Whatcha Readin' Wednesday*

Now that our author visit with Linda Urban is over (we spent  about 3 weeks reading the beginning of Milo Speck, Accidental Agent), it is time to booktalk the Bluestem Award, our state student choice award, to my 3rd-5th graders! Usually, I read all the books on the list in the summer to be ready to booktalk them, but this year I had a very busy summer (Yay Peru!) and also spent all of August preparing for a "What's New in Intermediate Books" presentation for my staff PD. (Book list here and presentation here!) So, I got a little behind in reading for the Bluestem Award and Battle of the Books. I still booktalked the list, but had to be honest that there were a few I hadn't read yet.

Just finished: Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood. Wow, what a great read! This should have made it on

my list for the teachers! Before reading, I thought it was about an African American girl in Mississippi struggling with segregation. Really, Glory is white, although this isn't completely clear at first. She has always lived with segregation and never questioned it. In one scene, she explains to her new "Yankee"  friend Laura that you can't drink from the wrong drinking fountain. However, Glory's world is turned upside down when the Hanging Moss public pool closes to prevent African Americans from swimming there. Suddenly, she is forced to acknowledge some very big things about her town and why the pool is closed. Her new friend Laura helps her understand what isn't right, while her old friend Frankie begins to make it harder.
I also recently finished listening to Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos. I chose this because it was immediately available from my public library e-audio book account and I needed something for my 45-minute commute. This one surprised me. I thought it was going to be simply humorous but it had a lot of sad and hard moments. Joey describes that he has "dud meds," so often he gets out of control. He learns the hard way that he shouldn't stick his finger in the pencil sharpener, swallow his house key, or run with scissors. All of these "accidents" lead him to the town special-ed center, and a teacher named Special Ed. I really appreciated the insight into what can cause these types of behavior, and I think students who liked Out of My Mind would also like this "overcoming obstacles" story.

What I'm reading right now: Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer.






*I'm not sure who started the phrase Whatcha Readin' Wednesday, but it wasn't me! I'd love to give credit to whomever started it if it can be traced back, but I couldn't find him/her.

Overcoming Fear and Defining Yourself, with Linda Urban

My fourth and fifth graders were lucky enough to be able to meet Linda Urban today! 
She had a wonderful message for students. She explained her journey as a writer. As a child, she loved getting positive comments about her writing and even won an award in elementary school. That felt great! However, later, a peer called her word choice weird. After that, she stuck to writing only nonfiction, including writing for her school newspaper. 

As an adult, she worked in a bookstore and used some of her writing talents to work in marketing. Being surrounded by authors during author events and running writing workshops sparked a desire to begin writing again. Still held back by fear, she began writing picture books in secret. Eventually, Mouse was Mad was published in 2009, followed by her middle grade books, including A Crooked Kind of Perfect.  She described getting great reviews, which made her feel good, although many mentioned her books how wonderful her character development was but that the books did not have much plot. She defined herself by these reviews, accepting that that was who she was as a writer - she was a writer who wrote more introspective, thoughtful books focused on characters. When her son asked her to write a book with "HAM" - humor, adventure, and mystery, she at first said she couldn't, but gave it a try! She looked at many other books as models, including Roald Dahl's works, and the end result was Milo Speck, Accidental Agent. Please run and get this creative adventure book immediately!

Linda also encouraged students to think quietly to themselves about something they really wanted to try to do, something they wanted to become better at. I can't speak for my students but I know I thought to myself about wanted to carve some time to practice drawing as well as writing. As a child, I loved doing both of these things (even won a few writing contests myself), but as an adult I never take the time to do these things FOR MYSELF. Setting a goal will help me and I'm starting small, but I want to set aside a 10 minute time a few days a week to practice drawing. 
My students were very engaged by Linda's presentation, which did not include any technology but kept them interested the whole time. Her themes of overcoming fear, taking small steps and finding models can connect with anyone. 

Making a Makerspace

I am interested in starting a Makerspace and am working on formulating a plan.
I want students to be able to explore and investigate different kinds of tools and materials, both physical and virtual design and test their own ideas and solve problems pursue their own interests create (not just consume) engage in STEAM education. I want to give students these opportunities to be creative and use problem solving skills in a hand-on way. They don’t often have these opportunities in the classroom because of our focus on testing and scores. I would like to help teachers find ways to incorporate maker activities into their curriculum.

