Hosting Concurrent Events

 This month the library has been planning and preparing for FOUR events during two different evenings. Yes, I said "EVENINGS!" We have divided our Junior School students into two groups based on year levels, and then are holding parent events at the same time (but different location) as the student events. Here is our ambitious plan:

On Monday, the early years through year 2 (preschool through 1st grade) students will be signed in to Late Night at the Library. While the students begin a nice, mostly healthy meal, the parents will go to a presentation area in the next building for a Tea and Topics on "Raising a Lifelong Reader." We are fortunate to have the librarian from our sister campus assisting with the Tea and Topics. (Parents will also enjoy some refreshments before the event begins since it starts at 5.00pm.)

Parents on Monday will have a session on ways to encourage reading at home, make reading fun for parents and children, etc. Then they will make a storytelling aid to take home. (Storytelling aid = sock puppet) Meanwhile the children are enjoying stories, a game, and making their own puppets (paper bag puppets).

On Wednesday evening, we repeat the event with some changes. The older students in Y3-Y6 (2nd-5th grades) will have a Dia de los muertos theme, a fun story, and some games. Their parents will be learning more about ways to help their readers at home and how to help navigate research for school projects. What games will the students play? An unusual version of Simon Says, Pass the Pumpkin, and a silent drawing relay!

So far, what have we done to prepare? We sent the forms out through our school portal on Friday at 4.18pm. By 10.16pm, one event was full and the other had less than a dozen places available. It was filled by the end of the weekend! Next...when you have almost 100 parents attending each night and 60 children each night, you first have to get the food ordered to feed everyone, keeping in mind allergies, cultural and religious restrictions, and healthiness of food options. After that time-consuming task, we had to start preparing the supplies for the activities and games. Our library became a sock puppet factory as we cut felt and glued it onto 100 socks for the inside of the mouths. (The rest of the puppet will be created by the parents. The glue for this stage takes much longer to dry.) 

We are hopeful these events go well. We have never held concurrent events before, but we think everyone will enjoy themselves.

Starting with a...

 although the proper way to finish that title would be "Bang!", I don't feel that quite fits the excitement of the new school year in a positive way. Our year began the very end of August, and it feels almost pre-Covid in all that is happening!

What do I mean?

• Yes, we still wear masks inside, but I can remove mine to teach a library lesson or to lead a meeting of the library team (from a distance). 
• Story time is back in person and live! (It is such a marvelous relief not to be filming myself doing story time!)
• Library Lessons are moving forward. Introductory lessons are finished, e-book lessons are underway for our Y3 students, and we have started our poetry books in conjunction with the Y1 poetry topic. 
• Parents have returned before and after school. I think this is one of the most exciting bits of "normality" that has returned. Remote circulation was okay, but not as good as seeing parents reading stories with their children and noticing all the new books.
• Puppets and the Lego Wall are available and very busy. We've seen some imaginative stories at the puppet theatre and amazing cityscapes on the Lego wall!
• We have a full complement of library monitors in Junior Library as well as a large number of International Award volunteers in Senior Library. (81 applications, 47 interviews, and a total of 30 Library Monitors!)

I could go on with some of the "outside of the library" changes that return to normal, but I'm going to stick with the ones that mean the absolute most to me. Of course, there are new changes to the library as well.

• We're building our home languages collection and have added a bilingual book section.
• We tripled our number of e-books for Junior School students.
• Loads of new books arrived over the summer. (Not really a change, but exciting nonetheless.)
• Y10 and Y11 English classes are using the library on a more regular basis. This has included 11 Speed Dating with a Book activities planned during the first 4 weeks of school...
• And we separated Junior and Senior catalogs to assist students, staff, and parents in finding books more easily.
• An in-person "Late Night at the Library" event is planned for October. (Although we will continue with the zoom format for the multi-campus Christmas Songs and Stories event.)
• I have applied to attend a conference in Singapore, rather than a virtual conference.

The first 3 weeks of school flew by. I am sure the next few weeks will move just as fast.

Another Year Over, Sort Of!

 July 1. A momentous day! It was the last day of a very tiring and exciting school year.

Accomplishments this year?

• Two very well-attended virtual library sleepover events (each was 4 zoom meetings over two evenings to accommodate all year groups). These were joint ventures with our sister campus here in Bangkok! 
• 1st Annual Shrewsbury Asia Poetry Competition! A little more challenging since we had to coordinate between two countries and three schools. Can't wait to see what the students submit next year! 
• Reorganization of Thai picture books into front facing baskets, and each basket labeled to match the books that belong in it.
• A start (with 24 custom made baskets) to doing front-facing English picture books.
• A weekly average of 22 EY1 and 17 EY2 students for garden story times!
• A very successful Fully Booked Week featuring real life and literary heroes.
• The most amazing Christmas zoom of stories and songs featuring David Biedryzcki reading two of his Christmas books!
• Two great student-written books being made for the library. Y3 (2nd graders) each wrote a story from the same story starter for one book, and Y5-6 (4th and 5th graders) wrote a joint mystery story. (And I never imagined an after-school group discussing ways that "grandpa died"...). Both books are creative and beyond my expectations! (Especially the mystery...the 11 students spent several sessions planning details in order to have a cohesive story.)
• Successful puppet show project with Y4 and Y5 students creating and making videos of their puppet shows to share with Y1 and Y2 students.

Of course, all of this is only possible because I have the most amazing team in the library. Mrs. Marivic does more than anyone could ever imagine. She is the Librarian (my official title is Director...very lofty sounding, I know.) I could not imagine trying to run these libraries without her. Then there are the library assistants. This group goes all out with enthusiasm for events, projects, displays, craft corner, and so much more! For them, the school term is not completely over since they are handling parents visiting the library by appointment this summer, inventory, processing new books as they arrive, and getting everything ready for next school year. This is an amazing team!!!! None of those accomplishments listed above would have been possible without them.

 

It's My Least Favorite Library Task

 And, no, it's not creating next year's budget! (Although anticipating needs and activities during a pandemic has made that a challenge in recent years.)

It's WEEDING time! Just as I disliked weeding my garden since the weeds would grow so quickly, weeding the library is time consuming but necessary. 

What is weeding in a library? It's finding old, worn-out, out-dated, or unread books that are taking up room on the shelves and removing them from the collection. "What?" You might ask. "REMOVE library books?" 

Yes! First, the "How to Use Your iPod" manual from the 1990s is not only completely irrelevant, but when students say it, they asked, "What's an iPod?" That this was an EARLY version of the iPod (no apps) that only played music boggled their minds. Out-dated books like that must leave the shelves and be replaced with up-to-date information. This also applied to a large number of economics and business books that had graphs and figures from the year 2000, and failed to mention the use of social media at all in marketing. Definitely irrelevant for today.

Then comes the "last checked out in 2011" books. Despite displays or other means of drawing attention to books, some books just don't spark the interest in library visitors at all. This means they take up some of the finite shelf space. (No, we can not magically increase the number of shelves to fit the number of books, unfortunately. If I find a way to do this...) These books, although not irrelevant, are removed as well. Some of these we were able to move to  the Junior Library because they are topics of interest to those students.

But what do we do with all of these books? Books in poor condition or factually incorrect are recycled. Some are used in projects with the art department while others are sent to a recycling facility. The books in great condition that are simply not read by our students and staff are donated to schools that are in need of books. One such school had their library destroyed in a fire so we know the books will be valued.

So, why do I dislike weeding so much? Well, it is sad to see books go, even though we will be updating and replacing them. Piles of books that are new and being added to the library are exciting! Piles of books being recycled? Not so much. Also, sometimes it is depressing to see the waste. To have a stack of books purchased 20 years ago and to realize they were NEVER checked out? Although I did not purchase them, I can't help but wonder if there was a different book that should have been purchased and would have been well-read. Another reason for this being my least favorite librarian task is the time it takes to run reports, pull the books, sort the books (which is a one-by-one task), box the books and then send them off to their next destination. I dislike the clutter of boxes of books during this process.

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!