0:00

Hey everybody, we're back. I am excited.

0:03

I get to talk to a new friend, Maura, who has this, she shared this lesson that I

0:08

find so awesome. And as I was poking through the materials, I just got more and more enamored of it as

0:13

we went. But before we get too much into the lesson, Maura, why don't you take a

0:16

second, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're at.

0:19

Sure. My name is Maura Madigan and I am a elementary school librarian in Fairfax

0:26

County, Virginia, which is right outside Washington, D .C.

0:30

And I'm in a pre -K through five school.

0:34

And being right outside DC must be really handy for like field trips and stuff.

0:38

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it used to be when I was a teacher, but it's nice.

0:43

It's nice to be able to pop in and go to the all the free museums and drive around

0:49

by the monuments. And so that's fun.

0:52

that Library of Congress connection and get the kids out on the reading floor or

0:57

something. That would be something.

1:00

So before we dive straight to the lesson, I just want to take a quick wander down

1:04

memory lane. How did you end up in school librarianship in the first place?

1:09

this is gonna take a while, because it's been a long circuitous route to becoming a

1:15

librarian. So undergrad, I changed my major a million times.

1:21

I think I was elementary ed for one semester, ended up graduating with an

1:26

English major and really had no idea what I wanted to do.

1:32

So I moved back home to Brooklyn.

1:34

I am from Brooklyn, New York. And...

1:38

got a job teaching in a private school.

1:41

I taught kindergarten. And I kind of thought, well, this is great.

1:44

This is fun. This is what I want to do.

1:47

And proceeded to get my teaching license while I was also getting my MFA in

1:55

creative writing. So I'm a little bit of an anomaly in that I actually don't have any degrees in

2:03

education. Hmm.

2:06

I do have the equivalent probably of about three master's degrees.

2:09

So it's a little bit strange.

2:11

I went through the back door.

2:14

So I taught kindergarten for three years and then I got married, moved to St.

2:21

Louis. My husband was getting his PhD at the time and I was the director of a preschool and

2:28

daycare center. Then we moved to Virginia.

2:33

actually to, I worked in Fairfax County for a year, back to kindergarten.

2:37

And then my husband got a job with the University of Maryland.

2:42

It was called University College at the time to teach on military bases in Asia.

2:49

And when they found out that I had an MFA, they said, ooh, would you like to adjunct?

2:54

You know, would you like to teach as well? So I went from teaching kindergarten to teaching college level English and writing

3:00

classes. Huh. and did that for two years and we lived in South Korea and Tokyo and Okinawa.

3:11

And then we moved to Ohio for a year because my husband got a job there.

3:16

Well, we had a baby in Japan and I thought, I've got to go back to the US.

3:19

You know, we've got a baby now. And we moved to Tiffin, Ohio for a year.

3:26

My husband taught full time there and I adjuncted.

3:30

And then we moved to Dubai.

3:33

Yeah, we moved to Dubai and I did not work.

3:38

I was able to stay home and I had another baby.

3:41

Then we moved to New York, to my hometown Brooklyn, and I taught in the public

3:50

schools there, middle school English for four years.

3:54

And we really thought about staying, but I kind of got, we moved around so much that

3:59

I kind of got used to it and really liked it.

4:02

Hmm. So we went back to the United Arab Emirates to Abu Dhabi this time.

4:11

And my husband was teaching and I worked for a British company on a school reform

4:17

project. So the Abu Dhabi government, they wanted to reform the public schools.

4:25

So they hired all these foreign companies to come in and basically be like

4:30

instructional coaches. I think that would be the most, the closest thing that we have here.

4:36

So I was working very closely with the teachers, kind of modeling lessons and

4:44

lesson planning.

4:46

I taught ESOL, so we did that for a couple of years.

4:50

And then we left there and moved to Northern Virginia where my husband is

4:54

from. And I've been here now 12 years.

4:59

So at first we moved back.

5:01

I taught sixth grade for three years.

5:05

And honestly growing up I didn't have, I never had a school librarian.

