Spy School at the Library: A Program Do-Over

This is a program theme that is talked about a lot, including two other times on my blog alone. Inspired by Storytime Underground's Hack my Storytime series, I revisited my Spyology program after 2 years to see how I would approach it now!

(Also, of course I revisited Spyology, because programs based on the Ology books are always really fun. Meaning, I have the most fun planning them. And I guess the kids like them too).

At the beginning of the program, my coworkers Brooke and Linda were nice enough to write "Agent [first letter of kid's name]" on address labels so that the kids could get their code names. The girl pictured left asked for "Agent B" because she decided her name would be Brooke, too, and the entire Internet died from cuteness.

Library LEGO Checkout Club

LEGO tower locked behind glass.
Sign explains rules listed below.

When I first came on to the La Crosse Public Library team, one of my very first ideas was a stealth program where the kids would add LEGOs to a pile/bin/whatever every time they check out. Then, at the end of the month or whenever, they would have a "Big Build" party and make something out of the LEGOs they had collected.

I am SO happy that idea didn't fly at the time, because what came of it nearly 3 years later is WAY better than that.

When it was time to debut our check-out club, Brooke and I racked our brains for an hour coming up with a cool, though straightforward name. We both liked alliteration, so we were looking for a word that started with the same letter as "LEGO" without distracting from what the club was about. We both have graduate degrees AND other degrees in language-related fields and I mean WHAT WORD COULD WE EVEN USE THAT BEGINS WITH L TO DESCRIBE A LIBRARY PROGRAM.

Summer Librarian Sanity: IFLS Workshop Recap!

The only advice you'll ever need.

Sooooooooo I've made it back alive from the Great White North(er), Menomonie, WI, where I actually got to speak to 60 awesome youth services librarians for an entire morning! I know. Me, the person whose philosophy is "if you can't say it in 3 minutes it's not worth saying." BUT it was not only really fun, but it also fulfilled this part of my professional life that I've been wanting to satiate for awhile.

See, one of my first jobs was as a reading coach. I gave professional development, but it was only to my district and sometimes only a few teachers at a time when it was really short. And the for the longer PD my colleague and I enlisted the grade level lead teachers in the school and set up stations, each with its own topic, that the rest of the teachers rotated to throughout the day. Ms Clary and I were at one of the tables, but they all came to us to discuss the DIBELS scores of their classes. The point was empowering the teachers to acknowledge themselves as experts, and it was really well-received.

Actually... I should revisit this type of PD sometime.

At my next job I began writing intervention and DIBELS analysis materials, and worked my way up (ahem, "laterally moved" according to my paycheck) to writing professional development for teachers statewide. Five-hour-long workshops, in fact; however, I never gave the workshops. That was up to consultants around the state. My belief in scripts is tied directly to this job.

So, for real, getting the chance to write and deliver a morning-long workshop on my own was kind of a dream come true, or one of those "at least I can say I can talk for that long!" types of things.

Robots vs. Aliens!: Second Grade Outreach

As I've mentioned before, this year we've piloted in Grade School Menu. While I'm currently immersed in Hella Busy No Sleep, I want to make sure I don't get behind on documenting my programming and giving you (and future me) School Tools 4 Days. Luckily enough I just recently wrote out the script for the Second Grade Outreach: Robots vs. Aliens!

Robots vs. Aliens works for 2 reasons: 1) everyone has an opinion on this debate and 2) the kids decide who wins. I patterned the idea after the Shark vs. Train Story Action Pod I made, but fleshed it out into a 30-45 min program

(I feel the need to stress that if you're going to try elementary outreach, in order to get teacher buy-in you're going to have to be able to promise 30 min door-to-door. That way you can be in and out in that magical time period between lunch and math, or during lunch and recess, or after Special Areas but before the bell, when the teacher actually has the time to do a fun activity. If you happen to be scheduled on a Friday with no spelling test, however, for instance, you may be able to stretch it out to 45. Have a craft or game ready if you get that extra time.)

