Fall 2023 Practicum Blog

Week of September 15

This was my first week back to school after maternity leave and I got to spend some time with my mentor teacher seeing how she has set up the library for the new school year and what her "Learning Hub Living Calendar" looks like so far. She uses a flexible schedule allowing teachers to co-teach with her and utilize the space for multiple different purposes. I learned how she sets up her calendar and the expectations she has in designing her flexible schedule for the Learning Hub. I learned about how she sets up DOPJ projects for STLP and how she runs her STLP program along with 2-3 other teachers. I also got to take part in a portion of a "release day" for teachers at our school who are working to implement PBL into their learning. My mentor teacher is the leader of the PBL initiative at our school and a PBLworks coach.

Week of September 22

This week I attended the KASL professional development meeting for the Central District. This was a 3 hour professional development along with my mentor teacher and many other librarians from my district and the surrounding area. I was able to become a member of CKASL and KASL at this meeting. I learned about updates, changes, and benefits for the Cengage program as a database for middle and high schools. I learned about multiple awards and committees that CKASL and KASL have and how I can apply for them. I learned to make a handful of crafts that could be taken back to a school library's makerspace area for students.

Week of September 29

This week I attended a professional development about infographics in the classroom along with my mentor teacher. We discussed how this could be used as an opportunity to teacher others in the school about how they could use infographics in their lessons as well as co-teach with them in the Learning Hub if they feel uncomfortable implementing the technology on their own. I partnered with my mentor teacher as she worked with another teacher's class designing their STLP projects. I saw how she co-teaches with others in the Learning Hub.

Week of October 13

This week I took part in leading a school committee about planning a Title I night focused around project-based learning. I partnered with my mentor teacher in designing this committee around students taking ownership of displaying their learning. I made sure we designed these opportunities around FCPS's "portrait of a graduate" and the ISTE standards as many of the projects will be digital. I created signage, fliers and a "passport" file for students to use as they explore types of presentations. This event will also align with the school Scholastic book fair. I consulted with the librarian about ways these two opportunities could work in tandem.

Week of October 20

This week I partnered with the library's part time para-educator who does a large portion of the book repairs, shelving, and designing of book displays. She gave me resources to create my own book display. I worked with her to understand what resources to utilize and how to look through in Destiny and Follett, Titlewave, and Permabound websites to find information about how books might fit into the theme of the display. I learned about how she designs the backgrounds for the displays, the sizing and logistics around how they are designed and how they are printed on our school's poser printer.

Week of November 3

This week I spent time learning how to process new books. I learned that new books that come straight from distributors like Follett or Permabound are sent straight to the district for processing, while books that are donated need to be processed in house. Some distributors will allow for tagging of books with genre stickers, while others we had to add ourselves. Because this library is completely genre-fied, I learned the procedures for tagging and labeling all types of books - graphic novels, fiction and non-fiction. I learned the process of ordering based on the books we processed. If there was a book that was part of a series, I got to check if we had all of the other books in the series and determine if we should order more or other copies of frequently circulated volumes. I learned to check if books were deemed "lost" and how to update statuses of books in the Destiny system by Follett.

Week of November 10

This week I helped work with the 8th grade social studies teachers who co-taught with the library media specialist and myself to create podcasts about the American Revolution. I worked with teacher and students to troubleshoot tech issues and utilize materials (microphones, cameras, and Canva) and the space to make sure that the students were able to effectively create their podcasts to a high quality standard.

Week of November 17

This week I attended the Kentucky Engineering and Technology Education Association (KETEA) conference. At this conference I learned about utilizing digital tools to teach engineering concepts to students. I learned about 3D printers, legos builds, microbits, and makecode arcade. I got to meet the current librarian of Eminence Independent Schools where this event was held. The former librarian or 16 years was James Allen who is currently the Kentucky Department of Education's Statewide School Library Lead & Digital Learning Coach. I met with James Allen and talked to him about the things I was hoping to be able to do and create in my future library. Additionally, the specialized program I teach in received the award for Kentucky middle school engineering program of the year for 2023.

Additionally, I participated in an event called the KyLChat on a platform called "Clubhouse". This event is held by James Allen (mentioned previously) as the director of school libraries across the state. We discussed collaboration in the library media center and how librarians can best support teachers and work collaboratively in their spaces.

Week of December 1

This week the committee that I led with my librarian finalized our project for "Our Learning Journey" night. We finalized plans for presentations by teachers and students, who would participate and what accommodations would need to be made for all students to have the materials available to present (i.e. IFPs, chromebooks, printed posters). I enjoyed leading this team with her and learning about what she does behind the scenes as a leader in our school and what decisions need to be made for things like funding snacks, and getting students and families to participate.

I also worked with the librarian to set up the book fair. She described the process she takes to choose books, re-order books during the fair, and make decisions about other items to sell. She explained that profits from books can be used directly with Scholastic and that the sales of smaller items like suckers or pencils actually accrue more profit than the book sales. I watched as she taught a lesson to the ELA classes as they came through to learn about the books available before they shop the fair.

Finally, I attended another KyLChat this week where we discussed the ups and downs of the johs of school librarians and the struggle with schools who do not have full time librarians. Many spoke about being pulled in many directions and feeling underappreciated and underresourced. I got to speak about my journey in the WKU LITE program and my hopes for my career when I finish.

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