School’s out for summer

The end of the school year is always a time for reflection and tying up as many of the loose ends as possible to be positioned for September’s inevitable arrival. Numerous celebrations to acknowledge graduates and retirees are held and, despite my best intentions, there are always a flurry of last minute tasks to be accomplished before I close the door on “my” library for the last time of the academic year.

Our students have been on summer break for a couple of days already and the building is always quiet during these last hours. The hallways are empty, devoid of art projects and banners promoting reading, kindness and upcoming events. It always leaves me a little melancholy.

This has been the most challenging year of my 25 year teaching career, but also one of the most satisfying. I learned so much – about technology, our school community, my own abilities to plan and deliver lessons, and, most importantly, about 6th grade students.

Prior to this year, I had no interest in, or experience with, Google classroom or meets. Now, I can manage, with some degree of competence, two devices simultaneously while I teach students both in the classroom and remotely. The acts of muting, sharing, and presenting have become second nature to me, an accomplishment which allows the focus to be on the content, instead of the computer.

The school where I teach has been my “home” for many years, but before this year I was unfamiliar with where particular classrooms were located. Was it in the “new” wing or the “old” wing? Which of our three academic houses was where in the building was something which didn’t concern me. I now have a much clearer idea of where things and people and bathrooms can be found.

Being presented (on the first day of school) with 18 sections of a previously nonexistent Library Skills course, was daunting to say the least, but, I’m proud of the work I did to create a class that combined literature, research and important topics such as access to voting, protests & demonstrations in American history and civil rights in a manner that encouraged conversation, while providing context for what can be seen as a scary world.

There were times when I overestimated the maturity of my students. Sixth graders come with a wide range of experiences and sophistication. From the emails I received from parents, I know there were times when kids and/or their parents were pushed beyond their comfort zones, but I’ll hold onto the notes* I received from students thanking me for teaching them things previously unknown, rather than the handful of complaints which landed in my In box.

My very first tenured position included a weekly library class with sixth grade students and somehow, after years of being a secondary librarian, I’d forgotten how magical this population of students can be. Most still retain an aura of innocence about the world, but many kids this age are beginning to question and explore the world around them and where they might fit into it. Having the opportunity to provide them with some tools and support to assist them in finding their way has, as always, been a privilege.

As the end of the year approached, I asked my students to share one thing they had learned during their sixth grade year as students in a new-to-them building during a global pandemic. Some of their responses are below.