Deep Thinking

Curious George is an Essential Literature title for first graders in my district. With the release of the movie and fun webpage this February, my student teacher was able to create a unit on Curious George. One of the centers involved first graders creating mobiles with the word curiosity on top. Under this they wrote questions about things they were curious. I want to share these with you because we often underestimate the thinking abilities of young students. Of course, a major part of this activity involved students correctly constructing questions with capital letters and question marks at the end. Some of the questions were fragments and some were incomprehensible, but then aren’t our thoughts sometimes? Teaching students how to be curious and when to take their passing interests a step further into research is an important skill that librarians excel in teaching.

Why do we google? Why is my brother mean to me? How do birds fly? How does gas make cars go? (spelled How dose gase makes cares go?) How do we build robots? How do we build rowboats? What makes rain? What is the fastest dog? Why do we have dogs? Why are the clouds white? How do dogs see in black and white? How does the moon turn orange? What makes flowers smell good? Why do pumpkins grow? How do your teeth grow? How do you blow? How do frogs jump? How do we swallow? (How do we swolo?) How do airplanes fly? What makes rain fall? Where is it very cold? Why is glass white? What makes dogs bark? Why do birds fly? Where do bats live? Do airplanes take gas? How does the moon turn around? Why do stars fall? How are you? How do you know what you know? What does that thing do? How do you how? Why is the Statue of Liberty big? How do I grow? Why do dogs bark? What is toothpaste? What is soap made of? What is my home? Why is my sister mean?

How can you make rain? Why are there two people to make a child? Why does it snow? Why do flowers grow in spring? How do fish swim? Why is the sky blue? Why do we lose teeth? Why is the grass green? Why is the sun yellow? Why do we learn? Why do we celebrate birthdays? Who has a hat?

Why do you like bananas? How do you smell your armpits? How do you walk? How cold is it? Why does a king cobra have these fangs on their heads? Why are there blank pages in a book? Why does it thunder? How do I move? Who do you like? Where are you? How do you learn? Why is the sun so sunny? How do rockets fly? How do they make cars? How do kittens walk when they are born? What is President’s Day? How is my body? What is a park? How is curiosity? How does our hair grow? Why does it snow? Why do you like him? Why are my books read (red)? What is awesome? Why do dogs play? How do we live? How do we do fun stuff? Where do babies come from? How do they make footballs? Why do cheetahs run fast? Why is the sun so far? How does the sun come up? Why are cats so fast? Who can’t talk? How do I ride my bike? How do I sneeze? How do I turn on the TV? How did God make dogs? How did God make animals? How did God make cats? How do we barf? How do you vote for President of the year? How does water make waterfalls? What does overdue mean? Why can penguins not fly? When is my friend coming? Where do bears live? Where do we come from? What are we made of? How do we walk? Why are moms special? Where are you from? Why are you good? (Why is you good?) How do frogs jump? Why is school good? Why is the sun so bright? How can we see?

What does a rocket look like? Why is the school so big? How do people walk? Where do polar bears live? Do you have an eraser? Who is that guy? Where is that bear? How do sharks swim? How do lions run? How can we work? Who makes this world? Where is outer space? How does a rocket move in space?

And, of course, we had the questions about Curious George
Is Curious George smart? Who is Curious George? What kind of monkey is George? Who is the man in the yellow hat? Do monkeys eat? How can George play in the movie? Why is George curious? What does Curious George dream of? What does George think of? What does George like to play? How is George? What is so hard for George? Why can monkeys swing a lot?

Curious about Curiosity?* Read what Richard Taflinger, PhD wrote in 1996 Taking ADvantage: Curiosity Killed the Cat: Curiosity and Advertising.
* Explore the approach of Curiosity & Learning, a national UK network for children’s hands-on learning.
* A webpage about a rattery called Curiosity where the author explains it is her “curiosity that motivates me to explore and learn and try new things. Also, all of my favorite rats have been very curious. I take curiosity as a sign of intelligence. At least, that’s what motivates learning. The most curious people ever have been the great scientists. I want to breed rats with curiosity, that essence of intelligence and mischief that makes a rat a rat.”
* Quotes on curiosity
* Dr. Bruce D. Perry’s article on Curiosity : the fuel of Development.
* The Wikipedia article on curiosity which states that curiosity has “the effect of impelling beings to seek information and interaction with their environment and with other beings in their vicinity.”
* Susan Edelman’s 1997 article on Curiosity still has items of interest.

Sometimes the information at Infomancy by Christopher Harris is just too good to miss. Stephen Abram discusses Digital Voyeurs, Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives. Are these simply buzzwords? Are they even accurate? Are we trying to define states of change? As Infomancy states “we need to view Knowing, Participating, and Living (or Voyeur, Immigrant, Native) as a continuum as opposed to a hierarchy. We also need to evaluate a level of awareness for each tool/idea/concept.”

I agree with this because there is never a perfect state of technological balance that will fit everyone’s needs. Choosing to participate in new technology trends depends upon motivation, access, and knowledge. There comes a time with each trend when this teeter totter of technology balances.

