Shared Foundation V: Explore

V: Explore

Chicora Elementary School's library is always busy with student and teacher activity. The school librarian is often teaching a lesson or managing the resources of the library.  Teachers stop by to collaborate on lessons or students drop by to explore or say a quick hello to the librarian.  What does it mean to explore?  The American Association for School Librarians (2018) state the key commitment means to, "discover and innovate in a growth mindset developed through experience and reflection" (p. 104).  

I believe that the domain of exploration is essential to students' future. Not only does this foundation help students to be independent learners, critical thinkers, and problem-solvers, but also to take ownership and pride in their work.  Students will grow by becoming critical thinkers and use different formats to create and write for a variety of purposes.  They will reflect and question their learning and exhibit persistence in their work!  Additionally, librarians will provide strategies to foster curiosity both personally and academically and to investigate those curiosities to solve a problem.  Furthermore, librarians should help students to develop their own interests and talents to their utmost ability in a positive environment.  The building of students' confidence and a positive mindset to explore interests and tasks will give them tools to help them to be successful in their current studies and in their future professions.  Chicora's School Librarian, Ms. M. Zahler is striving to do just that.  First and foremost, in order to be able to develop the skills required for the Shared Foundation: Explore, the school librarian must establish a positive relationship in which the students trust her and the suggestions she gives.   

I observed Ms. Zahler teach a lesson on protection of resources and health.  She read, We are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom.  In this book, students were able to make the connection that the illustrated "snake" was actually the Dakota Access Pipeline.  A discussion took place about how this pipeline would affect the people and how the people stood up for what they believed.  This read-aloud helped students to reflect and question and also grow through their questioning and reflection (A. Think 2 &3).  

Ms. Zahler's library space has many makerspace items for students to choose from.  From building blocks to strategy-implementing board games, beginning coding devices, puzzles, and much more!  This space gives students the ability to explore their interests and to engage in creative play.  This satisfies the domain: B. Create 2, allowing students to tinker and make.  Resources, included in this library, to help foster exploration and curiosity are the makerspace items, books and magazines, databases, kid-friendly websites, and clubs.  

Each teacher sponsors a club activity for its students regularly.  The librarian, Ms. Zahler, has created a "Makerspace Club" which allow students to delve deeper into their own personal interests (B. Create 2, C. Share 1, and D. Grow 2).  She has assisted students with learning more about personal interests such as bracelet making, cooking/baking, and writing a recipe, play, and a collection of poems.  She starts by asking the students what is a new skill that they would like to learn and them gives them the resources, tools, and/or connections to explore and expand upon that interest.  

Though Ms. Zahler enjoys helping students to explore their interests, she has had challenges/obstacles to overcome in the process.  She states that it is hard to find the time to help students to explore their interest because both the librarian, teacher, and student's schedule must be able to sync for collaboration to occur.  Her #1 hinderance is finding the resources needed to match the students' interest.  For example, students that are interested in baking might be able to use the school's cafeteria but that is difficult to organize a time that will not intrude on the cafeteria staff's duties.  She mentions that there are also students who are interested in robotics but that is an interest that could come with a hefty price tag for resources (that is not in the budget).  

Overall, as a new librarian.  I think that Ms. Zahler does an excellent job with developing her students' ability to explore their talents and passions both personally and academically.  I suggested that in order to find additional funding for resources in which students have expressed an interest in exploring, she may want to consider grant writing (Ex. Donors Choose, etc.).  I enjoyed interviewing Ms. Zahler, and this has helped me to think of additional ways in which I can support my students, in my future library, to be the best version of themselves that they can be!   

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

GIPHY. (n.d.). Explorer [GIF]. GIPHY. https://media.giphy.com/media/l4KibOaou932EC7Dy/giphy.gif

Shared Foundation IV: Curate

IV: Curate 

Researching the word "curate", I learned that it could be used as a noun or a verb.  I learned that when used as a noun, it may be a reference to a clergy member.  When I think of the word curate, I think about a person collecting precious items, and carefully organizing and arranging the items, for possible display.  Could a person on the hit tv show Hoarders, be considered a curator of items?  I would think that even though they have a large collection of items, that may or may not be similar, the items are not arranged or properly taken care of.  This is definitely not true when thinking of how a school librarian curates resources and models curation for his/her students.  Curation is a process in which items are carefully and painstakingly brought together for optimal effectiveness by its users.  Let us take a look at how Ms. Kerri Price, implements the shared foundation curate, in her middle school library.   

