Pics of New Ogg Library Spaces

Starting at the top center and moving clockwise: teaching area with whiteboard and short throw projector, Chromebook station, magazine/atlas/globe area and possibly a maker space, comfy seating, comfy seating, comfy seating, and in the center pic is our maker space (under construction).

I am very excited about our new spaces in the Ogg Library. I also have a small PreK size table set up for a maker space for my littlest friends, and there are rugs and pillows for more comfy reading areas. Also not pictured here is my repurposed hexagon computer table. Right now it is in the center entry area for displays or another maker space. I also did not include a photo of my little desk and greatly downsized work area. I'm actually enjoying the smaller space and don't feel overwhelmed by mountains of unfinished projects. I can't wait to see these spaces filled with students creating, exploring, discovering, inventing, and enjoying learning!

Day of Learning Part 2

Yesterday was another great day of learning with Shannon Miller. It was all about maker spaces. We started off by visiting campus libraries in our district, one of which was mine. I was thrilled and honored to have Shannon visit my library and make design suggestions. The rest of the day with Shannon was spent learning about her maker spaces and why they are so important to students. Maker spaces give our students voice, problem-solving skills, outlets for creativity, opportunities to collaborate, and so much more. I'm excited to start exploring the options for maker spaces in the Ogg library.

So today, I started working on my space. I took the suggestion of some of my fellow librarians and moved a small desk into the library. This will be my new work station. Behind the big circulation desk, as suggested by Shannon, I will set up a maker space for my students. I don't know yet what is going to be in that space as far as materials for making, but I thought I would follow Shannon's lead and allow the students to give me ideas about what they want in the space. They need to feel some ownership with the space. Since I stepped completely out of my box and gave up my workspace, I took on the challenge of rethinking my teaching space, also. Again using suggestions from my colleagues (this one I owe to Lenise Garratt), I moved my whiteboard back and shifted my teaching area to a new space. And taking suggestions from my friends Michelle Griffith and Bridget Lewellen, I moved the computer tables (which no longer house computers) and made a Chromebook area.

I'm still working on the design for the Ogg library, and I will try to post pictures tomorrow. I'm very excited about how it looks so far and hope that the students will find it an inspirational space.

Day of Learning (Part 1)

Today was a very exciting day of learning. Our lead librarian, Michelle Griffith, invited Shannon Miller from Van Meter, Iowa, to be the guest speaker at our staff development. I have recently started following her on Twitter (@shannonmmiller), and she is amazing. She is the librarian for Van Meter's k-12 campus. Shannon taught us about social networking and the importance of connecting and building a professional network. We also talked about getting our students connected and giving them a voice. I learned more about Twitter and Facebook, and I will soon be getting an Instagram account. For Twitter, you can follow me @BronwynRumsey, and you can follow my library @oggbookwizard. I will be creating an Ogg Library Facebook page, too. My plan is to post what is happening in the Ogg Library on all these social networks. I hope to allow the students to post, also.

We also learned about some other digital tools: Padlet, Symbaloo, Edmodo, Layar, MackinVia, etc. The list is extensive. I can't promise I'll master all of them, but I plan to try some out in the library to provide a more engaging learning environment for my students. I'm excited about what this will bring to the quality of education coming out of Ogg Library.

Tomorrow we'll spend some time with Shannon looking at our library spaces and getting advice on how to design our spaces for maximum learning impact. I can't wait!