This blog is solely being used as a purpose to house my thoughts of things I might want to do next year and the random Bitmojis are only to break up the text.
Look Books
Parent Involvement
Coming from elementary I was used to seeing 1 to 5 parents in the library a day. They would bring their younger kiddos and check out books for themselves and their home. Our district does and awesome job and lets parents check out 10 books at a time. The librarian before me had a punch card system. Every time they got a punch for bringing their books back. After 5 punches they received a free book. I also added in after those 5 punches a reusable library bag. Middle school is different... middle schoolers don't really want to be seen with their parents. We do have some parent volunteers, but I want to try to get them to come upstairs to the library. This last year my goal this year was to have a 30% increase in parent/community circulation. I had a BIG FAT 0!! But, having SMART goals makes your rethink why you wrote it.. if it was appropriate.. and what you might do different.
I have ideas!
-During registration I am going to have sign up ready for parents to get their own card
-Have a display of all that the library has to offer (we have a whole parent section and a lending library type thing for adults!)
-Have ready made fliers or bookmarks that have important dates on it so they can mark their calendar (ie. Book Fair, Late Night in the Library)
One of my other SMART goals was to offer parent training.
Next year I would like to start a monthly story time for parents to bring their non school age kiddos to have a story time and mini lesson. One of my SMART goals was to also have parent training. I hope to do this as well. I want to try to get those scheduled mostly at the very beginning of the year so parents can add it to their calendar.
Will these ideas work.. I have NO idea, but I do want to increase parent involvement and reading at home!
Book Clubs
I have a confession.. I am TERRIBLE at book clubs. I am GREAT at programming (at least I feel that I excel in that) but Book Clubs are not my strong point. I sat down with our Dean of Students and we talked about some ideas for next year. We are applied to be a Project LIT School last year, and started reading one book. Let's just say it was a flop. This year though...
I have ideas!
-Yes, we are still going to do Project LIT- they have a whole middle grade selections this year! Middle schoolers (just like any reader) has super varied interests and reading interests. So, we are going to host monthly meeting. If you are part of the Project LIT club you just read one that is on the list that interests you. When we come to a meeting you share what you read (maybe do a Flipgrid) converse with other students that are reading books in the Project LIT list and choose a new one if you would like.
-I am going to do this same thing with our Bluebonnet and Lonestar list.
I know that as an adult I sometimes don't want to read what everyone else is reading, but I want to talk about what I read. It is about reading and conversing right?
Morning Activities
The library is open every morning (goal is 7:30am) reality is 7:45pm. I went to this awesome session during TLA where they talked about different programming that they have. Most of the times students come up and use the library to chat, read, work on homework and catch up on their latest Youtube channel. I am still going to have this, but I hope to a couple of mornings a week have an idea in place.
-One librarian talked about TedTalk Tuesday where they showed TedTalks
-I am going to do a Wellness Wednesday where I work on mindfulness and other coping skills
-We are thinking about one of the book club days being offered in the morning and the afternoon.. but we need a name for it.
