After being away at a meeting yesterday, I spent some time walking the space and thinking back through Monday’s decisions. For the most part, I was still happy with what was decided. I flipped one shelf around in the fiction section and it really opened up the flow into the library better. Some new rolling tables had arrived, so I worked on putting those into the 2nd projection area where I think students will most likely use devices while paired with demonstration on the projection screen. I decided that the Lego robotics table will move from its current position near the front of the library into the back corner. The wall I chose has no outlets. This allows the wall with outlets to be used for computer tables.

New rolling flip tables

My first volunteer, Camilla Bracewell, arrived and quickly got to work unpacking fiction onto the shelIves. While she worked, I began unpacking equipment into the equipment room. The equipment room, workroom, and office are rooms that I have to do myself because I have to figure out the best place to put each thing. In the equipment room, I put our ereaders and digital cameras out on the charging shelves. There aren’t as many outlets as I would like, but for the first time I can actually lay out all of this equipment and easily plug it in to charge. All of the cords run down through the shelves to the outlets. I put the most frequently used things out in clear sight and things that are less used went in closets.

Fiction ready to shelve

It didn’t take long until our first problem of the day. The fiction books didn’t fit on the shelves. That statement has multiple meanings. Some books were too tall for the shelf so they had to be turned sideways. Other books were pulled to put in other sections of the library like graphic novel and everybody. The worst part though was that all of the shelves were full and there were still 4 boxes to unpack. First I tried to think of how to get another shelf, but then I started thinking about what could be pulled from the fiction and put somewhere else in the library. We are still missing 3 big display cases that will have multiple functions. One function is holding books, but without the cases in place it’s hard to decide what to put on them. I decided to go around and pull some of the most popular series of books from the fiction shelf so that they could go on this display. The next step would be to shuffle all of the books down the shelves to fill empty spaces. I know that the books will fit if I do this, but i decided to delay this part of setup until I know more about the cases that are coming.

Putting the 39 Clues together

Rolling maker space supplies

Next, I began unpacking all of the supplies. I love the rolling cart of drawers that I have. It tucks underneath the storage cabinets in the workroom but easily rolls out for students to use. Each thing that I put in this cart fit in with my thinking about maker spaces in the library. Each thing had to be something that students could use: paper, pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, craft scissors, tissue paper, popsicle sticks, streamers, buttons, etc. Other supplies went into drawers that will stay in the workroom. In one storage closet, I made one side supplies and decorations and the other side instructional resources.

Throughout the day, the son of my former paraprofessional began arranging all of the rooms in our teacher book room with class sets of books and guided reading books. This is a huge amount of boxes and took a long time just to get the boxes in order. We haven’t even started the process of unpacking those.

By the end of the day, a dad and daughter came and unpacked the biographies. They fit them onto 3 carts, but there was shelf space left over. I was curious if all the books could fit onto 2 carts to free up one cart. We shuffled these around and very tightly fit biographies onto 2 carts. I don’t like that it’s so packed, and I’m not sure if I will keep it like this.

Current student and alumni student helpers

Jennifer McDowell and her daughters (one Barrow student and one alumni) came and unpacked the nonfiction section up to the 700s. For now, they packed the shelves tightly, but I hope we have enough space to go back through and free up some space in each section. This was a big task for them because the hand truck had been borrowed by other teachers. They had to carry each heavy box out of the hallway and across the library to unpack it.

In the midst of all of this, a whiteboard was installed. Three different workers came to ask me where various computer equipment should be installed. We realized that one projector was not wired into the network. I questioned the height of the circulation island for our younger students. Multiple teachers came to ask questions about technology, upcoming projects, and their own shelving in their rooms. I submitted a purchase order, and who knows what else I did and don’t remember. This is exhausting, but each time someone walks in they already talk about how inviting it is. With each unpacked box and piece of furniture, we move one step closer to a new school year. It’s truly exciting.

Nonfiction shelves

Stuffed biography section

New rolling flip tables

Fiction shelves minus some popular series

Boxes lined and ready to unpack

This used to be my storage

Rolling maker space supplies

Storage closets in the workroom

Current student and alumni student helpers

Series pulled from fiction

Putting the 39 Clues together

Charging shelves

Equipment storage

Charging shelves

Fiction ready to shelve

Empty fiction section

Storage drawers

DVDs in equipment room

July 29, 2013 by plemmonsa

Setting Up a New Elementary School Library (Part 1)

I had the honor of putting the very first books on the shelves

After my last post (New Beginnings), I’ve received several requests to document the process of setting up our new library space. It is an exciting and exhausting process to walk into a big open room with endless possibilities. As I’ve said before (and keep repeating to myself), the space can and will change once students begin using it. I can only guess what might work best for students, but the beauty of the furniture and shelving that we have is that it can fairly easily change into something new if it doesn’t work the way I’ve set it up.

Over this past weekend, our SPLOST director, David Stubbs, spent many hours with a few helpers moving all of the boxes out of the library and organizing them by category. This was supposed to be done by the movers, but it wasn’t. He also made sure that all furniture that didn’t belong to the library was delivered to its proper place. This morning, I walked in to see several possible configurations of the shelves, soft seating, tables, stools, and chairs. David walked me around and talked about what he knew about each set of furniture.

Next, my first volunteers arrived. The wonderful Camilla Bracewell, Barrow grandparent, and Carole Langley, spouse of an early Barrow alum, began working on shelves. All of the carts have 3 shelves, but many of our library books are tall, so each cart needed to be switched to 2 shelves. They adjusted the “Everybody” shelves and began bringing in the “Everybody” boxes and sequencing them. I had numbered the boxes 1 of 37, 2 of 37, etc. so that we could easily put them in order. Once in order, they began packing the shelves with books until they had to leave.

While all of this was going on, Julie Moon, Barrow parent and professional organizer, helped me think through all of the spaces in the library. She took the lead on rolling around the remaining shelves to see all of the possibilities we could create for the various sections of the library. Each time furniture was moved, we thought about why it was being moved. For example, some oval rolling tables were moved away from the main instructional area because we decided that they would be great areas for students to collaborate or for teachers, mentors, or volunteers to work with students. The spaces wouldn’t really work well if they were right next to each other, so we changed it. We worked on this from about 10AM-2PM, and I think when we left at the end of the day, we felt pretty good about the placement of all of the furniture. There is a bit more furniture to come, so the arrival of those pieces might change some things. We did our best to think about these pieces as we were laying things out.

Julie continued working on the Everybody section and realized that we had packed the shelves a bit too full. She went back through the entire section and shuffled the books on the shelves so there was a bit of space on each shelf for some expansion.

Jaison Jacob, a Barrow parent, and his daughter came at the end of the day and helped switch a few more of the shelves from 3 shelves to 2 shelves. To end their time, they rolled all of the fiction boxes into the library to get ready for our next wave of unpacking on Wednesday.

Before I left, I went around and labeled each section of shelves with post-its so that volunteers can easily see where sections are.

I can’t say enough about the amazing volunteers that came today. They took over some of the strenuous work so that I could step back and think through the space and layout. I look forward to the coming days and several more wonderful volunteers popping in to support this space. I love the ownership of the space already by parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends.

One curve of the Everybody section. Soft seating fits in the curves.

Straight shelves under windows will hold Nonfiction. Soft seating breaks up the shelving and provides a great window seat.

More Nonfiction shelving

This table was later moved when we decided it was too close to the other instructional area.

We had some trouble deciding what to do with these storage cubes, so we made a wave in the fiction section for now.

The packed Everybody shelves before they were shuffled.

Fiction shelves await books.

The Everybody section

I had the honor of putting the very first books on the shelves

July 26, 2013 by plemmonsa

New Beginnings

It’s that time of year. Time to begin thinking about a new school year, new students, new families, new amazing ideas, new innovative projects, and more. However, this year brings another big “new” thing: a new library! After 2 years of planning, our new school is almost ready. Workers are busily putting on the finishing touches and boxes and furniture are arriving daily.

The process for designing the new media center has been incredible. I have been involved every step of the way. There have been multiple meetings, emails, feedback sessions, brainstorming, etc. to put together the space that students will see in just a few days. The word that we carried with us throughout the whole process was “flexible”. I wanted a space that would be as flexible as possible to allow the space to change and adapt to the kinds of learning that students were involved in. At no time has it been about the stuff. You certainly have to consider the stuff all along the way, but what students, teachers, and other learners are doing within the space is what matters most.

