A Breath of Fresh Air: Santa Fe 2023 and a Takeaway for Maker Month

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Emily Valente

I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to attend the AISL Annual Conference, for the first time, on the AISL Affordability scholarship provided by AISL. My experience of attending the conference was much like being in Santa Fe in March with its bright blue skies overhead, crisp sunshine and cool, fresh air: rejuvenating and refreshing, and just what a school librarian needs in the dregs of March in New England. As part of my scholarship, I was asked to write a blog post. In this post, I will share how I implemented the curriculum learned at the conference from a breakout session on design thinking, but I will also talk a bit about the role of AISL as a support system for independent school librarians and encourage other librarians to apply for the scholarship for next year’s conference.

First Time Conference Attendee

Yes, I was so excited to be at the conference, I wanted to squeeze out every drop of library goodness I could! I tried to attend every session, happy hour, tour and activity. Also, I made sure to drink a bunch of water, as the altitude in Santa Fe was no joke. I connected with folks in person that I had only met over Zoom in the AISL Mentor Group. I had lovely dinners with friends and reconnected with past colleagues. But as a librarian who teaches every day, I was looking forward to gaining some fresh curriculum ideas, which I found through some of the breakout sessions. As a librarian who recently pivoted to lower school library work, I was seeking support in developing my scope and sequence, I attended the Scope and Sequence chat and got amazing feedback from the kind and generous librarians (although what librarians aren’t kind and generous?) sitting at my table. As a librarian who has recently faced book challenges and removals of LGBTQIA+ materials from my collection, I was looking forward to the affirming presentation about the importance of representation in young adult and children’s books by author Nina LaCouer. It really moved me. As I reflected back for this post, there were so many moments at the conference that stood out to me. Did I mention the bus chats yet? People joke about them, but truly, they were really great. I soaked it all up.

Design Thinking in the Library

In April, I had the opportunity to finally implement some of the ideas I learned at the Design Thinking Meets Books: Novel Engineering session presented by Tomisha Johnson, Lower School Librarian at Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston, TX. In her session, Tomisha presented a curriculum she worked on with her STEM teacher Val Coyle incorporating design engineering principles with a classic storytime. Tomisha would introduce a story in a picture book, students would be presented with a problem to solve from the story and then engineer a solution to the problem.

Stalebread Charlie and the Razzy, Tazzy Spasm Band

I modified one of the example lessons Tomisha presented featuring Stalebread Charlie and the Razzy, Dazzy Spasm Band by Michael Mahin and Illustrated by Don Tate. This book told the true story of Stalebread Charlie, Warm Gravy and other homeless children in New Orleans in the late 1800s who formed a band using instruments created from found objects like cigar boxes, stove pipes and washboards. Their band was a Spasm Band, and they played a blend of blues, folk, gospel, ragtime, brass-band and dance hall music that many music scholars consider to be one of the precursors to American Jazz. I thought this story was so interesting and would resonate with my students, especially since it was based in history. The timing of the unit lent itself well to Earth Day and Maker Month, as Stalebread and his band made instruments recycled from items that would have otherwise been thrown away. I read the story in April to my first graders and posed the question to my students: Using recycled materials, can you build a musical instrument that can be played? Here are some of their designs:

This project was a joyful, noisy success! I brought my classes up to the middle school maker room to work on the building of our instruments. They loved feeling like “big kids” up there, with all the tools and supplies around them and available to use. When we completed our instruments, we practiced performing as band, and then presented our own razzy, dazzy spasm band to the first-grade classroom teachers. They were very proud. The timing and implementation of the project was just right, tying in Earth Day as well as Maker Month. It will definitely be a part of my curriculum moving forward.

Moving Forward

And as for moving forward….If I sat next to you for a bus chat or connected with you at the conference in any way, you will have probably heard me discuss the recent book challenges and removals at my current school. It has been hard on multiple levels. Thank you to all of you I met at the conference who lent me your ear and listened, and gave suggestions and support. It meant the world to me. It was rejuvenating, inspiring, and affirming to connect with many librarians who have thriving libraries, despite the recent book challenge climate. Thank you, thank you.

Especially in today’s climate of frequent book challenges, we school librarians often feel undervalued and underappreciated. It can be isolating and lonely at times, even if you have a great librarian team at your school (which I fortunately do). I encourage you to not be afraid to reach out to the AISL community, find support from the Listserv and the Librarian Mentor Group and apply for the annual conference affordability scholarship. Making a trip to the annual conference to connect with other independent school librarians in similar roles as you can make a huge difference in how you approach your role. Attending the conference for me was like inhaling a huge breath of fresh, cool and crisp Santa Fe air, filling my lungs with clean oxygen Sometimes, it is just what you need.

