Massachusetts School Library Association - Spotlight Archive

Messy Makerspace Sparks Big Thinking

1/17/2020

A man with a brown mustache and beard and wearing a blue collard shirt holds a blue and pink creature made of craft supplies.smiling

Aaron Reuland, Library Teacher
C.M. Callahan Elementary School, Norwood

Two years ago, I decided to transform my library into a makerspace. It was the best professional choice that I’ve ever made. Students still check out books and learn digital citizenship but now we also build, tinker, play and code. We make a lot of messes! We (me included) make mistakes and we (hopefully) learn from them. I’ve received and purchased materials from grants and also scrounged cardboard and unused supplies from every closet and attic at school and at home. I've spent summers building wind tubes and soldering circuits. It’s been hard, fun, work.

A boy and girl are leaning on a table that has a piece of white paper, tape and crayons. They are both examining a yellow and black plastic toy on top of the paper.

Maybe it’s not for every librarian. Certainly, not every library needs to do it the same way. However, school librarians often have the most ‘wiggle room’ in their curriculum and space and it's a great way to experiment. Libraries have traditionally been places for self-directed learning where people can read and find out about what excites them. This fits perfectly with the maker mentality. If every library could find the space for open-ended, hands-on, learning, the world would be richer for it. I’m very proud of our Makerspace.

CalBOT is a robot made out of cardboard and has a black colored bottom and gray top. CalBOT has square framed gold glasses, a yellow tie and yellow hands and feet.

I’m most proud of our project CalBOT. CalBOT is cardboard robot that sits near the entrance to the library. It has several pictures on it in foil. When you touch the birthday cake it sings happy birthday. Students use it on their birthdays. When you touch the smiley face it tells one of ten random jokes. When you touch the sad face, it gives you one of thirty three random encouragements. Its antennae sing when they're touched. It runs on a Makey-Makey that is plugged into a computer behind it. Inside it is a speaker that we found in the school attic. The students helped design it, build it, and code it in Scratch. They wrote and recorded the jokes and encouragements. It was a school-wide collaboration where I played project manager. We spent the last couple of months during library class(es) working on it. The students use it every day. Happy making! Happy reading!

Students look at a cleat cylinder that has little pieces of white paper floating inside.

Revitalizing Your Library on a Budget

12/9/2019

Woman with short brown hair, dark glasses and dressed in a gray sweater and holiday scarf is leaning towards the camera.

Millis Middle/High School, Patsy Divver, School Librarian

With a little creativity, wise spending, and organization, YOUR library can be brand NEW! The Millis Middle/High school library definitely needed a change. When I started here in 2002, I updated the books but they hadn't been updated since. The 8’ high shelves were out of place and we hadn't changed tables for about ten years. The 30 year old rug had seen better days and the library was just not as inviting as it had the potential to be. Other than a new cafe table, the space needed some work.

Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School Makerspaces Inspire Students to Think and Create BIG!

11/5/2019

A woman with shoulder length brown hair and glasses is holding the book on

Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School Librarian, Jennifer Gordon

Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School Library
Jennifer Gordon, Librarian

Think, Create, Make - Makerspace Challenges - Big and Small
A few years ago, our technology director came to me with a question : Had I ever thought about creating a Makerspace in the Library? The answer was simple : yes! I’d already had the idea brewing in the back of my head, I just wasn’t sure how I wanted to work it into my schedule and my space. I took a few months to tinker, do a little bit of research, and test out my plans with a couple of classes. Fast forward to now: my students have a variety of opportunities to THINK, CREATE, and MAKE!

New Collaboration Space Showcases Students

5/21/2019

Three women are gathered next to one another. The one on the left has long blond wavy hair and she is wearing an ivory colored turtleneck sweater. The woman in the middle has shoulder length straight blond hair and is she wearing a tan shirt with a black cardigan. The woman on the right has short blond hair and she is wearing a teal sweater with a striped print scarf around her neck.

Westford Academy Library
Suzanne Harde, Library Media Specialist
Christin Monaghan, Library Media Specialist
Sarah Sullivan, After-School Library Assistant

Over the last few years the Westford Academy Library has undergone a physical transformation. Print resources were shifted to the periphery to open new spaces to allow students to collaborate more easily.

