Explore

Beth Regan is currently the library media specialist at Devon Forest in Goose Creek. 

Implementation 

Mrs. Regan promotes new knowledge and exploration by encouraging her students to read. She has a monthly BINGO card for reading. She motivates students to read different types of books and step out of their comfort zone. Some examples from her BINGO card include looking in almanacs, or books from rarely visited sections. She says that students are often reading the same books in the same series and this helps them find other books they are interested in that they didn't realize they would enjoy. She engages with her students through book clubs. These groups allow her to meet with smaller groups of students to read and complete activities based on the books being read. I think it is important to not only promote inquiry with books but also inquiry-based lessons. Collaborating with teachers to promote inquiry within the content they are working on also. Completing projects like genius hour also allow students to dive into the content they are interested in. They can produce products that they can then share with their peers. I would love to have a genius hour in my library as well. 

Resources 

Some resources help Beth Regan promote exploration within her library. She creates/edits a BINGO card each month. She uses Excel spreadsheets to keep track of participation. She uses her book collection and buys small prizes each month for the students that participate. There are many other resources that could be used to promote exploration. Discuss has many databases and other resources that students should be using to find new information. While YouTube can create problems, my students love using YouTube to watch informational videos to dive into content. There are multitudes of STEAM resources available to help students tinker and create. I love Magniblocks for younger students. I think coding with Hour of Code and Scratch are also great resources. These allow students to problem solve and investigate.

Collaboration 

Collaboration did not occur often for Mrs. Regan. She said that she will put a specific topic on a BINGO card if a teacher asks for it. I would love to collaborate with teachers before during or after novel studies. Students could create real-world solutions to problems in books. Teachers and librarians can easily work together to create great learning opportunities for the students. 

Challenges 

Mrs. Regan thinks her biggest challenge is teacher buy-in. Once teachers are invested, then the students will complete the Challenge. Covid also had an effect on the number of people participating. The numbers have declined each year. I think changing up the challenge would be beneficial because students love to learn about the things in which they are interested. Exploration can be complicated because it can involve a Makerspace. Makerspaces do not have to be complex though and I love the idea of allowing natural exploration.