Mission Not-Impossible

The mission being my classroom library corner, of course.

Right now, the plan is to set up the “bones” of the library corner this week and next, hunting down some sort of shelving and book baskets/bins (perhaps, in part, from other rooms in the school… not unlike an academic/thrifty Easter-egg hunt). I will fill this corner with the books my teacher currently has, as well as the ones my students have brought in to share (bless their sweet six-year-old souls). Then I’ll dive deeper into the heart of the operation, beginning with the borrowing of a South African’s library card and commencing the checking out of new books to share with my kids (I’d get my own card, but believe it or not, I already tried and got totally shut down. Un-cool. They don’t even know about my history of outstanding fines!). I may try to rally outside sources for support/used book donations, but I haven’t gotten that organized yet. Until then, I’m continuing my vicious battle against illiteracy in the classroom with regular read-alouds, book discussions, and the coloring of bookmarks. All my students became “authors” last week, too, when I “published” their writings and illustrations on “Love and Kindness” (after a particularly brutal week with toxic levels of teasing and tattling). Up next is “Super-Star Reader Awards,” literacy games, and magazine explorations. One step at a time, right?

On Friday, CCS set up a meeting for me with a local NGO called The Shine Centre, which works within several area schools (particularly those challenged with humongous class sizes, disadvantaged student backgrounds, and English language learners) to bring up student literacy levels. In essence, an amazing program I’d kill to work for. Needless to say, I walked away newly inspired and chock-full of ideas.

Meanwhile, I’ve also made two trips to the local Athlone library branch a few blocks from Cypress School – last week with the 7th graders, this week with the 5th graders. My 1st graders don’t get to go until April, but I talked a librarian into giving me extra bookmarks as incentives for them until then (but only after a different librarian denied me blank copies of the library card application form – BOO). Each grade gets to march down the street once this term (since Cypress has no library, as I’ve probably mentioned 200 times) to learn straight from a friendly librarian how to acquire a library card, use an encyclopedia, and find books that interest them or will help them on school projects, among other things. She then reads a story aloud to them, allows them to browse books on their own, and then gives them a rather disappointing speech about how “usually, boys don’t very much like books” (at which point half the audience then turned their attention out the window, darn it) and “not everyone is a good reader” (umm, shut up)… but then quickly followed up by saying it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to read a book, just so long as you can and enjoy it. Sigh.

There is a book for every kid/person out there, no matter what their interest or ability level… and plenty of cool comics, newspapers, and magazines, too! So much for fostering a “world of words” for these guys. Still, despite these slightly defeatist remarks (and my resulting mild frustration), the kids seemed to enjoy themselves… and at least now they know where the local library is.