collaborating across the state of new york

The American Association of School Librarians recently released its updated National School Library Standards.  Concepts imbedded in the new standards include shared foundations, key commitments, domains, competencies, and alignments which strongly supports new standards in school curricula. Recently, district librarians came together to review the standards and participated in collaborative activities and developed activities for student engagement.

Collaboration occurs through different venues and a Zoom meeting was used to connect more than 50 librarians from CA BOCES and Eastern Suffolk BOCES.  Shared ideas for student engagement using library books included: Snowflake Bentley and making snowflakes, reinforcing the concept of symmetry, and a STEM challenge involving falling snowflakes; and Bill Nye’s Germ book, growing germs, identifying bacteria, and a STEM challenge involving germ fighting products. 

The Extraordinaire Design Pro kit was introduced for Maker Space ideas with some participants enthusiastically embracing the design challenge.  Also demonstrated was the use of Zome Tools for grades K-12 with ideas for ELA activities and STEM challenges. 
With Zoom’s increasing availability, participants were encouraged to consider its use in connecting students to learning beyond walls, buildings, and geographic locations.

​By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources