• 2021/2022 Impact Report

Librarian

  • At the library, we try to offer opportunities for activities that tie in with school events. This year we offered a holiday card crafting event for students. Classes were encouraged to create holiday cards for first responders and police so the library offered opportunities for students to come to the library during lunch and with their ELAR classes to create holiday cards. We utilized vocabulary banks and sentence stems to support student learning during the process.
  • At the Krueger Library, students have access to makerspace supplies and SEL-style items to allow them to create, craft, relax and recharge. The library often hosts stations where students can create holiday cards, finish projects, create school spirit gear, work on puzzles, play with Legos, play card games, color, work, and read. Activities such as these contribute to the overall well-being of our students and ensure they have a safe and welcoming place to come to on campus.
  • The Krueger Library hosts book giveaways multiple times a year, usually coinciding with upcoming school breaks. New books are often purchased with school funds and fundraising monies or donated by various organizations. Students are recommended by their teachers to pick out their own book(s) to take home and add to their collection. This ensures student access to reading material during school holidays and helps develop a home library collection and enjoyment of reading.
  • It’s our goal for the Krueger library to be a safe and welcoming space for any student. This can take many forms: a quiet place to work or read, a place to relax with friends, a place with ample supplies for activities, etc. During lunches, I offer the library as a space for students to come and relax and wind down. They have access to library activities and can use computers or catch up on work if needed. Students tell the librarian how they appreciate a brief respite from their school day.
  • We host two book fairs: one regular book fair in the fall and one Buy One Get One book fair in May. Our fall book fair was especially successful due to a collaboration with our family specialist and ELAR teachers to host a Literacy Night where families could come and shop the book fair, win books, and participate in ELAR style activities for the whole family. Students enjoy the book fair and it enables them to self-select texts that aren’t always available for check out in the library.
Author speaking to students in auditorium.
 
 
7,529
print books in collection
 
21,613
ebooks books in collection
 
6,480
print books checked out
 
2,276
ebooks books checked out
 
Students working on computers in library.

Teacher

  • The librarian collaborated with 6th grade social studies teachers to create a collaborative research project using library technology and TexQuest databases. Students identified different cultures across the world that interested them and learned about their customs, food, dress, holidays, and traditions. Students organized their research with a librarian-created graphic organizer and built visually appealing presentations and then presented them to their peers, teachers, IC, and librarian.
  • Ms. Black’s 6th grade AIM classes worked on inferencing skills and she asked the librarian to reinforce students’ learning by tying in her next read-aloud with that skill. Students visited the library for a gallery walk with the picture book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The librarian scaffolded the skills students would need to make inferences about each picture by modeling and providing the students with a graphic organizer to record their responses.
  • Hispanic Heritage Month is always a big celebration at Krueger MS, our campus-wide ofrenda has been featured by the NEISD media team frequently. To coincide with this annual event, the library collaborated with some of our 6th grade ELAR teachers to create a virtual ofrenda unique to each student and their cultural ties. Students utilized personal images and learned how to use various technology tips to create their own virtual ofrenda within Google Slides.
  • Our 6th grade World Cultures classes created class quilts featuring prominent figures in honor of African American History Month. The librarian created a graphic organizer for students to fill in their research using the library resource: Britannica. Students visited the library for two days of research and the librarian presented how students could use the resource, tips, and tricks for research, and then students worked on putting together the quilt in class.
  • The month of April is National Poetry Month and the librarian collaborated with 6K ELAR classes to set up poetry stations in the library. Students visited the library over the course of a few days and were able to examine and read different types of poetry then worked on creating their own poems based on what they learned. Students created blackout, diamante, concrete, and haiku poetry.
 

Students working on project with craft supplies.

Lesson Spotlight

The librarian creates book displays to correspond with different events and celebrations throughout the school year: Hispanic Heritage Month, holidays, Lone Star List, graphic novels, etc. In preparation for Women’s History Month, the librarian reached out to teachers to collaborate on a student-created display about women throughout history. 6K English and Social Studies teachers were interested. The librarian set up a research template for students to use to discover facts about women they were interested in throughout history. The final project was to create banners for each woman that they would then decorate and display in the library for the month. We extended this project and used it as an opportunity to introduce students to Canva. Students could create their banners on paper or they could choose to do a digital version which was also displayed. Students had the opportunity to explore library resources as well as become proficient in Canva over the course of the project.

