The $5 Temporary Green Screen

Annually, our library hosts Maker Days for several days during the holiday season where we promote craft and tech activities in our high school library. We always have a small upcycling/craft section available to students, and by holding maker events, students become more aware of the materials we have in the library. Additionally, students who typically do not come to the library for study hall find their way here and discover that we are more than just books!

Traditionally, I provide materials for upcycling books into beautiful ornaments and gift tags, and I set out card stock and stickers for students to make holiday cards. This year, in an effort to promote the use of technology in the library, I also set up a digital holiday card section that is easy to set up and tear down and most importantly is inexpensive!

For the green screen, I purchased two plastic tablecloths from a local dollar store. I layered them, as I had to hang the tablecloths over our book shelves because we do not have enough wall space. If you have a blank, light-colored wall, you most likely would only need one tablecloth. Note that these are not very durable, but they are inexpensive. If you wish to have a green screen that lasts for many years, I would recommend purchasing a more durable fabric for your screen.

For the app, I purchased Do Ink for just a couple dollars. I chose this app for ease of use - there are other apps for more complicated green screen work, but for simple digital holiday cards, Do Ink works great! Since I only have one screen set up, I really only needed to purchase the app to use on one device.

Do Ink has some great tutorials that you can use with students; however, I wanted some written instructions that I could hand to students as they walked through the door. Here are the instructions I made in Slides. I printed six to a page. I made the instructions fairly general so I would be able to use them anytime, even if it wasn't the holidays.

I created a few holiday card backgrounds and saved them to our iPad photos that students could choose from, or the app has pre-loaded backgrounds that students could use, as well. Most students chose to find their own backgrounds. I recommend using Creative Commons for free, copyright free photos.

At the holidays especially, high school kids are just big little kids - their eyes light up when I tell them that they can take green screen photos in the library and make crafts! And the best part is that when we are done, it will only take a few minutes to tear down our temporary green screen (unlike the craft projects I set out for students...those take quite a while to clean up...). Have a happy holiday break, and happy making!

Nearpod in the Library

On a Friday afternoon, I opened a letter from my school district informing me that I would be the full time high school librarian the following school year. I was elated! I had so many lesson ideas floating around my head to support literacy and critical thinking in our school; however, I had one problem: I would be taking over a library that was ill-equipped to handle contemporary information literacy lessons. Enter the magic of Nearpod to make information literacy lesson dreams come true. Below, you will find my top five uses for Nearpod in the school library!

Nearpod for Presentations 

1. Although these days there is SO MUCH you can do with Nearpod, I started using the program as a way to disseminate instructional slides to students because we didn't (and still don't) have a presentation screen in our library. It was easy enough to upload an existing PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation and then students could view the slides directly on their device! The classroom management aspect was also a bonus. Nearpod shows the presenter when a student is out of the program. Instead of wondering if students are on task and paying attention to the lesson, I can simply say, "Oh, I see that someone is no longer in the presentation. Did you happen to get kicked out?" And as quickly as that, my student is back in the game!

Nearpod for Research: No More Mistyped Links!

2. Never again do I hear the phrase "Ms. K, that link doesn't work," and then proceed to cringe because a student mistyped one character out of seemingly a thousand in a URL. I include just a few slides that demo how to use our library databases or other web-based resources and then include the website immediately after for students to conduct a sample search. My instruction has become so much more effective now that students can immediately practice the skills that they gain during a research lesson. I can easily check for understanding with a follow-up question that requires each student to answer or a Collaborate Board to see what students discovered during their search. Nearpod has transformed the research learning process!

Nearpod for Study Hall Expectations

3. Many of our students use the library space every day for study hall, so it is imperative that they understand library policies and procedures. I used to hand students a piece of paper with expectations listed, they would glance at it, and then throw it away. Now, I do a five minute live Nearpod presentation providing important procedures for library attendance and methods for learning about library closures. I get to show a little bit of my personality by posting goofy photos from my life, and I can include a draw-it slide so that students can upload a photo or draw a picture to let me know something important about them. Getting to know students who come to the library to collaborate with peers or to work independently on a computer can be challenging, but a Nearpod presentation can be one quick way to connect with students. You can always look back on student answers about themselves later on to remind yourself of student names and interests. Plus, I can launch a student-paced lesson for students who are not present during the live lesson.

