This month, I will be doing a series of blogs on four of the six shared foundations from the American Association of School Librarians’ National School Library Standards. The first foundation I chose was EXPLORE, and I interviewed Marianne G., an elementary school Media Specialist. I chose to ask Marianne about how she fosters the spirit of exploration in her Learning Commons because she is an experienced, creative school librarian who uses the resources available to her to enrich the lives of her students. Her beautiful Learning Commons is equipped with a reading nooks and comfortable seating, a connecting computer lab as well as a technology makerspace area called the Innovation Center.

THINK

“School librarians foster learners’ personal curiosity by encouraging learners to read widely and deeply in multiple formats…”

(AASL, 2018, p.104)

Marianne encourages her students to read widely and deeply through collection development. She weeds routinely and purchases the latest series and other books that kids love in order to keep her collection attractive and current. The books in the Learning Commons are in good condition and come in various formats, including picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, nonfiction, eBooks, and a variety of genres of everything.

CREATE

“School librarians stimulate learners to construct new knowledge by:

1. Teaching problem solving through cycles of design, implementation, and reflection.

2. Providing opportunities for tinkering and making.

3. Modeling persistence through self-directed tinkering and making.”

(AASL, 2018, p. 104)

Before COVID limited the hands-on activities Marianne could do in her Learning Commons, she says she was “big into Makerspaces.” Some of the manipulatives she would use with students include Magnatiles and Legos. Students could tinker and make using these manipulatives. Also, students would use TinkerCad and 3-D printers in order to design and make various creations.

Marianne routinely collaborated with their school’s tech coach or a classroom teacher in order to plan makerspace activities around whatever topic the students were covering in class. The art teacher also worked technology into art, using Sphero robots to drive through paper to make Robot Art. Marianne’s school also used to employ a certified teacher to work in the Innovation Center and design lessons with Marianne. Unfortunately, because of COVID guidelines and the change of roles in the school, as well as a teacher shortage, Marianne does not have the luxury of being able to collaborate in this way as much this year, but she is hopeful that this will change in the future.

Marianne highly recommends that Media Specialists attend the EdTech conference the next time they have one. Practically, she would take time in the summer to brainstorm ideas of maker projects for the upcoming school year.

SHARE

“School librarians prepare learners to engage with the learning community by providing strategies for acting on curiosity about a topic of personal interest or curricular relevance.”

(AASL, 2018, p. 104)

One benefit to being sent home during the COVID-19 pandemic is that Marianne learned to use Screencastify and YouTube to teach how to search the catalog using Destiny Discover. She was also able to make “how-to” videos about research that teachers could post in Google Classroom for students to access. This is especially helpful when a teacher wants students to learn to do something, but does not have the time in the schedule to bring the whole class. Marianne now shares videos with teachers to be used as time allows, and these videos can be reused in the future.

GROW

“School librarians help learners develop through experience and reflection by:

1. Scaffolding iterative challenge-response processes.

2. Helping learners to recognize capabilities and skills that can be developed, improved and expanded.”

(AASL, 2018, p. 104)

Marianne has collaborated with classroom teachers to help learners grow by providing book studies for early finishers or gifted studentss to help teacher provide enrichment for those students. When the students were studying World War II in Social Studies, Marianne did a book study using Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. They covered vocabulary and WWII history through the reading of this book. She has also done math interventions as well as enrichment with students. Her favorite unit was the Donut Shop unit, where students were challenged to open a donut shop. Students planned their shop, made a budget, and considered things like how much they would pay employees and charge for their donuts. One student was challenged by others when she announced she would only use volunteers in her shop rather than pay employees.

Throughout my conversation with Marianne, we lamented about the pressures teachers are under this year, and how their time is so limited. Collaboration and giving kids time to explore in the Learning Commons is difficult when there aren’t enough teachers to cover the classes and everyone must pitch in to help out. However, there was a steady stream of students coming through to exchange books and Marianne can take pride in continuing to develop young minds through exploration of worlds that are opened up through the books she curates for her library. It’s obvious that students enjoy exploring through these books, and will look forward to future explorations in the makerspace area again soon.

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