 

Collaborator

  • Ms. Godoy, Ed White Librarian, and the Krueger librarian have collaborated frequently. This year we collaborated for Hispanic Heritage Month. Both schools have similar cultures and student groups so we worked together on a research project related to the holiday Día de los Muertos. Students learned about the history of the holiday and other cultures that celebrate similar holidays and then used what they learned to create their own ofrendas and contributed to the school ofrenda.
  • As our 8th grade students prepare for STAAR, the librarian worked with one of the math teachers to create a breakout inspired game for students to review Pythagorean Theorem. Ms. Uriegas helped me create new problems for students to solve with the theme of Mario Kart. Students were tasked with beating the game by solving for different sides of a right triangle. We included a mixture of math and word problems so they would be STAAR ready.
  • The librarian collaborated with our 6 KSAT teachers as they began working on a large research project where students learned about homesteading. Students began the project by visiting an actual historical homestead. Then students started researching an actual homestead to build. The librarian compiled a Google Site for students to refer to for historical evidence, crop and climate information, and growing regions across the United States.
  • The librarian has been collaborating with 6th grade social studies teachers to create mini-lessons on media literacy to be used in her classes. We have been using the News Literacy Project’s Checkology lessons and some of their other resources as a guide for these mini-lessons. These lessons focus on students learning fact-checking skills and how to identify mis and dis-information online. We pair this with using some of our TexQuest resources throughout the school year.
  • The librarian began working with our AIM Project Based Learning classes as they implemented a new curriculum. The librarian introduced students to library resources that would help them research solutions for their projects. The librarian teamed up with our campus ITS to introduce Canva to our students as a tool to compile and present their projects once they were complete. The librarian provided space and planned days where our ITS could be available to offer additional support to students.

Collaboration Spotlight

The collaboration the librarian is most proud of this year is our librarian collaboration to bring author James Ponti to NEISD middle schools. We planned this event over multiple months and with varying degrees of campus support. We all worked together to encourage and support each other throughout the process. Leading up to the event we were able to work with James to provide our individual campuses and students from varying socio-economic backgrounds with presentations that would be the most impactful for them. At Krueger, James was able to share with students how he grew up with a single mother who had to support three children. He also shared his dislike of reading up until he was in college. He was able to share with students how the right books changed him into a reader which was a message a lot of our students were able to take to heart. He was also able to work with a small group of Krueger students with a heavy interest in writing and share his unconventional methods.

 

Students working on chromebooks in library.

Campus Leader

  • Teachers were surveyed on professional development interests during district PLC times. A large number of teachers on campus indicated they were interested in PD on breakout/escape room games. The librarian was asked to present on both physical and digital escape games during those times. The librarian provided teachers with a Google Site and walked through planning these types of activities. This was a great tool to promote collaboration opportunities across multiple content areas.
  • The librarian worked with the campus Family Specialist to plan a family literacy night for Krueger families. The ELAR department planned different content-related activities for families. We also had a bowling for books activity where students could win free books. This event coincided with the Scholastic Book Fair so that we could stay open late for families to shop. The librarian created promotional materials for the event and we were able to triple our fundraising revenue for the library.
  • The preferred library social media platform is Instagram, where the librarian posts library-related news frequently and reposts Krueger specific news often. On our campus library Instagram we feature new reads, class activities, collaborative lessons, library contests, school-wide events, author visits, recommended reading lists, and makerspace/SEL activities. The librarian posts frequently throughout the month and has library content re-posted by other campus groups and RootEd.
  • This year, the librarian was asked to be part of the Campus Testing Team and put in charge of technology. Krueger is one of the few middle school campuses to utilize online testing for STAAR. The team met monthly and as we got closer to STAAR, we had weekly meetings along with additional assignments. The librarian ensured we accounted for all chromebooks across campus to be utilized on testing days and ensured they were updated and available if needed.
  • This year the librarian chose to focus on professional development related to news literacy. The librarian attended multiple workshops provided by the News Literacy Project, a non-profit and non-partisan organization. NLP provides resources to educators on how to teach, learn, and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information. The librarian used the tools from these PDs to plan media literacy lessons for students.
 
Teachers working on computers during a PD in the library.
Families shopping at a book fair in the library.