*Worksheets designed by educator Val Coyle at Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston, TX

Reflection of a Maker Space…

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Dottie Smay

This has been a big year of moving and changing for me…not only did the entire book collection need to be weeded in half, the library and the makerspace moved in the middle of the year.
So the beginning of the year, my Monday Maker Club had access to the three 3D printers, lots of wood, styrofoam,and tons of cardboard in every shape and size. One student actually made her own pin ball machine, complete with a spring that worked! Several of the boys designed their own swords and shields.They used hand drills to create their masterpieces and from the photos below you can see they were very inventive, indeed.
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We had a sink and a microwave so lots of time was spent mixing and making slime, which was always a big choice. All their projects could be left in the makerspace from week to week until they finished since it was a designated space with an area for storage. I also had a huge walk in closet to store all my materials in addition to my own office complete with three book cases and 4 file cabinets. I was in my glory and did not even know it….until the BIG MOVE!!!

OMG….then it was March and I found myself sharing a closet which was to be a shared office space for me and the tech teacher, along with storage for all my maker supplies, teacher supplies, and media specialst supplies. There would be room for only 1 file cabinet….and I was purging like a crazy woman for sure! Not only that area was smaller, there would be no room for any wood or cardboard and the 3D printers were being replaced with a new one. There would be a sink, but no microwave. The makerspace was actually to be shared with the tech person since it also served as her classroom. This was not the ideal situation for storing any projects from my maker club students….so a new approach had to be taken. Students did not have access to as many materiels and needed to bring “big projects” home if they were not done, since we had no storage for them. It seemed to be quite a dilemma, indeed! How could I run a “maker club” if there was not enough materials for the students to “make.”

Instead of using a 3D printer, students started using the 3D doodler pens I had.They got quite creative and from the photos below they really endulged themselves with perfecting their creations.

Dogs, rabbits, fish, and birds were being created and learning trouble shooting skills when the pens did not work correctly was a life long lesson of perserverance. Perler beads were taken out of the cabinets and students designed new items. Model magic was used to design scenic pictures as well as crafty items. Clothes pins were being taken apart and added to frames for Mother’s Day gifts. Everyone seemed excited to endulge themselves in their work independently and cooperative learning was also evident.

I was so worried there would be too many restrictions in my new space for the students to enjoy being in the club and doing things differently. I was the one surprised when the last session approached and one of the students made a beautiful doggy tissue holder with a conversation bubble stating: “Always be Happy”. After I complimented her on her creation and took her picture holding it, she held it up to me and said, “This is for your desk. I made it for you.”

“Magical moments” can happen… just try to open your minds and hearts to embrace “change”…I am still learning.

Designing, Tinkering, Succeeding and Failing in the Upper School Maker Space

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Katie Archambault

The very first post that I wrote for Independent Ideas was entitled Staging My Own Intervention and dealt with my overwhelming periodical “situation” (read 50+ years of journals, magazines, and a microfiche collection that would knock your socks off), stored in the basement of my library. Two rooms of it. This is what it looked like:

Bound versions of Time and Life were used occasionally, but believe it or not, ancient issues of Sky and Telescope, the New York Review of Books, and Art News simply wasn’t. The dust was thick. The lighting was weird. The basement was a creepy no man’s land and no one, including me, wanted to spend any more time in that room than was absolutely necessary. I had nothing to lose. I decided to clear the room, preserve the treasures, and to create the school’s first Maker Space.

It took me approximately 2 years to clear the room. I invited departments in to see what magazines they would like for me to keep. I flagged them and started clearing. See those 5 recycling bins? It took about 15 minutes to fill them, 3-4 days to get our super awesome (super busy) housekeeping crew to get them out to the recycling station outside and back again. It was a seriously heavy, dirty, time consuming job. In the meantime, I began lobbying for an assistant with experience in a Maker Space. Enter Caroline, my tech-savvy savior who had worked hard to start a Maker Space with one small empty room, zero budget, and a donated 3D printer. Here’s a short video about Project e-NABLE she worked on, working with U Albany students to print and assemble 3D printed hands for children in need. I had someone to partner with to continue clearing the room! Not only that, but I had a crafty, jewelry making, sewing, Pinterest rocking, tech savvy partner in crime to help brainstorm supplies, projects, and potential curricular tie-ins. This was a huge leap in the right direction.