Nearpod Time to Climb and Reports to Collect Student Growth Data

4. In Pennsylvania, part of our Teacher Evaluation System requires that we collect data to demonstrate student growth (for the Student Learning Objective). Collecting data to display student growth can be a big challenge for many school librarians who do not see the same students every day. I discovered that Nearpod can alleviate some of the data pressure by using the game Time to Climb. Librarians can create a stress-free pre-test with Time to Climb, all while providing students with a preview of what they will learn. The data collected for each student, along with the graphs, make for compelling pieces to demonstrate student growth to a supervising administrator. You can either ask the same questions in a post-test to illustrate growth, or you can score part of the student project. I often just ask the cooperating teacher if I can grade student research notes or citations - whatever part of the project the librarian lessons covered.

Nearpod Library of Information Literacy Lessons

5. Finally, the Nearpod Library has a huge collection of engaging Digital Citizenship and Literacy lessons. Many of the lessons are created in collaboration with the highly regarded Common Sense Media, which creates content that librarians already know and trust. Lessons range from spotting fake news to responsible engagement with social media and how to deal with phishing scams. Lessons are available for kindergarten through high school level, and are searchable by topic, audience level, or even standard. For those librarians who also provide professional development in their district, Nearpod also has an extensive library of "Ready to Run" PD. Or, you can always create your own PD using Nearpod, increasing peer engagement by adding polls, Collaborate Boards, and important weblinks for colleagues to access.

Clearly, I use Nearpod a lot in my library. Whether I need a quick way to get the right online resources into students' hands or I need an engaging way to present new material, Nearpod has been an important tool in my library. Check it out for yourself!

Google Summit on Digital Safety and Citizenship at Google HQ, Pittsburgh

On March 22, 2018, a group of educators from all over PA assembled at Google HQ in Pittsburgh for the 6th iteration of Google's Digital Citizenship Summit. I was unsure of what I would be able to gain at the summit, as we were made aware that the information would be geared toward middle grade teachers. But the conversations we started and many of the resources we received could apply to teachers at any grade level.

We began and ended with sessions lead by Larry Magid. Mr. Magid has created numerous resources for students, parents, educators and seniors surrounding the topic of digital safety. His first talk focused on connectsafely.org, an organization for which he is president and CEO, located in tech hub Silicon Valley. ConnectSafely offers news, resources, and guides all surrounding the topic of digital safety. Some of the guides Larry shared with us are for parents, educators, and seniors. Our final session with Mr. Magid was a "Fireside Chat," during which a Googler lead a Q&A not only with Larry, but also with the educators. I enjoyed this interactive session, hearing from experts both in the classroom and in industry.

Other sessions included an overview of Google's Be Internet Awesome with Googler Rob, and another was lead by several teachers at McGuffey. The teachers at McGuffey had implemented a number of Be Internet Awesome lessons, including the Interland game, in their middle school. The game is neat, and I imagine middle schoolers would really enjoy the entertaining reinforcement of digital citizenship skills. In Rob's session we had a chance to test out the game for ourselves. I did hear some educators mention that the game may be a little young for middle school and perhaps be even more engaging with elementary-level students.  The age group that I work with, high school students, are not the target audience for Google's digital citizenship resources; however, the other guides and resources we received are relevant at any level.

Overall, it was an engaging workshop that started important discussions on media literacy and digital safety. We all need to be more cognizant that we are incorporating these skills and teachable moments into our digital lessons.

WIRC 2018

Our teams performed so well this year, and I am so proud of how each and every student represented Norwin. As always, we had a blast at what has become my favorite school day of the year. One of our WIRC team members wrote a wonderful article about the competition for the school paper, so everything that follows is her article:

Ribbons for reading

By Madison Stanley

     On March 5, Norwin’s Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition (WIRC) club attended their yearly competition at Seton Hill University.  

     WIRC students spend months reading books from a list of 30 that is released at the end of the previous year.  At this competition, teams are paired up with different teams for 4 rounds. These rounds consist of 30 questions total on any of the various books from the list. If a team misses a question the question goes to the opposing team and if that team answers correctly they are granted a quarter point. This makes the total amount of points available 18.75 per round.

     The Norwin WIRC club met during lunches with more frequent meetings as the competition grew closer. During these meetings the group would discuss books from the list with the intention of giving the entire club a better understanding of all the books on the list. Every student was required to read four books and write question sets on each, which is the only requirement of joining the club.

     Norwin had three teams attend the competition this year. The teams based their names off of books from the WIRC list. The freshman team was Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Nerdy, which is a pun on the book Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The sophomore team was Code Name Norwin, based off of Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein.  The senior team, including one junior, was Booking for Alaska, based off of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

     Extremely Quiet and Incredibly Close placed third overall and awarded yellow ribbons, the highest finish for any Norwin team ever in WIRC competitions.  Booking for Alaska placed fifth overall, which was awarded with pink ribbons.

