Connecting cultures through literature

Two Vanderbilt grads have launched a company called Teach Twice aimed at fostering international community development through literature, which I first heard about from Good.is. This is a great idea that has really made me think about our library at TBS, and the home libraries of our students and families.  It would be very worthwhile to go through the main library and each classroom library using different lenses of analysis - cultural awareness, gender diversity, etc. - and this sort of project fits in nicely with part of the TBS mission that speaks to engaging a changing world. Any parent volunteers to help take this on this coming year?

Thinking about the site

Last week, Mitch, Mohammad, Randy and I met to iron out the process for managing regular site issues that arise. This was a very useful, and needed, discussion, and a clear process and protocol for responding to immediate site issues was developed during the meeting; Mitch and I work directly with the faculty to determine what needs to happen to make the site and environment most effective for student learning experiences, and then give concrete tasks to be executed to the Business Office, who manage the implementation. This is a scaled-down version of what has already been in place in our approach to major capital expenditures, and it's great to have both the intentionality and the clarity as we deal with emergent site needs.

Following this meeting, I met on Friday with the K/1 team to discuss how we can improve the playscape space behind building 3. We generated a sizable list of actions, from the mundane - establishing a schedule to regularly sweep the sand into the sandbox, purchasing two new hoses, and buying some new storage systems - to the remarkable; waterproofing the awnings above the back doors, replacing the hay bales with a real fence, moving the apple tree, relocating the water spigot, and finding a better solution for the pump. We didn't finish the conversation, either, so I know more ideas are coming about how to improve that space!

Another example of an issue needing immediate attention is the windows in the Depot. In the first few weeks of school, students have been very distracted by cars, people, and life passing by on the street outside of the North Gallery, which is now our Spanish classroom. As a result of the meeting last week, I've written to the site committee to ask if anyone has an immediate, effective, and appropriate solution for curtains in the Depot. The trick is two-fold; we want to get the "right" curtains the first time, and we want to make it uniform for the North Gallery, the EGG office, and the library. My sense, having gotten two responses in the the first 24 hours since my query, is that arriving at the "right" solution will take some time, and so we need to put up a temporary (2-4 week) solution while the design process works itself out. I've just communicated this to Mitch and Mohammad; my hope is to have that temporary solution up and in place before school begins on Tuesday.

Speaking of the library, I want to give a HUGE appreciation to TBS K-5 Curriculum Coordinator Laurie Schoeffler, who has been donating countless hours towards getting the library set up. Laurie was instrumental in positioning the shelving units, creating a good space for the curriculum resources and leveled library that are shared by the classroom, and supporting our great parent volunteers Jean Marstens and Jenny Scholten, who are steadily unpacking and shelving all of the books. Our goal is to have the library open by the end of next week, and I think we'll be able to pull it off! Jean and Jenny put incredible effort into all aspects of the library last year, from creating a mission and determining a collections policy to hosting an author visit, and I'm looking forward to seeing kids once again finding books to support their pleasure and growth in our library.

The TBS Library

Yesterday I met with MaryBeth Ventura (4th-8th grade Learning Support Coordinator), and volunteer parent Jean Marstens and Jenny Scholten. The three of them have been doing amazing work on the TBS library in the Depot this year, and with MaryBeth about to go on maternity leave for three months, I am getting involved as the staff contact. Together MaryBeth, Jean and Jenny (who holds a Masters in Library Science) have created a three-part plan with short, medium, and long term objectives. Short term goals almost complete include reorganizing the north end of the library for younger and older readers; next steps include new signs and organizing tours for teachers and students. Some of the longer term goals already underway include labeling all books with the Dewey decimal system, considering implementation of an electronic cataloguing system to replace the clipboard sign-outs we currently use, and investigating online information databases for middle school students.

In addition to those goals, we agreed upon a few other concrete goals for this year, including creating a map of the library, making new acquisitions to promote the classroom curricula, and most importantly, creating a vision for the library. The basis for a library vision statement seemed to rest on three main ideas: giving students what they want to read, promoting the teachers' curricula, and teaching information literacy. Here's the very first draft of the vision statement, as written by Jenny:

In support of The Berkeley School's mission, The Berkeley School library seeks to

inspire, inform, and delight students as we prepare them to be lifelong learners;

to reflect and to enrich school curriculum; and to promote information literacy.

The library's mission is accomplished by:

• collection development to meet students' educational, informational, and

recreational needs.

• collaboration with teachers and administrators to provide informational materials

that support the school's curriculum and philosophy.

• orientation to library use so that students can find and use information relevant

to them.