A Whirlwind of Great Learning

I'm really behind on posting some great things that have happened. It's been a whirlwind. I'll do my best to be brief but share some of the awesomeness and if you have questions or want to see more information, please let me know.

The week of Dec. 10-14 we had a lot of big/cool things happen. 

1. A committee came to watch me teach, interview me, and interview 3 of my peers and my admin to decide if I should be the Teacher of the Year for Brevard County Schools. At first I thought I needed to do something really big and amazing to show the committee that Media Specialists do more than just check out books but I decided to do what we do best...engineering stations tied to novels. It was an interesting day to say the least but our stations were awesome, the kids learned a ton, and we had a great day! The thing that sticks in my mind the most about that day (other than all the cool things our kids built tied to their books) is that my colleagues said the committee members asked them why I got picked instead of a "real" teacher since I'm just a librarian. I love that my awesome co-workers jumped right on it to make sure they knew that in this position, I get to teach everyone, including our teachers. It's a pretty incredible thing to work in a school where you are so supported. I wish everyone had what I have here. The committee spoke with my peers and my admin team, watched me teach, and then interviewed me last. They seemed to have really enjoyed the lesson that I heavily encouraged them to participate in and asked me all kinds of questions. My prayer is that I represented my profession and my school well. I know these kids did and I think it's pretty great that the committee got a glimpse into the great stuff that happens here on a regular basis. I think their view of what my role is and how it can impact a school has changed a lot. :) If you read the station cards you can see some of the challenges we issued to the kids.

2. Project Lit for December where we talked about Refugee by Alan Gratz. If you haven't read that book yet, you are making a terrible life choice that needs to be rectified immediately. Our book club kids are amazing! They had a Kahoot put together, tshirt designs ready to go, and completely ran the show. Our adult sponsors just had to show up. :)

3. We started the Jason Reynolds story contest with our GAPP students. It was in an issue of Scope magazine and it is an awesome contest! I can't wait to see what our kids come up with!

The next week (Dec. 17-21) I had:

1. Brevard Media Specialists Holiday Party which was super fun. It is so important to spend time with other people who do what you do and are passionate about it. It's also really important to cut loose and have fun sometimes. 
2. Maker space and book check out which are always some of my favorite days! Our maker space days involve design challenges for different stations. I usually set up 8 or so stations and the students have to complete at least 3 before they leave. They have a handout to document their work that walks them through the engineering process at each station. Sometimes these are general challenges and sometimes they are tailored to what is being covered in the content class they came with. Each teacher makes that choice for their kids and then I set everything up and walk them through it. 
3. The annual Ugly Sweater Contest and our faculty pot luck. Anything that involves costumes is my jam and I'm happy to report I am reigning champion. At our potluck, I used some of the games from our BPS Media Holiday Party and did it staff wide. We had a BLAST! We had a "snowball" (balled up paper) fight and we made some reindeer. We all laughed so hard. Everyone really needed that before the break. 

Over  the break I went to visit my mom and we went on a ski trip to Utah with my husband's side of our family. It was just what I needed to recharge for another big semester of activities. I also got to use all that travel time to read 12 really great books! 

Since returning to school we have:

1. Check out, announcements, and maker space with Ms. Ross's classes
2. A stupid cool vocabulary activity with Mrs. Watkins's classes. We had the kids take their vocab words, use Canva to create a graphic for it, and then posted it to a Padlet. I got the idea from my friend Andrea who is a high school Media Specialist in Alabama. It worked really well and the kids really liked it! Mrs. Watkins is going to print them and post them in the classroom as they continue their unit. 
3. I met with a furniture company to try and get all new furniture for our Media Center. I hope it all works out because this place will be AMAZING if it does. All of our tables are breaking or already broken and don't work for this space. We need flexible seating! 
4. I got to celebrate our ESE self-contained kiddos finishing two more books! They are at 8 books for the year. I could not be more proud of them! We built a motels from Home Sweet Motel and decorated rabbits to look like the main characters from Podkin One-Ear. 

1. Friday I got to work with our Art students. I got to teach them some Langston Hughes poetry and they are going to illustrate a poem that spoke to them. I had them choose a poem, jot down the title and then make a list of any images or objects in the poem. Then they made a list of any colors represented in the poem and then started sketching out ideas. This is an on-going project that will eventually be displayed in the Media Center. They had some incredible sketches and ideas. I'm really excited to see how their projects turn out. 

This week? All the crazy. 

The biggest thing is that we are participating in the Follett Challange and my school needs YOUR votes. You can vote for us here. Our submission focuses on our #swms20bookchallenge and I'm so proud of the video we submitted. These kids are awesome! 

Chorus and Coding

Last week was filled with students logging books for our author visit, us scoring their responses, book check-outs, and then I got to spend TWO days with our Chorus students and their amazing teacher, Ms. Nuetzel.

Why was Chorus in the Library? Why not?

We did one activity with most of her classes and then a completely different activity with Show Choir. We had a blast!

Activity 1: Soundtrack of My Life

The students had to choose a song to represent their past, one for their present, and one for their future. The students were required to find a video for their song, write 5-8 sentences explaining why that song fits that time of their life, and include an image. The project itself was Ms. Nuetzel's idea. I worked with the kids on the technology aspect and they used Google Slides for their project. I helped them set it up, showed them how to embed videos and images (and how to properly use them!), and showed them how to add fonts, change their backgrounds, add animations, etc. They worked on this for two class days and started presenting them today. They had some really great projects and it really allowed them to open up and share how music impacts their lives.