     “This year’s questions must have been a lot harder than last year’s,” said senior Sebastian Pratt, due to the fact Booking for Alaska had a lower score than the Norwin team which placed sixth in the previous year. 

     Overall, Norwin’s WIRC teams have been improving and expanding over the years and will hopefully continue to do so.

     “We did better than I thought we did,” said senior and Booking for Alaska team captain, Meghan Williamson.

    The Norwin WIRC team hopes to continue improvement next year and awaits the next list of books to dive into.

Freshman Library Orientation: A New Approach for a New School Year

For the last couple of years, I have made a concerted effort to make freshman library orientation more engaging and more meaningful for our first-time high school library-goers. I gradually moved away from the dreaded rules lecture to half rules/half scavenger hunt, and then finally this year I may have hit the winning combination. I had heard of Aurasma before, but I had never really envisioned much of a use for it at the high school level. After exploring some ideas of how to create a Pokemon Go inspired library scavenger hunt, I came across several ideas for incorporating Aurasma into a library orientation. I decided to ditch Pokemon Go (that was SO 2016 anyway) and opted for a simpler way of introducing students to their high school library.

To start, I watched this very brief  Step-By-Step instructional video on how to create an Aura. I then walked around the library to determine the couple of items and places I most wanted students to know about on their first visit here. I created a handout where group members could record their responses to the scavenger hunt.

I was also able to get my upperclassmen student library aides involved, which was helpful. I recorded a couple of students talking about certain aspects of the library. I use freshman library orientation to shamelessly promote our reading team to interested freshmen, and it was just fantastic to have upperclassmen explain to the freshmen that it's a really fun and welcoming club!

After freshmen completed the scavenger hunt, I was able to intertwine policies and procedures into our discussion of the scavenger hunt answers. This approach was pretty painless and fairly well-received. When we were done discussing the answers to the activity, I took students on a tour of our online resources. I directed students to the "Policies and Procedures" page of our website first to finish talking about anything important that didn't fit into our previous discussion, and then instructed students on how to log into our databases and ebooks. Overall, the lesson was engaging and it also hit upon everything I needed students to walk away knowing about the library. Next year, I hope to have a little bit more time to make my Auras more fun (they were pretty bare-bones this year), but overall I highly recommend this method of library orientation!

A New Space for a New Year

This year, I am so excited to roll out our new Reading Nook. A couple of years ago, there was some talk about possibly updating the high school library. At that time, I sat down with a few students in their English class and asked what they wished we could have in the library. A number of them asked for a quiet place to read. Our library is set up with many large tables that easily facilitate collaboration - and for better or worse, it can get pretty noisy sometimes. The request seemed like a necessity that had been overlooked. Although the funding never materialized, I still felt compelled to make our reading nook happen.

Over the summer, I asked for one of our shelving units to be moved into the fiction section (we can always use more shelving in the fiction section!), which opened up a nice bright space by a window. Then, I moved a few of our reading chairs into a quiet, secluded area of the library. I bought a rug and inexpensive end tables at Ikea for a total of $120. Luckily, I had a small grant left over and was able to be reimbursed for this cost. Now, we have a lovely reading nook that seems to really provide something special for our library.

Our First Author Visit!

We were very lucky this past April to invite YA author Jessica Warman to visit our school library. I had written a small grant earlier in the school year that included a request for funds so that we could enjoy an author visit, which we had never experienced before. Luckily, one of our awesome Knight Readers had a connection to YA author Jessica Warman, whose book Between was on our reading competition list! After just a couple of emails back and forth, Jessica came to our library for a visit! She requested an interview format, so I prepared a few questions after reading her book The Last Good Day of the Year and after reading several articles and online interviews with the author. As a true crime podcast fan myself, her most recent book, a bit of a mystery thriller, appealed to me. In an effort to keep the group small and engaged, I invited members of the reading team, our student-run book club, students who had checked out Warman's books from our school library, and finally anyone who expressed an excitement about the author visit. Students had permission to miss about an hour of class, as I didn't want lack of a ride home to inhibit students from participating in this experience. Ms. Warman was just absolutely lovely during our interview, and then she very graciously answered a number of student questions about her books, about being an author, and finally about living in Pittsburgh. She revealed that one book had been optioned for a movie, so we will continue to look forward to that! After expressing that the time had flown by quickly during our visit, Jessica offered to send autographed bookmarks for all students who attended. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later I was able to surprise our students with a souvenir from our first author visit! I decided to hide the extra bookmarks inside of all four books we have in the library authored by Warman with a little note stating that the bookmark is a gift for the reader. Our students (and I!) very much enjoyed this visit, and we cannot thank Jessica enough for making the trip out to our school library!

