OH, MY! Moments

 Have you ever thought you had a GREAT idea for something? And then thought you had all the steps, guidelines, etc. in place? And then went OH, MY! upon the execution?

I have had a few of these moments recently. I am happy with all of my ideas, but one in particular has caused me to go, OH, MY!

First, we held the 1st Annual Shrewsbury Asia Poetry Competition. By "we," I mean three schools in two countries. Loads of planning, dozens of emails, and even a zoom meeting or two. Everything seemed well planned.

Did anything go wrong? Yes and no. Overall, it went so smoothly. We had incredible entries in both categories (written and performance). It amazes me how talented our students are! But then...we had two identical (except for some punctuation and a two words) poems entered. OH, MY! This was not something I had anticipated needing to handle. And then, numerous late entries after the deadline. Was this because they felt it was a school competition? OH, MY! Another situation not anticipated. Overall, however, everything went so smoothly with poet visits and poetry workshops at all three schools that we are ready for next year!

Another moment started in March when I received permission to use our puppets with two year groups. (The puppets have been in Covid Quarantine since it is difficult to sanitize after each user if they are available for all students.) I planned a story writing unit with the puppets, and the plan was for pairs of students to create puppet shows to video for younger students to watch. 

So what did I not think about? The length of time it would take to complete, for one. Some classes missed library due to field trips. Some had shortened times due to activities, assemblies, or lunch schedules. Some classes were in isolation. And let's remember I needed one lesson cycle to discuss the poetry competition! We are now filming when I'd hoped to be finished before our half-term break. Due to a huge week-long activity coming up, and the days we're missing for half-term break, I have two classes who might not film! OH, MY!

And finally, it was my idea (and still a brilliant one despite the chaos), to have one of our younger groups come to the library at break time. Usually this is not possible, but their classes have been moved temporarily to the rooms closest to the library. And since only one year group can come to the library at a time due to Covid restrictions, we had an day available. OH, MY! Today over half of the entire year group came to the library. That is A LOT of children! Most were sitting and reading or browsing the shelves. Some were clustered around searching points waiting their turns. And then there were the ones who wanted to run, play tag, chase each other, play the "floor is lava," and so forth. We have a plan to ensure students know the two options (play area or library) for break do not include the same types of activities. (We had done this, but not all students understood.)

Anyway, an OH, MY! moment is a moment for me to learn, adjust, and change things. It is also what makes life interesting. 

The Problems with Virtual Visits

 Author visits...is there anything more enjoyable for the students? Probably, but they would be in close contention.

What the students (and teachers) rarely see is behind the scenes planning that goes into an author visit. And when it's virtual? It's even more of a challenge.

The last in-person author visits we had were in 2019. We were fortunate to have Stephen Swinburne come and, later that term, Mike Curato came via the local library's festival. For both of these, the planning was done by someone else: the former librarian, and other schools in Bangkok, had arranged for Stephen to come the year before. (It takes awhile when hosting authors from overseas.) Our marketing team arranged for us to sponsor Mike Curato for the library's festival which allowed us to have his visit at our school.

Fast forward a few months, and COVID hit. we had plans for a March author visit which had to be cancelled days before. Fortunately, this author lived in Thailand so the cancellation did not create a hardship as if she had international plane tickets! Another author visit being planned for October 2020 could not take place. Although some schools at that time began planning virtual visits, it's actually more difficult to do that in some ways. Our in-person plans for April 2022 fell through when the author decided against any in-person visits for a little while longer.

In-person visit: plan a day (or two) that the author will be at the school. Coordinate with other schools in the area to host the author before or after you do.  (For us, this includes hotel stays and dividing the airfare costs between all host schools.) Promote the author, read the books, and get students excited while setting up a schedule for the day(s) of the visit. There are a few small things like arranging for students to purchase copies of the books to be signed, a table for book signing, snacks and possibly a special dinner for the author...things that are easy to arrange. Because they are coming on one day, year groups are assigned a time for the author visit and that's that.

Virtual visit: since this is via zoom or google meet or some other platform, it should be easier, right? I don't think so.  With students remaining in the classrooms to join via zoom, this involves minimizing disruptions to specialist teachers. Each year group needs a separate time for students to actually get the most of the visit. Time zones have to be considered as well. (Mr. Swinburne lives in New England, in the US. A virtual visit late morning or early afternoon would have been impossible since it would be the middle of the night for him!) Students also have to have the link if they are learning from home that week. This means having the year groups meet with the author on different days.