Activity 2: Show Choir

For the students in Show Choir, we wanted to do something different with them so I pulled out the Ozobots and showed them the basics of using Blockly (many had used it before) and this class of young ladies had two days to learn to code their Ozobot and program it to dance. Then, we had them join forces with another group and code both Ozobots to do the same dance. They worked on choreography through coding and even added in formations. It was SO much fun! We had some really great results too.

I love working with Margi. She's so wonderful with her students and so very knowledgeable. She also isn't afraid to try something new and loves to collaborate. While she was with me, we planned out a Coffee House night that Chorus is hosting and they are going to have it in the Media Center since they've outgrown the Chorus room.

Getting Out of My Comfort Zone

Most of my two years as a Media Specialist have been spent trying things I had no idea how to do. Lots of risks with grant writing, Maker Space, and even just the position itself.  I second-guess myself often, although less now than when I started. You see, I didn't get a Master's Degree to be a School Librarian and I'm often reminded by others who have been in this longer than me that I don't have one. I didn't do the program but instead passed a certification exam which is an option here in Florida. Please don't think I'm unqualified. I am state certified to teach English/Language Arts 6-12, Reading K-12, ESOL K-12, and Media K-12. I just didn't take the traditional route to get here.

Sometimes I start to think that I can't do things as well as others because of that but then I look back on all the great things that have happened in my short stint as a Media Specialist and it is a good reminder of all the things I can do.

So much of my job is about innovation. Innovation with creative lessons, with technology, and even with how to promote reading to kids in a way that will excite them. Innovation always comes with risk-taking and that is something I've become quite accustomed to. I really don't even get nervous about it anymore.

Today was one of those days where I took a risk with instruction and it paid off in a big way.

A couple of times a year our Gifted and Advanced team has seminar days where the whole day is changed up and they rotate around to different people and learn some really cool things that will challenge them. I'm so incredibly blessed that I get to be part of these days and part of the rotations. Today was our first GAPP seminar and this incredible team of teachers (they are seriously the greatest educators I've ever encountered in all of my career!) told me I could do whatever I wanted with the kids.

Originally I was thinking about using our new iPads and tablets and the Dash robot and Spheros we have and having them work with those but these first two weeks of school have been insane. I haven't even made a dent in my to-do list and the list is always ever-growing. I'm so thankful for what I do but because I'm so behind, that means I definitely had not gotten around to charging them all up and getting everything ready for this.

A few weeks ago, my friend and rockstar Media Specialist, Ana lead a professional development session on using Ozoblockly to code the Ozobots from the computer. I'd never really tried it before because I assumed they had to be plugged into the computer. They don't. She showed us some cool things you can do with them and showed us the lesson library. I was so impressed and definitely wanted to try it.

Well, yesterday at 5:00 pm when I needed to leave school to pick up my daughter from volleyball, I decided today would be the day to try it. I plugged in all the Ozobots and left school.

This morning I set up a slide with some basic instructions and decided that if anyone could figure out how to do this, it would be these overachievers who live for this kind of thing.

I have to be honest with you. I made a few mistakes because I hadn't really spent enough time with it, however, a few of the kids in my first rotation had done this before and I let them be the experts. By the next group, I was ready to rock-n-roll.

We had a BLAST! I helped kids when they needed it and they showed me some amazing things that I didn't know could be done with these tiny little robots. Did you know you can program these things to play songs AND dance at the same time?!?!?! A 7th grader taught me that today when she coded her bot to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb." They already asked me if they can do it again when they come back.

Now that I've tested it out on them, I can feel much more confident going through the lesson library and using this with a variety of content areas. I'm already thinking of grants to write to buy another classroom kit so I have a full class set plus a few extras (as some of my Ozobots grew legs and walked away last year).

In the last few years, I have taken so many risks in my career. I took a risk by leaving the classroom. I took a risk writing some big grants to buy equipment like these Ozobots that I had no idea how to use. Starting a school-wide 20 Book Challenge in a school of so many struggling readers was a huge risk. Right now, I'm in the middle of planning something SO BIG I never even dreamed it would be possible. It very well might blow up in my face but if it doesn't, it'll be a memorable life event for these kids and maybe, just maybe, change their lives forever. I do so many kooky things in our library but they always turn out so beautifully. Even when things aren't right, even when you have to make adjustments or re-evaluate, it is always worth the risk. You see, following that process in front of the kids is a demonstration of innovation and the engineering skills we are trying to teach them. Letting the kids see you do something that makes you uncomfortable is such a teachable moment. Letting loose and having fun are the reason so many kids will keep coming back to your space over and over again.

Learning is fun and these kids need to know that just because it isn't on that state test doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. I tell these kids all the time that they will never grow if they only do what they've always done and the same is true for educators. One of the best lessons I ever learned from my dad is the value of doing something hard. We have to be willing to do what we are asking these kids to do. Plain and simple.

I have so much fun doing what I do and a lot of that enjoyment stems from days like today where I walk in saying, "I hope this works" and having a basic plan B, C, and D if it doesn't. The kids had a blast and I had more fun than they did.

Next week, I'll do something else I've never tried before and see how it goes.