Building Fifth-Graders' Critical Thinking by Investigating Banned and Challenged Books at Hardy Elementary School

3/14/2019

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair is smiling. She is posed against a wall with her arms crossed. She is wearing a camel colored vest and a light gray, long-sleeved top.

Hardy Elementary School Library Teacher Lisa Rogers

John D. Hardy Elementary School Library
Lisa Rogers, Library Teacher
What? Harry Potter banned? Scary Stories II? The Lorax--challenged?
My students are outraged that someone would limit their freedom to read these favorites. Yet as we delve into the specifics, they become cautious. What about that masked man with a gun threatening a sleeping child in Steven Kellogg’s Pinkerton, Behave! What about the concealed nudity in Amy Timberlake’s The Dirty Cowboy—a book that first-graders find hilarious and but that fifth-graders find embarrassing?

Freshmen Foundations Class at Minnechaug Regional High School

2/4/2019

A female-presenting individual with curly black hair is pictured in a car. She is wearing a black top.

Dr. Georgina Trebbe, Information Specialist, Minnechaug Regional High School

Minnechaug Regional High School Information and Research Commons
Dr. Georgina Trebbe, Information Specialist
Each year, I especially strive for opportunities to reach every freshman. This year the opportunity came in the development of a new course. Starting in the 2018-2019 school year, Minnechaug Regional High School introduced the Freshmen Foundations course. Similar to other Massachusetts schools, Minnechaug’s Leadership Team determined students needed to build strong and consistent skills to meet the necessary rigor and metacognition aptitude surrounding independent reading, writing, and researching.

Laker TV at Silver Lake Regional High School Library

1/9/2019

A woman with short blonde hair is posed against a gray background. She is wearing a black top.

Linda Redding, Silver Lake Regional High School Librarian

Silver Lake Regional High School Library
Linda Redding, Librarian

From newscasts to sharing creative writing to weather reports, the Laker TV Studio provides an opportunity for students to go beyond being consumers of information to being creators of information. Students gain experience using television production technology, as well as develop and practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening .skills. The Laker TV studio is a fully operational studio with equipment donated by PACTV.

The Westborough Public School’s Diversity Literature Collection

11/26/2018

A woman with shoulder length brunette hair is smiling. The rest of her body is not really visible, but she is posed against a bookcase in the background.

Laura Beals D'Elia, Armstrong Elementary School Librarian

Armstrong Elementary School Library
Laura Beals D'Elia, School Librarian
It just so happened that 3 years ago when I started my position at the Armstrong Elementary School, the district also relocated the K-12 ELL Director, Maeve Hitzenbuhler, to the tiny office in my library. And it just so happened that I had been to enough of Judi Paradis’s ELL conference sessions about her relationship with her ELL staff that I knew that this was a good thing. And because we were so close to each other every day, it just so happened that Maeve and I began to talk about diversity, picture books, ELL students, and plenty of other interesting topics.

Makerspace at McDevitt Middle School

10/23/2018

A woman with curly dark hair is smiling. She is wearing glasses. There is a wall behind her.

Lucy Clerkin, McDevitt Middle School Librarian

McDevitt Middle School Library/ Ms. Clerkin's Tech Literacy Class
Lucy Clerkin, Librarian
Barbara Walsh, Library paraprofessional

When you have a library full of kids long before the start of the school day, it’s time to get creative, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. About three years ago, Library Teacher Lucy Clerkin and Library Paraprofessional Barbara Walsh, like many other library professionals, decided to build a MakerSpace. For us, that meant a space stocked with stuff mostly borrowed and found that we hoped would someday and somehow be transformed into something.

Kicking off the School Year at Algonquin Regional High School

9/16/2018

A white female-presenting person with short, red hair is standing against a green-yellow background, wearing a beige top.

Kimberly Honey, Algonquin Regional High School Librarian

Algonquin Regional High School Library
Kimberly Honey, Librarian
And they’re off! Every year I feel like the number seven horse charging out of the gate … the start of school is a frantic pace of get the library set up, supporting teachers, and jump starting all of the programming that you dreamed about over the summer. Well, seven days in and my head is spinning, but the Algonquin library has been rocking. September is still young, but we have had wonderful opportunities to work with the English and History departments.