I spent some time thinking lately. As you know this is an activity that I encourage everyone to do. Sometimes this “intensive dwelling and exploring words within my head” means I neglect writing for others. One of my most active students came in and noticed me staring at the ceiling and thinking. When I glanced over, Andrew had leaned against the checkout desk with his chin on his hand and was mimicking my thinking. I grinned and reminded him that thinking makes us smarter. Andrew responded that his teacher said he wasn’t getting smarter if he didn’t write it down….. Perhaps he has something there. Perhaps it is taking my thoughts, attempting to translate them, and the give and take of writing a blog that makes me smarter.

My #2 son announced during a car ride yesterday that his school librarians said his mom was famous. While I was laughing and going WHAT? What?!, my hubby dear groaned and said, “Now you’ll be insufferable.” While it was a funny thought, it was also very scary. Being famous, which I will take to mean simply visible within my state professional organization, might mean that somebody knew you existed and were watching you. ACK! Can’t have too much of that going on. That’s one topic I don’t want to think about.

Unless… perhaps I can work harder to get others to personally get involved in making their libraries better. Aha! I can encourage everyone to send representatives to be our voice during National Library Legislative Day May 1 and 2 in Washington, DC. If you can’t be there, contact your state coordinator and make sure they will speak for you and know what you are thinking. Make immediate plans to participate virtually if you can’t go physically. Learn how to tell your library’s stories and then share these so others can tell them.

Tennessee’s Library Legislative Day will be Tuesday, February 28th in Nashville, Tennessee. Rather than have a list of complaints or issues, delegates will hear a fantastic presentation on Growing Citizens @ our libraries. View the program and you will see that someone in Tennessee is thinking about the bigger picture of advocating for all libraries. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Collaborating with others and giving them enough stories that they can speak for us! Brilliant thinking. Now that’s the kind of stuff that should be famous.

Our colleges are producing some incredible future school librarians (teacher librarians, library information specialists, library media specialists, information goddesses, etc.). My student teacher embodies many of the personal qualities of exemplary school librarians (excitement, enthusiasm, love of learning, technical abilities, curiosity, knowledge, dramatic flair, organization, changeability, determination, flexibility, professionalism, etc.). I have thoroughly enjoyed having a colleague in the same room. We discuss together LM_NET topics, our reactions to the news, techniques for reaching troubled students, discipline techniques (neverending problems integrating our styles with teacher’s), and ways to make our profession stronger. When a reporter called to ask questions about why I felt the need to respond to criticism of wikipedia, she was able to reassure me that I didn’t sound stupid. (Note: If you do see something in print and it doesn’t sound brilliant, then we’ll know that editing elves really do slip in during the night and make us deliberately sound ignorant. )

I will be posting some of the Kidspiration projects she has created recently as soon as I figure out how to shrink it enough in size. We spend a great deal of time discussing metacognition and how it looks in a kindergartner or a fourth grader. Kidspiration has been a tool for us to create guides for students to question, research, and respond.

Today I was able to take her to a district-wide elementary librarian meeting and Saturday she has linked with another librarian to attend a Toni Buzzeo workshop for TASL in Jackson, Tennessee on Collaboration. If only I could keep her! Florida schools were smart enough to send representatives to Tennessee and snatched her up immediately. I wonder if she will recognize our plot to keep her here soon. I reminded her that there are alligators in Florida that might eat her dog (although I did relent later and offered to help her research a great place to live). My assistant told her that Florida was mostly reclaimed marsh. Our technician told her that the state bird is the mosquito and she didn’t need to watch out for alligators, it was the snakes that would get her. He came from FL so does that make him an expert? Without attempting to insult Floridians, do you think this will work? … Naw! I didn’t think it would either. Plans are in the works for her to have a great send-off from our school, but TN will lose a great new librarian. Here you go, Florida, enjoy her, mentor her, and make sure she joins FAME immediately when she gets there this summer.

I do love the two county Public Library systems that I deal with. Remember I grew up in a small town where the library was open 2 hours Wed and 2 hours Sat afternoons. After that, most public libraries are big improvements. Still, there is something to be said for “Speedy Service.” I was in a branch of the Library asking for help in locating a book that the computer OPAC said was on the shelf. The library staff at the circ desk checked and discovered that it had been returned either that day or the day before. They then advised me to order it to be delivered from another branch library and that they would hold it for me at the desk. This would be quicker than my waiting for them to get around to reshelving the books at that branch. When I questioned this, they explained they had 10 carts of books to put away and only 2 people to do it. Plus they had 2 tables of returned books to sort and put out. They thanked me for my patience and understanding. Of course I understood, I even felt bad that I didn’t have time to volunteer to help them put them away, but then I was “thinking.”

Here I teach with a very high circulation daily and a half-time aide. My library is extremely busy and I can never do enough to keep everyone satisfied. Yet I work to get the books out so that patrons can at least look through the carts while they are waiting for me to get them back on the shelf through creative use of staff and volunteers. At my other job in retail my supervisor told me the average time a customer is willing to wait is four minutes. Imagine the library patrons who are unwilling to wait for service. I could have ordered this book from Amazon.com quicker and had it delivered to my home. Do we hurt ourselves when we fail to provide speedy service?

