Explore in the Wright Elementary School Library

 Explore: Wright Elementary School Library

Librarian: Jana Davis

    Jana Davis is a certified school librarian working at Wright Elementary School, located in a rural town in upstate South Carolina. Jana instills explore competencies in her school library daily by providing a wide variety of resources to students in a variety of formats to support curriculum as well as student curiosity and personal interests. Having a flexible schedule allows students ample time to peruse print material. Digital material is available to them at all times. Students are also given choices for activities in the library like projects, library centers, and choice boards. Makerspaces and STEM projects are utilized often. 

    Davis also implements Project Lead the Way curriculum that allows students to solve real world problems collaboratively. The PLTW design model has been effective for introducing the youngest of students to the design process. Davis frequently uses exit tickets as a form of assessment and reflective thinking. She finds that this is the most effective way to gage what a student has learned in a short amount of time. 

    Monthly collaborative lessons are required to implement the competencies to the "Explore" shared foundation. Davis shared a few examples of some projects she has completed with teachers so far this year: 

- Interactive posters: Students created posters in Canva to share their learning, coded the

sounds to play in Scratch, and connected to conductive touch points using the Makey 

Makeys.

- Green Screen projects: 5th graders at WES recently read Balloons Over Broadway, a biography of Tony Sarg, creator of the original Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. The 5th graders created their own balloon and put on a parade of their own using the green screen after conducting research on the Thanksgiving Day parade.

- Chatterpix: First graders researched an animal using PebbleGo animals database and used the Chatterpix app to share their findings.

    These are just some of the technologies implemented by the school librarian to implement the competencies of the Explore shared foundation. These are several that I am already familiar with and will implement in my own school library. Others, like Makey Makey and the green screen, are resources that I will need to learn more about before implementing them in my own school library. I received several ideas for implementing Explore competencies from Mrs. Davis.

    Implementing the competencies of Explore does come with it's fair share of challenges. Time is always a challenge for Davis, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a work day to find time to plan with teachers. Often times, teachers have their planning period while the librarian is holding a 45-minute lesson with their class. This would be the ideal time to collaborate with teachers, but it is impossible when implementing projects for students. The librarian and teacher have to schedule times well in advance to plan meaningful lessons. Another challenge is the shift from teacher-centered approach to a student-centered approach. This can sometimes feel chaotic, but it is worth it considering student engagement has increased!

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References

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy's parade. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.