In our new library, you’ll find 2 projection areas. One will be more for story time, discussion, gaming, guest speakers, etc. where students will sit on the floor and the other area will have tables where students can use devices and have a work space while things are shared or demonstrated on the projection board. Our circulation area will not be a traditional desk but more of an island. Students will check in their own books, store them on carts beneath the island, and then check out their own books on their way out. There will be multiple spaces for students to sit, collaborate, read, etc. This will include tables, chairs, stools, counters, bean bags, and other soft seating. I hope that this creates a mix of quiet areas for students as well as areas for more noise, conversation, and collaboration. All of the book shelves will roll so that they can be easily moved to accommodate larger groups or learning needs. The shelves hook together with magnets. Students will have access to an interactive screen for perusing ebooks. There will be a studio where we will use iPads to record and macbooks to edit video. Even this studio is completely mobile and won’t feature the traditional video cameras and multiple wires running across the floor. I can’t wait to see how the space works and how it evolves.

For now, this is how it looks. It’s an overwhelming task to take the brainstorming and visioning and turn an empty room into those ideas. My team of volunteers will be hard at work next week and into the beginning of the school year getting everything ready. We are still waiting on some center casework to be installed as well as casework at the entrance to the library. Our space probably won’t be ready on day 1 of school, but I will count on some miraculous things happening in this amazing space later this school year!

Studio space

Equipment room

Equipment room charging shelves

Workroom with rolling units of trays for makerspace type learning

My office

Hoki stools, which are stools that wobble while you sit.

Some of our chairs, soft seating, and curved rolling shelves

Mounds of boxes to sort and unpack

Straight rolling shelves

Soft seating

May 15, 2013 by plemmonsa

The Award-Winning 5th Grade Little Free Library Project

Our Little Free Library was presented to the school during the 5th Grade Moving On Ceremony

Today was our 5th grade Moving On Ceremony. This is a very special day where every 5th grader is honored for their time at our school. Our teachers worked together to write tweets about each student to highlight some of their great qualities. Another portion of the ceremony is awards. Again, this is a very special time because so many students are honored for their many gifts: academics, citizenship, service, creativity, and more. Among the awards are some memorial awards which honor Barrow Buddies who were taken from our world way too soon. The Eve Carson Service Learning Award is one of those awards. The award is described in this way.

Eve Carson

Several ideas are important at Barrow School—learning, service and fun. Service-Learning—the intentional connection of service and learning is something we are growing here. Service-Learning adds the very important part of self-reflection to a project. Through Service-Learning you come to understand yourself and your world in a different way.Well, when we put together service, learning and fun we quite naturally thought of Eve Carson. Eve was an outstanding Barrow Buddy who continued to lead an outstanding academic and personal life. As difficult as it is today to not have Eve here, we are so thankful for her example of living a meaningful life and for the inspiration she will continue to give Barrow Buddies through the years. Each year hereafter, an award in her name will be given in honor of a service learning project completed by a class or group at Barrow Pre-K-5th Grade.

This year, I nominated the 5th grade Little Free Library Project for this award. It exemplifies service learning because every Barrow 5th grader was involved in the project in multiple ways. Students learned so much about a commitment to serving their community and thinking beyond just ourselves. Today, we learned that our project was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Eve Carson Service Learning Memorial Award. I am honored that our project will be listed on the memorial plaque among so many other inspiring projects that have served our Barrow community and beyond. Sarah James, Barrow 5th grader, presented one of the Little Free Libraries as the gift to our school during the ceremony. Our 5th graders should be very proud of their accomplishment that will provide more access to free books for our community for years to come.

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May 11, 2013 by plemmonsa

New Media Center Coming Soon!

On Friday, I visited our new media center at the new Barrow Elementary that should be done sometime in July. We are busy packing boxes at our temporary home, and it was very helpful to see the space to consider what to pack and what to leave behind. I can’t wait to see the innovative projects, ideas, conversations, and stories that take place in this new location. One of the key features of the space is its flexibility. Almost every single piece of furniture in the new space moves easily and quickly in order to change the function of the space in a moment’s notice. Students have long asked for cozy places to sit and read, talk, collaborate, etc. and they will finally get to say goodbye to the big, clunky tables and hard wooden chairs. Thinking about where every shelf and table is going to go is a bit intimidating but at least I know that if it doesn’t work, it can quickly be changed. I’ll do a much better tour on the blog when we actually move in, but here are a few pictures of the space in progress.

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May 9, 2013 by plemmonsa

Painting our Little Free Libraries

Paint generously donated by the Athens Oconee Home Depot

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an update on our 2 Little Free Libraries. We’ve had so many end-of-the-year events that it has slowed us down a bit. Mrs. Foretich, our art teacher, and I sat down and looked at the designs that student groups submitted and narrowed it down to the 2 designs. One will feature things that show “where I am in the world”. It will include GA & US symbols as well as some Athens symbols. The other design features a sun shine with a red color that resembles the bricks of Barrow school. Ms. Foretich worked with Kenneth Sims and other employees at the Athens-Oconee Home Depot to select paints, and once again Home Depot generously donated these items. I can’t say “Thank You” enough to this business. They have been a huge supporter of this project.

