Research in early elementary? Yep! You bet! Teaching research skills to students at any age can be a large task, but with elementary students, it takes a unique approach. Here are five tips and tricks I have learned for teaching… Read More ›
school librarian
Supplemental Books for After AP/IB Exams
How many students learn for the sake of learning? It’s a question I think about a lot in this age of overtesting. In New York, children start with the ELA, Math, and Science tests in the early grades and then… Read More ›
March Book Madness: A Yearly Tournament Promoting Books
“Which book is longer?” asked an 11th grader after hearing my book talks for the two competitors of the day. It’s March Book Madness time in my high school library: my favorite activity of the year. Each day, I walk… Read More ›
Speed Dating with Nonfiction Books
Every year I collaborate with the 11th-grade English teachers on a nonfiction independent reading project. The goal is to increase student agency and create excitement about literature. While many juniors initially express an aversion to reading, they often show an… Read More ›
Introducing High Schoolers to Research Through Webquests
Research is one of the most valuable skills we can teach learners. Because of the volume of information available online, it’s easy for children (and adults) to fall into the trap of believing everything they read. Before we go too… Read More ›
Why Stories Matter in a Data-Obsessed World
Data Driven We live in a world that is largely data driven. Teenagers, especially, are surrounded by quantifiable things. How many likes did my Instagram post get? What was your grade on the Social Studies test? Did you add another… Read More ›
Engaging Nonfiction Titles for High School Students
Summer is a reading marathon for me. Each year, as I prepare to go back to my high school library, I take stock of titles I’ve read that might engage my students. I’m not always successful at motivating resistant teenage… Read More ›
MAME Summer Book Club: The Gift of Story by John Schu
Summer is a great time to catch up on reading. So when the Michigan Association of Media in Education (MAME) shared they were hosting a virtual summer book club I was all in! The Book The title that was chosen… Read More ›
Digital Tools for the School Library
It’s that time of the school year when I look forward to long, lazy days reading outside. I’m a planner, though, and I can’t stop myself from thinking of new ideas for the fall. In a digital storytelling course I… Read More ›
Journey to a Flexible Schedule: 5 Years Later
Recently, I was chatting with another school librarian and they asked about our schedule. At one time the school library used a fixed schedule for all classes but switched to a hybrid model several years ago. I realized that it… Read More ›