How Things Are Right Now

What a wild ride.  I normally try to post a "back to school" update on this blog each year.  It's now October 22nd and I'm just now getting to the update.  That should give you an indication of how things have been going...BUSY!  I have not been a huge fan of the phrase "the new normal" so instead I will use "How Things Are Right Now" as the title for this update.

Our school buildings officially closed on March 13, 2020.  A return to in-person learning wasn't in the cards, but our classes and activities moved into the virtual environment for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.  This posed many logistical challenges, but also enabled teachers to use technology in different ways for creating learning experiences and fostering connections.  I worked hard to support teachers and students with resources, create lesson content and video tutorials, and extend special library programming.  Through the Microsoft Teams platform, we were able to host Gimkit trivia competitions, book groups, and even virtual author visits.

End of Year Report for 2019-2020

The summer before the 2020-2021 school year wasn't particularly restful, as plenty of uncertainty loomed regarding what school would look like in the continuing era of COVID-19.  Iroquois administrators chose to employ a hybrid model with a 100% remote option also available.  Cohort A students attend in-person Monday and Tuesday, while students in Cohort B attend on Thursday and Friday.  Wednesday in-person attendance alternates weekly between the two Cohorts.  Students learning remotely participate in each period via use of Microsoft Teams.

As the school year began, students stayed in their home base classroom for the entire day and teachers rotated into these classrooms to teach.  As of October 19th, students are now moving into different rooms for their classes.  The library remains closed to students, so this has posed some logistical issues for library services.

Book Access
The first hurdle of the year was rising to the challenge of getting books in the hands of students within the context of the new learning environment.  It was interesting to have to think about how to get books out without having the use of the physical library as a place to browse and checkout materials.  Many different strategies have been employed so far:

Sora Introduction: Each student in grades 6-8 has been introduced to Sora, our district's service for ebook and audiobook access.  I was able to introduce Sora in a couple of different ways.  Our library website includes a Sora information page which features tutorials on how to use the service.  Some teachers chose to show these videos to their students.  Other teachers booked time with me to visit their classes.  I either visited the classroom in person or virtually.  While virtual, I shared my screen via Microsoft Teams so all students could walk through Sora access step by step.  In our region we are also lucky to belong to the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library system.  With a public library card, students can expand their digital book access through Sora by linking to the public library's collection.  Each student was also encouraged to utilize the public library collection and sign up for a card in case they didn't already have one.

Morning Book Browsing: Students are allowed to enter the building at 7:15 am, but home base does not begin until 7:40 am.  This creates quite a bit of downtime, but it's also the perfect opportunity for book checkout.  Each morning I wheel a cart around to the classrooms and students may check out books then and there.

BookHub: The last phase of this approach involved setting up a system for students to request books from the library.  While I was in Ms. Beauchamp's classroom reviewing Sora, her students commented that "BookHub" would be a perfect name for the book delivery service.  They even designed a gorgeous logo to go with the service!  Through BookHub, students can email requests, place holds on specific books, or request a surprise delivery.

Special thanks to Ms. Beauchamp's class for this great logo!

Book Promotion

Another concern was how to promote books in a climate where we are mostly virtual.  During last year's building closure, book clubs and book chats were held online.  Students and staff members had wonderful book recommendations, which were compiled and posted on the library website.  

In addition to sharing out these recommendations, reading teachers in sixth grade have also began promoting the 40 book challenge with their students.  As part of this challenge, students are asked to read widely across genres.  A genre organizer was shared with the teachers and I was "virtually" invited in to chat about genres and offer suggestions.  I'm blown away by the knowledge of the sixth graders!  This is a group that has read a TON of books.  They had amazing reading suggestions which they graciously shared with their classmates.

