4/29/19 - 5/3/19
This week is my last week. On Thursday one of the 5th grade classes asked me questions about what middle school was like. Many of them view the library as a safe space where they can talk about what's making them nervous, so I got to help them bring their anxiety level to some degree. I also found out that the Portal connection won't work at HM due to 5th grade MCAS and the maturity level of the younger grades. Even though it won't work out, it was still an amazing opportunity to be able to get an idea of what it takes to plan a big event like this. There were so many factors to consider: the time classes would come in, what time they would leave, how many kids could be in a group, how many groups could fit into this time frame, what kinds of questions they ask, etc..
4/22/19 - 4/26/19
This week I finished the inventory at HM. It took a lot of time; scanning every book individually, checking for books that were supposed to be on the shelf, making sure kids returned the books they said they returned. Inventory is a very tedious task, but it will help Ms. Karam a lot for when Horace Mann moves to Carr in the fall. Ms. Karam was out for the first part of the week, so I had to do a lot more inventory to make up for lost time. But overall I feel accomplished that I was able to get it done within the time I had.
4/8/19 - 4/12/19
I mostly worked on inventory and an exciting new opportunity for HM. Mr. Finnegan gave me an opportunity to bring a Portal (I will put resources up in the "Artifacts" section) to HM. The Portal would allow us to talk, in real-time, to students in countries across the world. Ms. Karam and I talked about having 5th grade come in the the morning and have 2nd grade come down during their scheduled library time. This is a great opportunity, not only for me, but also for the students to learn about other countries and their cultures.
4/1/19 - 4/5/19
On Monday, Ms. Karam was away at a library conference and was unable to come into class. This week mostly consisted of me doing inventory, checking in and out books, learning about poetry (fun fact: April is poetry month), and also making a poetry display at Franklin on Friday. With every class we watched the same video about poetry on Brain Pop Jr. (did you know Brain Pop Jr. uses Annie and Moby instead of Tim and Moby!?), where the kids learned about acrostic, free verse, haiku, rebus, and shape poems.
3/25/19 - 3/29/19
This week I was not able to get to my internship on Tuesday, but I found out the next day that the students were asking about me and making sure I was still gonna be in class with them (so cute!). I didn't think they noticed me too much, but apparently they like me! I was able to spend almost the entire day Wednesday with Ms. Karam, we started at Franklin in the morning and then we met back up at Horace Mann after we split for lunch. I'm not usually at Franklin on Wednesdays (usually my classes interfere), but I ended up reading The Bad Seed by Jory John to a kindergarten class, and they said I did perfect! (which was the highlight of my week).
3/18/19 - 3/22/19
This Monday, we took a "field trip" to the bathroom with one of our first grade classes. At firs, we were a bit annoyed they hadn't gone before they came to the library, but then we found out they went to P.E., then ran to their classroom to get their coats on for recess, then went outside, then ran in to take their coats off for library. This week also seemed very short because of the half day, but we made it.
3/11/19 - 3/15/19
This week I had a bit more freedom to do my own tasks. Instead of sitting on the rug with every class I was able to do inventory throughout one class and find missing picture books during another. I have a better idea of where everything goes in the library and was bale to direct kids to different places to find their books. I also learned about online resources to match kids with new books based on ones they have already read and enjoyed (I will link these in the "Artifacts" section).
3/4/19 - 3/8/19
This week was my first week. I mostly just observed the classes and learned to fit into the dynamic of the classroom. From my observation, I learned that every class is VERY different. One class can be very fidgety and unable to stay quiet, whereas another class of the same grade level can be calm and listen to directions respectfully.
I also did a lot of inventory, I did the entire fiction section in one day and non-fiction in two (can you tell I'm proud of myself?). Horace Mann is in the process of moving to another building which means. Every. Single. Book needs to be scanned so there's a record of all the books with the correct call numbers.
I also did a lot of inventory, I did the entire fiction section in one day and non-fiction in two (can you tell I'm proud of myself?). Horace Mann is in the process of moving to another building which means. Every. Single. Book needs to be scanned so there's a record of all the books with the correct call numbers.