Google Earth and National Geographic Society: One Educator's Story

At Metsker Maps in Seattle

One of my fondest memories as a kid growing up in central Pennsylvania was frequenting the Penn State Creamery with my family. My parents would patiently wait while my little brother and I would mull over flavors like Peachy Paterno and WPSU Coffee Break in order to choose the perfect scoop. While we licked our cones trying to chase each drip before it reached our sleeves, we would flip through National Geographic magazines piled high on each outdoor table by a local collector. I remember staring at the iconic yellow borders and marveling at the photos inside depicting the splendor of our National Parks or the seemingly fantastical traditions of people from far away lands.

So when I was offered an opportunity as an adult to attend a workshop in Seattle, WA hosted by National Geographic Society and Google Earth, I felt nostalgia mixed with excitement. While I was expecting to be wowed by some amazing tech, I had not expected to be in the presence of such skillful, inspirational, and worldly educators. A number of very mindful teachers there follow the UN Global Goals, which strive to end poverty and inequality, and to make a dent in climate change.

@ Google Headquarters in Seattle

As I click through the stunning photographs depicted in the Pristine Seas Voyager Story, I can't help but marvel at how this new platform has transformed National Geographic. And yet, I am reminded of the wonder I felt as a little girl flipping through glossy pages outside of the Creamery. Because whether the platform is print or digital or video matters little, as long as it inspires the next generation to care about conservation and cultural literacy. So thank you Google Earth and National Geographic Society for an absolutely unforgettable experience. But more importantly, thank you for continuing and updating the 130 year legacy that National Geographic Society has established for inspiring kids to care about making the world a better place.

Prior to attending the Hackathon, we were asked to participate in Phase I of the National Geographic Educator Certification program. During the webinar, we learned about Nat Geo's philosophy on teaching and learning, which includes "how the human and natural worlds work at local, regional, and global scales." Meaningful units can start with a question, then students collect data to begin formulating an answer to the question. Students continue by bringing data sets together using a visual tool, such as a digital map, before creating a product to share with their teacher and classmates and perhaps even parents or community members. Finally, and this is the piece that pushes a lesson beyond school into the realm of meaningful learning, students must act to bring about change. A number of educators present at the Hackathon shared how they are already doing this in their schools or classrooms, breaking down each step and aligning each piece with the UN Global Goals.

Googlers shared with us the Google Geo tools that are now available to make the stories we want our students to hear, and ultimately the ones we hope they can tell, incredibly compelling. Just this past Monday at ISTE, the Google Earth team rolled out the Google Earth Education Program, which features Voyager Stories. Under the Education tab, a number of these stories were created in conjunction with National Geographic Society and their explorers. These stories are tied together with Idea Sets (including discussion questions, activities, videos, and more) for teachers on the National Geographic Society Education site. Now teachers have a wide array of meaningful lesson activities to choose from when carefully crafting engaging units for their students. We don't have to start from scratch! Many lesson activities are guided by Nat Geo explorers, they outline problems, and most importantly they provide students with opportunities to propose solutions.

Check out a brief tutorial below:

PBS Blog Post Number 2: A Trip Back in Time to Mercy Street

We had our first experience using 360 video in the Norwin HS Library, and PBS asked me to document it in a blog post. Here is my second blog post for PBS Teachers Lounge: "A Trip Back in Time to Mercy Street."

PSLA Annual Conference: A Homecoming

Last school year, I attended the American Association of School Librarians National Conference in Columbus, OH. I had a blast teaching and learning from librarians located all over the country (and even the world!). But unfortunately, this meant that I had to miss the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association Annual Conference in Hershey last year. AASL was a wonderful experience; however, coming back to PSLA this year felt like coming home. I missed running into colleagues with whom I collaborate on the listserv and Schoology, and I missed the chocolate, of course! Speaking with librarians from other states at AASL also made me realize just how special of an organization PSLA is, and how lucky we are here in Pennsylvania to have such supportive and involved colleagues.

A highlight for me this year at PSLA was meeting with my team members for the Regional Leaders Academy over dinner on Thursday night. I am very much looking forward to working with them throughout the next year. Another wonderful experience was attending the Advisory Council lunch and meeting some of the people that make this organization what it is. Hmmm...I'm sensing a food theme here...