5:11

So my really first...

5:14

experience with having a school librarian was when I came to Fairfax County.

5:21

And I thought, wow, that looks like an awesome job.

5:24

I would, it has everything I want in a career.

5:29

And my county, I was very lucky, my county was sponsoring a cohort where they were

5:35

going to pay for part of the endorsement.

5:40

And so they accepted 20 of us.

5:43

and Longwood University, go Lancers, we had, the professors would come up every

5:52

weekend, so not every weekend, sorry, they would come up and we'd have class on a

5:57

Saturday, so it'd basically be nine to four.

6:00

And because Longwood is probably about four hours from us, it would be a long

6:04

commute. And that was about twice a month, so.

6:08

taught full time, had three kids, and did my library endorsement at the same time.

6:14

And I've been at the school library now. This is my ninth year.

6:18

Nice. wow. That is definitely a circuitous route.

6:23

I don't think I've had anybody that is globetrotted in quite the same fashion.

6:28

That's really something. And that you've been there for 12 years now.

6:31

I mean, have you got itchy feet or have you, do you feel like you're?

6:35

but my husband said no, we can't move anymore.

6:39

Well, because every time I would give up my retirement, you know, and eventually

6:44

you kind of have to stay in one place if you want to retire.

6:48

yeah, there is that. Wow, well, that's it.

6:51

I mean, that is fascinating that you have been able to see all those places, get all

6:56

those experiences. I mean, I imagine that's got to be really wonderful for informing what you do with

7:01

your students that you've got such a diverse set of perspectives to be able to

7:07

bring to your students and your staff, I imagine, too.

7:10

Definitely, and I think particularly having lived in the Middle East for eight

7:14

years has definitely broadened my perspective and I have a lot of students,

7:21

a lot of students that come from other countries, but in particular from Arabic

7:25

speaking countries. So I can kind of relate to their experiences.

7:31

Nice. Well, that's, I mean, clearly it's serving you well.

7:34

That's outstanding. Man. So that's an awesome story.

7:38

We're now going to go to a slightly different awesome story, which is the

7:41

story of this lesson that you are sharing.

7:44

So you had shared this idea and I've looked it over and I'm just so, it fills

7:51

me with joy to just read through and see how this goes.

7:55

So why don't you tell us, first of all, what do you call the lesson?

7:58

So it's not really a lesson.

8:01

I would think of it more would fall under the like a project because it's not just a

8:07

one and done and it and there's not really a particular order once you kick it off

8:13

that you have to do the activities in.

8:17

So I call it the reading rescue pet adoption program.

8:21

And I got the idea actually from, I think it was Future Ready librarians.

8:27

I saw a post on there from a librarian in Iceland.

8:33

And she had done a similar program with her students.

8:37

She had a much smaller school and they had vets come in.

8:41

And I think it was maybe last year I saw it and I filed it away and I said, this is

8:46

something really cool that I want to try.

8:50

So this year is my summative evaluation and my goal, I focused on third grade

8:58

reading because that's one of our school improvement goals is to focus on third

9:02

grade reading. And I thought, how can I support this, the school's goal and really target third

9:09

grade reading? And I had a series of strategies that I used, but this was one of them.

9:17

This one is, I think, such a fun one.

9:20

I don't know what your other strategies were, so I don't mean to denigrate them in

9:23

any way, but this is just such a fun looking at this.

9:27

Sorry, I'm jumping ahead. Let me take a step back.

9:30

I got a little excited. I apologize.

9:33

So as a student, what am I going to see when I come to the library as you're

9:39

getting ready to start this? Okay, so when I do anything like this, like I do a book tasting or something like

9:46

that, I never tell them in advance because I want to surprise them.

9:50

And actually, when they come to library, I like to mix things up so they really don't

9:55

know what they're gonna get when they come.

9:57

Sometimes it's centers, sometimes we're working on a project, sometimes it's a

10:00

book tasting. So they always come and they wait in the hallway and they're like, what are we

10:05

doing today? holding the suspense.

