The Read Up Room

  Do you remember when I mentioned how remarkable school librarians are? They take on more tasks then we can imagine for the library! Well, I will share some insights from my interview with Mrs. Wendy Calcutt. I've learned quite a bit from this fabulous woman who enjoys being a high school librarian. I gathered with her to ask about her work as it pertains to the following shared foundations: inquire, include, collaborate, and curate. Together, we felt that all the domains and competencies contributed to the shared foundations that she shared about. I learned to pick high schoolers brains with asking an unfamiliar question to move into introducing the new concept after giving them time to think. Mrs. Calcutt has the library set up for all learners so everyone feels included. Each morning, she makes it a goal to engage in conversation before classes start with students as they come in and provide more food for thought for them to think about regardless of their separate circumstance...

School librarians are remarkable people once you take the time to sit down and learn about everything they do that pertains to the library. I've been fortunate enough to have a nice chat with Mrs. Donna Gaye Tanner who shared some incredible things that she does in her middle school library. The conversation between us was one that could last a long time because you can tell how passionate she is when it comes to those students and books! In this blog, I will be highlighting the main takeaways based on her work when I refer it back to the AASL standards. I questioned Mrs. Tanner about inquire, collaboration, explore, and engage. We focused on the domains of think and grow. Many of her work went back to providing students with the opportunity to see trending books on display. I learned how she does attempt to have students work in pairs often to collaborate on assignments. She allows them to explore the different spaces in the library when independent reading. She spoke highly of ho...