Often, media specialists find themselves as solitary figures in our schools, but to effectively serve all our students, we must be master connectors, not only throughout our community but also within our building, through collaborative partnerships with teachers. Collaboration also plays a pivotal role in advocating for our programs, strengthening their visibility and value within the broader school community. I don’t know about you, but I witness teachers who are increasingly stressed and overwhelmed by the ever-mounting demands of education. Collaborating can often feel like yet another burden on their already full plates. However, amidst this, I also see these same teachers who remain steadfast in their ‘why,’ showing up every day in their classrooms, seeking ways to actively engage their students in learning. This is where collaboration with the school library media specialist shines brightest — the opportunity to join forces with teachers, asking ‘how can I help?’ This simple question embodies one of the most significant avenues we have to impact students and cultivate a thriving media program.
So, how do we earn teachers’ trust and open the door to collaboration? By aligning our collaboration efforts with content standards and offering assistance in areas where teachers may need extra support, we can be irreplaceable assets in our building. While teachers are experts in their content areas, as media specialists, we bring distinct proficiencies to the table. We excel in facilitating big ideas—lessons that are complex, require additional resources or technology, and often involve small group activities. By stepping in as their trusted ally, we become the superhero sidekick, helping to bring big ideas to life.
So, what does this collaboration entail? Picture a blend of interactive learning stations, hands-on STEAM/STEM activities, opportunities for coding, and captivating library “field trips” where we morph the space into an immersive museum experience tailored to specific learning standards. These lessons not only captivate students with their high engagement levels but also elicit a “wow” factor as passersby, both students and teachers, catch glimpses of the excitement unfolding. It’s about creating a buzz that ignites curiosity and prompts others to seek similar experiences.
Leveraging Blended Learning Station Lessons
Blended learning station lessons are a personal favorite of mine when it comes to collaboration. They offer a plethora of moving parts that might seem daunting for a teacher to tackle alone, especially when aiming to provide differentiated stations tailored to student levels or needs. But fear not! Let’s demystify the terminology. The Blended Learning Station model is simply a structured approach where students rotate through a series of stations or learning activities on a fixed schedule, with at least one station being online or digital.
Here is an example of one of my standout blended learning station lessons —a favorite among our 6th-grade social studies classes focusing on Chernobyl. Each station was crafted to provide a unique perspective on the topic. From a virtual reality lab that enables students to immerse themselves in a virtual walk through Chernobyl to a small group discussion led by the classroom teacher on the causes of the disaster, along with other stations featuring differentiated reading passages, videos, maps, and images, the variety of activities kept students engaged and eager to explore.
As students moved through stations, they entered their answers into a Google Form acting as a digital escape room. Once the correct answers were entered, it unlocked a final escape phrase—the culmination of their learning journey.
Yes, preparing such a lesson requires considerable effort, but when shared between the media specialist and the classroom teacher, it becomes manageable. The payoff? Engaged students meeting the learning target head-on: “I will explain the causes and effects of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine.”
Fostering Student Engagement through Computer Science & STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math)
Another effective way to kickstart collaboration is by introducing standards-based STEAM challenges that invite students to engage in the engineering design process. For those familiar with STEAM, you understand the importance of having a robust supply of resources readily available to facilitate activities with students. Often, the mere task of gathering materials can serve as a significant barrier for teachers looking to embrace STEAM initiatives. Recognizing this, I’ve made it a priority to curate a collection of materials for STEAM activities within my library, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. It’s more about creating a dedicated space and establishing an organized system for accessing essentials like cardboard and glue guns when the need arises.
For instance, in a physical science class unit, students were challenged to design the perfect shoe that minimizes the impact of running on the body. During a science unit on biomes, we tasked students with creating survival gear tailored to the desert biome.
Providing students with opportunities to design and create is always empowering. Sometimes, it involves delving into computer coding. I have found that simple block coding is easy to learn through a few online tutorials. It is another way I can support teachers with a skill set they may not have had the time to develop. In math classes, we focus on standards for mathematical practices that emphasize perseverance in problem-solving. Over the years, I’ve collaborated with our school’s math teachers to integrate computer science and coding using Sphero robots to address specific math standards in their units. We’ve utilized Spheros to model functional relationships between quantities on graphs, calculate surface area using nets of 3D shapes, and explore the probability of chance events.
But the power of computer science collaboration extends beyond the realms of math and science. In social studies and language arts, unexpected yet impactful collaborations have emerged. Who would have thought that a language arts class would dive into block coding to generate randomized story prompts for their creative writing assignments? Or that social studies classes would leverage coding to teach map skills, navigating Spheros across a giant floor world map?
Through the integration of computer science and STEAM, we can come alongside teachers to empower students to explore, create, and innovate.
Transforming the Library into Immersive Museum Experiences
What’s more exciting than a field trip? Yet, the expense and logistics often limit our students to just one outing a year. That’s why I’ve made it my mission to create library experiences that feel like special excursions right within our own building. After all, libraries are more than just repositories of books—they curate resources and offer opportunities to engage with primary sources, much like museums do. But expecting teachers to orchestrate a museum experience for every relevant standard can be daunting—it’s a hefty amount of preparation for just one day’s lesson. That’s why museum collaborations that involve the entire content team for a standard make sense. It might take 2-3 weeks of planning to craft a museum tailored to a specific standard, but when all three hundred-plus sixth graders in the building get to visit the museum as part of their class, the workload feels balanced.
Take, for example, when we transformed the library into a Holocaust museum, aligning it with the social studies standard covering the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. Leveraging our local education agency’s “Holocaust Traveling Trunk” program, we secured a wealth of primary sources, including propaganda posters, ID cards of Holocaust survivors, and maps. Additionally, we provided a virtual tour of a Holocaust concentration camp, an image gallery, and thought-provoking videos. Building on the students’ recent reading of “Number the Stars,” one of our museum exhibitions focused on Denmark during the Holocaust. To add a personal touch, we invited an administrator who had recently visited Denmark to serve as a guest museum guide for the Denmark exhibition, sharing his personal photos from the trip. As students moved through the museum exhibits, they documented their observations and conclusions in differentiated reflection journals provided.
By transforming our library into an immersive museum experience, we’re not just enhancing learning—we’re providing our students with unforgettable educational journeys right within the walls of our school.
Collaboration – An opportunity to help – So celebrate and embrace all the possibilities of collaboration between media specialists and teachers. You can turn teacher challenges into opportunities and showcase learning engagement in your library.
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