Making Memories [3:32]

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About

What will your students remember about your library? How can we create memorable experiences not only in our instruction, but also through special events and making connections?

Transcript

Let's talk a little bit about making memories. My very first principal was very big on talking about what our students are going to remember about their elementary experience. They're probably not going to remember the doodle that you put on their desk one morning, but they're going to remember those experiences that you created. How can we create those experiences not only in our instruction, but also having those special events, those special things that are really become almost traditions in our school and making sure that we make those connections at our library as well?

One of the biggest things for us was our annual author visit. We had worked really hard with our PTO to get that as a permanent line item in their budget. Sometimes I had to help a little bit with her book fair funds but we would work together to bring in an author every year. It was such a huge part of our library program. It was a special event. We typically did it the same time of year every year so the kids really got into a routine of, "This is our annual author visit. Who are we going to have this year?" We really made sure that we purchased as many of that author's books as we possibly could and just really made it a huge -- a whole day of it, a great day experience bringing all the classes in.

We were fortunate enough our library was big enough. We could actually have the author's presentations in the library which was great. Although I know in some years, in previous schools I was in, we had to use the gym or the cafeteria. We were always creative to figure out the space and how we can make it work. That author visit was just a great chance to bring in a real-life author that the kids could interact with. They had seen their name on print in the books and now they could talk to them about how do they get their ideas and how do they come up with their stories and infuse them to want to be better writers or illustrators or poets.

We had all sorts and different kinds over the years that we had come visit. It was always one of those things that when kids will come back from middle school or high school, that was one of the things they always remembered about our library. I always thought that that was one of the chances that we're making memories is by having that annual author visit. There's all sorts of other special events you could do. Having reading party nights with our state book award, we always did a big reading celebration.

For some years when I was in one elementary school, we always had a reading late night where the students actually stayed overnight. We had a great big party in the library all evening long, celebrating, reading, and having fun which was a huge undertaking but it worked. Also, bringing in things like the annual book fair. The book fair was part of the way that we funded some of our special projects and our collection. That book fair was huge but it also was a big special event. We always had a family night with it.

We always tried to show off the books that were in it to students over our morning announcement show, really embedding it as a great chance to add to their personal library at home. Using those book fair and those special events are really key. Also, thinking in terms of this, we talked a little bit earlier the uniqueness of our facility. Hopefully, in most of our places, our school libraries are pretty decent-sized. That obviously varies from school to school, but we made sure that our library space was utilized no matter whether it was made for instruction or whether our teachers could come in and utilize the space.

Sometimes, they love to just teach in a different place so if one of our areas was open, they could sign up for it and use it. We always had a place where I signed up and kept track of what I was teaching but then if any of our spaces were available, we certainly open that up to the school to use it as well. We wanted to maximize our facility as much as possible. All of those things create that opportunity where they make memories for the students and that's certainly what we want them to leave when they leave our schools.

Additional Resources

About the Author

Carl A. Harvey II, MLS, MS, is associate professor of school librarianship at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Harvey received his master's degree from Indiana University and is the author of six books, most recently The 21st-Century Elementary School Library Program: Managing For Results, 2nd Edition. He is a past-president of the American Association of School Librarians, and his school has been the recipient of the National School Library Program of the Year.

E-mail: charvey@schoollibraryconnection.com

Twitter: @caharvey2

Select Citation Style:

MLA Citation

Harvey, Carl A., II. "Managing the Elementary Library. Making Memories [3:32]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, January 2018, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135535?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903.

Chicago Citation

Harvey, Carl A., II. "Managing the Elementary Library. Making Memories [3:32]." School Library Connection video. January 2018. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135535?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903.

APA Citation

Harvey, C. A. II. (2018, January). Managing the elementary library. Making memories [3:32] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135535?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/2135535?learningModuleId=2135578&topicCenterId=2247903

Entry ID: 2135535