10:08

I love it. so I didn't tell them.

10:10

The teachers did know, but I said, please make sure you do not let it slip.

10:14

And I, so I had the whole library decorated like it's basically like a pet

10:20

adoption, right? When you have these rescue pets and I'm thinking of outside the pet store where

10:25

they're trying to get you to adopt these pets.

10:29

So I had signs and I had some balloons and I had the library was, I, you know, moved

10:36

the tables around a bit. and I had all the pets set out on the table that they could choose from.

10:44

And they were kind of like, what is going on with, you know, all of these stuffed

10:48

animals or some of them call them plushies.

10:51

So as soon as they came in, they saw that, but I didn't tell them yet what was going

10:55

on. And I kind of brought them to the, I have a reading air, a story stairs area.

11:01

So I brought them there and I explained what we were going to do.

11:06

So just to clarify, the pets, as you mentioned, are stuffed animals.

11:12

And you laid out in your material sort of how you came about these.

11:16

But maybe you can share with everybody, like, where did these animals come from?

11:20

Sure. So I did not buy them.

11:23

I actually talked to my PTA.

11:27

I have a fantastic PTA.

11:29

And they put out a message to all of our parents, but also on the community

11:36

Facebook groups. And this is a great source.

11:39

I get a lot of materials from our community Facebook group.

11:44

Just asking for used stuffed animals.

11:49

Right. I didn't. I don't think any of them were new.

11:53

And I want to say, and I said my target I think was 75 because I have 66 third

12:00

graders. I wanted to get at least 10 more so that everybody got a choice, even the last

12:06

student. And I want to say I had 100 within about two days.

12:12

Where I had to say, okay, please no more now.

12:16

So then I...

12:18

brought them all home in kind of waves to wash and dry in my washer and dryer, where

12:25

my husband was saying, okay, you know, how many more of these now?

12:29

So I did, when I sent a letter home to the parents explaining what we were doing and

12:38

letting them know that at the end of the year, the students would be able to bring

12:41

the pets home, I did share that.

12:44

although they weren't new stuffed animals, they were clean, that I had personally

12:48

cleaned them all myself.

12:50

Because I could definitely see some parents thinking, ugh, well, I don't want

12:54

this secondhand toy in my house.

13:00

So I got all the stuffed animals.

13:03

So here's what I would suggest, and this I learned after the fact.

13:07

I think I said stuffed animals, but I think a lot of people just read kind of

13:12

stuffed toys. So I got a lot of, not a lot, but I got probably 20 non -animal dolls and, you

13:21

know, cartoon character things.

13:24

So I picked out the animals and I also picked out some mythical creatures.

13:32

I kind of included that in it, but then the other ones I put aside.

13:37

So next year when I do this again, I will specify that they need to be,

13:43

new animal type stuffed animals.

13:46

A lot of them came with clothing.

13:49

So, you know, before I washed them, I would take off the shoes and all that kind

13:53

of stuff. And they were different sizes.

13:55

So I, I kind of separated them into large, medium, small and mini.

14:03

And I didn't put them all out for each class because I wanted it to be sort of

14:08

equal. And,

14:11

So I would make sure that I put out an equal number of each size.

14:16

-hmm. That makes sense.

14:18

So when the kids are coming in, they're seeing a selection of animals.

14:25

They're not necessarily seeing your whole store of animals, but that totally makes

14:29

sense so that you, like you said, you're going to be able to make sure all the

14:33

students have that experience of seeing a similar collection when they walk in the

14:39

door. Nice.

14:42

I love that. So they're coming in.

14:44

they're seeing all these stuffed animals that you have carefully cleaned, which is

14:48

a really good point, because I think sometimes it's easy to kind of like be

14:51

like, yeah, they're toys, the kids are gonna use whatever.

14:54

Clean, definitely gonna make a big difference. I'm sure that made a big difference for the parents.

14:57

And sending home the letter in advance, also a really good idea.

15:02

Right. also with the letter, I at first I was going to say, you know, ask for permission

15:09

to send the animals home. But then I thought, no, because there's going to be there's always some parents

15:14

who they don't really care, but they're never going to respond.

