Dear Class of 2020

Interaction with Class of 2021

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

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."

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.

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.

Just like that

Our OverDrive ebook site made it very easy to accommodate a student request for an audio version of Around the World in 80 Days, his current classroom reading assignment. I was able to locate an inexpensive 48-month "lease" version which was available for download within the hour. Cool beans.

Mid-October display

Spirit Week

Began making some sport photo-collages for my Spirit Week bulletin board.

In conversation

"We should all take a Hardship Class where we learn about hardships all over the world."

Getting into it, for $200

Doing my Alex Trebek for PBIS Jeopardy today period K!

ACS Library Links

We reopened of nine-hole golf course these last few days of school to give students and staff a venue to bond at their leisure as part of our upcoming Fun Day.

A good opportunity also for some product-placement: our Summer Reading program!

Sound bite for Danny D.

So I got my sound bite in 3D Printing: An Introduction by Stephanie Torta (full disclosure: Stephanie is the daughter of one of our ACS teachers; hence, my invitation to participate!)

I am proud of what I said in the interview because I believe every word of it.

Thanks again to all the Tortas for the opportunity.

The Power of Reading

(Thank you, RAD!)

#hashtag

Made some bookmarks/shelfmarkers with #hashtags. Will give it a go.

Our Winter Coffeehouse

Had a swell turnout at our Winter Coffeehouse last night; teachers, non-instructional staff, community members, retirees, alumni, and walk-ins from Open Pool Night! It ran from 6:30 to 8;30, but we were still talking at 9:30. Plan to do it again in February and March.

More than a grade

Students are posting and hand-delivering these handbills about our video project so that more people might view it. It is also a way for me to demonstrate my pride in their prideful work.

Go GAGA

I designed this graphic for the Class of 2025's fundraising effort to purchase a Gaha Ball pit for our school community. T-shirts are on sale!

Very cool!

Temperature-sensitive librarian cooling of with windmill/fan designed from scratch by Nathan H.!

Passive Art Ed

Have been posing some questions and observations on my Picturing America posters to provide some exposure and awareness of art appreciation and fundamentals.

A place to cultivate social capital

I have enjoyed reading Eric Klinenberg's Palaces for the People in which he explores "social infrastructure"; the physical conditions that determine whether social capital develops. Libraries, of course, figure prominently in his examples of places that cultivate interaction and tolerance between diverse people in a public setting, allowing us to practice face-to-face relationships which knit a community together.

I like this quote about libraries from a library user that Klinenberg cited: