Projects and Events
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Teen Tech Week
Each year YALSA designates a week as Teen Tech Week. In the Spring of 2016, I coordinated a Maker Faire Day at North Nodaway Middle/High School to celebrate the theme "Create It At Your Library." The Maker Faire technology featured 3D printers (brought in by home hobbyists), a Makey Makey, Snap Circuits, Little Bits, and augmented reality coloring by QuiverVision. In addition to the technology, we also paid homage to the arts side of making with origami, perler beads, and a Lego station. Faculty were invited to bring entire classes or to send students who were done with their regular classwork. The event was a big hit with students in all grades! Students are always welcome to use technology and creative tools in the library. |
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Author Skypes
In Fall 2014/Spring 2015 I coordinated a series of author visits via Skype. This series included 6 total authors, 1 each for 6 months of the school year. In advance of each visit, I pushed into classrooms where I spoke about the upcoming author and their books, read an excerpt from a book, and invited students to attend. The week of the Skype participating students were asked to come to the library to prepare questions for the author based on the books they had read, questions about writing, or other pertinent questions. This series was a lot of fun for the students, and for us as librarians. The authors were all engaging and informative. I would highly recommend this project to anyone looking to introduce their students to authors. Skypes can be a low or no budget event and are easy to coordinate. Authors included were SJ Kincaid, Marissa Meyer, Jo Knowles, Patrick Carman, Antony John, and SA Bodeen. In the Spring of 2016 I held a Skype for the 4th and 5th grades featuring the author of one of our read-aloud books, Henry Clark. |
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Transformation
The North Nodaway Middle/High School library was in need of a transformation when I began my job there. In the months before school started I repainted walls, tables and bookcases, made vinyls for the walls, reorganized the collection, and moved furniture in an effort to create an inviting space. The photos to the right show the before and after photos of the library transformation. The physical appearance and layout of the library can be large contributors in creating a space that is conducive to learning and is welcoming to students and staff. |
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Maker Space
During the Fall 2014 semester my supervising librarian wrote, and won, a grant to create a Maker Space in the middle school library.
The Maker Space was divided into two areas- one for technology based activities and one for handcraft based activities. I assisted in setting up the space, coming up with ideas for the handcrafts, and helping students with all aspects of using the space.
The Maker Space fit nicely in a small area of the library and provided students with new and innovative activities.
Technology used in the space included a Makey Makey, Cubelets, and Magnetic Silly Putty. Future plans also include Conductive Ink Circuits and the use of an Arduino.
During the Fall 2014 semester my supervising librarian wrote, and won, a grant to create a Maker Space in the middle school library.
The Maker Space was divided into two areas- one for technology based activities and one for handcraft based activities. I assisted in setting up the space, coming up with ideas for the handcrafts, and helping students with all aspects of using the space.
The Maker Space fit nicely in a small area of the library and provided students with new and innovative activities.
Technology used in the space included a Makey Makey, Cubelets, and Magnetic Silly Putty. Future plans also include Conductive Ink Circuits and the use of an Arduino.
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Genre-fication
In the Fall of 2013, I volunteered in the middle school library where I assisted in converting the fiction collection to a genre, or bookstore, model. This model was also implemented at North Nodaway Middle/High School in the 2015-16 school year. In this model, the fiction collection is arranged by genres, allowing students to search for fiction books based on the type of book they are interested in reading. This division of the collection made it much easier for students to find books on their own, increased circulation, and allowed the librarians to familiarize themselves with genres they previously knew less about. This model of organization also made collection development activities go smoothly. The librarians were able to see which areas of the collection needed improvement, which could be weeded more heavily, and what was missing entirely. Since the project was completed, the librarian has added a Graphic Novel Section and Verse Novel section. |
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Infographics
In the Fall of 2013, I created a series of infographics to be used in the library in order to help students with library rules, information on how to log-in to various school programs, and how to search databases. These infographics were used so that the information could be posted in the library in an aesthetically pleasing way. |
