Author Archives

I am the librarian at Detroit Country Day Lower School in Bloomfield Hills, MI. I have worked as a librarian for the past eight years. I was a classroom teacher for four years prior to that. I have worked in charter, public, and private schools. My favorite thing about being a librarian is the opportunities I have to work both with students and teachers. I love the co-teaching opportunities and connections I have been able to make! I have served on AASL committees as a member and chair. I currently am a member of ALA's Ready to Code (RtC) Task Force.

• Animal Research Meets Reading, Writing, and Flipgrid

  By Kelly Hincks on 07/31/2017 • ( 0 )

  

    Animal research projects are common in the elementary world. The second-grade teachers came to me and said they were going to an animal research project. The question became how to allow their students to have ownership of their learning… Read More ›

• Showing Students the Power of Their Words with Mentor Texts

  By Kelly Hincks on 06/07/2017 • ( 2 )

  

  A second-grade teacher shared that she was having friend drama in her classroom, specifically the use of unkind words. She was looking for some mentor texts that she could share with her class that would allow her to address the… Read More ›

• Becoming Future Ready with a Twitter Class

  By Kelly Hincks on 05/02/2017 • ( 0 )

  

  What? Recently, I offered my colleagues a professional development course called Learning to Tweet like a Rock Star! This course was modeled from the AASL course that is offered by Jane Lofton (@jane_librarian). I took her course in 2015. During… Read More ›

• When Reading, Research, and Coding Join Forces

  By Kelly Hincks on 04/05/2017 • ( 1 )

  

  In the field of education there is constant change. There is always something new we should be teaching or popular trends that find their way into the classroom.  For me, I have always been willing to try something new as… Read More ›

• 12 (mostly cheap) Teacher Tricks that Work in an Elementary Library

  By Kelly Hincks on 02/28/2017 • ( 16 )

  

    Learning practical teaching tips and tricks is one of my favorite forms of professional development. I love when others share simple things that can be applied quickly and easily to my teaching and improve learning for my students. Here… Read More ›

• Journey to a Flexible Schedule: Part 2

  By Kelly Hincks on 01/30/2017 • ( 3 )

  

  The great John Dewey once said, “We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.” Reflecting is what I am doing every day this year as I move forward using a flexible schedule with first- and second-grade students…. Read More ›

• 5 Free Apps to Create with in Early Elementary

  By Kelly Hincks on 01/05/2017 • ( 0 )

  

  Over the past two years my school has moved from having a few carts of iPads to 1:1 in kindergarten to second grade. We also use a modified version of the project approach as a part of our focus to… Read More ›

• Advocate with Food: 5 Reasons I Host Bagels & Books

  By Kelly Hincks on 12/07/2016 • ( 0 )

  

  Each year I purchase great new titles to add to our library. Many of these books connect to classroom curriculum and support a variety of reading levels. After spending countless hours making these decisions, I noticed they were not being… Read More ›

• When Research, Writing, and a Field Trip Live Happily Ever After

  By Kelly Hincks on 11/01/2016 • ( 1 )

  

  In September, the second grade teachers shared their concerns about fitting in both their writing and social studies curriculum as well as preparing their students for an upcoming field trip. As a result of this conversation, a project was born!… Read More ›

• Journey to a Flexible Schedule: Part 1

  By Kelly Hincks on 10/06/2016 • ( 5 )

  

  A year ago I shared a post called Momentum in a Fixed World. In this post, I shared the goal to move to a flexible schedule. Just as planned we transitioned to this type of schedule with the first- and… Read More ›