15:17

So I did the opposite. Please contact me if you do not want your child to bring this pet home.

15:22

Nobody contacted me. Yup, yup.

15:25

Better to have them opt out than to opt in.

15:27

Yeah. Nice. So kids are coming in, they're seeing all the animals.

15:31

So then now that we know sort of where the animals have come from, that you've laid

15:35

this foundation work in the background and the kids have arrived in library, where do

15:39

they go next? What happens next with the activity?

15:43

Okay, so next, I actually told them about my goal to support them with reading.

15:51

And I told them that everyone in the school believes that you can be successful

15:57

and we are all here to help support your reading.

16:01

And I talked about all the different ways we were doing that and that one of them

16:05

that we were gonna kick off this day was our reading rescue pet adoption program.

16:11

that each of them was going to have the opportunity to adopt a pet who needed some

16:16

love. And I described a few of the different things we'd be doing with these pets.

16:22

And they were each going to get to choose a pet and name their pet, which they were

16:29

super excited that they could name their pet and that at the end of school, they

16:33

would get to bring the pet home. And I said that these pets are a little bit

16:37

different than most pets because the way we feed these pets is by reading to them.

16:43

So reading equals feeding.

16:46

And that we have to read to these pets at least twice a week or else they'll die.

16:55

I love making that connection. We all know there's the research that says any reading kids are gonna do is good, and

17:01

when they read out loud to others, it's even better, and reading to pets is such a

17:06

great ability, and you've taken that to such an interesting next level of not just

17:12

pets, but pets that are going to be school available, not just necessarily at home.

17:19

Mm -hmm. And yet still also sort of the possession of the child or the adoptee of the child

17:26

so that they've got that sense of responsibility and taking it not just from

17:30

reading because it's enjoyable to read to your pet, but reading because it's

17:34

necessary to maintain your pet.

17:36

That's such a great extra hook on there.

17:38

Man, I love that. So then, you know, and I did say that there's a huge variety.

17:45

I'm sure there's a pet. There's more than one pet that each of you can love.

17:49

And if there, if more than one person wants the same pet, they had to do rock,

17:56

paper, scissors to decide who got it.

17:59

I had no arguments, like zero arguments.

18:03

And some of these kids are pretty argumentative.

18:06

So that. worked out really well.

18:10

I did have adult help.

18:13

I got, I asked, you know, some, another teacher to help on this day because there

18:20

was, you know, lots of moving parts. And the first time I did it, I wasn't quite sure, you know, the logistics of how

18:26

long it would take and how easy certain things would be.

18:30

So once they picked their pet, they sat down and they had a name tag.

18:34

So they had to think of a name and they wrote, I had these

18:37

you know, pre -printed name tags.

18:39

They wrote their pet's name and their name on the name tag, and that would be like a

18:44

collar. Then I hole punched them and put a string through it or a ribbon and tied it around

18:51

the pet's neck. Pets who didn't have necks, we got creative, you know, maybe it went around

18:57

the fin or the leg, that kind of thing.

19:03

awesome. I love that they're getting that extra element of realness to having a pet.

19:11

When you get a pet, you have to make sure that you collar it and you take care of it

19:16

and you want to identify it. Such a nice...

19:19

And I'm sure that the names some of them came up with must have been just

19:23

wonderful. I am just imagining students, especially when students are all together egging each

19:29

other on, some of the names like... my middle school students might come up with if they had to name pets in school.

19:37

said it has to be appropriate school appropriate names some of them were funny

19:41

so they like they would name it after themselves like little Dion or the but the

19:48

two that I thought were really funny were two friends two boys and one named his dog

19:53

Taylor Swift and then the other one named his I think he got a little monkey he

19:58

named it Trav or Kelsey Travis Kelsey

20:03

And you just hear, Taylor Swift, where are you, Taylor Swift?

