Elementary teachers / librarians...

[rockymtngirl]

I am an elementary school librarian. Our district is moving to a “learning Commons” model and is wanting to shift away from classes doing traditional library time. Currently classes come at a scheduled time, I read a story or teach another library related lesson, kids choose a new book, and read. They come for 30 minutes once per week. I am not a teacher so the classroom teacher does need to stay but they typically use the time as a prep.

Our district is pushing to incorporate maker spaces and having the library be a more common area used for a variety of things. I’m trying to get ideas on how this works in other areas. In my district we are all struggling in elementary with how to switch things up. My admin is interested in kids doing self check out and not coming at designated times. They want my time focused on the maker space aspect.

So, if you could share how your school library works that would be great! Especially if it’s not the traditional set up!

[stephm0188]

Early elementary librarian here.

My school is stuck on doing the traditional once a week drop the class off model so teachers can have planning time.

I hate it. Loathe. Despise.

Ideally, my schedule would be completely flex and it would be a collaborative venture between myself and the classroom teacher. Alas... no.

Right now, we read a story, do a lesson, check out, and they have access to literacy centers after checking out. We don't do Makerspace because we have a STEM program. I'm not opposed to Makerspace, but I do think admin tend to put too much emphasis on it at the sake of a thriving reading culture. There's space for both if you balance it.

[rockymtngirl]

Thank you! I honestly hate the traditional set up as well at this point. I’m so bored with it and am not feeling excited about anything anymore.

I just can’t seem to wrap my mind around alternatives and what it would look like. If you have a vision of what you’re ideal would be I’d love to hear details!!!

I don’t hate the makerspace concept (we don’t have a stem program in place) but I agree that I don’t want my focus to go away from promoting literacy.

[georgeglass]

Our fourth graders do an entrepreneurship project as a maker project in the library. They learn about business concepts and research, marketing, costing, and then they design and print 3D objects to sell. They earn the money for the next year's class to do the project.

[booked]

I’m a librarian in a K-6 school.

We have a learning commons with makerspace, games, and STEM. I’m a paraprofessional, but kids are with me for 45 minutes once a week and the teachers don’t stay with the kids.

I see classes in this order:

5
3
4

LUNCH

6
2
K
1

At my school these are all back to back. There is a 5 minute “break” between 3/4 (if the 3rd grade teachers are on time, which is never).

I typically structure some sort of lesson for 3-6. Typically this is over something I can show a quick video in from Discovery Education and then facilitate a discussion. Then we move to check out. Once check out is done the kids have choice of centers - board games, puzzle, coding robots, reading, etc. I tried to have them rotate centers in the past but it works so much better for me if they get free choice.

The K-2 we do a story or two and talk about reading/thinking/distracting voice, author/illustrator, etc. They take a long time to settle for story time and then a long time to find books. So that fills most of our time.

It’s exhausting. There are 675 kids at my school and I have one prep a day. Planning for 7 grade levels is the worst literally and I try my hardest to stretch a lesson across multiple grades if I can.

[jezebel]

My school has Library as a specials class. We also are assigned a time to come in and do check out once a week when we’re not in Library specials. I don’t stay for specials, but I do for check out.

[abs]

DD's school does makerspace stations about once a month. They are her favorite!! Some months it is just build with magnatiles but they have also done coding, built a kite, made dog toys to donate to a shelter, and made wreaths to donate to an assisted living center. I am pretty sure the librarian would do them weekly if she could...she is a huge proponent of them.

At the beginning of the year the librarian always talks about digital safety, too. During this time home I have given my 3rd grader more unsupervised access to the internet but went over a ton of rules first. She already knew them and told me a few more based upon what she learned way in August. So, that was nice and I was happy to see it was being talked about so early on.

She enjoyed the regular format of the librarian reads a book, talks about it, and then they check out books back in Kinder and 1st. It bores her now. She wishes they had more time to check out books. They are always rushed at the end so she always ends up with just random things.

[magpie]

I'm an elementary school librarian. I have a flex schedule, but choose to run my schedule in more of a mixed fashion because that's how it works for me. I keep k and 1 on a weekly schedule where they come in, whole class, and do a story time/lesson + check out. They are typically there for 30 minutes a week and I keep them longer if I need to (if I'm doing computer research with them or something, I'll arrange with teachers to extend the time to 40-45 minutes, for example). I tell teachers to leave if they want to for story time, but the come back and assist with check out. If I'm doing lessons, I usually want the teachers to stay because I want them to assist and to learn what skills I'm teaching so they can be reinforced in the classroom.

For the older grades, I have self checkout available most of the time I'm in the library (including when I'm teaching) and I collaborate with grade levels to teach lessons/read alouds/projects based on what they are doing in the classrooms. I have drop in weekly makerspace times (teachers have passes that they can distribute, so I never have too many kids at once) and book clubs where I work with teachers to carve out times to get kids in. It works really well with teams who see me as a partner and less so with teams who feel like they are too busy to fit library in or feel like they are already doing research meaningfully (they might be, but they could be doing soooooo much better with my help and resources!). Overall, I'd say it works well. It's taken years to build trust and cement myself as a key member in the school community for this to be successful. All that said, I still typically have most classes come down to the library as a whole class for a quick 10-15 minute checkout session once a week if I can. This is the ONLY way I will see the more reluctant readers on a regular basis.

[rockymtngirl]

Thank you so much everyone. I need to come up with a plan soon before my admin just forces changes onto me!

[m15]

We have one librarian for 9 elementary schools. We only see her four times a year, maybe 5. She does amazing things, but is all over the place. So, we have an aide in the library. Kids are in and out all day long checking out books. No formal lessons or story time unless, as the teacher, I choose to that. Even the librarian that comes does the lessons in our rooms. It sucks.

[egishere]

My kids school does this and unfortunately they also got rid of the librarian last year which is sad. I think their teachers now take them once a week. They set up a bunch of couches and seating in there and I think the STEAM teacher uses it some too. More of a maker space like you describe. I take it a parent volunteer is checking in the books or the teacher now since there is no librarian.