Here's how Robots vs. Aliens! works:

LEGO Movie Party at the Library

A few weeks ago I held a party to get everyone pumped up about the LEGO movie coming out in February. Promising nothing but watching the trailers and talking about the movie with other LEGO fans, and some playing with LEGO, we had nearly 40 attendees on a sub-zero no-school day (read: they had no other reason to leave their houses, but they came to our program)! I also had WAY more parents come and stay for this than any other program I've held (it was about 2/3 kids) so it made me think that just inviting people of any age to come to a public place and geek out together about their favorite things might be a good idea for a program.

(I might just have adult programming on the brain, too, thanks to Audrey Barbakoff's awesome webinar at the Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference. I collected all the tweets on Storify here. Check out all the great programs, including one about unprogramming by Marge and Amy!)

As an aside, I wonder how much I could charge to live-tweet the shizz out of someone's webinar. You can't multi-task while you live-Tweet. 

Live-Tweeter for Hire.

I'll be all like ...

...all over you webinar about whatever.

Pinky-swear promise. 

(GIFs extra.)

ANYWAY: Here's how the LEGO party program went:

It's January, and You're Stellar.

We all know by now (or maybe we don't) that I am not a New Years Resolution maker. Yeah, I get it, I wrote a New Years Resolution thing for you to try-- but in my defense, you can try it at any time (in case that wasn't clear by the title that includes the words "new" and "year" and "resolution". Sorry about that).

Here's my thing with New Years Resolutions, and goals in general for that matter:
1. You make a resolution to be something other than you are.
1. You live your life always looking at the future, and disappointed in things you DIDN'T DO (part of that "starting in the negatives" I mentioned before when talking about being a new hire, but throughout your entire life).
2. Point #1 really sucks, seeing as though your life is CURRENTLY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. Cue guilt for life "not lived in the moment".
3. To counteract this, you resolve to LIVE RIGHT NOW NO I MEAN NOW NO I MEAN NOW.
4. See #1.

This cycle feeds the Impostor Syndrome Beast really well.  And if that's how you feel when it comes to New Years Resolutions (I know I do), that Turkey Picture up there is just for you.

Hey. Read: An Unsolicited Rant and a New Year’s Resolution

TL;DR: Dear Reader, You are Reading.--@Horse-ebooks

Note: this post is about the problem I personally have with aliteracy; and if you are currently aliterate, steps you can take to change that, if you'd like. If you or someone you know struggles with direct or indirect effects of illiteracy (functional or not), there are places that can help. One of my favorites is the website for the Florida Literacy Coalition, which is full of resources on the subject.  

I’ve heard and read about proud non-readers before, but my social media feeds lately have been full of people who say things like, “So glad this became a movie because I don’t read” and “if anyone gets me an E-Reader for Christmas I’m throwing it away” and various other ways to inform the world that this person dislikes written communication. People who have the means and opportunity to read, and yet proudly say that they don't.  Not like I actually care, but I originally wrote this post at 4 AM on a Friday morning because I couldn’t sleep because of People Like You.

I’m here to tell you: it’s most definitely not your fault that the word “reading” gets you so apathetic. Chances are you, like me, were told outright that you needed to take standardized tests because if you were sick that day the class wouldn't get enough money. Or maybe you went to a school where bodies in the seats weren't considered currency, but regardless your literacy was treated as a means to an end, rather than the gift to yourself that it is.

You were wronged; it's okay to be mad about it. But reading has so many personal benefits and the only person who is missing out by not reading is you.

I once was like you. It’s true. Me. The librarian and educator who literally went to school for reading, twice, and once to obtain a reading-related job. I went to undergrad for English because I wanted to make sure I didn't drop out, and I enjoyed reading books. By the time I graduated with honors in 2004, I HATED READING BOOKS. Freaking hated it. Though I still believed in the importance of reading (which is why I went back to school to get my literacy development Master’s degree) I personally did not pick up a book I hadn't read before for leisure between the years of 2004-2010. Reading felt like a chore, and I couldn't fully enjoy stories because I got hung up with stuff like “word choice”. My biggest pet peeve when reading is still when an author rediscovers a word and then uses it three times in one chapter. It took me awhile, but I got over it in favor of trying to really lose myself in a story.

