4th Quarter Library Report

It Takes a Village.... Or an Army of Eager Volunteers...to Overhaul a Library Collection!

I'd like to start by highlighting a project that I am immensely proud of: This year a team of enthusiastic volunteers helped me to weed, sort, and box up nearly 3,000 outdated, obsolete, and damaged library materials (2,969)! While I initially set an ambitious goal of removing 5,000 items, it quickly became clear that 3,000 was a much more realistic and attainable target.

I'd like to thank all of my middle school volunteers who came in during SSR or offered to help after finishing their CTE work. Their assistance made a tremendous difference! I’d also like to thank Ms. Toomey for allowing me to stay behind during the ValleyCats field trip so that my daughter and I could dedicate some uninterrupted time to this major project.

My efforts focused primarily on several underutilized and outdated collections, including our Kindle/Nook collection from 2012, the Professional Collection, and our DVD collection. Additionally, I removed a significant number of items from our overcrowded fiction and nonfiction sections. As a result, our shelves once again have room for growth, and our library storage closet has never looked better. This project has created a more organized, accessible, and inviting space for our students and staff.

I'd also like to give a big shoutout to our amazing PTA, and especially to Katie Film!! The PTA generously donates materials from the Spring Book Fair every year in addition to allocating a lot of their Scholastic Dollars towards the purchase of new Library materials. It should not be surprising that this year I focused these purchases on some much needed recently published nonfiction series to replenish some of the old materials I removed. I am so grateful for this incredible support that truly benefits all members of our school community.

Finally, speaking of growing our collection, another goal of mine for this year was to spend the $4K allocated for our OverDrive digital collection. With help from Maureen Squire and Ashley Behrle at Questar, I was able to purchase 172 ebook and audiobook titles in our dedicated digital collection housed in OverDrive. I focused on purchasing titles that are "one user, one copy" that will never expire unlike the more common metered use materials. This means we will always have these items available for our students 24/7/365.

The Year in Review:

Number of distinct curricula developed & taught = 13 (ICAN, Prek, K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, CTE 6, CTE 7, CTE 8, Music Research 8)
Class visits = 1,080
Sections graded for report cards = 21
Reporting periods = 11 (Report cards & progress reports)
Items Circulated = 9,467
New Items Added = 351
Items Withdrawn = 2,969
Most popular book = Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park with 22 check-outs!

What's Been Happening in the Library??

PreK Learns About Author Matthew McElligott and Spring Holidays

This quarter our Prek students enjoyed an author study of local author and Russell Sage professor, Matthew McElligott. During that unit, they got to design their own "Galactic Pudding" after reading Even Aliens Need Snacks, and then they came up with their own clever book ideas based on Even Monsters Need Haircuts. We concluded the quarter by using the database PebbleGo in conjunction with books to learn about Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Juneteenth!

Kindergarten Learns About Eric Carle

Kindergarten wrapped up their year in Library by exploring the wonderful books of Laura Numeroff and award-winning author & illustrator, Eric Carle. We practiced story sequencing and inferencing, as well as comparing and contrasting.

1st Grade Loves Caldecotts

First grade spent the 4th quarter studying Caldecott award-winning picture books. We learned the history of the award and examined a variety of Caldecott winners spanning the decades, including Where the Wild Things Are, Kitten's First Full Moon, The House in the Night, Officer Buckle & Gloria, and this year's winner: Fireworks. We spent three classes studying David Wiesner's award-winning books: Tuesdays, The Three Pigs, and Flotsom. As part of this unit, students learned how picture book call numbers are made, and then they practiced making and alphabetizing call numbers of their own. A BIG shoutout to Ms. Biondo for sending me one 7th grade Volunteer each week to help with this large group - their extra hands were most appreciated!

2nd Grade Creates Fables

In the 4th quarter, 2nd graders practiced identifying the author's purpose by studying Aesop's Fables. After reading and analyzing about a dozen of his fables, students worked on creating their own fables. Using a graphic organizer planning sheet, they first chose a moral and animal characters, before mapping out the problem and resolution of their plot. I just finished collating their amazing work into yet another bound book has become part of our circulating library collection!

3rd Grade Writes Tall Tales

Third grade was also busy writing in the Library this quarter! To conclude our long unit on Folklore, we studied Tall Tales, including The Bunyans, Pecos Bill, and Swamp Angel. Drawing inspiration from the stories we read, students then planned a Tall Tale of their own featuring lots of imaginative exaggerations and creative explanations! Their stories were set in the western USA in the 1800s, and their characters each had a job or occupation that would have been important as the first settlers were taming the wild lands.

4th Grade Explores Online Reference Resources & Learns About Literary Genres

Fourth grade did an amazing job as we studied Online Reference Resources and Literary Genres in the 4th quarter! During these units, we explored online dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, and atlases. For each resource, students learned important uses and real-world applications while they practiced navigating within them through guided activities. What better way to learn how a thesaurus can improve your writing than by doing a Mad-Lib-like activity? And how cool is it to use the Bing Maps directions tool to map routes and calculate distances and times using various modes of travel? The students loved this unit and definitely learned a lot! To conclude the year, students spent our final three classes learning about Literary Genres including their favorites: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, and Horror!

5th Grade Researches the American Melting Pot & Writes Reports

After practicing how to create citations and notecards ethically using the online research organizer, NoodleTools, 5th grade spent the 4th quarter researching how America is a great "Melting Pot" blended from cultural ideas brought here by generations of immigrants from across the globe. Each student chose a topic that in some way represents American culture, and then they researched where that idea originally came from, what group of immigrants brought it here and when, and what is the modern impact of that topic on America now. All research was housed in NoodleTools and students created reports complete with an ethically soured historic image and bibliography that they shared with the class through presentations.