When our 6th grade scholars began to study the black death in their English Language Arts curriculum, Ms. Price collaborated with our teachers to not only model for the students how to find appropriate sources of information but also presented them with various tools to help them explore the information sources that are available to them via Clever.  Students were constantly reflecting.  For example, when Ms. Price presented the available databases, they came across Gale in Context: U.S. History.  One student pointed out that their study on the Black Death would not be found in that database because the topic would be listed under World History (because it did not happen in the United States).  

Additionally, Ms. Price has compiled a list of resources, in a digital format, about the black death and the Inca and Mayan histories for students. In these curated digital pathfinders, she linked resources like Brain Pop videos and book titles (with call numbers), using a Google Docs.  The creation of a topical pathfinder, organizes and displays information in a way that makes it easier for our younger, novice researchers to find, analyze, and share pertinent information.

Though this process may seem like an easy feat for an outsider, Ms. Price reflects on the most pressing challenge that she has with curation.  That obstacle is getting teachers to participate.  She cannot effectively curate materials for teachers and students if she cannot get them to communicate with her what they are teaching in their classrooms.  She mentioned that in order to combat this, she must effectively advocate for her library and the valuable services that she provides.  Ms. Price mentions that once teachers collaborate with her, they will spread the word and more teachers will be more receptive to integrating her library skills/services into their lessons more often.  

Reference

GIPHY. (n.d.). Curate [GIF]. GIPHY. https://media.giphy.com/media/pHZctAxdRXmK6FKPXb/giphy.gif

 

 

Shared Foundation I: Inquire

 

I:  INQUIRE

What is interesting about the 6 shared foundations are that they can all be seamlessly intertwined into what exceptional school librarians do every day.  I think the Inquire foundation, is one that all educators strive daily to implement into our teachings.  We want our students to be curious and ask questions about the world (and their learning experiences), to be able to evaluate information critically, and to effectively solve problems.  Giving students the building blocks needed to think critically starts with the inquiry process.    

According to the American Association for School Librarians standards (2018), school librarians teach others to display curiosity and initiative when seeking information, promote new knowledge, maintain focus throughout the inquiry process, and implement and model an inquiry-based process" (p. 68).  In this foundation, the teacher does not "force feed" students information, but the students take more ownership in their learning and are intrinsically motivated to learn more about a topic of their interest.  

When speaking with Ms. Rivers (a school librarian at E. B. Ellington), she specifically mentions the domains think and grow.  She encourages her students to make connections between the material that is being learned and how that information relates to them in the real-world.  She gives an example of how students often relate to the actions/thoughts of a character.  Next, they critically think about what they would have done and/or if they would have done things differently (from the character).  While learning, students can use the knowledge that they know and can expand upon that knowledge by creating new meaning.  I think this inquiry process is heightened when students can inquire about topics in a safe space, like the school library and are able to have conversations about what they are learning with others (students, teachers, etc.) to obtain even deeper meaning and to promote critical thinking via questioning.  What are additional ways to promote inquiry in students? Have you heard of "Makerspaces"?  Hopefully, I have piqued your curiosity a bit and you would like to learn more.

Ms. Rivers uses her Makerspace (a place for students to explore, learn, share, etc.) to help students to grasp the lesson's objective. For example, she collaborated with a 5th grade teacher and her class while they were studying oceans and landforms.  She invited everyone into the library for a virtual reality experience.  Most students have a phone, that they value highly, and students are always excited to use them.  Ms. Rivers used each student's cellphone and paired it with Google's Cardboard to create an immersive experience, in the comfort of their school's library.  Students were able to see the ocean and landforms (in 3-D) and this sparked interesting and authentic, student-led conversations.  This is inquiry and technology merged together, at its finest!  

Meeting the needs of all of the learners, with inquiry methods, are not always easy because all children are not the same.  Ms. Rivers explained that many of the students in a class are on varying levels.  The initial stages of inquiry may be simplistic enough for all students to accomplish but what happens when the critical thinking and problem solving becomes more challenging?  At some point, there comes a time when some students find this level of work to be more challenging and cannot keep up with their peers.  This has caused challenges for Ms. Rivers.  I think that this is a perfect solution for this shared foundation.  It helps students to work together, fill in missing gaps of knowledge, and to learn cooperatively from each other.  That is what inquiry is all about... the process of using the knowledge that one has, creating new meaning, and using that information critically and in new ways to solve problems and/or to lead to new discoveries!  

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

GIPHY. (n.d.). Reaction [GIF]. GIPHY. https://media.giphy.com/media/RhPvGbWK78A0/giphy.gif