PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
It was so fantastic to be involved with the #ASLA2023 conference. When Anne Weaver invited me to present alongside her on the topic of designed experiences for dynamic school libraries, I jumped at the chance.
The ASLA 2023 conference had such a wonderful range of presenters and topics and brought together school library staff from all over the country and even from overseas.
I want to start this post by saying, I’m not the expert when it comes to starting a Dungeon and Dragon club, far from it, actually. The expert would be Lucas Maxwell. He blogs about Dungeons and Dragons, has a podcast and is even writing a book about it. So why then, you might ask, would someone who is not Lucas Maxwell want to share her tips about how to start a D&D club? Because maybe you, like me, want to start just such a group but, like me, are not a D&D expert or maybe, also like me, have never even played D&D. This post is for all the complete and utter beginners (we need a word for someone is less experienced than a beginner, perhaps a prebeginner?), who have maybe heard of D&D but have no idea what a DM is or how to even actually play but want to start a D&D group in their school library anyway.
A fun activity I’ve run this year was designing t-shirts with our Cricut machine. I’ve it with two class groups and will extend that to a lunchtime activity and after school activity once we have our new space next year.
I love our Library’s Cricut machine. I even convinced the Design Tech department that they needed one, so now I have two to use.
Designing t-shirts is so easy with the Cricut machines and the end products look great. I loved how quickly my students picked up the design, cut and heat process. Once they got the basics down, they quickly started attempting more detailed designs.
If you’ve always wanted to run an escape room in your school library, now is your chance. I’ve teamed up with the fantastic team at LockPaperScissors to review their escape room kits and give you a chance to win one of their Big Box or Kids Big Box.
Running escape rooms had been on my to-do wish list for a while but it always seemed a little daunting. Then I found the escape room kits from LockPaperScissors.
LockPaperScissors sells downloadable and printable escape room kits. They include everything you need, plus tips on how to expand or customise your escape room to make it epic.
The School Library Association of Victoria is holding their third Reading Forum on the 28th of July, 2022. I’m honoured to be presenting alongside some incredible librarians, authors and reading professionals.
This term we launched our new Create program. Part of our Connect, Coach, Create initiative, Create is all about getting students hands on with their learning and exploring in the school library. Think makerspace, craft, baking, anything that gets students, staff and our school community, well…, creating.
Our first Create event was badge making. I wanted to start with something fairly easy (and not too messy). With our current, temporary space that is fairly limited, I knew the activity also needed to be easy to set-up and pack-up.
I’m excited to share that I am teaming up with ASLA for a webinar this April, 2022 all about Building Wellbeing in the School Library.
I’m excited to share that I am teaming up with SLANSW for their March Online Meet-up. I’ll be presenting a webinar on running escape rooms and other programs in the school library.
Our Library Team ran an awesome Dystopian Adventure escape room last year and I shared about experience in this blog post.
I’ve always wanted to run an escape room activity in my school library and this week I finally had that opportunity. This year, my amazing Head of Library and I launched our new Reading From The Heart program. It was a mix of special reading events and library sessions with our middle schoolers. For our second special Reading From The Heart event, we wanted something that would appeal to a wide audience and be easy for us to put together in a busy term 4. When my Head of Library suggested an Escape Room, I was super excited to get started.
Do you know the Crayons series by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers? What about the Macca books by Matt Stanton? Both these picture book collections have a Christmas titles that are so much fun. This year, for our final few library lessons, I put together a few very quick and easy Christmas activities that tie in with the books.
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