My budget currently consists of what I can get through grants and/or sites like DonorsChoose. I just submitted a DonorsChoose project for a LittleBits kit as well as some K’Nex. I also applied for a grant for Lego WeDos from my state technology educators’ association (ICE). I currently do not have any money “in the bank” to begin the Maker Space, and my library budget was lowered this year. However, we do already have 5 sets of Makey Makeys and the Squishy Circuit kits, although would need more LEDs for that. I can ask my PTO for additional funding but they are funding our 1:1 iPad mini program (we started with 3rd last year and now are moving up to 3rd and 4th) and that is their main focus.

I would like to focus on both technology and hands-on building.

I would like to give students some design challenges to figure out. This could be things like building a parachute out of certain supplies, lifting a brick off the ground with just paper, etc. My audience is our K-5 students and our staff! I would love to incorporate some books with a maker challenge (such as Rosie Revere Engineer).

Questions I have:

• Where should the space be? The former computer lab next to the library is ideal although there is a tech person that may not be happy about us encroaching on her space. We also have one empty classroom upstairs near 5th grade, which would be more accessible to 4th and 5th grades. 
• When should they use the space? I would like teachers to take their classes in anytime, but I’m wondering if it might make sense to start with activities during their library time. 
• What is my role and the teachers’ role? 
• How can I inform and convince the teachers, principal and families about the need for a Maker Space? 
• How does this fit in the curriculum? 
• How will we organize and set up the space? 
• What should be my first priority to try to buy? 

What about you? Do you have a Makerspace? Would you like to start one?I would love to join others on their journey!

A New Look in the Library

I was lucky enough to pick out some new furniture for our library. There were definitely a few hiccups along the way and we are still working some things out, but the students and I are loving the new look, especially the soft seating!

The furniture is from Steelcase. The bin shelving is from Library Furniture International.

One of the issues we are having with the Steelcase Verb table is some inconsistencies in the edge. The gap between the side and the top is larger in some places than others. For example, here is a picture:

Steelcase is working with us to fix this problem but it is definitely not what we expected. I also had the wrong order get placed by my district. I didn't actually keep the couches in my final order since we wanted things to be easy to move around. I ordered all narrow (18" tables) and more chairs to go in our lab space, but ended up with some wide tables and only 30 chairs instead of 53. My district is working to fix this problem. 

Finally, when I ordered the bin shelving I was worried that the top shelf would be too high for my young students to browse through. The representative gave me measurements and assured me it would be fine, giving me examples of other places that had it, including public libraries. Now that it has finally arrived, I am finding my fears were correct. My young students cannot flip through that top shelf. I asked for a quote to see how much it would be to replace the top shelf with just a display shelf. Otherwise I will be removing the top shelf and just keeping the bottom two and filling them fuller. 

Even though overall I am happy with the results and so are the students, I definitely have some regrets about the process. I was surprised that several different big name vendors started working with us and then seemed to "vanish" around February - March, and that some representatives have proved to be difficult to work with. Mistakes were made by vendors, our district business office, and me. I should have been more careful, insisting that I see samples of the product (even if it meant me driving out to another library or school). I will be working to fix some of these mistakes throughout this school year. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the colorful, inviting look in my new space. 

What's In a Name?

I've been thinking about starting a blog reflecting on what I do in my elementary school library for ...well...almost two years now. I've had a few nudges along the way, including Tiffany Whitehead's keynote at our state school library media conference in 2013, in which she talked about using a blog as an advocate for your school library. I also recently was inspired by Andy Plemmons on The Idea Box Show, and then by exploring his blog, Expect Miraculous. When someone on Twitter asked me if I had a blog, I realized it was time!

Then what to name it? I had been thinking about this for a while too. Sometimes things like this take me forever to decide. (I still haven't been able to come up with a great roller derby name for myself, but that's another story.) I already suffer from way too many names, since our district's official title for us is Media Resource Center Director, or MRC Director, but like many librarians, I get called a lot of other things too from library teacher to media specialist. Plus, I just got married a year ago and changed my last name, and I also get called Becky, Rebecca, and occasionally Becca.

However, I love the idea of being called a book nerd. The word "nerd" has some great connotations for me, from The Nerdy Book Club to NerdCampMI to Nerd Fighters/Nerdfighteria. Embrace the nerdiness! Since there was already a blog called the Nerdy Librarian, I settled on The Nerdy Teacher Librarian. It had everything I was looking for. Phew.