Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York. Sanborn Map Company, Sep, 1885. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

For years and years I have been hauling out a piecemeal taped-composite photocopy of the Afton Historical Society's Sanborn Fire Insurance 1885 Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
I am delighted to report that it is online at the LOC along with similar maps from 1891 and 1897!

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
September 1885
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_001/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
July 1891
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_002/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
March97
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_003/

Interaction with Class of 2021

Hosting some 11th grade ELA projects. Book display to support their content by ACSLIB.

1922

Scanned and made a composite image of my favorite photograph in the library; 1922 Afton high school students labeled and keyed with their names. Wonderful surprise to find the hand-written names on the back. Zooming in on the faces and imagining their stories gives me chills.

Mural mock-ups

Came across a couple folders with many of the silhouettes and research notes from our 2009 Wildlife Hallway project. Put them up on the bulletin board for another moment in the sun. #proud

This week's thread

The past few days I have been doing some digital grunt work; scanning a couple hundred pages (and assorted inserted documents) from the 1917-1934 Afton Board of Education minutes. It is a nicely disciplined task ... for posterity.

There is an enterprising stretch in there when an ACS building project added a gym, auditorium, and plumbing (1927), and then the consolidation of over a dozen one-room school house into the central school along with the purchase of the first fleet of four buses (1932). Difficult not to stop an read the entries while trying move through them.

Then last night, my brother links me to a video about the construction of Hoover Dam (1931-1936) where the word enterprising finds its ultimate example; the sheer vision, moxy, and brawn of American know-how and industry carving out an icon to modernity.

And I guess I'm wondering if Afton's own modest climb into the 1930s wasn't just another reflection of a country and a time coming into its own.

Internet Archive

 

 I've been adding some ACS archive material that appears on our school website to the Internet Archive as a backup.

19th Century Afton Union School Academic Ledger (PDF)

1888-1917 ACS Board of Education Minutes (PDF)

1917-1934 ACS Board of Education Minutes (PDF)

Afton USA 8th Grade Project Folder (PDF)

Making History in the ACSLIB (video)

Springtime: ACS Softball (poem/video)

Book nook look

Had a case of way-early Spring fever this morning and did some fixture moving to freshen and redirect in the library.

Sharing experience and having it valued

I enjoyed a swell visit today from both the Principal and Dean of Students at Walton Central School as well as the DCMO ISS STEM Coordinator. They are considering creating a MakerSpace and they came to pick my brain about our library's experience with that kind of thing. As always, it's wonderful to exchange ideas with colleagues who have experience in the trenches and are open-minded and appreciative.

Archive backup

Trying to locate and move some digital work of mine to where I can find it after retirement:


 
 

Checking out a Human Book

The February issue of School Library Journal features an article entitled, "Unjudging a Book." It describes programs at several schools and libraries that have adopted the Human Library model to foster respect and reduce bias by "checking out" a "human" book. It is an idea that may be within reach for our school.

Our Guidance department recently planned and carried out a very successful Career Day at school. Professionals from diverse paths,  many with a connection to our staff, were contacted, vetted, and scheduled for four morning sessions with mixed grade-level students to share and discuss their career.

Our school has also invested in the PBIS program and adopted a day-end period for connecting with a mixed-grade circle of students each day to cultivate connectedness and trust. We "circle up" and use a "talking piece" to practice nonjudgmental interaction.

We seem to have the organizational experience as well as the small group systems in place to tackle this equally important focus at ACS; fostering respect and reducing bias. We seem like such a good fit for the challenge; both in our district focus on those issues and our limited encounter with the diverse kind of lives that make up the world.

I like very much the whole idea of getting real, walking about in someone else's shoes, and challenging stereotypes by engaging "primary sources."

NYS School Districts

https://andyarthur.org/google-maps-ny-school-districts.html

A group of students are researching the history of our school. Yesterday they hosted the town historian to ask about our consolidation from fifteen "school houses" to our present central school. They hope to plot the location of these school houses within our current district map.

One question they hoped to resolve was the general distance a student would have had to travel to reach an available school. Which got me thinking about how that pans out today across the state.

This nifty map-mosaic at andyarthur.org does a nice job of giviing me a ballpark answer.

Drawing with Pencils: Live!

Made my live presentation to 4th graders today about how artists use pencils. Had a blast! Very respectful class and so willing to ask questions and share ideas. Here is my prep video.

Paving the way

Our school announced plans last week for an after-school activity program for students featuring staff coverage for homework help, a LEGO room, yoga, and STEM projects. You were there first with ATCI, Abby and Dominic; ahead of your time.

Overdue

A class research project on the history of our school has utzed me (at last!) to unframe some of our archive photos for some decent scans.

Video version of my lesson for 4th graders

First-time video

A student introduction to creating a video began with staging a variety of about 20 assorted shots without a story line. The student then created a "story" from the pool of available takes. As a final version, he labeled the type of camera shots; establishing his knowledge of these building blocks and their usefulness.

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Subsequently, he has created a voice-over video based on a very structured script about kitchen safety. In this project, the challenge was quality control and attention to detail; not fun, but a useful rehearsal for the expectation of any job.

Lest we forget

A small plaque commemorating the naming of this library after the bequest for this library's first automation system, Dynix, by Harriet Carr VanValkenburg, Class of 1940.

Best foot forward

Provided the setup/infrastructure for the annual recent-alumni/senior-class convocation. The over-riding message was " you need to be an advocate for yourself." Good tip for everyone.

Planning your next move

Chess is one of the cornerstones of the middle school experience in this library. It seems they all play. I believe it is a constructive use of time; cultivating their faculties of visualization, planning, reflection, resilience.
This recent Vimeo video of elementary students reflecting on the benefits of chess says it all:

The Magic of Chess from Jenny Schweitzer Bell on Vimeo.

Holiday greetings

I am using my own chap-book video to make up a short gift-book of poems for folks who supported our poetry reading in November. Doing the assembly in the library has prompted plenty of questions from students passing by.