Teachers were surveyed on professional development interests during district PLC times. A large number of teachers on campus indicated they were interested in PD on breakout/escape room games. The librarian was asked to present on both physical and digital escape games during those times. The librarian provided teachers with a Google Site and walked through planning these types of activities. This was a great tool to promote collaboration opportunities across multiple content areas.
The librarian worked with the campus Family Specialist to plan a family literacy night for Krueger families. The ELAR department planned different content-related activities for families. We also had a bowling for books activity where students could win free books. This event coincided with the Scholastic Book Fair so that we could stay open late for families to shop. The librarian created promotional materials for the event and we were able to triple our fundraising revenue for the library.
The preferred library social media platform is Instagram, where the librarian posts library-related news frequently and reposts Krueger specific news often. On our campus library Instagram we feature new reads, class activities, collaborative lessons, library contests, school-wide events, author visits, recommended reading lists, and makerspace/SEL activities. The librarian posts frequently throughout the month and has library content re-posted by other campus groups and RootEd.
This year, the librarian was asked to be part of the Campus Testing Team and put in charge of technology. Krueger is one of the few middle school campuses to utilize online testing for STAAR. The team met monthly and as we got closer to STAAR, we had weekly meetings along with additional assignments. The librarian ensured we accounted for all chromebooks across campus to be utilized on testing days and ensured they were updated and available if needed.
This year the librarian chose to focus on professional development related to news literacy. The librarian attended multiple workshops provided by the News Literacy Project, a non-profit and non-partisan organization. NLP provides resources to educators on how to teach, learn, and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information. The librarian used the tools from these PDs to plan media literacy lessons for students.