Library / 2022/2023 Impact Report

2022/2023 Impact Report

Librarian

In alignment with our Character Strong SEL Curriculum, I facilitated a lesson based on the book Mr. Peabody’s Apples with a focus on the author's message. After the read-aloud, students worked together as a team to complete an Apple Tower STEM challenge.
Throughout the year, I offer various reading challenges to encourage students to set reading goals for themselves and spend time working to achieve them. Most recently, I sent home a Winter Break Reading Challenge which students filled out each time they spent twenty minutes reading. Students had an opportunity to earn a prize when completing these activities.
Northern Hills hosted an author visit with Bridget Heos in October. Leading up to this event, we spent several weeks reading her books and discussing how authors can have a variety of purposes for writing. The presentation allowed students to learn more about the writing and publishing process and how an author can write fiction and nonfiction books.
In December, Kindergarten students participated in a Gingerbread Man-themed lesson. I read The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas and The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. As a follow-up activity, students searched in sensory bins for Gingerbread Man cards labeled with letters and colored them on a recording sheet.

8,813
print books in collection

4,521
ebooks books in collection

12,223
print books checked out

777
ebooks books checked out

Teacher

In addition to determining if a book is just right for you, I taught a lesson that took this idea a step further to include various purposes for reading. During the lesson, I utilized shoes as a talking piece and encouraged students to discuss how different types and sizes of shoes would relate to reading. The outcome of the lesson was for students to be able to identify reasons for reading and strategies to keep in mind when choosing books that are a good fit for independent reading.
As an introduction to research and taking notes on important information, I facilitated a sketchnoting lesson with first grade students on penguins. We watched a short video with interesting penguin facts to engage their interest, followed by a non-fiction read-aloud. As I read the book, students shared information they felt was necessary, and we drew pictures to help us remember. Upon completion, students shared the facts they learned based on their sketchnotes.
I did several lessons to support third grade students with their research project on Plants and Animals living together. We discussed using print and non-print resources, paraphrasing information to avoid plagiarism, and citing your sources.
Around Halloween, fourth grade students did a creative writing activity based on the book She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein. Students built their background knowledge through a News-O-Matic article and video about the history of Frankenstein, followed by creating their monster and writing a descriptive paragraph about it.

Lesson Spotlight

Fourth grade students participated in an introduction to poetry lesson. Students worked in groups to explore different types of poetry and discuss what characteristics they noticed. From there, we tried to match the elements to describe a haiku, acrostic, free verse, and limerick poem. This was the first lesson for the fourth grade objective to explain figurative language the poet uses to create images. The student outcome was correctly identifying a type of poetry.

Collaborator

Through Microsoft Teams and in-person discussions, I have collaborated and received guidance from our ITS, Jessica Winston, for our Robotics Team. She has helped provide ideas for organizing our engineering notebook and suggestions for getting the program up and running successfully.
I have had the opportunity to collaborate with our reading instruction coaches to create lessons that support classroom content. Some of these lessons include introducing historical fiction, building background knowledge during the time of the Titanic, and exploring biographies.
I offered the Classroom Book a Day Challenge to teachers. Teachers were provided with several picture books to conduct daily read-aloud. I requested that staff who wanted to participate fill out a Google Form and include any specific SEL standard or topic they wanted to spotlight. Then, I pulled several weeks’ worth of books that fit their request and would ignite classroom discussion. Fourth grade and first grade teachers participated in the program.
In collaboration with our third grade teachers, I facilitated lessons on argumentative texts. We discussed the meaning of the word argue and the importance of evidence supporting your stance. To further extend learning, we read the book Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and completed a Tug-of-War thinking routine.

Collaboration Spotlight

The collaboration I am most proud of would be the opportunity to work closely with our third grade teachers this year. They recently departmentalized, allowing us more time to spend planning lessons specifically tailored to what they were learning in the classroom. We integrated our knowledge of our previous research lessons, which focused on print and non-print resources, and took it a step further to explore the characteristics of biographies. Students learned the format of various biography, key features, and how to use these features to find important information. Through modeling and practice, students could locate the requested information for a final project within biographies and put it in their own words. We also revisited citing sources so students could appropriately identify where they got their information. The final product was a biography cereal box in which students decorated it with the facts they gathered from their research.

Students and teachers working on robotics.

Campus Leader

During the summer of 2022, I offered a Summer Storytime for our students and families in our community. In these sessions, I read 2-3 books that focused on a theme, and a craft or activity followed. Families also had an opportunity to check out library books to ensure students had books available to read during the summer months.
Throughout the year, I send a library newsletter to staff that includes upcoming library activities, book displays, lesson menus, special events, circulation statistics, and images of student learning. I also have important announcements that pertain to digital resources available from the district.
I have had the opportunity to be a part of our School Leadership Team this year. Membership on this team has allowed collaboration with administration, counselors, office staff, and our family specialist. Our meetings include planning events and discussing concerns and ideas to better our campus.
In the fall, I offered a PD to teachers about one of our new resources, News-O-Matic. I provided a one-page handout that explained the different features of the website and how it is easily adaptable to meet the needs of all students. In the Spring, I modeled activities and ideas for incorporating News-O-Matic into lessons.