5th Grade Student News at Greenlodge Elementary School, Dedham

6/6/2018

A woman with medium length light brown hair is posed against a gray background.

Sarah Bickel, Greenlodge Elementary Librarian

Sarah Bickel, Librarian Greenlodge Elementary School Library

After many iterations of school announcements, we have found success (for now)! We have a great crew of fifth grade news reporters who create a weekly video called Greenlodge News. This has allowed the school to cut down on the length of morning announcements, and more importantly, gives fifth graders the chance to become news reporters! In addition to collaborating with peers to interview and write up news reports, produce a video product, and use a green screen, students are much more confident because of the experience!

Banned Books Week at Stoneham High School

5/10/2018

A blond woman with a bob style haircut looks over her shoulder. The image appears to have been taken at dusk.

Stoneham High School Librarian Alison Connelly

Allison Connelly, Librarian Stoneham High School Library

I thought I’d share my experience from this past fall on the expansion of our yearly banned book week display to include an activity. We've been doing banned book displays for several years, and have invited teachers to bring their classes down to the library to take a look, but we’d never had a request to teach a class on banned books. I assumed no one had time with their jammed packed High School English curriculum to do it.

Happenings at the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Learning Commons

3/29/2018

Three people are dressed up in Halloween costumes. The woman on the left side is dressed as a witch, the man in the middle is dressed as a ship captain, and the woman on the right is dressed as a cheerleader.

Robin Cicchetti, Assistant Librarian Max Close, and Assistant Librarian Lou Ann Franke in their Halloween costumes.

Concord-Carlisle High School Learning Commons
Dr. Robin Cicchetti, Head Librarian

The Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Learning Commons is a busy place! For the past ten years we have conducted head counts once per block, and our data tells us that last year we hosted 65,718 student visits, not counting visiting class or before/after school activities. Our lively after school club program, overseen by library assistant Max Close, runs until 5pm daily.

Graphic Novel Unit at the Fenn School, Concord

2/20/2018

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair is posed against a blurred background of trees. She is wearing blue earrings, a black pearl necklace, and a magenta top.

Liza Halley, Library Teacher, Fenn School

Fenn School Library
Liza Halley, Library Teacher
Sam Kane, Library Director
Teaching graphic novels is a great passion of mine. The following is a brief overview of a graphic novel unit for fourth grade students at the Fenn School in Concord. What follows is an explanation of how the unit was structured, what I learned from the experience and tools you can use if you decide to try something like this in your own library.

Robotics at Norwood Elementary School Libraries

1/13/2018

A woman with curly brown hair is pictured against an outdoor background of trees. She is smiling and wearing a pale purple top.

Donna Miller, Norwood Public Schools

Norwood Elementary Schools
Oldham Elementary (Donna Miller)
Balch Elementary (Lora Roberts)
Callahan Elementary (Aaron Reuland)
Cleveland Elementary (Annmarie Higgins)

Podcasting and Media Production at Winthrop School

12/8/2017

A woman with black hair is wearing glasses. She is taking a close-up selfie of herself.

Karen Sekiguchi, Winthrop School Librarian

Winthrop School Library
Librarian: Karen Sekiguchi
In the 2016-2017 school year, Winthrop School, a PreK-5 elementary school in Ipswich, purchased new computers and podcasting equipment to create a media production center in the library. Winthrop has encouraged content creation vs. consumption over the years by providing cameras of all types to students and teachers, but the school did not have a dedicated space for working on multimedia projects.

Library Renovation at Lunenburg Middle-High School Library

10/27/2017

A woman is standing in front of a house wearing sunglasses. She has long, curly, dark hair, and is wearing a scarf around her neck.

Lunenburg Middle-High School Librarian Pam Vallee

Librarian: Pamela Vallee The new Lunenburg Middle-High School library opened in August 2016 and includes a sunny room of comfy chairs, outdoor seating, a Media Cafe, library classroom, and lots of group work spaces. The new library is gorgeous and spacious, and my goal has been to transform the empty space into a welcoming library shared by all students in grades 6 through 12. I have been the Lunenburg High School library media specialist since October 2000, and this is my second year as both the middle and high school library media specialist. Although it has been a challenge trying to assist so many students and teachers, I realize I am uniquely situated to know and reach every student in the building.

