Tween Us Interviews Dr. Michele Borba

Dr. Borba addresses the changes required for parenting Tweens today, stating that "nine is the new thirteen."  Children are maturing biologically more quickly than tbeir parents, but they are not psychologically or emotionally prepared.  Read the entire interview at Tween Us.

Tween Us is Must Reading for Parents of 9 to 12 Year Olds

Sometimes I arrive a little late for the party.  And sometimes I don't even know the party is happening.

That is how I felt when I ran across Shannan Younger's Tween Us blog. Younger's blog runs several days a week on the Chicago Now website.  In the About section of the Tween Us page, Younger states that this blog explores "the world of adolescents and the adventure of parenting them." The author further states that in little more than two years, Tween Us has been recognized as a leading authority in adolescent parenting.

Now that I have arrived at the Tween Us party, I feel the need to share it with you.  Suffice it to say I am very impressed.  Recent posts have dealt with apps not very familiar to adults (Periscope, SnapChat, Meerkat, to name a few).  She discusses the pros and cons of each app and makes parents aware of what using the app could mean to their child's privacy. Her advice is sound, not hysterical or pooh-poohing.  She gives you the facts you as a parent need to make informed decisions with your children.

She is a champion of esteem-building for young girls.  Tuesday's post championed the selection of Misty Copeland as a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater, citing Copeland's work ethic and refusal to give in the naysayers.  Another notable post is titled "Trying to Raise a Confident Daughter When I Don't Feel Confident About Much Myself."  Definitely worth the read.

Parenting is tough, if you do it well.  Of course nothing is more rewarding.  But it is nice to have a voice like Shannan Younger's talking us through the process.

Sign the Declaration for the Right to Libraries - I Love Libraries

Sign the Declaration for the Right to Libraries - I Love Libraries

Summer Reading List - Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

Summer Reading List - Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

Great BYOD Event

Brookhaven Elementary held its Fall Family event from 5-7 PM on Thursday, October 17.  Along with Book Bingo and pizza offered by Title I, the library held a BYOD (bring your own device event) during which district and school technology staff and Title I teachers helped me download and install library and reading apps on parents' and students' smartphones, tablets and iPods.  More than 270 parents, grandparents and children attended the event. Although not all of these people brought devices for us to configure, many visited and learned about their options to access our libraries e-resources.

Among the items shared with our parents were:

• Destiny Quest app
• Catalist
• One Click Digital - via the West Virginia Library Commission

What made this venture a success was the collaborative spirit of all those who helped.  I knew I wanted to host a BYOD event even before school started.  When I heard about the Family Night, I developed this event to go along with it.

First, I contacted our county technology coordinator, Chris Urban, to see if she could provide "extra hands" for this event.  She indicated she would attend the event personally, and set up temporary wi-fi access to allow us to configure non-3G/4G devices. (The access was disabled the following day.)  About two weeks prior to the event, our Technology Integration Specialist, Christy Bryan-Davis, asked me to collaborate with her on a family night event.  I told her of my plans, and she agreed to work with me. Finally, our two Title I teachers, Marissa Glick and Brittany Snow, volunteered to help configure devices.

I wish I knew how many families we set up for digital services.  I do know that everyone at the event seemed very pleased with this offering. We will have to do this again!

What Factors Have Increased Circulation at Brookhaven Elementary?

My friend, Julia Benincosa Legg, read yesterday's post that showcased how enthusiastically Brookhaven Students have embraced reading in the first six weeks of school.  She asked that I describe the factors involved in increasing circulation from a mere 8000 per year in 1995 to more than 30000 in recent years.  Her request made me review a progression of changes that have taken place since I assumed the library media position at my school.

Allowed Kindergarten Students to Checkout Books

Prior to my coming to Brookhaven, kindergarten students were not allowed to checkout books.  This changed in January of my first year at Brookhaven.

Increased Circulation Limits

When I started at Brookhaven I felt students should be allowed to take more than one book at a time.  Today, the limits are three items for grades 3-5, two items for grades 1 and 2, and one item for kindergarten.

Adopted Flexible Schedule

My predecessor had scheduled each class for a half hour each week.  During my first year, I was bored.  There was not enough interaction with my clients to satisfy me.  At the beginning of my second year I convinced my principal to let me try a flexible schedule.  My principal was concerned that teachers would feel I was not doing anything.  I told him that the idea was to be busier than before, by allowing the children to come as many times a week as their schedules and teachers would allow. Warning me that he did not want to hear any negative feedback from teachers, he allowed this change.

