Once upon a time, I started my own free after-school program for elementary and middle school children. I worked with a few neighborhood children in a donated space. After I arranged for the room, I talked with local parents to… Read More ›
STEM/STEAM
Picture Books and Primary Sources: Samuel Morse, That’s Who! By Tracy Nelson Maurer and El Primo Ramon
Traveling the world, becoming inspired, overcoming obstacles, and changing life as we know it all sound like parts of some amazing movie. They are also parts of the picture book story of Samual Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse… Read More ›
The 5 E’s of Inquiry-Based Learning
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an 18.7 percent growth in employment in science and engineering occupations between 2010 and 2020, compared to 14.3 percent for all occupations (NSF 2019). Due to the need for STEM-skilled workers, the U.S…. Read More ›
Learner-Centered Curation
Organization and curation have become educational buzzwords — but as librarians, these concepts have always been near and dear to our hearts! As school librarians, we are accustomed to seeking solutions and tools that meet the needs of an individual… Read More ›
Summarizing with Dash: A Collaborative Project in First Grade
Recently, a first-grade teacher wanted to have her students use coding to create a summary. Her goal was to have students share a story and include how the main character developed as well as how the setting changed. She sought… Read More ›
Adventures in 3D Printing
As the makerspace craze continues to sweep across libraries nationwide, school libraries are trying to come up with ways to engage students in meaningful makerspace work. This year the majority of my time at the close of the semester has… Read More ›
Books That Can Make a Difference
Think of a book that compelled you to make a difference. Some may say A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park urged them to act. This story is about a remarkable young man named Salva. He was one of… Read More ›
Ask the Hard Questions
Not quite a year ago, I saw a Twitter post by our state commissioner of education. The post was not out of the ordinary. He was sharing information about updates to state standards of accreditation. As I read through… Read More ›
The Mifflin’s Feather Friends Program: A Libraries Ready to Code Project
This month’s blog post features guest blogger Kristin Brumbach. Kristin helped to curate resources, developed content, and piloted strategies for coding as part of the Ready to Code (RTC) project. Kristin is the librarian at the Governor Mifflin High school… Read More ›
Computational Thinking in Your School Library
School and public libraries offer youth formal and informal learning environments, while providing access to a variety of resources. Librarians can introduce students to computational thinking and coding concepts in low-stakes contexts. This month’s post features Dr. Jennifer Moore (associate… Read More ›