20:09

I love it. I love it. I mean, giving them that, you know, agency in this element of a program that's going

20:16

to help support their reading. Anytime we can give the students that extra bit of agency and voice and let them

20:22

have some fun and also ownership is always top notch in my book.

20:26

Love it. So they've got their animals, they've got name tags.

20:30

Okay, next step is their adoption certificate, which they had to vow and

20:37

promise to love and read to their pets.

20:40

And they wrote their pet's name on it and signed it.

20:43

And then I had the other adult taking a picture.

20:49

So they got a picture with their pet.

20:53

And then I printed all these up and...

20:58

of the activity on another day is they have pet memory scrapbooks.

21:04

So they created scrapbooks. So I printed those pictures out and taped it to the front of the scrapbooks for

21:13

another time. What I think I would do differently next year is actually put the adoption

21:19

certificate as the last page in the scrapbook.

21:23

And that way it's all in one place. I didn't think of that until after the fact.

21:26

And I kind of spiral bound all the scrapbooks and I thought I'm not going back and doing

21:32

that. That's future iterations, that totally makes sense.

21:39

But yeah, once you get something spiral bound, there's no going back.

21:43

That's awesome.

21:46

the first day once everybody's gotten their pets then they go and check, you

21:51

know, look for books, check out and then they sit somewhere quiet in the library to

21:54

read to their pet. So awesome, man.

21:58

And there are some pictures in the folder you shared of some of the students doing

22:02

their reading with their pets.

22:05

And it's so, I mean, it's just so heartwarming, I think, whenever we can see

22:10

kids reading things that they like.

22:13

But I'm sure that they have chosen things that they are either proud to share with

22:18

their pet or that they are, you know, some of them are gonna kind of probably be a

22:22

little creative and read their pet a story they think the pet is gonna like.

22:25

You know, there's so many. ways for them to engage with this and not only have fun with it, but there I can

22:33

really imagine them sort of in addition to supporting just the general act of

22:38

reading, supporting their enjoyment of the reading that they're doing and thinking

22:42

about it in maybe a more social way than they might otherwise.

22:45

Because I think it's really easy to think about reading is just I am reading a book,

22:49

but when you're reading aloud, there's a little more thought that goes into it

22:52

about how am I going to say this out loud? and who am I talking, you know, who's my audience?

22:57

And so I'm sure that they're gaining multiple levels of skills as they are

23:02

doing this. Right, and this also helped them practice because we did book buddies.

23:09

I did book buddies with third grade where they had a buddy class, either

23:13

kindergarten or first grade. And so this helped them practice before reading to their book buddies.

23:20

Nice low stakes way to introduce that as a, you're gonna read to an inanimate

23:25

object that if it doesn't go quite the way you want kid, it's okay.

23:29

There's no one there to make fun of you, but a great chance to practice that.

23:32

Wow. That's wonderful structuring too.

23:34

I love that. Hmm, man.

23:37

So this was the first time you've done this lesson?

23:41

Yeah. yes, this is my first year.

23:44

So most of it went as planned.

23:47

As I said, there are a few things that I noticed that I was like, OK, well, next

23:50

time I would do X a bit differently.

23:54

And then for so for storage, I had three just big plastic Rubbermaid bins, one for

24:01

each class. And then so I put those out after they check out each week.

24:07

They get their pet, they go and sit and read to their pet before their teacher

24:10

picks them up. They put their pet back in and they live in the library.

24:15

And then the teachers on Fridays would send two monitors to come and get the bin,

24:23

bring it back to their classroom so they could do independent reading with their

24:26

buddies as sort of a treat for Friday afternoons.

24:29

Nice, that's awesome. And how long did this go on with the with the pet, with the pet staying in school

24:37

before they went home? So we started this in March and I still have the pets.

24:45

They'll go home the first week in June because we have a few more things that

24:49

we're using them for, but they've sustained interest, which I was thinking,

24:54

okay, how long are they gonna really like doing this?

24:58

But it's very cute because one of the teachers, she'll send me pictures of the

25:03

kids reading in the classroom or buddy reading with a friend and their pets.