Seem easy so far? Now incorporate the time it takes for responses between emails if the author is in a different time zone! Does your zoom account accommodate enough participants? Will the author be able to answer questions in a easy way?

Friday morning the plans were finally in place for all four year groups who are fortunate to be meeting with Emilie Zoey Baker, a poet and performance poet from Australia. We are excited about this as students are participating in the 1st Annual Shrewsbury Asia Poetry Competition! The first year group meets with Ms. Baker on...MONDAY! Yes, it seems to be cutting it a bit close for this librarian, but at least everyone will have this opportunity.

FBW 2022, Book Clubs, and Other Library Tales

 Ahh, the pandemic world of in-person, online, and hybrid learning continues. Despite this, we have had a busy Term 2, and we are planning loads of fun for Term 3!

Term 2 Highlights:

During January we saw the return of library lessons to the library! We have our full complement of 40 lessons per 10-day cycle in Junior School, and all Year 7-9 English classes in Senior School. This makes for busy days, but so happy to have this normalcy! Students are finally having some research lessons and activities, writing puppet shows, and voting for the Siam Book Awards. We also were able to open the libraries during break and lunch, although each day is reserved for a different year group. Senior library is open after school on a rotation, and Junior library is open before school the same way. It's so nice to see children in the library first thing! Story time outdoors in the Early Years gardens has also recommenced!

We also have restarted having our You-Time activities. While we still are limited to one year group in an activity, we have had great numbers participating. Every little bit of normal (or closer to) is a victory!

February kept us busy as we worked on finalizing plans for Fully Booked Week 2022. This year we celebrated heroes: real life, literary, and historical. It was so much fun although several activities needed to be modified to fit the current regulations. Even with changes, we enjoyed costumes and games and contests to celebrate reading. 

And now, to bring me even more excitement to the week, we have our enrichment book clubs going for Year 3-6 students. Our first books: Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee for Y3, Jake the Fake Keeps It Real by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach for Y4; The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis for Y5: and Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper for Y6. So far, what have we discussed? Well, since football plays a role in one book, we needed to discuss the differences between American Football and what the rest of the world calls Football. Idioms can confuse children from different parts of the world, leading to a discussion of the word "breadwinner." And cerebral palsy is not something many students understood creating a great discussion about the effects of it. (We also had a discussion on why the book club cannot last the entire day or happen every day despite an overwhelming number of requests for both . It may have been because maths is the next lesson. I prefer to think it's just because reading is so fabulous.)

Now we are planning two big events: First, a poetry celebration including virtual poet visits and poetry workshops along with the Shrewsbury Asia Poetry Competition, which will include students in Hong Kong and both Shrewsbury schools in Thailand! We hope this becomes an annual event with the new schools in China joining us. So much excitement!

Our second big event will take place in June with another virtual library sleepover for the Bangkok campuses. This was a lot of fun in November, and we look forward to doing it again before the end of this school year.

What else is happening? So much, but more than I have time to write about at the moment. Here's to hope of more positive changes in the future!

Oops and Happy New Year!

 How did I think of so many things that needed to be posted, but not actually post anything since September? I would blame it on COVID, but I think I have to take responsibility for this.

The month of October was still online learning, and nothing new was happening. However, November saw a return to hybrid learning and, eventually, students in the library to check out books. We had our mobile book trolleys going to different classrooms every day, as well as our online Click and Collect circulation. Nevertheless, it's impossible to anticipate books for every student to place on the trolley.

Once students were allowed to come to the library, we had very strict distancing requirements. Library lessons were not allowed, nor could we meet the students at the circulation desk or help them find books. You see, every class was a "bubble" to prevent any widespread outbreaks between multiple classrooms. Since the library staff would be interacting with one bubble and then another throughout the day, we could not do normal interactions without breaking the bubble. Without being able to interact normally, we turned to some online activities instead.

In conjunction with our sister campus, Shrewsbury City Campus, we held our first really big library zoom event: A Virtual Library Sleepover! (Actually, it was four events. We divided the grades into 4 groups to manage the breakout room activities and to tailor each event for different ages of students.) We read stories, sang songs, and had a marvelous time! In fact, it was so much fun that only 3 weeks later, we had a full-fledged Christmas Stories and Songs event! This time, it was one giant event with the two schools.

