School has been back in session for a few weeks now - almost a month for students and five weeks for me! It's been a time of adjusting to new: new full-time schedule, new principal, new students! As the year has started, I have been working on a few key projects that I thought I'd share here.
1. Student orientation - this is a perennial project, but this is the first year for me that students have returned to my current library space. Last year, we were all returning from online learning due to COVID and kicking off operations in a brand new library building. As a result, EVERYONE got full, welcome-to-our-library orientation. This year's 7th and 8th graders, though, are ready for some differentiated learning! As a result, while 6th grade orientation still focuses on the basics of our library, 7th and 8th graders will get a brief reminder of library basics and then jump into learning about smart, safe, legal use of images they download.
2. Mental health - the COVID pandemic ramped up the community's need for information on mental health resources. Last year, my parent liaison and our school social worker and I got together to do a DonorsChoose grant for mental health books and student tools for managing anxiety. This year, the books hit the shelf, and we're hoping to kick off a series of community meetings to discuss mental health issues. I'm also working on an article on how librarians can support their community's mental health needs from the library, so stay tuned! In the meantime, students are taking advantage of our new library section.
3. STEM collaboration - We have a new signature program this year, STEM. I am excited about incorporating STEM into the library. The STEM coordinator and I are working together to support our students as they begin work on their Science Fair projects, and I am thrilled to have an opportunity to really dig in to inquiry instruction with students. We'll be using The Big 6 as our framework to talk about the inquiry process from start to finish. We're also looking to get our makerspace fully up and running.
Stay tuned for more!
