1st Quarter Library Report

It was so exciting to welcome students and staff back into our wonderful library this Fall after 17 long months! Although classes look different with social distancing and safety protocols in place, it is good to be back to a more normal routine.

We've already circulated 3,444 items in just these first 10 weeks! Our highest circulated item so far is the graphic novel Guts, by Raina Telegmeier. We've also added 23 new books so far this year, with more on the way!

Click here to check out the 1st Quarter Library Schedule to see some of the amazing things going on in our Library!

PreK has loved our 1st Quarter Library units, including a Mo Willems author study! Check out some of their amazing work below!

The 1st Quarter was busy for our Kindergartners as they worked on 3 fun units: The I.Q. books, Books You Can Sing, and a Lois Ehlert author study!

Our 1st graders spent the 1st Quarter learning about nonfiction text features as we studied Fall in an inquiry unit that featured customized assessments from the ESIFC!

Second graders loved using the database PebbleGo to independently research an author, an athlete, and a President or First Lady of their choice! They also wrote their own autobiographies and are now working on writing a biography of a person of their choice that they are interviewing over Thanksgiving Break!

Third grade learned how to do their own simple searches in our Library Catalog, OPALS, this Fall. They also learned how to access our consortium eBook collection, Sora.

Our 4th graders first learned how to use OPALS to learn more about individual materials, and then we dove right into some of our fabulous digital resources including our Rosen eBook collection and Britannica Online!

Fifth grade learned how to navigate more advanced features in OPALS during the 1st Quarter including our curated lists of research resources in Pathfinders as well as Boolean Logic in Advanced Search!

Sixth grade is studying Greek Mythology while learning about the popular Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan! After researching a God or Goddess of their choice, they are creating their own demigod and writing their own fiction story modeled after The Lightning Thief.

Our 8th graders are honing their research skills in preparation for high school and college while learning about the genres of music. In the first part of our current project, we each learned about different genres of music and presented our research to the class. Now students are researching their favorite genre of music and creating a formal research paper complete with in-text citations and and an annotated bibliography.

I look forward to my weekly visits to the ASPRE room with Caden & Preston! The boys have grown so much since they started here last Fall. Each week I collaborate with Karen Keane to select materials to support their units of study. We just finished ecosystems and are now working on community helpers. I enjoy incorporating both books and digital resources in my lessons, including PebbleGo!

We've had LOTS going on in these first 10 weeks of school! I would like to highlight the collaborative work I've been doing with Rebecca Delaney and John Lantz, our MS ELA teachers. This year GD is rolling out a new ELA program based on Lucy Calkins' Reading & Writing Workshops. With support from Questar's Karen Kohler, we are implementing a program that empowers students through choice and engagement. This approach has been nothing short of a game changer! I have loved working with John and Rebecca doing book talks and collaboratively conferencing with students. Our next goal is to add a Book Club piece that I will lead.

I've also been mentoring a SUNYA grad student who is now completing her required 40 hours of field experience with me. Deanna Wetmore, a GD alum, is gaining valuable experience as she sees how we have transformed and invigorated our library program in the years since she was here as a student herself. I really enjoy showing her the power of our NYSED adopted standards-based tool, the ESIFC, and how it can be incorporated in a rigorous scope and sequence, vertically aligned curriculum that supports districtwide goals. Deanna recently taught two lessons on in-text citations to one section of my 8th grade Music Research class.

I also attended the first Communication Coordinators meeting of the year, hosted by Questar's new School Library Systems Director, Maureen King. It was wonderful sharing ideas and learning with 36 fellow school librarians from all around our region. It was also exciting to see 2 other SUNYA grad students that I have mentored in the past and who are now working in area schools. The future of school libraries looks bright indeed!

Please click here to check out my Collaboration Log.

Please feel free to reach out to me to learn more about our fantastic Library Program!

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