Diane asked me to help her with a new organizational approach for the use of the laptop carts. They are in pretty sad shape and Diane wanted to change the way they were being signed out for student use to make kids more accountable for the way they used them. I developed several formats of Word table documents to use with each cart so that students have to sign out which exact computer they are using, rather than just signing the entire cart out to a teacher. We tried out a variety of styles until we settled on one Diane thought would work the best for the needed purpose.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
May 6 '10 -- 8 hrs
I spent the entire work day with Mrs. Michele Gruenberg, the teacher librarian at Wilson Elementary School. After having spent three consecutive days in an elementary school outside of my district, I was excited to learn more and compare practices from a school in my own district. Michele was a gracious hostess and we spent much time talking as we worked throughout the day. She gave me a tour of the school and told me about reading initiatives at each grade and what she tried to achieve in the library to support these.
When I arrived in the morning, I helped check in the crates of books that came in from each class. I also checked out a group of books that a teacher had pulled for classroom use. I tried to help out with shelving to give Michele some extra time for other tasks she usually has to wait for outside of school for. We worked with five different classes (one class had to be split into two visits, so there were actually six class slots) at all levels. The variety of activity throughout the classes was impressive: state research projects using Kidspiration, nonfiction reading skills, younger student read alouds, and book checkout for all grades.
Students were enthusiatic and, for the most part, well behaved. They appeared to really enjoy coming to the library and have a good relationship with Mrs. Gruenberg. In terms of the library space itself, it was a sharp contrast to the environment at Elm Lawn where I visited over spring break. Wilson's library is in its own classroom space at the end of a hallway, whereas Elm Lawn's is really at the heart of the school. Elm Lawn's building is also much newer than Wilson's so it's obvious that a different architechtural approach was considered.
I hope to be able to go back for another day (or at least a part of a day) before the end of the school year.
When I arrived in the morning, I helped check in the crates of books that came in from each class. I also checked out a group of books that a teacher had pulled for classroom use. I tried to help out with shelving to give Michele some extra time for other tasks she usually has to wait for outside of school for. We worked with five different classes (one class had to be split into two visits, so there were actually six class slots) at all levels. The variety of activity throughout the classes was impressive: state research projects using Kidspiration, nonfiction reading skills, younger student read alouds, and book checkout for all grades.
Students were enthusiatic and, for the most part, well behaved. They appeared to really enjoy coming to the library and have a good relationship with Mrs. Gruenberg. In terms of the library space itself, it was a sharp contrast to the environment at Elm Lawn where I visited over spring break. Wilson's library is in its own classroom space at the end of a hallway, whereas Elm Lawn's is really at the heart of the school. Elm Lawn's building is also much newer than Wilson's so it's obvious that a different architechtural approach was considered.
I hope to be able to go back for another day (or at least a part of a day) before the end of the school year.
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