Hello Everyone,
After what has been a long hiatus from blogging on Read + Learn = Grow!, I have finally returned; much has happened in three months!
I am now a school library media specialist in a K-5 school! My school in a small city away from my hometown, so I have relocated and started an exciting professional adventure.
Back in September, I presented two sessions at my state library conference for school and public librarians. Below is my reflection on my session and information about the three sessions I attended.
My Two Presentations
My two presentations, “Bingo! Getting Kids Interested in Genre” and “WWWDOT Website Evaluation Criteria,” went really well. I had over fifteen attendees for the genre presentation, the first session slot on a Saturday morning, and about eight, four of which stayed, for the WWWDOT presentation, the last session slot on the same Saturday.
After the genre presentation, six attendees completed my session evaluation sheets, all with very positive comments. Four gave me all 5s (High) on usefulness of information, sufficiency of information, clarity of presentation, relevance to job, overall evaluation of presentation, and overall evaluation of presenter. One respondent gave me all 4s, while the last gave a mix of 5s and 4s. Three respondents individualized their plans to implement what was presented, with one using a Makerspace, another conducting a unit with fourth grade students, and the third implementing my “Genre Bingo” in a public library. One respondent thought the hands-on portion of most value, while another appreciated the TinyURL to get to the session handouts.
Session 1: “Come One, Come All – Bring the Whole Family”
These librarians learned that multi-age programming is best for their community. For example, when they offered “Mini Golf” for only teens, just three teen patrons attended. When they offered “Mini Golf” again for all ages, over fifty patrons attended and enjoyed putting balls through wickets made from bookends. Two other examples of interesting events where the “Family Fort Night,” which featured patrons bringing blankets and pillows to make forts around a fake bonfire to read stories as they munched on marshmallows, and the “Frozen Sing-Along,” which featured songs and scenes from the popular Disney film with audience participation sections, such as throwing snowballs at the Snow Monster. This library also offers summer programs every weekday with free lunch for K-12 students.
Session 2: “EverFi”
EverFi is a web-based program of courses designed to help students with financial education, STEM readiness, healthy relationships, diversity and inclusion, and career leadership and success. Each course has teacher resources aligned to Common Core State Standards. Most of the K-12 courses are geared towards middle and high school students, yet some are appropriate for students in fourth and fifth grade. Teachers create free accounts, and students have individual student accounts grouped as classes. Students can be directed to use any module, a select few, or complete the course. Accounts for students under the age of 13 do not have last name or email required. If interested, teachers can contact an EverFi school manager to get behavior survey data on their students.
Session 3: “Genrefying Your Library”
These high school librarians saw a 67% increase in usage and saw the fiction circulation double when they genrefied their library media center. Genrefying refers to grouping fiction books first by genre then by author last name. They purchased Demco “all in one” stickers to place on book spines and used websites like FantasticFiction and NoveList to help with categorizing titles. When working in Destiny, they suggested completing both the sublocation and copy categories. The copy categories then become visual search button options in the OPAC, and it is possible to run historical collection statistics based on copy category. One of the presenters mentioned librarians might want to label the titles first then batch edit the copies in the OPAC using barcodes. For them, if a story has magic, it is fantasy, not science fiction, and historical is anything prior to 1995. Canva.com was suggested as a place for genre posters and signs.
Enthusiastically,
Ms. Tyler