I also appreciated learning more about Future Reading Librarians - this was an initiative that I had heard a little bit about but didn't quite know how to incorporate into my own program. Shannon McClintock Miller, spokesperson for the Future Ready Librarians initiative, shared more about the various roles that future ready librarians must be able to fulfill. Participants had an opportunity to discuss which roles we already perform well and which roles are still challenging. I identified that I am proficient in leading PD, I am always working to cultivate instructional partnerships, and I have just begun working on community partnerships. Luckily, we received a wonderful resource for future reference as we continue to grow our programs: bit.ly/PSLAfuturereadylibs.

I was extremely excited to share my love of Google Street View and Google Cardboard during my session Come Fly With Me: Virtual Field Trips. Participants seemed to really enjoy using Nearpod to explore VR, and they also seemed pretty amazed at the places they could visit using the Street View and Cardboard apps. One participant taught me about a United Nations Virtual Reality website, which features a number of important stories in VR. Additionally, we had a great discussion about videoconferencing with authors. I learned that the most important prep a teacher can do is to test out the equipment ahead of time! Overall, I was really happy with how the session went, and I will continue to incorporate short bursts of discussion and tech practice during upcoming workshops. I know that I've said this before, but I truly do lead workshops on topics I am passionate about in part so that I can learn from other experts in the room.

The school librarian community is just that: a community. And this group is giving and kind and smart and helpful. I am always thankful to be a part of PSLA.

Blog Post for PBS Teachers' Lounge

I was thrilled to contribute a blog post for PBS Teachers' Lounge, published on March 24, 2017. It was based off of a PA School Librarian post entitled "Virtual Field Trips," but it goes into much more step-by-step detail as to how a beginner can create a successful virtual field trip for their students. Here's the post: http://www.pbs.org/education/blog/foreign-language-virtual-field-trips-a-travel-guide-for-beginners. After creating the post, I learned about a PBS virtual field trip that students could take using 360 degree video content from their Civil War series Mercy Street. The brief video is available from the free Littlstar app, and the lesson can be extended to include a discussion and a written activity or assessment. I had the opportunity to forge a new collaboration with one of my social studies colleagues, so this is why I am so thrilled to learn about new and engaging PBS virtual reality content. Hopefully a post on this lesson soon!

Reading Graphic Novels

When I was first asked to teach a group of students how to properly read a graphic novel, I wasn't quite sure what to teach them. But as I began to research the topic, I realized that students who have never read a graphic novel or comic book could easily be confused by panels, thought bubbles, or dialog bubbles that do not always follow our traditional straight lines of left to right text. Get Graphic, a website created by the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries along with their partners, offered a lot of help on the topic: http://www.getgraphic.org. These fantastic librarians put together an easy-to-follow guide on how to properly read a graphic novel, along with definitions for terms, and examples of pages. I uploaded some of these materials into Nearpod and created interactive activities in which students had to number dialog bubbles to demonstrate their knowledge of how to read a graphic novel page. After the lesson, several students ended up checking out graphic novels from the library, so I was excited to be able to introduce this genre of literature to students. I was especially excited to see how engaged some of the boys in the English classes were in the novels they were reading. Some started side-conversations about funny moments in the text or neat illustrations that they wouldn't normally see in their required reading. I hope I have the opportunity to teach similar lessons to this one in the future, as the students were engaged and excited about what they were reading! Additionally, as someone who rarely reads graphic novels, I learned a lot and was even inspired to read one of the graphic novels I had just purchased for the library.

Students number panels to demonstrate understanding of how to read a graphic novel.

Students answer brief questions about the experience of reading a graphic novel

Communications Lesson on Identifying Fake News

According to a study conducted by Stanford History Education group (2016, November 22), “in open web searches, only nine percent of high school students in an advanced history course were able to see through” the language on a biased website to determine that it was a front for a “D.C. Lobbyist.” College students performed even worse on the same task…

I find this statistic to be appalling and deeply disconcerting - especially because I know how susceptible I am, as an adult, to the deluge of advertisements constantly bombarding my social media feeds (just this morning I bought a pair of Chucks from an Instagram ad that had books all over them...BOOKS! I mean, how could I not?!). But I worry that students may not always know that the ads their friends "like" are trying to sell them something or the article that their favorite celebrity retweets may contain sponsored or blatantly false content. So, our communications teacher graciously allowed me to conduct a lesson with her students on evaluating resources...ie identifying "fake news."

Nearpod is the best format for this lesson, as I was able to control the presentation on

student screens, students could respond to short answer questions analyzing ads and articles, and I was able to provide full color photos and news samples (whereas our copy machines do not provide this option). I could share exemplary student responses to all iPad screens, which sparked discussion and gave students a sense of pride for their thoughtful responses.

Additionally, I incorporated a a two-minute audio clip from the NPR podcast Planet Money, which told the story of one fake news producer. Students then had the opportunity to discuss what his motivation may have been for creating fake news, which was not necessarily what students had anticipated. I was thankful to have the excellent work of the Stanford History Education Group that I could incorporate into the lesson. Their activities with sample student responses were the basis and inspiration for the lesson.

Overall, the lesson was engaging and relevant. Much of the lesson structure I learned from Nearpoders and teachers at the PioNear Summit I attended a couple of weeks ago, so I am very thankful to them for their help in structuring this lesson. Check out the embedded links to resources, as well as the Nearpod presentation below!

Stanford History Education Group. (2016, November 22). Evaluating Information: The cornerstone of civic online reasoning. Retrieved from https://sheg.stanford.edu/upload/V3LessonPlans/Executive%20Summary%2011.21.16.pdf

Perseverance in the Library

At the beginning of November, I received the call that I have feared every year since I started my school library career: as of that moment, library funding was completely cut. To be fair, all "non-emergency" funding was cut in the entire district. According to the new algorithm for determining federal funding, my district would be receiving significantly less than expected. This "moratorium on spending" of course trickled down to each professional in each building. In some ways, I was fortunate that I got the call in November instead of July because I had already purchased a few staples like our online databases and our reading team books. But I was expecting to spend approximately 70% of the library budget sometime before February, which is our usual yearly spending cutoff date. I took a little bit of time beating myself up for not focusing more on purchasing at the beginning of the school year, but there was no point in brooding over something that I had no control over. Instead, I listed my major goals for the year to determine exactly what I needed in order to continue having a successful year for the library. The first goal was to purchase a list of 50 books that were primarily student recommendations. Contrary to popular opinion, fiction reading in my school library has increased this year, and I am absolutely determined to continue this trend. Secondly, a student last year took the initiative to start a student-run book club during lunches after the reading competition concluded in the Spring. They had selected two books, and we would need at least 25 copies of each. Finally, we need funds to attend our annual field trip to the county reading competition. I needed a plan.

First, I recalled our local Barnes and Noble store contacting me in the past about facilitating an in-store book fair. I contacted them again, and set up a meeting with the manager to discuss all of the details and to set up the date. We chose a date approximately two weeks before Christmas, which proved to be an effective time to have the fair. We advertised in school, on social media, and to parents and community members. We also brought copies of our donation code with us in case people in the store asked us who we were (we were all wearing our school colors or our reading team t-shirts). With a combination of luck and hard work, we earned over $1,600 in books for our library. I am incredibly thankful to Barnes and Noble for helping us to fill our library with new books, and I feel so lucky to work with such wonderful and motivated students. We had students who offered to stay at Barnes and Noble all day to give our donation code to parents and community members who asked for it, although we had such a great volunteer response that we only needed students to stay for 1-2 hour shifts. It was such a great, uplifting day!

Secondly, to ensure that we had enough funds to purchase books for our student-run book club and to possibly go on a field trip, I wrote several grants. For one grant, I was interviewed at the YALSA Symposium in Pittsburgh. My grant proposal was unfortunately not accepted, although the process was a positive one. For this grant, we were required to be able to speak on how individual conference sessions inspired our grant idea and how we might use what we learned in order to improve our home library. Although my grant idea was not selected, I am still hoping to be able to gain funds at some point to make my idea a reality.

Finally, Wal-Mart came through and granted us $750 to run our student book club this year! I am extremely thankful to our local Wal-Mart store for selecting our proposal. I recommend that other school libraries in need consider looking into grants offered by large and small organizations alike. Many companies are happy to support public education, and this librarian is incredibly thankful to them.

Fierce Reads Field Trip

On October 4, 2016, the Knight Readers had the incredible opportunity to take a field trip to the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. We took a fantastic tour of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, had dinner "dahn-tahn," and ended the evening with a YA author lecture at the Carnegie Lecture Hall attached to the museums. Multiple times I overheard students exclaim, "we need to do this every month!" In fact, I think the students would have been ecstatic just to tour the library, even if we didn't get a chance to geek out hearing from nationally known best-selling authors. Here's a little virtual scrapbook of our trip:

Walking toward the CLP - the Cathedral of Learning looming in the distance

The Knight Readers

CLP - all the knowledge "Free to the People"

Checking out some rare books - one was even from the mid-1400s

Excited for the authors to come on stage!

Caleb Roehrig, Emma Mills, Anna Banks, and Marissa Meyer 

The YA authors who participated in the Fierce Reads Tour were incredibly funny, thoughtful, and inspiring. Most of our students had never met an author before, let alone authors that they have read and admire. The authors graciously autographed tickets and books for us, answered all of our questions, and they even gave us a shout-out on Twitter! About a month later, I also Tweeted Caleb Roehrig to ask about #OwnVoices book suggestions for our Diversity Club, and I am so grateful that he provided so many wonderful authors and book titles to explore further. Finally, I am beyond thankful to RAD Works Here, a local organization that provides funding so that children and families can enjoy the arts for free. Without them, we could not have brought so many students to experience this incredible opportunity. Thank you!

PA School Librarian at the Young Adult Library Association Symposium

In November 2016, I had the opportunity to attend the YALSA Symposium in Pittsburgh, PA. The most fantastic part of the conference was meeting so many fabulously entertaining storytellers. I was introduced to the funny, smart, and lovely Meredith Russo, and I cannot wait to read her book If I was Your Girl. I was also especially geeked out to meet E.K. Johnston (pictured right), author of one of my favorite Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition books from the 2017 list. The Book Blitz was fun but completely insane. Many of the participating authors from the symposium participated in the blitz, where each author had a table with a mesmerizing number of books primed and ready to be signed. If looking for a more low-key moment to hear from the authors, I actually preferred the author panels. No signed books during the panels, but we got to hear what events or moments may have inspired the stories we couldn't wait to share with our patrons. Perhaps my favorite session was the ending keynote starring a few Pittsburgh favorites: Jesse Andrews and Siobhan Vivian. Their hilarious anecdotes were the perfect way to end the conference.

One aspect of the symposium that I had not experienced at a conference before was the opportunity to  "Pitch a Program." This concept provided a thoughtful way to try to incorporate what we learned immediately and have the possibility of earning funds to put our ideas into place. I attended a number of sessions on programs about LGBTQIA+ issues and came up with the idea to do a book club reading of a contemporary YA book with characters or themes that would provide insight into the LGBTQIA+ community. My pitch inspired me to contact author Caleb Roehrig on Twitter to get his take on Own Voices authors that my students could read. I am humbled and thankful for his quick responses, with many wonderful suggestions of authors and books: some of which I am familiar with and others of which I am excited to get to know. Although I was not awarded with funds for my program idea, I am hoping to possibly put this program into place eventually.

Overall, the symposium was fantastically fun and I am so happy that YALSA came to Pittsburgh. As a school librarian, I knew the content would be geared toward the public librarian; however, I still found myself missing the ed tech sessions that I lean toward attending at school library conferences. Some of the very frank conversations on health and sex may not be possible in a school library, but I did walk away with some new concepts to try.

ESSA and School Libraries in Pennsylvania

On a beautiful Fall day, librarians from around the state of Pennsylvania convened at Toftrees Conference Center in State College Pennsylvania to discuss the provisions for librarians in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Lead by Laura Hicks, the Region 2 Director of the American Association of School Librarians board, we reviewed the definition of an effective school library program before exploring the specific federal guidelines and state interpretations of these guidelines. We ended the workshop by discussing ways in which we can apply what we have learned to our own school libraries.

The AASL definition of an effective school library program pulls from two important phrases present in the Every Student Succeeds Act language, including that libraries provide "personalized learning environments" to ensure a"well-rounded" education. Additionally, AASL outlines how the school library program is essential to "college, career and community readiness," including that the library is staffed with a certified school librarian, it has current digital and print resources, and it provides staff development and collaboration opportunities. Furthermore, AASL offers the qualifications that a school librarian should possess, including being "instructional leaders," supporters of multiple literacies (digital and information, among others), and elevators of reading initiatives. More information and precise verbiage can be found on the AASL Position Statements page: http://essa.aasl.org/aasl-position-statements.

Following the definition of an effective program, with the help of video messages from the American Library Association Executive Director of Washington Office Emily Sheketoff, we explored each part of ESSA that pertains to developing and maintaining effective school library programs.

Title I of ESSA ensures that state and local agencies improve basic programs. Ms. Hicks urged us to consider what we are already doing, as school librarians, to improve digital literacy for our students. What can we do to impact student learning? Schools need librarians and access to effective school library programs in order to impact student achievement.

