The Public Library
A little over a week ago our school library closed. The first day it was closed was for our school wide technology refresh {Hello new computers!}. Then it remained and will remain closed for an additional two weeks and three days for new carpeting and the book fair. During this almost three week period books cannot be checked out from our school library. For some teachers this might be an issue, but for me it was no big deal.
As an early childhood educator I read a lot of books throughout the day. Last year especially, I relied on YouTube to read books for me more than I’d like to admit, so one of my professional goals for myself this year has been to read to my students more and rely on YouTube less. I don’t have the budget to buy every book I read to my students and while we have a decent size school library, they don’t have all the books I use in my lessons either.
This Summer I was looking for some ways I could cut back on spending and one of the ways I thought of was to go to the library for books instead of buying them. I read a lot during the Summer so using the library was a simple, effective change I could make. I requested the books I wanted to read and when they arrived to my local branch I received an email. I would go into the library, grab the book(s) from the request shelf and use the check-out kiosk to check out my book(s).
As the school year approached and I was planning the books I wanted to use in my Science and Social Studies lessons (Some standards changed this year so we’re teaching some new lessons this year.) I thought the public library could be a great resource for me. I knew how easy it was to request and then check out books and our local library branch is on the way home from school so I wouldn’t be going out of my way to swing by the library so I decided to give it a try. It’s been great!
On Sundays I request the books I’ll need for upcoming units (We plan all of our lessons two weeks in advance, which has been great and given me plenty of time to get the necessary books from the library.) and every Friday I swing by the library after work to pick them up and return any books we are done with. My teammates have been great about returning the books to me and the one time a public library book was accidentally returned to the school library it was set aside and when I went to grab it the library assistant knew right where it was so it wasn’t a big deal at all!
The public library has been a great resource for me this school year and it’s free so it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re not doing so already!
As an early childhood educator I read a lot of books throughout the day. Last year especially, I relied on YouTube to read books for me more than I’d like to admit, so one of my professional goals for myself this year has been to read to my students more and rely on YouTube less. I don’t have the budget to buy every book I read to my students and while we have a decent size school library, they don’t have all the books I use in my lessons either.
This Summer I was looking for some ways I could cut back on spending and one of the ways I thought of was to go to the library for books instead of buying them. I read a lot during the Summer so using the library was a simple, effective change I could make. I requested the books I wanted to read and when they arrived to my local branch I received an email. I would go into the library, grab the book(s) from the request shelf and use the check-out kiosk to check out my book(s).
As the school year approached and I was planning the books I wanted to use in my Science and Social Studies lessons (Some standards changed this year so we’re teaching some new lessons this year.) I thought the public library could be a great resource for me. I knew how easy it was to request and then check out books and our local library branch is on the way home from school so I wouldn’t be going out of my way to swing by the library so I decided to give it a try. It’s been great!
On Sundays I request the books I’ll need for upcoming units (We plan all of our lessons two weeks in advance, which has been great and given me plenty of time to get the necessary books from the library.) and every Friday I swing by the library after work to pick them up and return any books we are done with. My teammates have been great about returning the books to me and the one time a public library book was accidentally returned to the school library it was set aside and when I went to grab it the library assistant knew right where it was so it wasn’t a big deal at all!
The public library has been a great resource for me this school year and it’s free so it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re not doing so already!
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