Book promotion also took place with Mrs. Maulucci's eighth grade ELA classes.  Mrs. Maulucci wanted to make sure each student chose something of interest for use during their independent reading times.  To aid in their selection, I used Wakelet to compile a collection of book trailers.  These book trailers corresponded to titles that were available in the physical library.  The Wakelet also included instructions for BookHub, so students were able to put in their book requests immediately.

I've been slow to post on social media these days, but the library Instagram page is still up and running!  I'll be using @iroquoismiddlelibrary to post library updates as well as book recommendations.  Goodreads allows me to keep track of books in the library that I've read; the app's widget pairs with both this blog and the library website to promote recently read titles.

Digital Citizenship

The increased emphasis on virtual learning has made it increasingly important to discuss both the benefits and pitfalls of being online.  Common Sense Media provides an amazing digital citizenship curriculum which I've been able to utilize and adapt to meet the needs of learners here at Iroquois.

So far, I've delivered digital citizenship lessons to seventh grade ELA classes and both sixth and eighth grade STREAM classes.  Topics covered included how to problem solve "red flag" feelings that arise while online, making a plan for digital balance, and analyzing the characteristics inherent in excellent digital citizens.  Each of these lessons contained a reflection component where students shared what they enjoy about social media and what they would like to learn next.

Student Voice and Making Connections

As would happen in a typical year, I look for ways to ensure that student voice and choice remain central to all of the offerings in the library.  While pushing into classes for the Sora introduction, I invited each student to fill out a brief library survey.  This survey asked students to share their insights as to books that should be ordered and programming that should be offered.  I look through all of these responses and add the requests to the library book order.  The feedback will also help me to determine which programming would be most well received by students.  As time allows, I individually respond via email to each student survey.  Sending this email opens up another line of communication with the students; it's my hope that making myself available to them will urge them to reach out should they desire anything from the library.

New this year are library bookmarks and postcards.  Minute Print in Cheektowaga, NY designed gorgeous items to distribute to students.  The bookmarks contain a QR code to the library website and also remind students how to care for books in the age of COVID-19.  The postcards will be sent home to remote students, or to the hybrid students just to say hello.  There's nothing quite like getting an ACTUAL piece of mail in this digital age!

Minute Print created these postcards to send to students.

Custom bookmarks contain a WR code for the library website.

Assisting Staff Members

Finding ways to help staff members has also looked a little different because of the health concerns we are now facing.  In previous years I would be planning our Book Bistro staff party and potluck in the library.  COVID concerns prevent that, so I've been sending out all staff emails with library updates as well as targeted emails with resources/ideas that would be of interest to individual educators.

Library Twitter is always a great place to go for fresh ideas.  I'm ashamed to say that I can't find the person that originally shared the template below.  However, I was able to adapt this library menu in order to share library offerings with the educators at Iroquois Middle.

Library Services Menu via Canva

How Things Are Right Now

To conclude, library services are still chugging along but just in a different form than in the past.  Being an educator right now is a tough mental lift.  I'm used to being able to perform at higher levels.  Tasks that were once easy now require tons of creativity and effort.  I can't think of another time during my career as a school librarian where I've worked so hard only to feel like efforts are falling short of the mark.  It is some comfort knowing that all educators are finding new ways to make it all work.  I'll continue to lean on colleagues for support and inspiration!

Iroquois Middle School Reads!

As our building closure continues, I long for the days of striking up a casual conversation about favorite book titles while browsing the shelves.  However, thanks to the technology afforded to us through Iroquois, our community of readers can still stay connected to discuss favorite book titles!  It just took a little creativity to get the ball rolling.

Every two weeks, students and staff from Iroquois Middle School have been meeting via Microsoft Teams video chat in order to share reading recommendations and anything else of interest.  So far, we have had three chats where dozens of titles have been discussed.

On May 22nd, we will be hosting a special Virtual Book Club meeting on the Library Teams page.  All are welcome to discuss the touching and humorous Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling. The audiobook is available now through Sora!