25:09

She said it's a good incentive for them to read more.

25:14

Well, she'll say, OK, if we finish this, we can get our pets for extra time today.

25:18

Nice. That's awesome. I mean, because we're humans and we're going to bond with anything that's got two

25:24

eyes attached to it. So I can see the kids really getting attached to their pet animals and the

25:30

repetition of it really bonding them with this idea and also just raising that

25:39

serotonin level while you're reading. That's a wonderful thing too.

25:41

Like just making the act of reading a real pleasurable experience for them.

25:48

not just a requirement that they have to do for this many minutes.

25:52

Like, I'm sure that that is just feeding into so many great elements of reading

25:57

support. Hmm, man.

26:00

And I would be curious in future iterations, maybe not even future

26:07

iterations, but you're in a K6 school, K5 school.

26:11

So will you see these third graders again in the future?

26:16

I wonder. master for K through five so that means I see them same time same place every week.

26:24

curious if next year or in the year after, if they're gonna hang on to their reading

26:28

buddies, if they're gonna continue to read to them.

26:30

I'm curious too. I will say I'm thinking I'm going to do this with other grades next year.

26:36

There were a lot of jealous fourth and fifth graders even where I thought, I

26:42

thought, you know, maybe they're too, even at third grade, I thought, are they too

26:46

old for this? Not too old for stuffed animals, but I think I was wondering, you know, is it

26:52

going to be a little too little kitty for them?

26:55

But even the fourth and fifth graders are like, what's with these stuffed animals?

26:58

What are they, what's going on? How come we can't do that?

27:02

So I may open it up to other grade levels next year.

27:09

I love this idea. I think seven and eight might be a little too old for it, but I might try it at some

27:14

point, because man, I can see there's absolutely gonna be at least some kids who

27:19

would be into just having that extra incentive and extra sort of attention of,

27:28

I've got a pet. So I can see that being a good reinforcement.

27:32

Yeah, I think if I were to do it in the middle school, I would make it an opt -in

27:38

where you might have a big display and you might have these pets and like, you know,

27:45

adopt me please. And then I could see it being something that gets popular.

27:50

Like, you know, they see other people doing it and then they want to do it too.

27:54

Or you could even just have them, you know, read to their pets in the library

27:59

and then put them back. Yeah.

28:01

yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

28:05

Yeah. I think I can, I can definitely see my, my wheels are turning.

28:09

I'm already starting to figure it out. I love it.

28:11

So you've already had a couple of things that as you went along through this

28:15

iteration of it, you were like, the next time I'm going to think about this, going

28:18

to think about that. Do you have any suggestions for anybody who's like starting this for the first

28:22

time and as excited about it as I am that we should have in mind as we go into it

28:26

for the first time? I think it helped that I started just with one grade level.

28:33

And so we're a small school. We have no more than three or four classes per grade.

28:39

So maybe find a grade level that, at least at the elementary level, that you

28:47

collaborate with or you think are going to be really receptive to this, because it's

28:51

been helpful having the teachers support.

28:54

I bet. especially with the, you know, some, it could be done totally in the library, but

29:02

it's really nice that the teachers let them get the pets for their independent

29:05

reading in the classroom. Also, their pet play dates.

29:10

That's something that the teachers are doing, like, so you can schedule a play

29:16

date with friends from another class and their pet.

29:21

Yeah, that's, so that's something that's happening outside of library specials.

29:26

That's awesome. the teacher's support has been really helpful for that.

29:31

also love any time we can take the library beyond the library walls and sort of help

29:37

both the staff and the students see like what goes on in the library doesn't just

29:40

live in the library that it can it can travel it should it should travel it

29:44

should be part of what you're doing all over the place.

29:47

Right. Another thing that I'm finding, I think I will start this earlier next year because

29:55

I'm finding that some things that I want to do, I've kind of run out of time.

30:01

So for example, the final like activity that we're working on in the library is

30:07

they designed and they're building beds for their pets.

30:12

So their pet has somewhere to sleep when they take them home.

