September in the Classroom

 I'll be totally honest, I planned to blog way more in September about my return to the classroom. But you know how September goes, fast and furious and then all of a sudden it's October and you can't find your hat or mitts for the morning. 

Wow, September. What a month. 

I've been documenting my journey back into the classroom on my Instagram. I did this when I started in the library as a #100DayChallenge and I thought it would be good to do the same now. Most of the pictures are also making it to my Twitter. I do, however, use my IG for a different purpose than Twitter so it's locked on private mode. Sorry, not sorry. 

As I tried to explain to my daughter yesterday, once the school year gets started it feels like a giant ball rolling down a hill and it's only going to get faster! I meant to write this blog (and others) throughout September... but here we are in October and I still feel like I'm trying to get my feet under me. 

I started out with a Grade 3/4 class and while my class was in French I was responsible for covering Grade 1/2 Science. That's 16 strands of Science for anyone who is counting! The first few weeks were a whirlwind of planning. However, after re-org I am with a straight Grade 3 and no more coverage for other grades. Thank goodness. 

We are slowly building our routines and slowly getting to know each other in our class. I won't say we have built a relationship yet because that takes time and work but we are adding small steps each day. 

We have spent a lot of time talking about our classroom agreements from brainstorming, to goal setting, to listing actions that show accountability and making promises to ourselves. We refer back to our agreements everyday and very soon we will be starting a new routine where students will be able to recognize their classmates for how they have helped them, supported them and encouraged them in their learning activities. 

We had many discussions leading up to Truth and Reconciliation Week and Orange Shirt Day. I'm sure some of it was over their heads and confusing, I know they still have many questions but this is not a one and done conversation and we will be returning to our learning throughout the year. 

We started to unpack the land acknowledgement we hear each day and discovered many words we do not understand. Then I connected with Nicole Reynolds, the PDSB Indigenous Lead, and we learned of a new updated land acknowledgment written in community with Elders. We will unpack that one as well and add on to our learning as we start to talk more about Ontario in our Social Studies unit. 

Finally, we got OUTSIDE! We have a huge yard and small "forest" area that the students love to explore. We spent some time gathering natural materials and combined them with loose parts to create transient art connected to Orange Shirt Day and our reading of Be A Good Ancestor by Gabrielle Prince and Leona Prince. 

We also attempted our first painting project for art... stay tuned! I think they are going to look amazing when they are done. 

Math. Oh how I missed teaching math. We have started building our daily/weekly routines with our morning math meeting, Which One Doesn't Belong, Number Talks and Estimation mysteries. 

New to me this year is starting our day with a soft start. Students have free choice to explore an activity of their choosing for the first 20 minutes of the day. Many students choose to have a snack, play/trade Pokemon cards, build with Lego or create with playdoh. I am able to circulate through the room saying hello, checking in with students and observing their relationship and community building with each other.

You may have noticed there aren't any pictures of our literacy work yet... with the new learning connected to structure literacy, the science of reading, phonics, etc it really feels like the weakest area of my planning so far. I know I am making it up as I go everyday. We are working on routines to help us start centres so that I can meet students where they are and we have done quite a lot of work on practicing our read to self routines and writing simple sentences. I am working my way through assessing each student individually and building our vocabulary/spelling routines. 

All in time. 

I hope.

And so, welcome to October... lets get progress reports written, have Open House, Picture Day, Thanksgiving, a PD Day and hopefully, more blogs. 

But no promises. Remember that ball rolling down the hill?

It's only going to go faster.  

What might the LLC look like if/when we go back to school?

This has been the question on the mind of every school library professional since the start 

of the shut-down. At least, I know it has been on mine. 

The LLC is a space where students and educators come together to tinker, 

explore, play and of course READ. 

What happens when we need to stay apart for the safety of all? 

How might we re-imagine the methodology and pedagogy behind the LLC in order to bring the learning to the students, educators and their families? 

Jenn Brown and I facilitated an open discussion at the end of the school year with school library porfessionals across Ontario (and from BC!) discussing what the future might hold for our LLCs and the stakeholders we serve. 

You can listen to our debrief here as a podcast episode of Read Into This. We also looked over the notes taken during the discussion and the thoughts submitted from the participants in Google Form to come up with six "big" questions K-12 library questions in a pandemic world. 

These questions can be seen listed in Open Shelf. 

Of course my mind as been whirling and swirling all summer long. An educator's mind is never far from school and what might be...

A few thoughts I have had about how I might adapt my library program to move beyond the wall of the library space and into the classrooms of students....

BOOKS.

Most importantly, in my mind, is getting books into the hands of students. Each class can have a designated bin of books that is delivered on Monday and picked up the following Friday. The books can be kept in "quarantine" if needed after I pick them up before being distributed to other classes.