Teaching hibernation can be great fun in the library. Every six weeks one of the kindergarten teachers on our team has the responsibility for planning centers with the librarian. Then each team member signs up for 1.5 hours to allow all students to rotate among a variety of centers. To study hibernation we had the following centers:
*Mini-book making with cutting, coloring, talking, sequencing, and reading. This gives students information in a small format that they can carry with them in their pocket to show they can read.
*Research using World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedias, whiteboards & markers to jot “notes” and pictures or a variety of animals that hibernate, and piece of papers to communicate to parents that begins “Today I researched hibernation in the library and I learned ” This communication reminds parents that libraries are vital pieces of the instructional program.
*Puppet making to sing the hibernation and waking song to the tune of Frere Jacques. By providing two puppets (one for each hand) of the students choice, they can engage all kinesthetic skills while singing along with 6 different animals that are either deep sleepers or hibernators.
*Computer Kidspiration center allows students to incorporate graphics, categorize information, type in new words, and listen to the computer read their words over and over before printing a copy to take home and show their families that libraries are essential entries for technology. A variety of skills are gradually and spirally taught to ensure students incorporate technology with their needs.

They enjoy using the whiteboards to take notes, then transcribing information to papers that go home to communicate to parents that students research in the library.

One center involves students using the program Kidspiration2 to categorize animals into Deep Sleepers, Hibernators, Migrators, and those that stay Awake in winter. Older students enjoy dropping by to help. Cross-grade learning occurs naturally when students take ownership for their education.

Students help each other and often stand while working on the computer. The librarian frequently reminds students to “Go show others something you have learned.” and “If you want to know what everyone is doing and how, walk around to look and ask them how they did that.” Active learning.

The librarian directs activities and asks students to think about how they can solve computer problems. Guiding and higher-order questions inspire students to think about why. Notice the displays to inspire students to ask questions. Nana Charlene Smith works on these with her grandson Trevor. Pirate ships, World War II, Dinosaurs, Animals, Space, Famous Women in History, whatever topics will help stimulate interest in history and science are welcome.

Kindergarten teacher Patricia Glover assists students assemble books in one center. Notice the smiley face on the window. Since this faces a courtyard, all classes walking down the hallway and visitors who enter the front of the building can see the smiley face and know they are welcome in the library.

Volunteer Tara Jordan steps in to help when a parent is unable to help. Students assemble stick puppets and learn songs about hibernating animals to the tune of Frere Jacques.

There are often many other activities occurring simultaneously including phone calls, technology requests, whole classes arriving for checkout and students needing help using the computer catalog to locate books. Interestingly, three teachers are partially visible behind student teacher Amanda Murray. One is checking out her own students so she can see what they are interested in reading. One is advising his class how to find biographies. One comes daily with her Language! group to locate interesting free voluntary reading materials. Creating displays to inspire students to learn takes time. We appreciate library assistant Dorothy Reed’s working on the Black History Display to make it better each year.

A volunteer from the local high school stops by at lunch to help. Community relationships are essential to well-run school library programs. Involved members of the community know what happens and care to make learning a successful experience in the elementary school.

What happens in the Library? While student teacher Amanda Murray was teaching a literature lesson to first graders, many other activities were occurring.

Children are enjoying their story. They enjoy it so much that only one child is distracted by the camera.

Dorothy Reed, library assistant, was shelving books.

FLIP (Friends Learning in Pairs) Senior Citizen program linked volunteers with students to read together one on one.

Volunteers from Fleetguard/ Cummins, a Pencil Partner for Hickman Elementary School, come each week to work with Math Manipulatives in groups of 1’s and 2’s or to read to children individually. Materials were supplied by a Fleetguard/Cummins math grant written by the librarian and reading specialist. Materials are maintained by them in the connecting book and math room.

Teachers like Dana Wallace work on the computer to create graphical projects and activities for their classes.

Grandparent volunteer, Nana Charlene Smith, repairs books and creates art displays to interest students in history and science books.

Classes, small groups, and individual students slip in for a quiet checkout. Notice the word wall near the clock.

Virginia Burke, second grade teacher, helps all grades check out books while her class looks for Accelerated Reader titles and read-alouds to use with a kindergarten class.

Students read at tables and talk to each other about their favorite parts of the story.

Computer technician Mike Powell arrives with 15 donated computers that need to be stored in the library office until new hard drives, mice and keyboards can be obtained. While he is in the building, he consults the librarian to see which classrooms have computer problems and installs a new computer and fax/printer/scanner to use with a new math initiative. The librarian will attend half-day training to be able to support classroom teachers scanning in assessment papers.

YMCA Fun Company site director Tara Jordan volunteers 5 hours or more a week and was able to help the entire faculty celebrate the librarian’s birthday in the library office.

When I requested permission from parents to use these photos, one of the kindergarten parents commented on how enthusiastic her child looked while using the computer. I was so grateful to be able to share more about the exciting things that happen in today’s library. We need to share more, tell more, and be enthusiastic.