30:16

Nice. And unfortunately, one of my classes, my Friday class, I just don't have enough

30:22

time. I don't see them enough before the end of, like we end Wednesday, June 12th.

30:30

And between field days and different things, they're not gonna get to make the

30:36

beds. So their teacher is going to, you know, I talked to the teacher and I said,

30:43

Unfortunately, I don't have time to do this. This is something that maybe you would do with them.

30:48

I have a maker space. So I said, you know, come you can I can give you all the materials you need.

30:54

I just don't have the time. So I think I would start earlier for that.

30:58

my gosh. When the when the classes came and I said, OK, and they were like, what are we doing

31:03

today? I said today we're going to design and make beds for our pets.

31:07

They literally cheered.

31:09

I kid you not. They were beyond themselves with excitement.

31:13

It was the cutest thing. That's awesome.

31:16

Wow. And I think that speaks so much to how effective this program is, like how

31:21

effective this activity is in pulling the kids in and really engaging them.

31:26

Wow. That's awesome. I love it.

31:29

And I love too that you're able to use it as a sort of a jumping off point for other

31:33

kinds of activities, like a makerspace activity to make beds.

31:36

And you had, I believe you had a couple of other sort of projects that you do along

31:41

with this as well. If I am remembering. The scrapbooks, so the scrapbooks, and I've included the template for that in the

31:49

resources as well. So they write in that every, I think, every few weeks, and they can draw

31:58

pictures. I have stickers they can use to decorate, and they also write about, you know, today

32:03

I read this book with my pet, and they can either draw or write their pet's favorite

32:07

part. There's also a page in there to record their pet play date.

32:13

A couple of students asked me to take pictures of them with their pet so they

32:19

could stick that in their scrapbook.

32:21

That's awesome. That's so great, man.

32:25

And I love that this activity is sort of self differentiating.

32:30

Like whatever level the kid is at, this is something that any student can do at any

32:36

reading ability level because it's really them building whatever skills they

32:40

currently have. So it's not like you're assigning them, like you have to read at this level or

32:45

whatever. So that, man, that's so cool.

32:51

It's been very, I think it's been more effective and successful than I thought it

32:58

would be. So I'm the type of person where I'm just, if I come up with an idea or see a

33:04

gradator, I'm like, I'm gonna try it. It might not work, but maybe it will.

33:08

So I just kind of always jump right in.

33:11

And I remember one of the third grade teachers, so she dropped the class off and

33:15

she's, all right, good luck today.

33:18

They just will not stop talking.

33:20

They're, they're wired, they're all, and I said okay.

33:23

And you know, they were working in their scrapbooks and they're spread out all

33:28

around the library. I have some pictures, you know, some of them are laying on the bench seats, some

33:32

of them are on the floor, some of them are at tables just reading to their pets and

33:36

writing in their scrapbooks. And so I took a video of just how quiet it was.

33:42

And I said, okay, yeah, watch this.

33:46

She's like, Again, like it speaks to the engagement that you have built for these kids.

33:54

That's so awesome. Man.

33:56

Have you gotten any feedback from the teachers on terms of what they're seeing

34:00

or how it's impacting? Yes, so really positive feedback.

34:06

I think one of the best things or the biggest growth that we've seen is with a

34:11

lot of our reluctant readers.

34:14

They are much, much more likely to take risks.

34:19

And, you know, we had some students in this group that this was a grade level

34:24

that's greatly affected by COVID closures, right?

34:28

During the fundamental years when they were learning to read.

34:31

Mm -hmm. It wasn't the best situation.

34:35

So we're kind of trying, that's why third grade is our focus is we're trying to make

34:39

up for that. So we do have some students with reading is a challenge, right?

34:44

It's still really hard for them in third grade and they're not reading fluently.

34:49

But noticing that those students are much, much more willing to read and to read for

34:57

longer periods of time. That's what we were seeing before that.

35:01

they don't have a lot of stand up. Most students at this age group at least did not have a lot of reading stamina.