6th Grade Creates a Book Talk Slideshow of Summer Reading Suggestions

In an annual tradition I have come to love, 6th grade created Book Talks of their suggested reading for their classmates. First, they researched a little about their chosen authors, housing their citations and notecards in NoodleTools. Then they created six "hint" notecards to entice their classmates to read their chosen book. "Hints" could be anything except a plot summary - so think genre, setting, mood, problem, etc. Finally, students carefully selected 2-4 images that represented their books and created citations and notecards for those as well. Once their research was complete, they put it all together into one infographic-style slide. I then took all their slides and created one large slideshow they can access all summer whenever they need an idea or inspiration for what to read in their time away from school. Awesome work, 6th grade!!

6th Grade CTE Wraps Up the Restaurant Project

CTE 6 spent most of the 4th quarter working on the Restaurant Project. This was the culminating activity in the Young Voices Matter Unit where we celebrated inspiring young people who have had a huge impact on the world. Students learned about Youth Activists and Youth Entrepreneurs through authentic research, and then they took a turn exploring what it would be like to create their own businesses from start to finish! We used Canva AI to help us generate realistic looking menus, logos, and advertisements (a BIG thank you to Mr. Barber for helping us with this!) and we used Designer5D to create professional looking floorplans. After students presented their restaurants, they anonymously voted on which ones they would most like to visit!

We ended the quarter with a quick unit on Digital Citizenship that had students looking for clues to detect phishing scams and creating their own digital footprints.

7th Grade CTE Explores Careers in Construction and Public Safety

CTE 7 wrapped up an eventful year with two final units. Unit 7 introduced our students to career opportunities in Architecture, Construction, & Manufacturing, and Unit 8 focused on careers in Public Security, Law, and Corrections. In each unit, students independently explored Questar's related CTE programs that will be available to them in high school. They also explored specific careers in each career cluster, creating presentations that they shared with the class. Best of all, each unit featured a variety of volunteer community career presenters. For unit 7, we had two engineers: Lisa Williams and Doug Dukes, who talked about chemical and materials engineering. We also had Keegan Mallory who talked about his career in IT. Then we had two architects from the Phinney Design Group who talked about their careers as architects. In unit 8, we had two final career presenters. Nichole Hurbanek talked to our students about her fascinating career in Forensic Science followed by our very own SRO Officer, John Yeery, who shared his stories of Police Academy (we even saw a video of him being tazed as a trainee!) and life as an active duty patrol officer. I think our students learned a lot about themselves and about possible career pathways during our time together this year.

8th Grade CTE Studies AI and Topics in Sustainability

The 4th quarter included 2 units in CTE 8: Artificial Intelligence & Sustainability. In our AI unit, students "played" with fun AI tools like Animated Drawings which made the students' custom creations come to life! Students also challenged their vocabulary with Semantris and used a student friendly ChatBot called Code Breaker. My favorite AI activity required the students to create an original writing sample, that they then had ChatGPT try to replicate. Once they had both pieces of text, they first tried to trick each other, and then they had to see if they could fool me. Of 42 students, only 3 succeeded! In our final unit, students studied Sustainability. They calculated their own Carbon Footprints, researched product life cycles, and explored the question of whether supposedly sustainable energy alternatives like solar, wind, and EVs are in fact good or bad for the environment.

On May 11th, Dr. Yodis, John Lantz, and I took five of our 8th graders to SUNY Albany for a "Celebration of Teaching and Learning" where educators from around the region had an opportunity to answer questions from students considering a future career in education. It was a fun and inspiring morning!

8th Grade Music Research

The 8th graders in Music Research spent the 4th quarter researching a music-related topic of their choice in our Build Your Own Inquiry (BYOI) unit. As part of this project, students created research questions followed by annotated citations and notecards for the information they discovered. Topics included "The Impact & Origin of Indie Music", "Evolution of Music in Film", and "How Music Helps You Study and Learn More Efficiently". Once their research was complete, students created an outline for a 3-page research paper. That paper had to include appropriate in-text citations and a bibliography. Next, students designed a lesson about their topic that they had to teach to the class. Each lesson was required to conclude with a 5-question quiz to assess how effective the lesson was. The students did a great job!

ICAN Explores the 5 Senses with Eric Carle

ICAN explored the five senses all year in Library, using both modified and traditional texts. In the 4th quarter, we focused on the sense of taste through The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the sense of hearing through Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

Professional Development

In my ongoing role as our district Communication Coordinator for Questar's Library group, I attend the 4 required annual meetings which are a great opportunity to network and grow professionally. This year’s topics included:

A regional showcase of excellence hosted by Cap Region BOCES
A viewing of the powerful and poignant documentary The Librarians, with discussions afterward
An informative presentation from PermaBound
Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education
Trauma-Informed Practices in the Library

I also participated in a Tech/AI Turbocharge live webinar in May that highlighted a wide variety of amazing tools. I will definitely be using what I learned from this workshop as I tweak my CTE 8 AI unit over the summer!

Have a Wonderful Summer and Happy Reading!

Linda A Fecura Bunk, MLS

Email: lfecura@Wynantskillufsd.ord
Website: https://sites.google.com/wynantskillufsd.org/lfecura/home
Location: 25 East Avenue, Troy, NY, USA
Phone: (518)283-4600 238

4th Quarter Library Report