Do You Believe in Classroom Vibes?

August 17, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Do you buy into the idea of “classroom vibes”? Tone, feel, juju, essence, decor….whatever you call it, I think it can transform the learning experience for a student. To be fair, my interior decorating expertise doesn’t go much past soft and sparkly, but I still set aside a small chunk of my budget to spend […]

5th Grade FABLab: Are You Too Young to Start Something?

June 4, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

This post, written by STAB K-8 Computer Science Coordinator Kim Wilkens, originally appeared on techkimstab.tumblr.com. That was the question we posed to 5th graders this past trimester. Ten of them joined us to prove that, in fact, they are ready to start something. I have been super inspired by the She Started Itfilm and it’s message […]

5th grade FABLab: Robots in the Wild

March 19, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

After the success of our Wild Robot Book Club during the 12 Days of Tech-mas, K-8 Computer Science Coordinator Kim Wilkens and I decided to collaborate on a FABLab experience for tech-savvy middle schoolers. We wanted to give them a time and space to experiment with robotics, find a building material and coding program […]

Behind the Scenes: Making a Book Display

September 26, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

I’m not that great at book displays. I know, I know, librarians are supposed to have great book display game. We’re supposed to be cutting, tracing, glueing, bubble-letter geniuses. Maybe it’s the fact that my readers are so enthusiastic that books in our library don’t take much selling; maybe it’s because my ideas are […]

Foiling Fake News with Fourth Graders

May 15, 2017.Reading time 13 minutes.

Over on School Library Journal today, STAB Computer Science Coordinator Kim Wilkens and I are talking about Foiling Fake News, a unit we developed for fourth graders to help them to put their digital literacy and computer science skills to the test. We had a blast while helping our fourth graders to sharpen their critical thinking […]

Google Home in the School Library: FAQ

January 30, 2017.Reading time 12 minutes.

Since sharing the news of our Google Home with the St. Anne’s community and my community of educators, I’ve received a lot of great questions regarding the system and the way it works logistically in our library. Check out the video above to see some the ways that we’re using the Google Home. Or […]

Good Morning, Library

May 12, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The best part of waking up… is checking out some books. Ride along on a morning checkout in the Learning Leopard Library in this new time-lapse video. Hold on tight!

Second Grade Classes present, Take it From a Second Grader

March 30, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

Over the past few months, Johnson second graders have been working even harder than usual. These students have stepped out of their comfort zone to become role models, mentors, and teachers to a few lucky first graders – and I couldn’t be prouder. The videos embedded below were designed, scripted, shot, and “edited” by second […]