Middle School

Advocating for School Libraries- Movers and Shakers 2016

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I was extremely honored this week to be recognized along with four other teacher librarians as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for the class of 2016.

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Photo by Michael J. Madsen

This distinction is awarded to librarians who according to Library Journal, “(are) committed to providing excellent service and shaping the future of libraries.” The 2016 class has 54 members who come from all walks of librarianship!

It is so exciting to be distinguished among this amazing class of librarian professionals and join the Movers and Shakers before me whom Rebecca T. Miller, the Editorial Director of Library Journal and School library Journal points out are “talented professionals who are committed, passionate, and invigorated—each alone and all together transforming the library world and the communities it impacts for the better.” 

I was selected because of my commitment to the library profession, my leadership, and my innovative techniques at transforming traditional libraries into bustling library makerspaces.

From the article: “Colleen Graves has made her mark developing top-notch Maker spaces at Lamar Middle School in Flower Mound, TX, and her current school, Ryan High School, in Denton, as well as lesson plans and other resources applicable to many Makerspaces. Through her Makerspace, Graves has connected not only with her students but with other educators as well. A conversation between one of her classes and the staff at MaKey MaKey led her to write a suite of lessons for teachers using the invention kit. Now, she’s working on two books about Maker spaces and the projects they make possible.”

Read my full profile here.

(Did you catch the Peter H. Reynolds The Dot allusion? And I’m holding Dot the robot?!)

Even more exciting to me is that I earned this distinction along with a class of librarians I hold in high regard.

I wanted to showcase all of the great teacher librarians awarded Mover and Shaker this year because school libraries are so important. A school library should be the hub of your school and your teachers should see your school librarian as an integral instructional partner on campus. These great librarians are perfect examples of why our schools need amazing librarians!!

Andy Plemmons – Andy is a marvelous #elemaker librarian and an amazing proponent of children’s literature. He is talented at bringing the community into the library through author visits, mentor programs, and Skype. Plus, he is very active in teaching his students about being a part of the even bigger global community by participating in global events like Dot Day, World Read Aloud Day, and America Recycles Day. On top of all of this awesome stuff, his library is student centered and embodies the voices of his students because he focuses on empowering his students by making “Student Choice” one of  the main goals of his library. To sum it up, he’s pretty much an all around incredible librarian! Where would his school be without him?

Amanda Smithfield– Amanda is a high school librarian at a magnet school. She’s transformed the culture of her library by adding extra hours, summer checkout, and even a podcast platform for her students to voice their thoughts on self-selected issues. The changes she’s brought about in her library have “increased (checkouts) by 300 percent in the first year and 500 percent more than in 2010.” WOW! Plus, she is teaching her students to use social media for good! Her “students tweet and text her, sometimes asking for help as late as 10 p.m.” Thank you, Amanda, for teaching our students to use our global community for good! What an amazing school library transformation!

Sue Kowalski– Middle School librarian Sue Kowalski LOVES libraries! She believes in the power of a school library and is so well loved, she even won the “I Love My Librarian” award in 2012! Even though her own library and school has been broken up into six different locations for a renovation, she bought an RV and has a traveling bookmobile to keep her school glued to the library. I love how her students help run the library. This is such a great way to give students ownership of the library! Head over to Library Journal and read more about this incredible teacher librarian.

Adam Marcus– As a teacher assigned to the library, Adam Marcus is so passionate about reading and libraries, he helped form a library advisory committee and raise over 500,000 to revitalize the underused space at his NYC school. He even advocated for a full-time librarian position. Plus, he still helps run programs that have students at his school loving literacy and thinking reading is cool.  (Because reading is cool!)

Congratulations to all the other Movers and Shakers honored in this class of 2016! Thank you for your passion towards libraries as innovative and pertinent spaces for our communities. I’m honored to be among you and can’t wait to meet more of you face to face and hear about all of the great things you are doing in your libraries.

Read all profiles here.

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Library Journal March 2016 Cover – Used with Permission

 

 

 

 

 

What age is best? littleBits Student STEAM Set Review Part II

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Earlier this week, I posted my review of the new littleBits STEAM set, and I’ve already had a few pertinent questions. I love the bits in this kit and I especially love the manual that comes with it. One of the best things about the manual is how it helps students understand the real world applications they can recreate with littleBits projects. Plus, it is chocked full of ideas for inventing and prototyping.

But what age is best? And how many kits would you need for your space?

Age?

The kit claims it is ideal for grades 3-8.  So I wondered, how would my high school students respond? (Keep in mind that we already have a littleBits Pro-Library.)

So I left the kit out yesterday as a passive program.  First block a student decided to build the throwing arm and quickly moved from following that project, to coming up with his own ideas.

He’s decided to build a double jointed contraption. Here the student is testing out connecting the servo motor and the DC motor and not quite getting the result he wants. Which is a good thing. This made him brainstorm more ideas and decide to keep working on this project over the next couple of days. We set aside his work on the project shelf and I look forward to seeing how he ends up improving his ideas.

The manual and the accessory pack are helping him see littleBits in a new way. Utilizing this accessory  for the throwing arm project even has him thinking about designing his own accessory on our 3D printer.

Another group of students came in later in the morning and decided to attempt an art machine. I came by a few times to see how they were progressing and noticed they weren’t following the instructions, but instead, were using those instructions as a spring board for their own art car. They didn’t want their art machine to make scribbles, they wanted a perfect circle. Plus, the students had broken up into separate groups and one group decided to tinker with the Synth bits.

(Ironically, we have a Perfect Circle Machine with littleBits as one of our projects!)

I love seeing how just a few guided instructions were leading these students to new ideas. One of my goals in our library is to give students new skill sets.  I want them to fill their toolbox with new skills and then use that knowledge to be more creative and become active producers in our world and not just passive consumers.  One way I see that happening is by learning how things work and by making and completing different types of projects.  This is one of the reasons why I’m working on a makerspace project book with the #superlibrarianhubs! We want making and invention to be accessible to all of our students (and for your students too). We like to give our students just a little nudge toward innovation by helping them put new tools in their toolbox.  After all, learning how things work is a foundational step in the invention cycle.

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So, what age would I suggest is ideal for this STEAM Student Set? I saw my 7 year old loving it and my high school students springing toward new ideas. I’m going to have to say this is quickly becoming one of my most favorite littleBits kits since the Space kit! I am not going to rush out and buy a ton of these because we already have the Pro Library, but if I didn’t, I might think about buying these sets instead of the massive Pro Library. Although, this set will definitely need a stronger organization system than the box it comes in! My high schoolers were pretty rough on the packaging in just the one day!

Bottom line? Preferred Ages: 7-75

This is good for any-aged makerspace! (Academic libraries, this would be an excellent resource for your pre-service teachers in the education program.)

But how much should we buy?

Well, this depends…. do you see yourself using this resource in full classes? Or in small stations? Maybe as a passive program?

When people ask me which littleBits to buy, I often refer to my massive collection (aka the Pro Library), but I also love the Space kit and the Synth kit. I’ll be adding this STEAM set to my list of favorite kits because I love the included bits. (I’m a nerd for sensors).  But how many will you need for your class? or your space?

What you buy is up to you and your students. What do they want your students to learn? What are the goals of your makerspace?  How do you envision rolling out learning with littleBits?

It’s important you ask yourself this question:

So form some goals and a steering committee (I’ll have more on this in the book #thesuperlibrarianhubs and I are writing with Diana Rendina), and then align your purchases with the goals you’ve created for your makerspace.