Explore! Assignment Intro

My June Explore! Assignment is the Librarian & Makerspace / Coding Teacher.

I have nine classes that rotate through my space at Portland Elementary.

• Kindergarten - Wonderful Me! (1 class) 
• 1st Grade - Stories on Stage (2 classes)
• Grades 2/3 - Camp Curious  (2 classes)
• Grades 2/3 - Splash! (2 classes)
• Grades 4/5 - Bot Builder (1 class)
• Grades 4/5 - Night at the Museum (1 class)

Monday-Thursday of each week 6 of the 9 classes have a 50 minute session. "Fast Friday" is just that, as each of the nine homerooms visit for 35 minutes.

During the 2017 Explore! sessions, students have the opportunity to check out materials from the library, which is a change from last summer. The first day of Explore began with an introductory lesson outlining the expectations for our space, whether it be during library check-out or makerspace/coding activities. For the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes, we also reviewed how to take care of books since a majority of the Kindergarten students (who attended the Wonder Years Program) did not have a dedicated Library time during the regular school year. I reached out to the librarians at my home school for any resources or suggestions they might have for helping those younger grades understand, in the short time that is Explore, what it means to borrow a book from the library. A big thank you to Megan Stewart for providing the Smart Notebook Picture Sort as pictured below.

I realized after the first day I would have a big learning curve in remembering what classroom management techniques I could employ for the lower elementary classes. Student teaching in a 1st grade class seems like a life-time ago when this Fall I will begin my 15th year teaching middle school. The 4/5 splits were similar enough to my day to day teaching during the regular school year I felt confident from day one.