Pros: 

-students will have access to books in their class that they can read through out the week

-classes can put together request lists or topics of interest to help guide me in choosing books for their bin

Cons:

-students don't have access to the entire library collection and the self-regulation that comes with choosing their own reading materials in the space

-it will be time and labour intensive to choose and deliver bins of books to 30+ classrooms each week

INQUIRY. 

Last summer when we moved to Caledon East I was very excited to see inquiry style bags that had been curated for busy families. The idea being that families could choose a bag of 10 or so books to bring home without needing to spend time browsing and choosing. Also included in the bags were artifacts, games, and other items that connected with the books or might spark an inquiry at home.

Pros: 

-students love to explore and play with the tinkering stations spread through the library when they visit as part of our free flow routine, by creating this type of inquiry provocation in a bag or a bin student can continue to enjoy and explore within their classroom

-students may get an opportunity to explore a material they haven't previously explored or revisit an old fave

-the bins can be tailored to specific curriculum based inquiries that educators are exploring with their class (this can also help educators with their planning, grade level teams can co-plan with the teacher-librarian to create a set of bins related to the curriculum that can be shared among the classes (with proper disinfecting completed as needed))

Cons: 

-a lack of of free choice in materials to explore, students usually have free range of the library space

-do we have enough materials to spread out among the entire school population?

-completing the necessary disinfecting and tracking of materials to ensure equitable access

-once again time is a factor... 

MAKER. 

Cultivating a maker mindset and a maker culture within our school community has been a huge focus during my time as the teacher-librarian and I'd love for the momentum and passion for making that has been developed to continue to grow... even if we can't create together in the LLC space. I documented our journey and wrote a paper about it for Treasure Mountain Canada 2020. (You can access the paper and accompanying photo essay here.) (I also recorded my paper and was interviewed by Alanna King for the Read Into This podcast. The episodes can be found here and here.)

Once again.... bins, bags, boxes. 

Different maker provocations could be bundled up and delivered to classes. 

Perhaps each grade level could explore a different material? Perhaps it's just a box of materials and the invitation to create anything you can think of? Perhaps it's a guided maker project where the students can explore and learn a new skill? Perhaps it's a focus on the process of making and the creation must be deconstructed (like with loose parts) once the making has been completed and documented. 

Pros:

- students get to make stuff

(That's it... in my mind that's the best rationale there is. Students. Get. To. Make. Stuff. 

Cons:

-materials (budget? containers? disinfecting? amounts?)

-always time...

At this point, no one know what the fall might bring in terms of school or in terms of of school library learning commons but I'm hopeful that the magic of the library will still be there. Perhaps in a different form, perhaps in a better form? 

Time will tell.

Do you have an idea for how you might spread the magic of your school library program if/when we return to school? I'd love to hear about it. 

Sparking Inquiry with Loose Parts: MakerEd TO 2018

Earlier in the summer I had the privilege of sharing my love for using loose parts and inquiry in the Library Learning Commons with a group of maker educators and to learn from the maker endeavours of other educators at MakerEd TO. 

It was a whirlwind of a day... in the best way possible!!

Over the course of my first year in the LLC I came to love loose parts for the 

learning opportunities they provided to so many students in the space. 

I would see students from grades 4-5 come just to play and tinker with the available pieces. They would use the time to reset, to calm themselves, to re-center and then perhaps return to their class better prepared to tackle their learning endeavours.

I would see students from all the grades come with a purpose and a plan for using the materials. They knew what they wanted to create and what materials they would need. As I often rotate the materials students soon learned to advocate for a material that might have been stored away. They also began to advocate for documentation- "Mrs. Lyons, will you take a picture of my.... I want my teacher to see what I did." They were proud of their creations, their tinkering, and wanted to show it off.

I would see students who came eager to see what new provocations might be set up. During the Winter Olympics I set up a light table with a variety of materials and the simple prompt- "How might you create a sport from the Olympics using these materials?". Along side the provocation were books about the winter sports and updated articles as Team Canada began to compete. Student created hockey games, curling rinks, snowboard half pipes... and so much more. Where the real excitement came in was when we tweeted out our pics to Team Canada and the responded! An authentic audience appreciating the student's creations with loose parts.

The Library Learning Commons offers a safe space for all learners, students and educators alike, to take risks on their learning journey. In the Library Learning Commons we have been exploring how loose parts can be used beyond the Kindergarten program to spark an inquiry mindset and inviting learners to try new models of learning as their natural curiosity is stimulated and imagination is given free rein. Loose parts help learners to develop critical thinking skills, creativity and problem solving as they manipulate the pieces to communicate their reasoning and thought processes. 

They also allow for multiple entry points for learners and encourage voice and choice on their learning journey. Learners are able to create representations of their ideas and exhibit flexible design thinking.

Here's a slide deck with a few examples of how I used loose parts in collaboration with educators in the LLC last year.