…changing the world, one reader at a time.
This week, first graders broke out the Noticing Tool for the first time! Part of our Life Tools Toolkit, the Noticing Tool challenges students to look closely and carefully at the people and world around them. Readers told me that they use it often to stop and notice how friends are feeling on the playground, […]
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It’s week 4, and I’m already changing everything 😉 (Do your best to hide your shock!) We started out the year with our mantra, “In our library, we care about people.” The mantra was inspired by the book Unselfie, and hung on the wall to reinforce our library’s focus on social emotional learning and integration. This […]
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You know by now that I love weaving literacy and computer science together to create programming and experiences that are exciting, hands-on, and engaging for kids. So when Shenanigans Toys reached out to me about offering free high-quality storytimes with a science, technology, engineering, and mathematical twist, I was so thrilled! We’ll be working together […]
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Last year, inspired by Pernille Ripp’s Reading Rights idea, I decided to bring a kind of Library Bill of Rights to my middle school readers. I loved the idea of creating a set of norms and holding both my readers and myself to them throughout the year, even when the schedule got busy and things […]
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How can fourth graders help brand new kindergarteners learn to use the library? By channeling their empathy into writing and illustration skills! We used our Perspective Tool to think like kindergarteners this week. From there, we created a brand new book inspired by Mo Willems’ Pigeon series: Don’t Let the Pigeon Wreck the Library! Just wait […]
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Let’s talk music. 🎶 Are you a fan of completely silent reading time, or do you play background noise in your space? As a reader and a teacher, complete silence stresses me out. If one shoe squeaks like a fart in the back of the room, all is lost. In my experience, playing some soft music […]
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Welcome to the brand new Computer Science department! For FABLAB and Quest this semester, Ms. Wilkens and I are asking: Whose Computer Science Department is it, anyway? To answer, we’re handing the reins to students in grades 5-8 to plan two of our biggest events of the year: The Haunted Library and the 12 […]
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Spot any familiar faces? 👀 When a parent sent me this awesome inspiration photo for a reading display with giant googly eyes, I knew I had to have something like it in the library. One internet search of “giant googly eyes” later, we have ourselves a Look Who’s Reading wall, and I’m looking forward to […]
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The Pigeon HAS to go to School… and he has a lot of feelings about it! This week, we stepped into the Pigeon’s shoes (Shoes? Feet? Wings?) to investigate all his feelings about the first day of school. After our first reading, we took some time to name the Pigeon’s feelings, and explore them. The […]
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I have something miraculous to tell you about. Our 7th and 8th graders have designated library time in their schedule every week. This time comes with one rule: you can’t read anything assigned to you. Whatever you’re reading has to be something that’s exclusively for enjoyment. From e-readers to magazines to Narwhal and Jelly for […]
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