35:08

So being willing to sit and read for, you know, 10 to 15 minutes to your pet is,

35:17

it's a big win. Absolutely.

35:20

And you've established that safe space for them where they can practice without

35:25

necessarily feeling like they're in the spotlight.

35:28

I imagine that has a real impact on, especially on those reluctant readers.

35:33

Man, this is such a cool lesson, a cool activity.

35:36

I love this so much. So glad you enjoyed it, that you shared it.

35:40

Cause I just am thoroughly tickled by this whole, by this whole process.

35:46

It was definitely fun and I, you know, I'm so glad that I won't try to pronounce the

35:52

school librarian's name. In Iceland, I'm so glad that she shared this and honestly, I think that's, you

35:59

know, kind of the power of social media is sharing.

36:02

You come up with a great idea, you share it with somebody and...

36:06

so valuable for the school librarians, particularly when we're like the only one

36:10

in the school or maybe even the only one in the district, you need that wider

36:15

network. Yeah, I'm totally with you on that.

36:17

Totally with you. Hmm. Well, thank you so much for sharing this lesson and bringing it to our attention

36:23

and letting us know how awesome this is.

36:25

We're now gonna go in a completely different direction.

36:27

It's time for our book break.

36:30

So you can share.

36:32

any kind of book you like. It can be personal, professional, something you want to read on the beach

36:36

this summer, whatever works for you.

36:38

What's a book you think people should know about?

36:41

Okay, so I am usually reading three or four books at a time.

36:48

And I'm in a book group where we read a different book each month that we meet.

36:53

And our last book that we read was The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard.

37:01

So it's an adult book, it's not for kids.

37:06

And... even though I was reading three or four books at the time, three other books at

37:10

the time, this made me kind of, it gripped me, right?

37:15

It made me put everything else aside until I finished this book.

37:19

And it's about a young woman named Irene who has a lot of tragedy in her life.

37:26

And she's about to give it all up.

37:30

But instead she,

37:33

kind of makes her way to this small village in Central America and she kind of

37:41

just goes and gets on a bus and gets on a plane and wherever and ends up at this

37:48

kind of, you know, bedraggled or downtrodden lakefront hotel and

37:59

There's a volcano in the background and it's run by this American woman and she

38:05

ends up never leaving.

38:09

You get a good look at life with expats.

38:15

So there's a mix of expats and local characters.

38:19

It's got a little bit of magical realism in there and the description is amazing.

38:29

And it's a sad story. So it's basically this woman who's lost everything.

38:34

She's experienced the worst thing you can experience.

38:38

But it's a very hopeful story.

38:42

But one of the cool things about it too is that the author actually has a hotel and

38:50

you can go and stay there called Casa Paloma.

38:55

And it's in Guatemala. Hmm.

38:57

on the lake on the shores of Lake Atitlan.

39:02

So you can see volcanoes in the background.

39:05

And so my book group's plan is to go and stay in this hotel sometime.

39:10

Nice! Wow, that'd be cool.

39:14

Hmm, I love that. So it's art imitating life imitating art.

39:18

Right, I imagine the author based a lot of it on the village near where her resort is

39:29

and all of that, but I don't necessarily think these things happen to the author.

39:34

Probably. Yeah.

39:37

No, but that sounds great. Wow. Hmm.

39:39

I'm going to definitely look into both the book and the hotel.

39:42

That sounds like a really wonderful location to experience.

39:47

pictures are amazing. I mean, the of the resort really looks like a really beautiful place.

39:54

Hmm. All right. Well, let me add that to the bucket list.

39:57

That's awesome.

39:59

Well, more. Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for bringing this lesson, for bringing this book.

40:05

I know there's lots of folks who are going to be really excited to dig into this and

40:09

try it. And we're really appreciate.

40:11

I'm sure we all appreciate all the effort that you're sharing with us to help us get

40:16

off the ground running with this. So thank you so much.

40:18

you're welcome. I was very excited to be part of this podcast because I listened to your podcast

40:24

when I drive to school in the morning.

40:26

thank you. I appreciate that.