After each chat, I have been compiling a list of all of the recommended titles from our Iroquois readers.  This keeps my own "to be read" list growing, but thankfully the digital copies of many of these books can be found online through our school's Sora subscription.

Here are the titles from our last three chats.  See any on here that you've read or would like to read?

Sixth Grade Finch Project

Last year, we participated in the robot finch loan program offered through BirdBrain Technologies, the company which manufactures the devices.  The robot finch is a wonderful coding tool that provides students with hands-on coding opportunities.  The students enjoyed these so much that our technology teachers, Mrs. Lambert and Mr. Kwietniewski, decided to buy them for their STREAM program.  This opened up some great opportunities for our library program to collaborate with STREAM.

The robot finch can be controlled with many programming languages.  Our students used Scratch to control the finches.  The finch comes equipped with two wheel motors, LED lights, a temperature sensor, buzzer, and touch sensors.  These capabilities provided students with seemingly endless programming opportunities.  The hands-on nature of the robot finches also made it fun and easy for students to see their programming skills come to life!

After some reflection on last year, we decided that sixth grade would be the grade level that would work most in-depth with the robot finches.  Instead of sticking with just an hour of code in December, Mrs. Lambert's sixth graders visited the library throughout all of December to work with the finches!  Each section enjoyed three full class periods for this project.

Learning how to code with the finches.

On the first day of the finch project, students received a brief introduction to the finches, including how to set up the finch on the student laptops, how to properly care for the finches, and which Scratch coding commands would be useful for their programs.  Students were then instructed to work in groups of 2-3 to complete a finch tutorial.  This packet, adapted from the finch education website, introduced students to finch features and some coding strategies.

Once students had completed the tutorial, they were invited to participate in a challenge of their choosing.  There were four coding challenges the groups could choose from: traffic light, dance party, remote control, and drawbot.  Each of the challenges were adapted from beginner level Scratch lessons found on the finchrobot.com website.  There were a number of groups that were able to tackle multiple challenges during their project time in the library.

Teams spread out in the library to work on their challenges.

DrawBot was a favorite challenge for this year!

Multiple groups participated in the DrawBot challenge.

It's great seeing your program come to life!

Masking tape mazes helped students tackle the remote control challenge.

There's lots of room in the library to spread out!

Overall, we were very pleased by the creativity and effort displayed by the STREAM students.  The robot finch project was a great way to celebrate #hourofcode and get students some hands-on coding time.  When Mrs. Lambert asked her students how they enjoyed their time in the library, many mentioned that they would have liked additional time with their finches!  A special thank you to Mrs. Lambert for making this possible!

Lego League Robotics 2019

On November 23rd, 2019, sixteen students from Iroquois Middle School participated in the regional FIRST Lego League Robotics competition at the Nichols School.  This was the second year that Iroquois took part in Lego League.  Interest in the program is growing, which meant Mrs. Ferger and I (Ms. Muhlbauer) were able to grow the club from one team to two!

There was plenty of planning and preparation leading up to the competition.  We held informational sessions about FLL (FIRST Lego League) during lunches.  Interested students needed to apply by providing a guardian signature and also a paragraph explaining why they want to join the team.  We stressed that FLL isn't a club in the traditional sense; instead, it requires a high level of commitment.  Once the teams were selected, we met for two hour meetings 18 times leading up to the competition.

Another wonderful addition to Lego League this year was the introduction of student mentors.  High school students Analee and Bella, members of our Girls' STEM Leadership Group, were eager to help our Lego League students succeed!  Analee and Bella shared their science and team building expertise with the middle school FLL students.

For those unfamiliar with FLL, it is a three part competition.  The spontaneous "Core Values" section assesses how well team members work together as a group in order to perform a specific task (mainly a team building activity).  Team members must then discuss how the Core Values of Lego League can be applied to school and other settings.  The Core Values of Lego League are as follows:

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpuf

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpu

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

- See more at: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/mission/corevalues#sthash.cVFMw5M0.dpuf

- Discovery: We explore new skills and ideas.
- Innovation: We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
- Impact: We apply what we learned to improve the world.
- Inclusion: We respect each other and embrace our differences.
- Teamwork: We are stronger when we work together.