Thrive Thursday: Illusionology! 3rd Grade Outreach

This post is part of Thrive Thursday, a school-age programming blog-hop started by Thrive After Three in the same vein as Flannel Friday. Check out the round-ups here and join the fun!

So my library decided we needed some grade school outreach up in here. You know, over 3 years ago, when Abigail started the idea of the "Elementary School Menu," a few offerings the department would bring out each year to the elementary schools. And then she left the outreach to die on an island because I was hired and I hardly knew anything about libraries. (Except for what my MLIS prepared me for, of course, but we all know that's why blogs like this exist.) But after a chance trial-run at outreach with a local group of second graders, I felt ready to pilot the menu this year. I started with kindergarten, second grade, and third grade. This was a deliberate choice: kindergarten and second grade are both coming into the library on field trips this year, and third grade just saw us last year as Library Stars. Each of these is pre-made and stored in a bin, with a script so that anyone can do it (But I usually want to because it's the best).

Why, if it's already written out, did I wait so long to post this awesomeness?! The world may never know. Or maybe it's the existence of C.O.P.S. on You Tube.  You understand.

Kindergartners are treated to a Pete the Cat theme, second graders enjoy an Aliens vs. Robots program, and third graders celebrate Illusionology from the -Ologies series! This post is about the third grade outreach,  because I've not only gotten the most requests for it, it's also SO FUN TO DO and the kids and teachers love it and the entire time you're just like:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Passive Programming: guest post by Ariel Cummins

Behold, a Boredom Buster!

Ariel Cummins started her career as a teen librarian, but quickly decided there was far too much drooling with teens and switched to the under 13 set. She writes about her (sometimes bumbling) exploration of what it means to be a children's librarian at http://hushlander.wordpress.com/ and frequently Tweets about authors, librarianship, and ridiculous things at https://twitter.com/hushlander. She works at San Antonio Public Library, and will probably never leave Central Texas because: breakfast tacos.

When I transitioned from teen programming to children’s programming, I also transitioned from a very busy neighborhood branch to a huge Central Library located in a downtown area. While the collection at our Central Library is huge, it was really, really hard to get people to actually attend programs on a regular basis. It was more of a “tourists drop in on vacation” or “residents come once a year to get books for reports” kind of place, rather than a “part of families’ weekly routines” kind of place. We tried programming in the mornings, in the evenings, on the weekends, and on weekdays, with varying success.

Star Wars Jedi Training Academy

Like everyone and their grandmother's library, October is a time for a Star Wars party. For those who may not be familiar, this is because of Star Wars Reads Day. Saturday programs tend not to work so well at my library when we want a big crowd event for older kids, so instead of having our party ON Star Wars Reads Day we had it on a no-school day. Oh, and we didn't call it "Star Wars Reads Day" because that name is more for adults than for kids.


I had a Star Wars party on May the Fourth Be With You, but I didn't blog about it because I knew I could do better. Then, I was being too canon to the films. Many Star Wars fans these days, though, mostly watch Clone Wars. Some kids don't know what a Wookiee is. They may not know that **SPOILER ALERT**

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 8 Party

Fregley is gawking creepily at your book choices to help me tell you about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid party we recently held at my library for the Book 8 launch. We usually have it closer to the launch date, so we can get the event kit, etc, but I noticed that last year the kids who wanted to put the new book on reserve on that day were already facing a reserve line of 50+.  An early release day about a month ahead of time? PERFECT.

AND, it lets me give all you awesome readers some free stuff to make your upcoming Wimpy Kid party a snap.

Here's how it went down: