My students live in a rural community with a population of approximately 1,005. The nearest public libraries are more than 10 miles away and are not available to most of my students' families without them paying an annual usage fee.
As the K-12 school librarian, in charge of both K-6th grade and 7-12th grade libraries, I am blessed to impact the lives of my students throughout their entire public education career.
I instruct K-6th students weekly for 55 minutes as part of my school's specials rotation. Elementary students experience a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) MakerSpace learning environment at least once a quarter during their time with me.
My 7th through 12th grade students may visit the school library on an open schedule. If I am unavailable to help them due to my teaching responsibilities in the elementary library, my full-time non-certified aide is available.
I collaborate with teachers to make my instruction relevant to the real world and to integrate research. I strive to make my library collections not only curriculum-centered, but also reader-centered. Above all, I want to instill the love of life-long reading into all of my patrons (students and staff).
My Project
Emily Arrow is a former elementary music teacher that now creates literature inspired music for children. Many of the picture books that Ms. Arrow writes songs about have a connection to curriculum content being taught (for example Water is Water, Louise Loves Art, One Day...The End, and Staying Safe Online) or help to teach character traits (for example Max the Brave and Be a Friend).
This project will supply my elementary library with a hardback copy of many of the picture books that Emily Arrow has written a song about, as well as two of her full-length CDs.
Integrating music into my library read-aloud time will help improve my students' memory of the stories we read. Many of the songs include basis hand motions that will help to keep my students engaged. Because of Emily Arrow's catchy tunes, I foresee these picture books being checked out more than they are on the shelves.
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