Library Redesign
I was hired by Emma Willard to re-envision the Dietel library space and program. I have been charged with the task of creating an innovative, well used, 21st century learning commons. The space had changed little since its opening in 1968. Working with existing walls, furniture, and wiring, I spent my first year interviewing faculty, observing student use and needs, and testing ideas on the community, spending little to no money.
To see what I have accomplished since 2013, and for my vision moving forward, please see this presentation, which I shared during a recent faculty meeting.
I was hired by Emma Willard to re-envision the Dietel library space and program. I have been charged with the task of creating an innovative, well used, 21st century learning commons. The space had changed little since its opening in 1968. Working with existing walls, furniture, and wiring, I spent my first year interviewing faculty, observing student use and needs, and testing ideas on the community, spending little to no money.
To see what I have accomplished since 2013, and for my vision moving forward, please see this presentation, which I shared during a recent faculty meeting.
Teaching
For years now, I have taught one-off research lessons in support of assignments given by my colleagues. This, I can do. Quite honestly, what I have found is that this is not beneficial for our students and is not the ideal use of our time. We are living in the information age. Working at a college prep school, we should have well honed print and digital collections. I like to say that we are teaching them to swim in an information tsunami, and we must provide them with flotation devices.
We must teach students the art of asking good research questions, of utilizing reference sources and the open web, mining key words to gather sufficient background knowledge to know if their topic is actually one that strikes an interest, that warrants examination. We teach them the correct way to use Wikipedia as a jumping off point in their research. Then we look to our print and eBook collections, to our subscription databases, and we evaluate information on the web. We utilize tools like Noodletools or Easybib to generate citations, we discuss note taking, paraphrasing, and working with quotes. We form thesis statements and we look for scholarly research to support and/or refute the points we are hoping to make. This is a lot to fit into a 50 minute block!
If our school does not already offer a required research course or seminar, I have found that we can reach our students, teaching them in small, manageable bites, by embedding in an existing course. My assistant and I are piloting such a program this year at Emma Willard (I blog about it here), and using 15 minute grab blocks before one 9th grade history course per week, we are making the research process fun and meaningful. I anxiously await feedback from their teachers on their first rough drafts, which were submitted this week.
We plan to continue the program next year, solidifying their research skill foundation and getting into more critical thinking Sophomore year and beyond.
For years now, I have taught one-off research lessons in support of assignments given by my colleagues. This, I can do. Quite honestly, what I have found is that this is not beneficial for our students and is not the ideal use of our time. We are living in the information age. Working at a college prep school, we should have well honed print and digital collections. I like to say that we are teaching them to swim in an information tsunami, and we must provide them with flotation devices.
We must teach students the art of asking good research questions, of utilizing reference sources and the open web, mining key words to gather sufficient background knowledge to know if their topic is actually one that strikes an interest, that warrants examination. We teach them the correct way to use Wikipedia as a jumping off point in their research. Then we look to our print and eBook collections, to our subscription databases, and we evaluate information on the web. We utilize tools like Noodletools or Easybib to generate citations, we discuss note taking, paraphrasing, and working with quotes. We form thesis statements and we look for scholarly research to support and/or refute the points we are hoping to make. This is a lot to fit into a 50 minute block!
If our school does not already offer a required research course or seminar, I have found that we can reach our students, teaching them in small, manageable bites, by embedding in an existing course. My assistant and I are piloting such a program this year at Emma Willard (I blog about it here), and using 15 minute grab blocks before one 9th grade history course per week, we are making the research process fun and meaningful. I anxiously await feedback from their teachers on their first rough drafts, which were submitted this week.
We plan to continue the program next year, solidifying their research skill foundation and getting into more critical thinking Sophomore year and beyond.
Collaboration
I continually strive to partner with teachers to reach students, to incorporate research and information literacy instruction within assignments, and to make their lives, as instructors, easier. At GPS, one such partnership came to fruition which I was particularly pleased with. We visited each Sophomore English class to discuss their global issues research assignment. We created a pathfinder for students to use when choosing a topic and we demoed several databases that are helpful in exploring topics. Once topics were selected, students were required to sign up for a 1:1 meeting with either me or my supervisor where we could discuss research strategy: advanced search techniques for useful databases for their topic, how to be discerning web users, relevant e-books, blogs, news sources, and tools such as Google Scholar. While this took a good bit of time out of one week it was a total success and many of those same students continue to come to us for research assistance and even assistance finding a good book!
Another partnership that we developed was a collaborative unit with the seventh grade technology teachers. We created a spy school where students become experts on a particular country--using databases only--so that they could move around covertly, avoiding detection. Students were required to create a professional power point presentation of their research findings for their CIA "handlers". The tech teachers were able to incorporate important tech skills (embedding hyperlinks, working with images and videos, adding music to presentations) as well as teach professional presentation skills. Effective collaboration is a win-win for all involved.
At GPS, we worked to overlap curriculum whenever and wherever possible to cement concepts for our students. [See collaboration article.] When they began their research in the library and concluded it with a display of their final product on our shelves for the school to see, we considered it the ultimate success.
One such example is the 6th grade rainforest research project where we worked closely with the global cultures classes throughout the research process and then got to house our very own rainforest made out of recycled objects for a week or two. It was my favorite time of the year in the library!