Students practiced Core Values by assembling our competition board.

Following step by step instructions is crucial.

The "Project" section is more of a traditional science project.  Students are given a topic to research first.  This year, the theme was "City Shaper" and teams were challenged to find a way to improve something within their community.  The challenge took on an architectural feel, as teams were urged to explore structures and buildings within their community.  The team shares their innovation with a group of people who can benefit from their research.  They then must create a short presentation to show the judges what they learned through the research process.

The White Team decided to tackle the problem of Iroquois's campus not being bike friendly.  By developing ways to make Iroquois more bike friendly, the environment would be positively impacted and students would receive more exercise.  In addition to performing research online, students also interviewed Mr. Eric Nagel, Iroquois' Transportation Supervisor, and Mr. Clark, an official from the Town of Elma.

The White Team's completed project board.

Members of the White Team share their project with an interested student.

Members of the White Team prior to presenting their project to the judges.

The Red Team identified Elma's lack of a community pool as a problem in our area.  Many of the other surrounding communities have access to a pool, but Elma/Marilla/Wales do not.  Through research and an interview with Mr. Joe Colern from the Town of Elma, students developed a plan to make a community pool that was accessible for community members of all abilities.

The Red Team's completed project board.

Members of the Red Team, just after presenting their project to the judges.

Last but not least is the "Robotics" component.  Students are honing their computer programming skills in order to train a robot to complete missions.  Each mission is worth a predetermined amount of points, so the team that accumulates the most points will win this section of the competition.  This part of the competition requires a lot of trial and error; it is difficult to get the robot's programming just right in order to complete the missions.

Members of the Red Team cheering on their robot.

Preparing for the robot competition.

Members of the White Team prepare for the robot competition.

Setting up the robot required care and precision.

During the competition, it was very exciting when our teams' robots successfully completed missions!  The White Team's robot came in eighth place and the Red Team's robot came in sixth place out of twelve teams.

In between the rigorous competition rounds, our students found ample time to have fun!  The staff at Nichols does an amazing job keeping the entire day exciting, interactive, and upbeat.

Nichols provided a button making station for all attendees.

Students were invited to dance in between each robot round.

The Lockport High School robotics team shared their creations.

The cookies at the concession stand were a huge hit!

Although both teams are to be commended for a successful day, the White Team deserves a special nod for winning the event's Core Values trophy!  This trophy is awarded to the team that displays outstanding teamwork, perseverance, and kindness throughout the competition.  In addition to earning the trophy, students on the White Team were also selected as Model Citizens by the robot judges because they cleaned up their robotics supplies without being asked.  This wonderful behavior is indicative of the amazing students we have at Iroquois!

Members of the White Team with their Core Values trophy.

Although Lego League is over for this year, the team members are keeping their robotics skills sharp by participating in the middle school's Bright Minds Club and Science Challenge.  All sixth and seventh grade students are visiting the library with their STREAM classes in December to compete in various coding activities.

Thank you to the Lego League students and families for another successful year!

Makerspace Progress

Over the summer, I received some exciting news regarding the physical footprint of the library.  The Teacher Resource Center room adjoining the library is now part of the library!  This room was once used as a conference meeting space, but will now be solely student space.

There are many features of the room that make it ideal for a student creation space.  Most importantly, there is an abundance of storage.  This is perfect for storing STEM items, craft supplies, and ongoing student projects.  The space itself is open, making it possible to store the bulky LEGO League mission board.  There is also a bank of windows leading into the library.  This means that students can be working in the creation space while being supervised from the library itself.  A long counter underneath the windows makes for a perfect workbench.  All of these features are opening up many possibilities for our library program!

After lots of cleaning over the summer, the room was ready for its transformation.

The back room prior to any re-purposing.

Here are some pictures of the room in its current state:

The long counter is a perfect workstation.  The bank of windows
make the room visible from the library itself.

All drawers are labeled and contain various craft supplies.

The LEGO League mission board fits perfectly in this large room.

All cabinets are labeled with the supplies each contains.

The LEGO League teams have their own cabinet
where they can keep their supplies organized.

Maker and STEM books have been added to the library's collection. 
Many of the books are now on display in the student creation space.

Access to a sink makes messy projects a reality!

Maker Mondays
Now that the space was ready for visitors, it was time to invite the students in to enjoy the space.  The first "Maker Monday" program took place on Monday, October 7th during sixth grade study hall.  During this time, students were invited to visit the library to participate in coding activities using the BlueBot coding tool.  Students learned how to use the coding tool, then applied their knowledge to tackle various coding challenges.  It was great to see students try something new and work together to meet the needs of each challenge!

Students were challenged to create the longest code possible using the BlueBot.

Students worked together to create a code that would
avoid the fire squares on the BlueBot mat.

There was lots of enthusiasm for the first Maker Monday activity!  Future activities will include STEM challenges as well as craft activities.  The library books purchased will be used for project inspiration.  We're lucky enough to have an abundance of duct tape that needs to be used, too!

Future Steps
We're off to a great start, but there is still a long way to go in building this hands-on component of the library program.  Some next steps include:

1. Naming the student creation space!  I'll be putting together a contest for students to come up with a creative name for their new space.

2. Expanding the Maker Monday program to include new projects and grade levels.  Student input on September's library orientation survey will help with program planning, as they indicated the types of activities they would like to see happen within the library.

3. Decorate the space!  Although the room looks cozier than it once did, there is room for improvement.  Ideally, students should take the lead on making the space their own.

4. Foster more opportunities for student creation through use of recording resources.  We currently have a green screen, but it has yet to be mounted in the space.  Once dedicated recording capabilities are up and running, students will be encouraged to create their own recordings within the library.

End of Year 2018-2019

Although the weather doesn't want to cooperate, summer IS actually here!  Today marked the eighth grade graduation ceremony, a bittersweet day of endings as well as new beginnings.

Looking back upon this year, there were many wonderful things happening in our library. More teachers and classes utilized library services, more books circulated, and there were ample opportunities for students to take part in "extras" such as book clubs and STEM groups. 

As next school year will be here before we know it, I'll be taking some time to participate in summer professional development sessions in order to gather more ideas for the library.  It will be exciting to see what awaits in 2019-2020!

Girls in STEM/Iroquois Family STEM Night 2019

The spring of 2019 marked an exciting time for STEM learning within the Iroquois Central Schools community, but let's start at the beginning! 

During April 2018, I had met with Mrs. Ferger and Mrs. Nicosia in order to apply for a grant through the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation to support STEM efforts for under-served communities.  Although it took a few months of waiting, we had finally heard in the fall of 2018 that our school was the recipient of a generous $50,000 grant from the foundation!  The purpose of this funding was to support STEM education initiatives for groups that were traditionally underrepresented in STEM career fields.  We all felt passionately about gearing our efforts towards supporting girls in their STEM learning.


Forming the Girls' STEM Leadership Group
Once we received the grant funding, I met with Mrs. Ferger and Mrs. Nicosia in order to solidify our plans.  We were ready to organize a Girls' STEM Leadership Group comprised of outstanding girls in grades 6-12.  The STEM teachers in the middle and high schools sent us names of girls in their classes who were hard workers, displayed leadership qualities, and would benefit from receiving additional opportunities in STEM.  Invitations to our group were delivered to each of the girls.

The invitation sent to our outstanding STEM students.