While the 5th grade is practicing for the Moving On Ceremony and making music videos in music class, Mrs. Foretich is pulling small groups to paint. Students primed both libraries first. Then, designs were drawn on in pencil before beginning the painting process. Students repeatedly went back to the paper designs and also talked with the designers to make sure the design was staying true to the vision. Students even worked on mixing paints to get various shades of colors that were needed on the libraries.

Next week, Mrs. Foretich and I will travel to Lay Park and meet with Randy Haygood to discuss the exact location of our second library. KenDarius, a Barrow 5th grader, is working on a plan for some rising 4th & 5th graders to deliver books to this library throughout next year as it needs to be filled. He will join us next week when we meet with Randy.

Throughout this project, we’ve tried to keep students at the center. They have been a part of almost every decision in the project and were instrumental in getting us the supplies that we needed through their carefully written letters. Of course, this student involvement has stretched this project to a year-long project, but I think it just shows how when you take time to allow students to participate in the process, rich and rewarding experiences and learning occur.

Paint generously donated by the Athens Oconee Home Depot

May 2, 2013 by plemmonsa

April 2013 Monthly Report

April was National Poetry Month and also National School Library Month. It was certainly an exciting month in our library. Take a look at some highlights and data in our April Monthly Report.

April Monthly Report

May 1, 2013 by plemmonsa

Same, Same but Different: Skyping with Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

What an exciting day! Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Ramseyer’s class had the chance to Skype with incredible author/illustrator Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. She was simply amazing! Today’s Skype came about because a few months ago, Shannon Miller and I began a blogging project with our second graders. The whole project was started with the book Same, Same but Different. Our classes skyped with one another and began writing blog posts about our world to share with one another. Shannon and I both shared this work on our blogs and shared the project on Jenny Sue’s Facebook page. Jenny Sue reached out to us and wanted to connect with our students to share her work and talk about their work. We had a few email exchanges and test call to prepare for today’s session.

For today’s skype, students wrote some questions in advance. I went through and selected about 10 of them to have ready for today, but I let the students know that I would remove any questions that she answered during her talk. Students in both classes also drew pictures of “their world” just like Kailash and Elliot do in the book. They added a sentence to describe what was in the picture just like in the book. The teachers and I selected about 10 of these for students to share during the Skype.

We also took time to look at a Google map to see how far it was to Taos, New Mexico from Athens, GA. (1,491 miles & 22 hours 47 minutes in a car)

Our session started with Jenny Sue sharing her process for making Same, Same but Different. We heard about her travels to Nepal. She reached over and pulled out her journals to show the kids how she collected ideas, sketches, and research in her journals. After collecting all of these thoughts and sketches, she started working on the story. She said she probably made at least a hundred different versions of the story before she had the idea that she really wanted. Jenny Sue showed the students the book with the rough sketches of the illustrations as well as how those rough sketches changed in the final book. She even pulled out an original painting from the book and shared it with us. I loved how we felt like we were sitting in Jenny Sue’s living room and every time she thought of something to share with us she could just reach right out and get it. I also loved that she was sitting on a bouncy ball while she Skyped! We learned how her publisher didn’t really like the ending of the book that she sent to them and how she tweaked it just a bit to satisfy what they wanted in the book. She shared that even the smallest change can make a world of difference.

Next was one of my favorite parts, students came up to the rocking chair that my dad made and shared their own art with Jenny Sue. I loved how she took time to look at each piece of art, considering what it had to offer and what story it told. She gave each student an acknowledgement of their hard work and pointed out a special quality of each piece. She even took pictures of some of the artwork to remember.

We used a similar format for students to come up and ask questions. I really liked having students sit in the rocking chair right in front of the camera so that they could be seen and heard. It felt like they were having a 1 on 1 conversation, even though 2 whole classes were watching.

This will be a day I will cherish. Same, Same but Different has become a book that I love to use when connecting with other schools and in my lessons about culture. I am so grateful to Jenny Sue for taking time out of her day and busy writing life and family life to share the love of reading, writing, and illustrating with our students. If you haven’t read this book, please take some time to check it out from your library or better yet, purchase several copies from your local book stores! You won’t be disappointed.

Listen to a snippet of our visit!

