📚 Notes from the Circ Desk, vol. 33

7th grade is still in the lead, but numbers are down to the double digits in both grades. 6.5 more days!

Thanks for your patience with my delayed posting! The past week was hectic with our civics fair, 7th and 8th grade field trips, and the myriad of tasks involved in closing the library for the school year.

The civics fair was a success. Our area’s League of Women Voters returned as evaluators, along with district, local, and state officials. Our district attorney and her service dog even made an appearance!

Our district’s public librarians also set up tables to promote summer reading. After students presented, they could sign up and spin a prize wheel. If your school runs a fair, expo, or similar event towards the end of the year, this is a great opportunity to collaborate with your local public library!

One of my favorite things about the civics fair is the wealth of student stories showcased throughout the day. One of our sub-separate students and her aide worked on this project in collaboration with myself and a social studies teacher. She and her special educator prepared a script for the fair, and she set up her project in a quieter corner of the library, ready to share her work with visitors. Many students chose from a list of provided topics but put a unique spin on the civic problem. One student researching healthcare access focused on ICE’s presence at healthcare facilities. Other students followed their passions and explored problems beyond the provided list, such as predators on Roblox, the need for financial literacy classes, our school’s advisory program, even a petition to save the beavers in a local river.

Next year there won’t be a civics fair, as our curriculum is shifting, but the following year, older students will be doing this project. I’m grateful to be done with the civics fair for this year but am excited to explore more advanced research skills with older students, such as building a research question and developing interview skills.

In my last post, I shared how my principal and the district approved my circulation desk proposal. This week drove home that renovating a desk is about more than just the desk!

One of my goals for this renovation was moving the footprint of the desk backwards towards a wall, creating more room for foot traffic. Sounds simple. However, all the electrical wiring, etc. that powers the current desk runs through a concrete slab under the floor. In order to truly move the footprint of the desk, our facilities team would need to tear up the concrete, uninstall and reinstall the wiring, then pour new concrete and build the desk on top. Since the desk is arriving in early August, this doesn’t give much time for renovations before the school year starts. There’s a little wiggle room given the chunkiness of the current desk, but not enough to accommodate my desired footprint. Long story short, get to know your facilities people. They are your biggest source of information on renovation roadblocks and barriers.

Book #25: Old Man’s War¹ by John Scalzi 3.5 ⭐️

In a future world, at the end of your life, you can choose to die or enlist in the Colonial Defense Forces, colonizing outer space for planet Earth. This sci-fi is filled with deadpan humor and raises several questions about selfhood, humanity’s potential, and humanity’s limits. An interesting read but could have been paced better.

Checking out,

Jennie 🧡

Buy me a coffee