On the first Monday after Spring Break, I walked into Brushy Creek Elementary school to shadow their Media Specialist. 

Let me say that I am not an “elementary” person.  I know people say middle school is tough, but for me, those little people are WAY tougher than my 6th graders.  I was a bit nervous, just because I wasn’t sure how busy “we have a full busy day today” was going to be. 

Turns out busy meant incredibly, working every minute supervising littles. 

I didn’t realize this until we spoke over a Google Meet, but at elementary schools, the librarian serves as a Related Arts teacher.  At some schools that means a flexible, come as you will schedule and at others, a fixed rotation A/B schedule of times when students from all grade levels visit as part of their Related Arts class. 

The Monday of my visit, the librarian had a class come in each period. She planned four different lessons, repeating her K5 & 1st grade lesson.  

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Did I mention that at elementary schools, there is a morning show?  Yup. And the librarian and a group of four 4th & 5th graders run it each and every morning.  So in between prepping for her own lessons that morning, Mrs. Dobyne was also supervising the preparation for the show.  A group of kindergartners walked in to help say the pledge.  Students got their headsets on, the twinkle lights on the backdrop were turned on and the show started.  There was only one hiccup, as a student forgot to advance a slide, but for the Monday after Spring Break, it was a good show. 

We had maybe a ten minute break from the end of the Morning Show to when the first group of 3rd graders came in.  In that ten minutes, supplies were placed on the table centers, the touch-screen Promethean Board was set and we grabbed a breath before the day.  Also, we had a steady stream of students and teachers come in for chromebook issues:  damaged screens, broken chargers and stolen laptops.  All day long. 

I truly enjoyed the first lesson of the day: Onomatopoeia.  Students were given cartoons that featured onomatopoeia words.  They read the cartoon and then shared with a friend the onomatopoeia words.  Then they switched and again shared.  Then they were given a half-piece of paper and a list of onomatopoeia words to create word pop art.  The students worked very hard at their art, and there were some great examples of pop art in that 3rd grade class. 

Next we had a sweet group of 1st graders come by.  The librarian read them the winner of the South Carolina Picture Book award.  It was about a student who dreams up what he would change at his school.  Afterwards, students were given a sheet of paper to draw what they would change about their school and a spot to write a one sentence summary.  They had some very good ideas.  This lesson was repeated at the end of the day with the kindergartners. 

With the 5th graders, we played a GimKit review game for their Science Light unit. This lesson was prepared with their science teacher as a review for the upcoming SC Pass Science test.  The students played the GimKit twice and tried to bet their previous class score.

Each group also checked out books.  I loved her procedure for getting the students attention with a clapping sequence.  She also had a great procedure in place for dismissal that the students: steps for leaving the tables cleared up and in order and where they were to wait for their teacher. 

Overall, this experience was not what I was expecting.  I wasn’t expecting four full-on lessons every class period.  I wasn’t expecting 28 kindergartners in one class.   But I also didn’t expect to like the experience.  The kids were sweet and well-behaved.  And freedom to craft lessons to reach all content areas is appealing.  Whether it is appealing enough for me to deal with the 28 kindergartners, that is the question friend!