Library Internship Program at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School

9/18/2017

Two women pose in front of a book case. One is blonde and wearing a denim jacket over a coral colored top. The other is a brunette wearing a black dress with a gray sweater on top.

Librarian Amy McHugh and senior intern Katie Wrobel

Librarian: Amy McHugh

Is there anything better than a win-win? Not at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School’s Library, which is hosting its second year of a pilot library internship for students. Student interns were put to work after brainstorming ways to get reliable helpers who would understand all aspects of the job and be a consistent presence in the library. The results have been fantastic.

Creative Technology Center at Winchester High School

6/22/2017

A dark haired woman with shoulder-length hair smiles at the camera

Winchester High School Librarian Andrea Zampitella

Librarian: Andrea Zampitella
The Winchester High School Creative Technology Center is a place in the WHS Library for students and staff to come together, share ideas and come up with creative problem-solving solutions. The room is designed to be flexible – with mobile furniture. The space is a combination of a lab, workshop and collaborative conference space which can be utilized by students and staff from different content areas, fostering a multidisciplinary way of thinking, and learning. This student-driven, creative space is equipped with tools that will help to aid students into hands-on learning approaches.

Makerspace at Lynnfield High School Library Media Center

5/18/2017

A blonde woman in a purple top holds a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Librarian Janice Alpert

Librarian: Janice Alpert
For the high school makerspace, I have been working on monthly challenges or seminars to spark interest and foster creativity. In September, we hosted Jose Gomez-Marques from MIT. Jose worked with three different LHS science classes where he taught students about paper fluidity using ampli kits, and explained how medical devices such as nebulizers and epipens work using hands-on demonstrations.

Teen Tech Squad at Hingham High

4/24/2017

A blonde woman with short hair stands in a library.

Hingham High School Library Teacher Katy Gallagher

Library Teacher: Katy Gallagher
Hingham High School Library Media Center
The Hingham Tech Squad is a student-centered solution for school-wide technology integration. Students involved in this program learn how to use existing educational technologies, as well as how to evaluate and make informed selections among the technologies available to complete a task or project. Students not only learn technology skills but also crucial 21st century skills, such as planning and collaboration. They learn how to help teachers integrate technology into classroom lessons, how to use school technology, and how to provide tech support.

Teen Tech Week at Needham High School

3/12/2017

A woman with long brown hair and glasses stands in front of a sign saying

Librarian Paige Rowse

Librarian: Paige Rowse, Needham High School Library

Inspired by the American Library Association’s Teen Tech Week, Needham High School is hosting our second annual Teen Tech Week program! We have a number of tech-related activities available for student participation both in the library and beyond. It is our hope that students will engage with new technology in a meaningful way as well as think more conscientiously about how they engage with technology and social media every day. This year, we are taking that a step further by embracing this year’s ALA theme of “Be the source of change”. Collaboration is a key component for success in our daily workshops and weeklong activities.

February Spotlight: Harry Potter Book Day at Holten-Richmond Middle School

2/13/2017

Two women standing in front of a chocolate fountain in a library. One is younger, with longer hair, and the other is wearing a dark t-shirt, and has shorter, dark hair.

Sarah Woo (right) and public librarian Michelle Deschene-Warren (left).

Librarian: Sarah Woo Holten-Richmond Middle School Library

At Holten-Richmond Middle School in Danvers, we are lucky to have a very strong, ongoing, collaborative relationship with the public library. Michelle Deschene-Warren, Head of Youth Services at Peabody Institute Library (PIL) in Danvers, and I work on many projects together. We are grateful that our flexible schedules - along with a flexible principal and director - allow us to fit in collaborative time to help us meet the challenging and changing needs of our students.

The Massachusetts School Library Association works to ensure every school has a school library program that is fully integrated at all grade levels across the curriculum and has a significant and measurable impact on student achievement….Read more…..and Learn more about MSLA

Contact MSLA:
Emily Kristofek, Office Manager/Event Planner
P.O. Box 336. Wayland, MA 01778
ekristofek@maschoolibraries.org
508-276-1697

®2020 Massachusetts School Library Association. All Rights Reserved.