In all honesty, I’ve visited a fair number of Maker Spaces now, particularly during AISL annual conference school visits. The concept isn’t a new one. I have seen some intriguing things going on out there–and I have taken hundreds of pictures (Dallas and Tampa librarians, I’m talking to you!). What I haven’t seen in action, though, is an upper school maker space. We had a ton of questions. There was the proverbial “if we build it, will they come?” How can we fit making into an already tight daily schedule? Will teachers shift their pedagogy to implement more project based learning, utilizing the space? Could this be an after school space where students can just come play? Will it be high tech or low tech? How are we going to fund it?! We have no budget for it(!). Does an adult need to be in the space at all times? What if they aren’t responsible about cleaning up after themselves? Or worse, what if someone gets hurt?

We decided to jump in and figure it out as we went (as we go?? We’re still figuring it out…).

Once we got the magazines out, we asked facilities to remove the microfiche reader, old desk, fax machine, and audio cassette cabinets. (Don’t laugh.) We asked them to dismantle most of the shelving and clear out the room. I say most because we left shelving all along the left side of the room to hold supplies and/or for students to leave projects that they are working on in the space, but out of the way. We shifted the treasured magazines into the second room and asked that the center aisle be cleared of shelving in that room as well, so that we can put tables and banker’s lamps in there.

Our director of facilities offered us two cabinets that were being removed from a science classroom, adding casters so that they became a mobile counter top/work space with drawers and cabinets below for storage.

We emptied the microfiche cabinets and gathered donated supplies from our former engineering instructor, now full time Academic Dean, who no longer needed her massive supply of crafting supplies, design thinking supplies (post-its, Sharpies), etc. We labeled the microfiche cabinets using a fun, clean architecture font and loaded them with supplies.

We used a tech grant provided by our public schools to purchase hardware. Here’s what we bought:

a new 3D printer manufactured locally and serviced locally (they break more than we would like them to so this was important to us);
a Precision CNC Mill (think subtractive engineering rather than additive, like the 3D printer–this thing can carve anything softer than steel. We’re going to use scrap wooden blocks to start with, but dream of carving stone, soap, even chocolate sometime in the future!
a Cricut machine for paper cutting (or fabric, foam, felt, etc.)

We added these things to the two original Makerbot printers the school already owned as well as discarded desktop computers so that each piece of equipment could have the necessary software already downloaded.

We invited student volunteers to help us paint/organize/clean/stock the space and a group of loyal freshmen came every week! They used the Cricut to cut out gears to hang from the ceiling and they painted the very 70’s harvest gold, orange, and lime green drawers in the room. They went with a purple for the door. Facilities donated some peg boards and two inexpensive composite boards for us to cover and use as cork boards in the space.

We bought a button maker and at a holiday craft fair, charged students $2 to create buttons (awesome holiday gifts!) using old book pages, decorating images of Emma Willard, our founder, or printing and decorating favorite quotes of their own. We’re using proceeds to buy more supplies for the space.

We’ve created a “Pillar of Fails” to celebrate growth mindset in the space. We talk about encouraging students to take risks and to learn/grow through their failures, but rarely give them a low stakes space for them to do so. The Maker Space is just the space.

We are still putting the finishing touches on the space, but so far have hosted two grand openings: one for faculty/staff (with muffins, coffee, and a tour) and one for students (with cookies, soft drinks, and a design challenge–cotton ball catapults to knock over a stack of dixie cups). The unveiling for parents will take place the week before Valentine’s day. We’re thinking of providing 3D printed heart shaped EW pendants to attach to bookmarks or to bracelets, if jewelry is more their thing.

If we build it, will they come? So far, the answer is a resounding YES.

The Sophomore class used the Cricut machine to cut puzzle pieces and to glue, glitter, and assemble ornaments for their themed holiday tree on campus. On our first day back from break, biology classes were in the space making 3D models of plant and animal cells. They will be back in a few weeks to create models of the digestive system, utilizing cardboard tubes, bags, and such. Juniors are working on prom posters and our student leaders are creating bulletin board materials down in the space. A houseparent has asked us to brainstorm a re-purposed art project, visiting Goodwill to gather materials to transform in the Maker Space. Our STEAM coordinator has asked us to team teach a unit on soft circuit jewelry making. Those weeks after APs are over? We’ve got them covered!

At this point, the room is open. Sharp tools are locked up and available upon (supervised) request. Our rules are pretty simple: unplug and clean up after yourselves. Let us know if we need to get more of a certain supply. The room’s open when the library is.

This year, we are using the tech grant to purchase the following materials:

Gemma Starter Pack (to make wearable electronics)
Adafruit Beginner LED Sewing Kit
3doodle create pens for rapid prototyping (requested by a geometry teacher)
Littlebits Gizmo/Gadget kit and STEAM student kit) better for older students.

If you’re interested, here are some images I’ve taken of the space: