Library Media Tech Talk

I'm very excited to have Kaitlyn Price (@Kait_Price11), LHS Teacher Librarian, join me in this article about our recent adventures. We will share how our journey helped us learn that there are students in the library (and everywhere else in the school) that are just waiting to have to have their voices heard. These events truly changed our thinking. Dawson Education Cooperative Visit (Stony) We had an opportunity to host a training for teacher librarians in our area through the Dawson Education Cooperative. We were asked to show our newly renovated library facility, teach Breakout EDU, and show our innovation spaces. The schedule was as follows: 9:00           Welcome, introductions, and library tour 9:30           Breakout EDU puzzles 10:30-10:40 Break 10:45          Breakout EDU Discussion and Breakout EDU Digital 1...

The first of the school year is always a wild experience full of change and excitement! August went by extremely fast, and now I'm trying to figure out where the first half of September has gone. I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on a few of the library events over the past few weeks. Each of these are programs we have hosted in previous years, but it is the first time we have attempted them in our new library spaces. I will also provide links to detailed blog articles we have written about the events in the past. The Dust Bowl ( Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse) This is a collaboration we have done with 8th grade English classes since 2012. The program is designed to introduce students to the 1930s (and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse) by immersing them in a variety of media from the era. This year we featured four learning centers: 1. FDR Dust Bowl Speech (Audio File) 2. Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Blues (Music Video) 3. Book Check Out/ Artifac...

My librarian co-worker (Mrs. Misti Bell) and I had the privilege of attending the Arkansas Association of School Librarians (ArASL) conference in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 27th. This was a special occasion for a few reasons. The first being that the ArASL Chair-Elect, Mrs. Sloan Powell, extended an invitation for us to present at the conference back in May when she read the blog post on our "Makerspace Day" in the library. (The link to this page is at the bottom of this article.) The second reason is that the keynote presenter was Mrs. Leslie Preddy, the current President of the American Association of School Librarians. Leslie did a wonderful job sharing about the many resources that AASL offers! It was also great to hear her talk about the Makerspaces she has established in her own middle school library. I came away with five important points that Leslie shared about starting a Makerspace: 1. Begin with what you know 2. Start small 3. Think hands on creativ...

Through the magic of social media and this blog, others in our state have found out about our 3D printing antics in the library media center. About two months ago, our technology director (Mrs. Melinda Dodd) and Hot Springs Technology Institute (HSTI) director (Mr. Don Benton) approached me about teaching 3D printing basics at the upcoming HSTI pre-conference in June 2015. I was very excited about this opportunity, especially for our students. One of the items I have worked on this year is student led presentations. I saw this as a great opportunity to include a few of our EAST students that have become knowledgeable about 3D printing this year! Melinda and Don were both very supportive of including the students in the presentation! I decided to use two upcoming sophomores for this project. They had spent the most time working with our MakerBot Replicator and they had also presented successfully many times during our library lunch programs. They both agreed to join the presentation t...

This past Sunday, a friend from school messaged me on Facebook. In the message, she had sent a link to a wonderful story on the CBS Evening News (go here for the link). The feature was about 14 year old Daelyn James from Tennessee. She had invented a dryer for her nebulizer breathing apparatus while using a Mobile Makerspace 3D Printer. She used this Makerspace while she was a patient at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. While I watched the video of her interview, I was very inspired by her excitement for creating. I decided to show the video clip during lunch in the library the very next day. Most of the fifty students that attended were very interested in this very innovative application of 3D Printing. Our students enjoy our library 3D Printer, but they haven't invented anything with it in the nine months we have had it. They have mainly created common objects or recreated models with the printer. I knew this was an opportunity to inspire them to ...