In Title II, ESSA advocates for supporting effective instruction. School librarians often lead their own professional development workshops or in-service day sessions after attending conferences and workshops. Because entire districts benefit from school librarian attendance at conferences and workshops, Title II Part A funds can be used for the librarian to attend professional development opportunities. Additionally, Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (or LEARN), specifies that school librarians can participate in required grant activities. According to Sheketoff, these grants can be used for teachers and school librarians to meet and collaborate on literacy initiatives. Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) specifically states that funds should be used for supporting effective school library programs. Ultimately, school librarians can aide in applying for grants, and they need to research and make sure that the district grant writer is aware of important school grants that can help in enhancing library programs.

Title IV, Part A discusses Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, otherwise known as Block Grants. ESSA essentially authorizes school librarians to learn about technology, as librarians offer "access to personalized, rigorous learning experiences supported by technology." Therefore, librarians should be afforded the opportunities to update technology skills and provide technology for their students.

The session ended with discussion on how to apply all of these elements to our own libraries. We were encouraged to develop short speeches that could quickly and spontaneously help others see the importance of school libraries and librarians.

Allison Burrel, President of the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, also directed us to take a look at the new ESSA recommendations developed for the state of Pennsylvania specifically: http://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/About%20PDE/ESSA/October%2018,%202016/AIR%20Report%20PA%20ESSA%2010%2014%2016.pdf. Further information about the Every Student Succeeds Act can be found on the PA Department of Education website: http://www.education.pa.gov/Pages/Every-Student-Succeeds-Act.aspx#tab-1.  A compilation of resources and advocacy tools can be found on the ESSA and School Libraries website: http://essa.aasl.org.

Ultimately, librarians must stay abreast of new legislation that provides effective school library provisions. We can remain hopeful that the federal government, state, and local agencies recognize the importance of school libraries to student achievement. But we must still continue to advocate for all that school libraries can do to support digital and print literacy, technology skills, teacher professional development, and overall school culture. Our students depend on it.

Work Cited
American Association of School Librarians. Connecting ESSA to School Librarians. 25 Oct. 2016.

Virtual Field Trips

In the summer of 2016, I was very fortunate to attend the Google Geo Teachers Institute in Mountain View California. I actually took a brief break from driving down the CA coast for my honeymoon (shout out to my new hubby for hanging out in Palo Alto while I was at Google!) in order to attend. And the side trip to Google headquarters was well worth it. I was especially excited to meet British educator, explorer and photographer, Jamie Buchanan-Dunlo of Digital Explorer. Among other impressive pursuits, his work is used by Google Expeditions to create meaningful virtual field trips for students. A long-time tech hero of mine, Jerome Berg, also spoke and presented a session on his project Google Lit. Trips. As a former English teacher, Berg's ideas influenced the way that I approached literature then, and continue to inspire my approach to literature now.

When I came back to school at the end of August, I was excited to share the things that I learned while at the Google headquarters. Through a series of fortunate events, a number of teachers and administrators came to visit the library early on in the year and had the opportunity to test out the Google Cardboard that I received while at Google. It probably helped that I lured them in with chocolate, caffeine, and the promise of a virtual beach vacation (if only for a few moments!). I was fortunate to receive 35 VR viewers through funds received as part of a STEM grant (thank you, Mr. Kotch!), and I was able to put them right to good use.

Through collaboration with several Spanish teachers, I have been taking our students on virtual field trips for a few years; however, our students had never been on a trip like this one before! In an informal poll, I discovered that none of our approximately 120 Spanish III students had ever used a VR viewer before, so this was a pretty unique and exciting experience for them.

We started our trip with what was formerly called the Google Cultural Institute, now labeled Google Arts and Culture. I like students to explore locations curated for their cultural significance. Then, students learned how to use the VR viewers with Google Street View and Google Cardboard apps. They were asked to download these free apps to their smartphones ahead of time, if permitted. Not every student could download the apps, which we had anticipated, so students were able to share or use the few iPhone/iPod devices that we brought with us. And this was the result:

Both the Spanish teacher and I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students on their experiences with their virtual field trip. In the past, students seemed to learn something from the VFT activity, but we had never received such enthusiasm before use of the VR viewers.

One of my biggest goals as a school librarian is to provide cultural experiences whenever possible. Part of our district's mission statement requires that we grow students into "productive and responsible citizens of an ever-changing global society." I hope that the tiny taste of the world that I can provide for our students might inspire them to explore further in real life.

If you would like to modify my lesson materials for your classes, they are accessible here.

Virtual Spanish Trip by Katherine Kauffman Roth is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Update: Below is some student feedback from the lesson.