April 29, 2013 by plemmonsa

El dia de los ninos: Connecting Libraries and Making Connections

Over the weekend, an opportunity popped up on Twitter. Mrs. Crook, elementary librarian in Gastonia NC, tweeted that she wanted to connect with some class in honor of El dia de los ninos. This day, celebrated on April 30, honors many cultures, children, and books. It’s a day to celebrate reading, celebrate our uniqueness, and celebrate the joy of reading in many languages. Mrs. Crook had many great ideas for celebrating the day.

Athens, GA to Gastonia, NC

We chose to celebrate with her by connecting 2 Kindergarten classes through Skype and doing a shared reading of Book Fiesta by Pat Mora. Before our Skype, I showed Mrs. Li’s Kindergarten class a Google map of the distance from Athens, GA to Gastonia, NC. We learned it was about 181 miles away and would take about 2 hours 50 minutes to drive there. In our connection, I read the English pages of the book, and one of Mrs. Crook’s students read the Spanish pages. It was so much fun to hear the pages spoken in 2 languages. Mrs. Crook had several students who spoke Spanish and many of them began sharing their words in a chorus of voices. Mrs. Li had 2 students who spoke Chinese. I was so happy when Mrs. Li stepped up to the camera and said hello in Chinese to all of Mrs. Crook’s students. She even taught them a few words and had them repeat them back. We said “adios” to one another and disconnected.

After our Skype, we talked about several other books in our library collection that are bilingual. We also listened to this Dia Day song.

Later in the day, Ms. Spurgeon’s 3rd grade class came to read the book Tomas and the Library Lady. This book had a wonderful connection with Ms. Spurgeon’s work this year with diverse literature and literature that raises discussions about poverty and still achieving your dreams. The book also connected with their discussions of Cesar Chavez and migrant workers. I have my own connection to the book because I am friends with Tomas Rivera’s daughter. As I read the story, I couldn’t help but think of Ileana on every page and how grateful I was to the library lady in Iowa that gave her dad access to books no matter what the circumstance. I was also grateful to Tomas Rivera for persevering to bring new stories to his family and becoming such a leader in education. This story gave many of our students a positive example of someone striving for their dreams in life no matter their background, living conditions, or social status. We read the book to celebrate Dia and to talk about the importance of summer reading, but I think we left the lesson with many more conversations flowing in our minds that could not have been predicted in advance.

Tomas Rivera’s daughter, Ileana Liberatore signed this copy of the book.

April 25, 2013 by plemmonsa

Kindergarten Tux Paint Consultants

Today Mrs. Kelly Hocking’s Kindergarten students had so much fun Skyping with Shannon Miller’s Kindergarten and 1st Grade students in Van Meter, IA. Shannon’s students are planning to embark on a similar project as Kelly’s students by making their own stories in Tux Paint and recording them with a screencasting tool. The purpose of today’s Skype session was for Shannon’s students to ask Kelly’s students about what they did.

Shannon’s students watched our videos in Van Meter, IA before our connection

Before our connection, Shannon showed her students our Tux Paint videos made in Screencast-o-matic, including the instructional video. She let me know on Twitter that they were ready.

When we connected, Shannon’s students applauded Kelly’s students’ great work on their stories. Then she guided them in asking questions about the process. They asked questions like:

How did you decide what to write about?
How did you work together?
How did you learn to use Tux Paint?
What screencasting tool did you use?
How long did your story have to be?
and more

Each time a question was asked, Mrs. Kelly called on a student to answer, and sometimes she answered the question or added additional insight. We had a computer ready with Tux Paint in case we needed it to show something. The students also had their planning paper, which they showed to answer one of the questions. I had a USB webcam plugged in so that I could move the camera closer to students as they talked. Although, my camera skills weren’t great, I think the kids enjoyed seeing themselves closeup on the screen.

Now, Shannon’s K and 1st grade students plan to use Tux Paint to make their own stories and use a new screencasting tool to record them. We ended our time by agreeing to come back together to Skype and share our work with one another before the end of the year.

Shannon, Kelly, and I could have all easily just done the teaching of Tux Paint on our own, but giving the students this ownership of the project and sharing of expertise between schools means so much more. I think that they now look at themselves as experts with knowledge to share. Not only do they have the knowledge, they have the support that it is ok to take a leadership role in the classroom and teach alongside the adult teacher. They also know that they have an authentic audience that their work immediately impacts. I hope that this idea blossoms into other opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and become leaders in technology and learning for our school and beyond.