Monday, April 28, 2008

Reviewing My Progress in the Library

On September 29th I questioned what success in the library would look like for me and I wrote I was seeing glimmers of what I wanted to happen in the library. That was September and it's now April.

We finished up our Dr. Seuss unit and it was exciting to see students signing out his books and enjoying them all over again. I like what I see with the grade one students as they read to each other and read a book together. I am also very pleased with the connections students make with the books we are reading. I just read Anthony Browne's book Into the Forest to students and enjoyed hearing the comments and connections made by students from grades 1 to 4. It was everything I had hoped for in September.

The inflexibility of rigid timetabling really limits how I prep and work with students. I look forward to more freedom next year. So much of what I plan is based on the thirty minutes I have to work with each class. Blogging in half an hour and then not getting to them again for another week has not been the best situation.

My use of technology remains a constant concern. I am excited about a lap top project which will be housed in the library. This should make it easier to integrate technology into the library program as well as make learning more personal for students.

I am busy prepping a unit on pirates that I will use with students from grades 1 to 3. I plan to focus on identifying the sources of our knowledge about pirates and then to to use fiction and nonfiction books to develop student's understanding of the world of pirates.