Acceptance of a new idea takes time.  Many teachers still wanted their "library time," and of course I complied.  However I stressed that the scheduling was for their convenience, not mine; it was my hope that children would be able to come everyday.  Slowly, more teachers understood that their students were welcome almost anytime. Flexible scheduling was never questioned after that.

Adopted Accelerated Reader Program

At the urging of Soundra Poling, a third grade teacher, the curriculum committee voted to implement the Accelerated Reader program.  Supplemental textbook monies were used to purchase the program and some additional books.  Implementation was slow, with a few teachers taking the lead in encouraging their students to read the books and take tests.  The teachers has challenges among their classrooms.  

I sensed that from the beginning, several conditions had to be in place to make the Accelerated Reader program a success:

1. First, the children needed immediate access to computers to take the tests when they were ready.  That meant that all classroom and lab computers had to be capable of running the software.  This was challenging to set up on the old Josten 386s, but with the help of my husband, I managed to get all of our computers configured.
2. Next, the teachers had to be comfortable with navigating to the software.  I worked with the most enthusiastic teachers first, and then eventually trained the most enthusiastic students to access the program. 
3. We had to have adequate titles and tests at all levels and genres to keep the children engaged.  Book fair proceeds, faculty senate funds, general school funds, supplemental textbook funds, Brookhaven Boosters donations, and even Title I funds were funneled into the program.  The collection grew from a little over 7000 copies to more than 13000 over the course of 10 years. 

Aggressive Weeding of the Collection

As our Accelerated Reader program was growing, we needed to rid ourselves of copies that were either duplicates, were outdated, or that never circulated. Over the same 10 year period that we grew our collection to more than 13000, we also deselected more than 5000 items.  

Acquisition of "Popular" Series Fiction and Accessible NonFiction for All Grades

While I continued to buy the "highly recommended" titles, I made great effort to purchase the series fiction titles that in library school we were cautioned to avoid.  I am constantly trying to update these series, and children are constantly asking for the latest releases. They know when new titles are released better than I do!

Open Library Nights and Summer Open Library Programs

These programs allowed parents to bring their children to the library, select books and supervise their taking of Accelerated Reader or Reading Counts tests.  While there is no direct compensation for these programs, I feel I have been blessed by parents who support and are willing to financially support our library through book fair purchases.

Migrating to Destiny Library Management Software

The Destiny interface is much more user-friendly than the prior versions of Follett software.  The district database format allowed children to request books of interest from other school libraries.  Allowing children to create their own logins to monitor their own reading interests has created more ownership of the library by our students.

That's all nice, but without the following conditions being met, none of my initiatives would have succeeded.  I owe all my success to the following:

1. Principals who allowed me to build the program according to my vision and provided financial support when needed to help the library program succeed.
2. Stable district funding above what was provided at school and the yearly the provision of software and support
3. Parental support, not only in the form of supporting the book fair, but in encouraging their children to be readers.
4. Teachers who bought into my vision and participated in the development of recreational reading habits among my children.
5. Finally, children who keep me busy and on the top of my game every hour of the day!

Wow! When Our Kids Start Reading, They Start Big!

It may be hard for students to readjust to some routines, but it seems like getting back into the reading routine has not been difficult.  Our kids have jumped right back into the grove when it comes to using our school library resources.  It's hard to believe in the past six weeks our kids have checked out 5,229 items from our library.

In the year prior to my becoming the librarian at Brookhaven Elementary, our total circulation was a little over 8,000 items.

In addition to using our physical resources, our students continue to embrace ebooks through MyOn, Follett Shelf and Tumble.  Our e-content linked through Follett Shelf has had 60 circulations, while students have read at least 380 books on MyOn since July 1.

MyOn was purchased for us by the Federal Programs division of Monongalia County Schools.  TumbleBooks and those on Follett Shelf were purchased with county funds.  

The start to the school year has proven to be a busy month in many ways.  In addition to the circulation statistics, kids have been coming to the library for instruction, which  will take place the remainder of the nine weeks for each first, second, third and fifth grader.  Mrs. Brehm's kindergarten class will have skill lessons each week for this nine week period, while each fourth grade class will have instruction once a week for most of the school year.  Fifth grade has received lessons in cyber safety, and second and third graders have learned about library arrangement and how to use Destiny Quest.  More than 40 interlibrary loan requests have been generated by students so far this school year.

I am excited by what October might bring.  I am very proud of our students!