Library / 2021/2022 Impact Report

2021/2022 Impact Report

Librarian

The Fox Run library continually promotes reading with a variety of exciting opportunities for students throughout the year such as the Texas Bluebonnet, Texas 2x2, Fairy Tale Battle, Storywalks, and book giveaways at events such as Meet the Teacher, and Children’s Book Week.
Fox Run students are provided the opportunity to collaborate with their peers while enjoying hands-on makerspace center activities throughout the school year. We love to see the students thinking outside the box and showing their critical thinking and creativity.
The Fox Run library acknowledges the importance of Social Emotional Learning. The librarian and principal have collaborated to provide monthly SEL-focused books and activities for every classroom teacher. Our students’ and teachers' classroom libraries have benefited from this collaboration.
At Fox Run, we love a good challenge! When the school has a break that doesn’t mean our students stop reading. The library provides reading challenges such as a Thanksgiving break challenge, spring break challenge, Schiltterbahn’s Waves of Pages, as well as a summer challenge.
The Fox Run library loves to celebrate with special guests and activities. We love to highlight monthly spotlights such as Hispanic Heritage Month, Poetry Month, and Women’s History Month just to name a few. We also love our virtual author visits, the fall Storybook Pumpkin Patch, and Veterans Day gathering. We were thrilled to announce our new annual bookmark contest during Read Across America Week this year.

12,535
print books in collection

15,203
ebooks books in collection

25,899
print books checked out

993
ebooks books checked out

Teacher

This year our 5th grade students studied a variety of Native American tribes. They used information found from Britannica online, print books as well as ebooks. They used Google Slides to put their presentations together before sharing them with their classmates.
In Kindergarten, students were taught to ask questions about organisms in the natural world. We focused on what they wondered about ladybugs. We read nonfiction print books as well as used PebbleGo to learn all about ladybugs and try to find the answers to their questions.
Once a month during students' library time they are introduced to a digital choice board. The choice board is focused on a theme such as poetry month, Earth Day, or Hispanic Heritage Month, just to name a few. The students start with the activities such as reading ebooks, digital breakouts, or PebbleGo links and will continue their learning in the classroom using the boards that are shared through the Google Classroom.
Our 2nd grade students learn how to take sketchnotes in the library. They are taught how to read or listen to a book or resource and pull out the most important information to write down. Then, they use this knowledge in their classrooms to take notes when they are researching different things.
In 3rd grade, students love learning about our Solar System. In the library, this year students were taught how to use multiple resources to find information on their planet research. They used Google Slides to create a presentation on their planet. They also learned the importance of citing the resources they used.

Student giving report on natural disaster

Lesson Spotlight

This year 4th grade students enjoyed learning about natural disasters. Using Britannica online, print books and ebooks students were able to create a Google Slide presentation. Then, they used the information collected to create a Fox Run Newscast segment using a green screen to record their information. Finally, students shared their videos with classmates to watch.

Collaborator

Librarians in NEISD understand the importance of collaboration. Not only do we meet in a PLC small group for District professional development, but I also meet with my cluster librarians monthly, and a small group of librarians weekly for planning purposes.
Collaboration with teachers on materials that will enhance their weekly lessons is very important. This allows me to gather books and materials they will need. One example is after our Kindergarten teachers meet with our instructional coaches for upcoming units, they reach out to me to gather mentor texts to use in their classroom. I gather the materials I have as well as put in ILL to other schools so each teacher has what they need.
Collaboration with the campus STEAM teacher is something that is very important to the Fox Run campus. We discuss upcoming units and what lessons we think the students will best enjoy and learn from. An example is in March we spent time choosing activities with the theme of March Madness. We had activities such as designing a basketball hoop with given materials and creating splatter paint art using a mini basketball.
Collaboration takes place with teachers not only for academic lessons and materials but also for students' emotional needs. Sometimes the library can be used as a quiet space that students may need to work in to finish up a special project or assignment.
Collaboration with the instructional technology specialist has been an ongoing process throughout the year. We discuss many aspects that happen on the campus and one highlight from this year is the 3rd and 4th grade research project. Our 3rd graders researched planets this year and used a google slides template to input all their information. The template was a collaborative project between the ITS and librarian.

Collaboration Spotlight

One second grade reading skill is to demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of fairy tales. In order to turn this skill into a fun and memorable lesson, we hold our Fox Run Fairy Tale Bowl. Students in second grade read four traditional fairy tales and four fractured fairy tales of the same storyline. Students discuss the character, setting, problem, and solution of each story. After all the stories are shared, students get ready to test their fairy tale knowledge. Students create their crowns in preparation for the competition. We use Kahoot to test their knowledge of the stories. In the end, the class with the highest point total gets crowned Fairy Tale Bowl Champion and receives the trophy to keep for the year. All students in the class get a prize gift bag. We also reward the top three scorers in every class with a brand new book.

Students participating in Fairytale bowl Kahoot game

Campus Leader

As part of the MTSS/RTI committee, I have provided training for teachers on how to create student goals as well as how to enter the information and data into the Aware system.
Our Fox Run community is invited to events such as our two Scholastic book fairs as well as our monthly StoryWalks that are displayed outside of the school. Book fairs are a wonderful opportunity to get great reading material into the hands of our students.
Fox Run Library provides updates on Facebook (@FoxRunNEISD) for current library programs, events, book fairs, author visits, and other happenings in the library.
Campus leadership includes being a part of the following committees: CIC, Leadership, Fox Run Announcements, RTI/MTSS, Social, and Technology committees. The librarian was included in discussions about curriculum, scheduling, and other academic activities.
For professional learning, I follow multiple professional groups on social media that provide ever-changing information in the library world. I also have attended technology-based learning provided on campus by our campus ITS we call Innovation Wednesdays.