That event took some cross-continental planning, because authorator David Biedryzcki stole the show by sharing two of his fabulous Christmas books! We are very thankful for You-Tube since the perfect Christmas Karaoke sing-along video allowed us to have music, words on the screen, and an on-key leader for the songs. With a quick recitation of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," another special guest joined us: Santa Claus! Altogether, two great events in this pandemic world.

Now the new year has begun, and Omicron has tried to push its way into our fun...fortunately, we have started the new term with hybrid learning. AAAANNNNDDDDD....we have in-person (and on zoom for students at home) LIBRARY LESSONS! It's a good thing I was muted in the staff meeting when this was announced. Everyone saw me dancing and cheering, but I did not cause anyone hearing problems. I know I was that loud in my excitement. (I did videos for teachers to share and joined some Golden Time sessions, but it wasn't the same as doing actual library lessons like I wished.)

Although I wish I could be 100% confident in things staying this way or getting even better, that unwanted guest, Omnicron, means we are dual planning everything. Chinese New Year in the library with the Mandarin teachers? Let's plan in-person and online. Fully Booked Week? Dual plans for it, too. 

New Year's Resolution: not to forget the blog posting.

Banned Books Week: What Does It Mean?

 In the United States, this week is "Banned Books Week," as established by the American Library Association (ALA). What does this mean?

First, this is a public outcry, led by librarians, against censorship of books. As someone who had family members lose their native country due to a group that was very much into censorship and the literal burning of entire libraries of books, I dislike censorship. It is not my, nor any governing board's, place to tell the rest of the world what to read or what cannot be read.

Secondly, the ALA's annual list of  most banned books is misleading. Having attended seminars and meetings led by ALA and AASL (American Association of School Librarians) employees, I learned some surprising truths about the ALA's Banned Books List. (Also called the Most Challenged Books, which is more accurate but not completely honest of a title either.) A challenged book is one where somebody does not feel it is appropriate for a library. When a parent, teacher, student, or community member approaches a school librarian (or public librarian) in the US, that librarian can report the information to the ALA. Not all challenged books are reported, which makes the list inaccurate. However, the rankings of books on the list is not done by statistical analysis of the reported books. Instead, the ALA determines which books they anticipate have been challenged, based on content, subject matter, profane language, etc. and not reported, or the books they think people wanted to challenge but did not. That's right. They make up the rankings based on their opinions of something that may or may not have happened. 

Third, these books are not getting burned. They are not being wiped from the memory of American school children. They are not made illegal to own, purchase, read, or share. They are not being banned. They are being challenged for many reasons, some valid and others not necessarily valid. What do I mean?

Books can be challenged because they were purchased and made available for checkout to the wrong age level. A Young Adult (YA) book is not age-appropriate for an elementary school. This could be the strong language, the situations characters find themselves in, or themes that are emotionally too advanced for a child who can read the book but not process it emotionally. Often, these books are sent to the next level of school, where it is more appropriate. Is this wrong? Should a 7 or 8 year-old be reading books written and intended for 17-20 year-olds? Is this really censorship? Or is it simply ensuring an age-appropriate collection of books that do not present information and scenarios a young mind is incapable of processing and understanding? 

Some books are challenged because the book violates the moral values of a parent or family. Therefore, they feel no child should access the book. This is censorship to an extreme: "I don't like it so no one can read it." This is the time where the parent should talk with their child, "I don't think this book is appropriate for you at this time because..." In other words, this should be a family discussion. But one family should not dictate to all families. An example of this is a compilation of scary stories in an elementary library. One child checked it out and proceeded to have nightmares. (It was an age-appropriate book, but this child had a very active imagination.) The parent wanted to deny access for all students to what was a very popular book. 

Some books are challenged because of what is called "community standards." The whole of the community believes a certain thing, or they have certain values they teach and uphold. Not all members of the community, however, might agree with what the majority has established. As a result, books that offend the majority (or the group in charge) get challenged. This happens most often with fantasy books involving witchcraft and magic and books with LGBTQ+ characters.

When a book is challenged, it can be handled in different ways. Often there is a process to determine if the book should be removed from a collection, put in an area of the library accessible to certain age groups or for parent permission, or to be kept available for all. The ALA's Banned Book list does not base itself on the books actually removed from shelves. Just those which have been challenged or they thing might be challenged.