As the date for the first meeting approached, we weren't sure what to expect.  Would anyone show up?  We were surprised (and relieved!) when over seventy girls showed up to our inaugural meeting on March 5, 2019.  The purpose of the meeting was to explain the purpose of our group, the timeline of activities, and to gauge interest in the ideas we had planned for the remainder of the school year.

Timeline of events for the Girls' STEM Leadership Group.

The majority of our group's focus would be the creation and facilitation of a Family STEM Night open to the Iroquois community.  Although the Iroquois primary schools have hosted STEM nights for their students, never before has Iroquois had a STEM event open to all K-12 students and their families.  The plan was for interested students in our Girls' STEM Leadership group to take an active role in the planning and implementation of this exciting family event.

Planning for Iroquois Family STEM Night

With dozens of girls on board for our Girls' STEM Leadership Group, we were now full steam ahead with planning Family STEM Night.  This event was to be held on April 9, 2019, so we had just under two months to piece together all of the details.  Our group held five after school meetings in order to solidify the STEM Night plans.  During these meetings, the group members took care of many details, including:

• Brainstorming station activities
• Planning and preparation for each station, including writing out instructions for hands-on stations
• Writing press releases for the event
• Designing event flyers to post in each school building
• Sorting flyers to distribute to all Iroquois families
• Creating signage for each room
• Sending out event details via Instagram
• Sorting supplies for the robot contest and gift bags for attendees
• Signing up for shifts during STEM Night so all stations would be adequately staffed

Instructions made for the Glow in the Dark Slime station.

Sorting publicity flyers to distribute to each building.

Cutting out signage to go in front of each station.

Although it was a lot to ask in a short period of time, the members of the Girls' STEM Leadership group did an amazing job preparing for Family STEM Night.  Along with a small group of teachers who volunteered to assist, we were ready for the event to begin.

Iroquois Family STEM Night 2019

No one could have expected the amazing turnout we had on April 9th for Family STEM Night.  An estimated 700 people came to Iroquois Middle School to enjoy a fun and educational evening of STEM activities.  We had so many people attend that we quickly ran out of family gift bags and event programs!

As each family entered the middle school, they were given a program which outlined the event's offerings and activity locations.  The first 100 families were treated to a gift bag featuring a STEM book and other fun goodies.

Program distributed during Family STEM Night.

STEM Night swag, featuring a student-designed logo.

Families were then ushered into the auditorium where Dennis George, also known as the Quizmaster, was leading a rousing Family Feud-style activity.  Mr. George continued to entertain large crowds throughout the evening.

Dennis George was a highly entertaining presenter!

There were a variety of activity stations located throughout the school.  Families came and went to each station at their leisure.  The offerings for the event included:

Magician Demonstration

Nichols Robotics Team Demonstration

Coloring/Hands-On Microscope Stations

Robot Voting Contest (students made robots ahead of time for the chance to receive prizes)

Robot Making

Praxair Cryogenics Demonstration (complete with liquid nitrogen ice cream!)

Forensics Fun

Buffalo Museum of Science Stations

Straw Rocket Launcher Contest

 

Glow in the Dark Slime Making (this was VERY popular and VERY messy)

DIY Math Bombs (families made their own bath bombs)

Virtual Reality Roller Coaster Simulation

Robot Finch Hands-On Coding

Duct Tape Crafts

 

 

Drone Coding Challenges

 

Although it was amazing to see the happy faces of all of the event's attendees, the best part of the night was witnessing the joy and pride that the members of the Girls' STEM Leadership Group displayed throughout the evening.  Their ability to plan and implement an event at this large of a scale is a testament to their efforts and abilities!  It was a privilege to see each girl grow as a result of this special leadership opportunity.

 

 

Mrs. Nicosia, Mrs. Ferger, and I are thankful to all that have made the Girls' STEM Leadership Group and the Iroquois Family STEM Night possible.  There are so many people that have lent their support, including teachers, staff members, and parents.  Although Family STEM Night is over for this year, there is still some fun in store for the Girls' STEM Leadership Group!