Another partnership that we developed was a collaborative unit with the seventh grade technology teachers. We created a spy school where students become experts on a particular country--using databases only--so that they could move around covertly, avoiding detection. Students were required to create a professional power point presentation of their research findings for their CIA "handlers". The tech teachers were able to incorporate important tech skills (embedding hyperlinks, working with images and videos, adding music to presentations) as well as teach professional presentation skills. Effective collaboration is a win-win for all involved.
At GPS, we worked to overlap curriculum whenever and wherever possible to cement concepts for our students. [See collaboration article.] When they began their research in the library and concluded it with a display of their final product on our shelves for the school to see, we considered it the ultimate success.
One such example is the 6th grade rainforest research project where we worked closely with the global cultures classes throughout the research process and then got to house our very own rainforest made out of recycled objects for a week or two. It was my favorite time of the year in the library!
Capstone Work
At Emma Willard, I am one of the managers of the Signature Program, our version of a Capstone. In Signature, Juniors and Seniors apply for the course, proposing to do a project on something that they have a demonstrated passion for or desire to learn more about. It is important to note that our well honed practicum and service learning programs provide a great deal of experience for girls to launch into Signature projects.
Topics are as varied as our girls, and range from a geological study of the history of the rocks used to construct our beautiful campus buildings to equine prosthetic design utilizing a 3D printer and prototyping for a 3 legged cat. From a study of underrepresented cultures around the world (and accompanying online curriculum) to an internship at a radio station and on campus podcast where a girl interviews classmates who are musicians. More about this year's projects here.
We require on campus mentors and at times, off campus experts. Each girl must ask a research question and produce a key product--they might write a book, create a documentary, an app, a web site, or curate a museum exhibit--and they blog to record and share their journey with the world.
We use our class time to bring in guest speakers whose work might inspire the girls. They work with our acting teacher to improve their public speaking skills and I teach them how to create a professional slide presentation. Their work culminates in a 15-20 minute presentation to our community in late May, at a celebration of the Arts and our Signature program.
I attended the Capstone Symposium at the Thatcher School in Ojai, California last summer, networking and learning more about other capstones going on around the country, in public and private schools, and returned with so many good ideas to implement at Emma Willard.
At Emma Willard, I am one of the managers of the Signature Program, our version of a Capstone. In Signature, Juniors and Seniors apply for the course, proposing to do a project on something that they have a demonstrated passion for or desire to learn more about. It is important to note that our well honed practicum and service learning programs provide a great deal of experience for girls to launch into Signature projects.
Topics are as varied as our girls, and range from a geological study of the history of the rocks used to construct our beautiful campus buildings to equine prosthetic design utilizing a 3D printer and prototyping for a 3 legged cat. From a study of underrepresented cultures around the world (and accompanying online curriculum) to an internship at a radio station and on campus podcast where a girl interviews classmates who are musicians. More about this year's projects here.
We require on campus mentors and at times, off campus experts. Each girl must ask a research question and produce a key product--they might write a book, create a documentary, an app, a web site, or curate a museum exhibit--and they blog to record and share their journey with the world.
We use our class time to bring in guest speakers whose work might inspire the girls. They work with our acting teacher to improve their public speaking skills and I teach them how to create a professional slide presentation. Their work culminates in a 15-20 minute presentation to our community in late May, at a celebration of the Arts and our Signature program.
I attended the Capstone Symposium at the Thatcher School in Ojai, California last summer, networking and learning more about other capstones going on around the country, in public and private schools, and returned with so many good ideas to implement at Emma Willard.
Programming
Winner of TASL's 2011 Innovative Programming Award for a "Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" all Upper School/Faculty voluntary reading program. More about this here.
Book Promotion
I absolutely love the creativity that book promotion allows. From suspending objects from the ceiling using fishing line to raiding the theater department's prop closet, 3D book displays are one of my favorite parts of my job. In that our school is a laptop school, I also realize the importance of promoting reading outside the library walls. As such, I enjoy trying out new Web 2.0 tools that do just that. A few such efforts are below:
Blind Date With a Book display, February, 2014. Teachers and students submitted titles and descriptions of books that they love to recommend to the community. Many had plain or beat-up covers that would never garner attention. The response has been overwhelming. Will have to do a Spring Fling matchmaking display later this year!
This is a poster I created recently using QR codes to link students out to book trailers.
Reading Camp
2011-2012 Reading Around the World Camp at GPS. Led a camp of rising 5th-7th grade girls on a tour around the world through fiction. In addition to book talking, we did activities like cooking, crafting, and we learned native dances for each day's country.
Holiday Displays/Contests
Book Clubs
At GPS, I led a Middle School book club each year. Themes varied from traditional book discussion to books into movies to "not just book club" where we played book charades, made crafts inspired by books, created book trailers, etc.
At Emma Willard, I lead the Mt. Ida Book Club, a fun lunchtime or evening book club for faculty, staff, and administration. Over the years, we have had some awesome discussions. Here are but a few of the titles we have read: Commonwealth, March: Book 1, Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971, A Man Called Ove, We Should All Be Feminists, The Goldfinch, and Dead Wake. Forming community through shared literary experiences is what it's all about.