Mid-Year Review (2017-2018)

The beginning of the school year, there were numerous plans to continue project based learning (PBL) in the school library.  I had visions of increased collaborations with teachers in the building and reached out to several people within our community, as well as my district.  Unfortunately, many of those plans were not able to be fully realized.  Whether there were teacher concerns for curricular demands (which is understandable) or fiscal constraints to visit a historian to assist students with a video montage of the history of the school, it was disheartening (to say the least) to see numerous ideas and plans become dismantled. Fortunately, things began to turn around once I spoke to a few trusted colleagues and received their input.

The first colleague to assist me was one of the school counselors in my school, Mrs. Thomas-Aulu.  Once I shared the vision for the library as a hub for learning she suggested we team up on a series of bullying lessons.  These lessons would meet the district demands for increased discussions regarding bullying and provide a way to work with some new teachers in our school building.  Working with Mrs. Thomas-Aulu during the first semester was a success.  The bullying lessons provided sixth grade students much needed information regarding the definition of bullying. Through the lessons, we provided suggestions for students to follow as they sought to become upstanders.

The second colleague to assist me was the STAT teacher in our school, Niamh McQuillan.  The previous year, she had been a major cheerleader for project based learning in the library.  I shared the list of PBLs I had hoped to do for the school year and shared the fact many of those plans were not going to be realized.  My primary concern at the time was that we would not have enough students to take part in a PBL opportunity with Baltimore Center Stage.

A few weeks before the school year ended, I received information regarding Baltimore Center Stage's Young Playwrights Festival (YPF).   Ms. McQuillan then began to help me think of ways to provide outreach directly to the students and parents within our school building. She suggested that I create a video that would entice the students to try the YPF opportunity in our school. Because I do not have a class of students of assigned to me, I needed to get the information to students and parents who were interested in the opportunity. Ms. McQuillan suggested that I visit classrooms to share the video and give students to get the permission slip to join the PBL. She also reminded me to utilize the contacts I had made in the previous year as way to continue the strides that we made in community and student engagement in the previous year.  Her advice was helpful. Thanks to her suggestion, more students and parents signed-up for the YPF opportunity. I was excited at the possibilities of working with students as they recognized their creative gifts.

This excitement has continued into the New Year.  Instead of focusing on what goals we aren't meeting in the library, I chose to focus on the goals we have met and exceeded. This excitement was compounded when I created an infographic to showcase the successes in the school library during the first portion of the school year.  Using Piktochart, I created an infographic to show the highlights and stand-outs associated with our school year.

Looking at this information, I am excited about the possibilities for the school library program at Windsor Mill Middle School.  During the duration of the school year, I will continue to look at different ways to meet the goals I have set for The SMaRTZone Library. If those goals need to be revised, I will continue to use Ms. Thomas-Aulu and Ms. McQuillan as resources to help me determine any revisions I need to consider or new avenues I should utilize in order to meet the needs of our school community.