Have I ever been through challenges? Yes. I have had books challenged, which is the right of any patron of the library. As the librarian, I then followed a procedure to address the patron's concerns about the book, and work with a committee to examine the complaint and the pros/cons of having the book in the collection.

What books? Here are some highlights:

The Bone Collection, a series of graphic novels, due to a character holding a mug of what appeared to be beer and smoking a cigar in ONE picture of ONE volume of the series. (Kept in collection, that family decided to have family discussion about the series.)

A Bridge to Terabithia. The parent did not know a character (spoiler alert!) dies. The child reading the book was inconsolable because of this. The book did remain on the shelf, and the child spent time with the well-being team/counselor at the school.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. This is the book that gave a child nightmares. He was a sensitive child with a vivid imagination. His family decided to encourage him NOT to read a scary book just because his classmates were reading it. It remained on the shelf.

Walter Dean Myers book, Monster,  was in an elementary/Junior school library even though the author categorizes it as Young Adult. (It was moved to a more appropriate school library.)

A picture book about an adopted child. The parent was worried their child would think her mom and dad would give her away. (After discussions with the parent, the book remained in the collection.)

A Brave New World, by Adolphus Huxley. Challenged because the parent of a 12th grader/Y13 student felt it promoted drugs and promiscuity. This went through the entire challenge process, and was read and discussed by the Media and Technology Advisory Committee. It was kept in the library and in the English curriculum for senior (Year 13) students.

As you can see, challenged does not mean banned. Nor does it mean book-burning censorship. I speak only of my own knowledge and experiences, not those of other librarians.

That being said, I encourage you to read.

Just choose a book.

Any book you enjoy and understand.

Did You Ever Realize...

 ...how many emails actually arrive in your work inbox in the course of a year? Neither had I until I received the dreaded "Your mailbox is close to capacity" message. That means, of course, time to review and delete irrelevant emails, organize "must keep" emails into folders, and don't forget your sent messages box! At the time of this writing, I have successfully deleted all unnecessary emails through 2020. 

Whenever I get this message, whether at home or at work, I make a resolution to do better. Delete the irrelevant from my inbox, and organize the rest. And I do that most of the time. In fact, I remember to delete and empty the deleted items folder on a regular basis. However, when I have 47 emails the first half of the day, several of them follow-ups from other emails, I keep them. Then, when the situation is over, I forget to delete.

How does my overly full inbox relate to The Hungry Bookshelf today? Well....

The library is that way sometimes. We keep what is no longer relevant, leading to outdated books, boxes full of craft supplies, lesson plans from past library lessons. This piles up and begins to clutter the library. Purging the old is needed. Weeding the things we no longer need nor promote.

And that, my friend, is why the library can be a metaphor for our lives! Get rid of the unnecessary! Purge the irrelevant! Let go of the past (except for the good stuff, of course!)

Once the inbox is no longer overflowing, I think it will be time to tackle....the file drawer. (No file cabinet. Just a drawer. And only 7 file folders....)

(Meanwhile, Click and Collect has begun, with over 80 families participating the first week; four book orders that had not been delivered over the term break arrived on the same day and all are catalogued and being processed; craft activities have been a great success; and many more activities with students are taking place virtually or are upcoming!

Term 1 has Begun!

 Although it has started online, which makes the beginning of the year quite different from what anyone is used to.

Without students in the library, how have we started our year?

We have been able to hold one big book collection, and those books are all checked in but still in the shelving process. It takes a bit longer with only 2-3 people working onsite each day.

I have created some fun videos, starring three of our new puppets, to help Y3 students know how to use Encyclopedia Britannica and the Super 3 research steps. Coming soon will be some videos on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism/Paraphrasing. Meet Fiona, Jasper, and Otto!

 I also just finished editing a Tea and Topics for our Junior School parents. It will be ready to present to them in a week or two. It's not as much fun having a virtual Tea and Topics event, but it's better than no events at all!

We also were able to get in most of the books from three separate book orders. We have a large number of books that are supplemental texts for the new reading program. Although there are still some titles out, as soon as they are all cataloged and processed, the teachers will be able to use them. Award winners and the Siam Book Awards nominees have mostly made it in as well. In these pictures  you can see what's left to catalog and two days worth of cataloging! Progress is great!

Power of Reading texts catalogued and being processed.

Books waiting to be catalogued before processing.

 

Online story time, craft activities, and Click and Collect circulation is coming up next, so we will be very busy.  Happy beginning of the year to everyone! Let's make it a great one!