Middle School News

Twenty middle school students embarked on a journey to learn WeVideo, greenscreen techniques, storytelling and journalism basics. They were able to produce several great special interest segments and an (almost) daily 3-5 minute newscast. Several of them also submitted moving stories about life in quarantine.

High School News

While more technically adept, the high school news team struggled to find the story. There wasn't safety in numbers and when their school news videos were criticized, they retreated to an online print news that they often didn't even bother sending out. It's tough putting yourself out there.

I'm hoping to build up the middle school news team and hopefully recruit some of them later in high school. With the year ending unexpectedly, recruitment suffered.

Poetry Club was a pleasant surprise. Not only did these students love talking about poetry, they loved writing poetry. There was some interest in participating in The Poetry Out Loud competition through the Indiana State Library, however, memorizing one poem for the competition, but having to memorize two poems and go on to the State competition if you won, was more than they wanted.

They also enjoyed supporting one another as a safe place to share. Many times the poetry reflected the lives of a teenage in the world today and I'm glad they had each other and a safe place to share.

The Rosewater Book Club met on Wednesdays during Homeroom. We range between 1-12 in attendance. We began the year by diving into the Eliot Rosewater winners. Any student who read five or more of the 25 nominated books was eligible to attend RosieCon on April 26, 2020. If you wanted to go but didn't read the required five books you could still attend by paying the registration fee. And then COVID cancelled EVERYTHING.

We also read some British Lit in preparation for the EF Ireland and England trip since almost all of our attending members were scheduled to go on the tour.

Chess Club began when I set out one chess board in the library. Students began trying to reserve it at lunch and during homeroom. Many times students would get passes from class to come and play. We purchased five more boards with library funds and found more than twenty students in the library one day during homeroom. That's when when one of the students asked if we could have a Chess Club. We started meeting during homeroom. There was no set curriculum for learning but better students taught the others. When we decided to have a March Madness Tournament 28 students signed up to participate!

A private donation made this fun give-away a success. Any students who had check out a book and didn't have any missing or overdue books was able to put their name in the drawing up to three times. For 12 Days leading up to Christmas Break a name was drawn and announced on the morning announcements. The winner was able to come to the library and choose from the twelve new books purchased for the event. It was a great way to get good books to students that they could own, not just borrow.

Secret Life of Bees

Mrs South's class read on of my favorite author's, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Having once been a Beekeeper, I was happy to pull out my beekeeping equipment to teach her students all about bees, including pollination and a honey tasting.

Aaron Burr's Primary Sources

Mr Pietrykowski brought his US History class to the library to find primary sources for their Aaron Burr Research Assignment.

Lily Lockwood used her PBL time in the library to create a Break-Out Room. She used some of the materials purchased by the High Ability Grant. She used the boxes and several of the specialty locks to lead two different class periods to Santa's Cookies.

Mrs Higgins led a club in the library every Tuesday and Thursday. Knitting uses many problem solving skills that are helpful in math. Many students learned a lot despite the short class period. This is much talk about students taking an entire period of PBL in the library next year so they can spend more time honing their skills. Plus they found it very relaxing...except Brooke Johnson; it stressed her out.