As a school librarian collaborating with classroom teachers is a key component to our role in the school community. Collaboration can come in many forms, but the goal is to move past just the curation of resources. The focus is… Read More ›
co-teaching
Applications Are Open for the Sara Jaffarian Award
Are you a school librarian who has developed an outstanding humanities program? Do you work with kindergarten through eighth-grade students? Then you are encouraged to apply for the Sara Jaffarian Award. What Is It? The Sara Jaffarian Award is a… Read More ›
Create Your Own Graph: A Math Collaboration in 5 Steps
Recently, a second-grade teacher and I had the opportunity to work together on a project in math. Her class was finishing a unit on graphing and I recommended the book The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy. The book sparked… Read More ›
4 Thoughts from the Elementary School Library Tour
I had the opportunity to participate in the Elementary School Tour as part of the 2019 AASL National Conference on Thursday, November 14. During the tour, the group visited two elementary schools in Jefferson County Public Schools. We started our… Read More ›
6 Things I’ve Learned about Collaboration
Collaboration with classroom teachers is one of the many components of a school librarian’s job. Some might even say that it connects all elements of our profession. Working closely with teachers allows for library skills to be taught throughout classroom… 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 ›
Writing Historical Fiction: Collaborating to Meet the Standards
Over the past few semesters I have had the pleasure of collaborating with creative writing teachers in my building for weekly “Library Wednesday” lessons. In our school, creative writing is an elective course comprised of students in grades 9-12. We… Read More ›
Inquiry Framework: What Makes Sense?
I’m on a quest to refine my teaching to be both student-centered and relevant. This has evolved over time to mean that I talk a lot less now, and put more effort into the design of the learning experience. How… Read More ›
On a Mission: Students with Exceptional Abilities Coding Music
Libraries Ready to Code (RtC) is an initiative of ALA that is sponsored by Google. This initiative focuses on the role of school and public libraries in providing opportunities for youth to develop computational thinking skills through coding activities and… Read More ›
Teaching Information Literacy in a World of Misinformation
By now, all of us have heard the term fake news. It’s become another overused phrase, insidious in how it sticks like a bad smell. Yet its very stickiness is what makes it such a useful rhetoric device…. Read More ›