So Far In September 2016...

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/ Artifact Walk Through

4. Chow Tent
(Potato Casserole, Apple Dumpling Dessert, and Water)

Our students always enjoy this library collaboration. Be sure to read this full length blog article about the program. 

Arthur Miller's The Crucible

11th grade English students read The Crucible in class each year. This is the third year teachers have brought students to the library for a culminating courtroom event. The first day, students come in to create pilgrim style costumes from the era using bulletin board paper and patterns. Females created a bonnet and collar. Males created a vest with the paper. Before coming to the library, students received instruction about best courtroom practices from local lawyers. Each class learned to write appropriate opening and closing statements. After this preparation, classes actually held court in the library (based on The Crucible). For more information, read this previous blog post.

Makerspace During Lunch in the Library

We have had makerspace days in the library for over a year now. We had not held a makerspace program since moving into the renovated library facility this year. To introduce it to our learners this year, we decided to put all our makerspace items in a designated area of the library. We weren't sure how all the students would respond, so it was decided to put the various makerspace activities on tables in the library for lunch. The students loved it! There will be additional makerspace items purchased soon for this part of our library program! Currently, we have a 3D Printer station with Sketch Up Make & Makerbot Thingiverse/ Desktop, Jenga, Legos, coloring pages, 2 Spheros, and a deconstruction station (with old computers that students can disassemble).

Be sure to look at the other links embedded within this post for more information. I will be sharing resources for makerspace ideas and library collaborations in my upcoming newsletters. There are always library adventures to tell about and new things to learn together!

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The power of meeting my PLN!

Our student-led 3D Printing session in the library!

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Our Top 5 Blog Posts of 2015

This was the second year for the Library Media Tech Talk Blog. The blog was created in March 2014. We hope that our posts have been both interesting and helpful to all educators! As 2015 comes to a close, I want to share our most read articles of the year.

Top 5 most read blog posts of 2015

1825 pageviews: Our First Mysteryskype!

1535 pageviews: Our First Makerspace Day In The Library

1154 pageviews: How My Wife Became Super Librarian

926 pageviews: Tweet Us Some #Inspiration

819 pageviews: Students "Teach The Teachers" Prezi At Lunch In The Library

Thank you for reading this blog! Happy New Year, friends!

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Presenting and Learning About Makerspaces at ArASL 2015

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 creativity

4. Let failure be an option

5. Make something old new again

Another important point she made was that "failure is an option". Students will learn from failures and so will we! All of us should "think, create, share, and grow" in the library makerspace. After Leslie presented, it was our turn to share our makerspace experiences. 

Manga art during "Show Your Talent" Day

Misti and I discussed how we accidentally started our library makerspace back in 2013-2014 with "Share Your Talent" day. We invited students to share skills we had observed them using in the library during lunch. These talents included Magic Cards, Rubik's Cube, Manga Art, and Jewelry Making. We had these students at different tables so library lunch visitors could come learn and/ or watch during the entire period. It was a great success! Everyone at our conference session seemed interested in these ideas.

Misti presents the Sphero to attendees

The Rubik's Cube table was a hit

We also shared that in 2014 we were provided a Makerbot Replicator 3D Printer and two Spheros. Students enjoyed learning on these gadgets all year during lunch and after school.  After our students successfully presented 3D Printing to the library patrons during multiple lunch sessions, we finally decided to bring in additional makerspace lunchtime activities (which we called "makerspace day"). We set up tables for 3D Printing, Spheros, Jenga, Legos, and a "Deconstruction Station"  We reflected on the successes of this event to our approximately 50 ArASL conference session attendees. After this, we talked about potential future goals for the makerspace program (mainly items we hope to add like Makey Makey and Duct Tape projects).

I demonstrate the 3D Printer

We then invited everyone to try the same makerspace stations! We had brought each of the items for librarians to try out. The most popular two gadgets were the 3D Printer and the Sphero. It was inspiring to see everyone's interest in Makerspaces! We are grateful for the opportunity to share and learn at this state conference. It was so good to meet librarians from distant parts of the state and network face to face. It was also great to meet and learn from Leslie Preddy. Misti and I returned to Lakeside High School inspired and motivated to make the coming year better than ever for our learning community!

Check out our Makerspace Day here!

Two of our students helped present 3D Printing at a state technology conference. Go here to view!

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Our First Makerspace Day In The Library

I was greatly inspired by a TL Virtual Cafe session I attended online a few weeks ago (thanks to the Twitter PD community at #tlchat). After hearing so many great ideas from library media specialists/ teacher librarians from all over the country, I decided to give it a try in our own school library. We have been slowly assembling all the needed pieces to start a Makerspace this year! We had planned to have this program during our two lunch sessions (1st lunch- grades 10-12 and 2nd lunch grades 8 and 9). A last minute schedule change kept us from having the program for grades 10-12 this time.

We decided to have 5 Makerspace stations in the library. They were all very successful, and the students that participated were very engaged.

We had a 3D printer station led by two of our students from EAST. They had designed a replica of the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower) using Google Sketch Up Make and Netfabb. We decided to print several of these, and we gave them away at the end of the session in a drawing. The student leaders explained how the printer worked to those that visited them.

Willis Tower Replica

We had a student that brought his Lego collection to share. Several students visited the Lego station and had fun building quick projects.

We set up a table with Jenga for another fun Makerspace station. Several students enjoyed playing this building game.

We also have a Sphero in the library. We had that available for students experimentation. It was a very popular station.

The most popular station was the "deconstruction" station. Our technology department donated some non-functional computer and networking components for our students to take apart. The kids loved taking the computer apart most of all.

It was a great first Makerspace program for our students! We cannot wait to try this during our grade 10-12 lunch period! I encourage you to try a Makerspace in your school library. It's a great place for students to connect, hack, and create in the library!

Before you go, check out our student led 3D printing lunch library program here.

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Email: stony_evans@lakesidesd.org

           misti_bell@lakesidesd.org

Are you on Twitter?

Follow me : @stony12270

Follow our library (LHS_Library): @LHS_Library1