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RCS Beyond the Classroom Podcast: Blackman High School librarians Misti Jenkins and Brian Seadorf

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School libraries aren't what they used to be. At Blackman High School, librarians Misti Jenkins and Brian Seadorf like to think of their library as a "hub" for students, both for those who need social time and those who want a quieter environment. They recently sat down podcast hosts James Evans and Keith Ryan Cartwright to talk about their strategy for engaging students and supporting academic achievement throughout the school.

Show Transcript

who are the high school star in World fading spur what what led you it was the library my first year teaching was really difficult I think everybody first year of teaching is really difficult but you don't realize that's just your first year and so forever this is really hard I'm going to go back to school I can't wait to my degree I'm going to go back to school and I'm an English teacher going to do something that could incorporate what I've learned about English and research in literature but don't parlay that into something else but then my second year of teaching so I started my master's program in my second year of teaching came along and I fell in love with teaching and I realized that that first year has been difficult because it was my first year not be kitchen and that was awful and so I fell in love with teaching and so I just stayed at the school where I was as an English teacher until it's second Library tradition came along and taken away the position and I didn't want to go anywhere else school I love to give population that we had and so I just stayed there finish my Master's and then went second edition came open I let my principal know that I actually did have a master's degree in my birthday is in bed I thought I was ready to pursue. so it really wasn't always my dream to be a librarian but it has really worked well with what my experience has been and I I do enjoy it but I also enjoyed teaching Bryan career English for 9 years and I had eight years and one year in 7th and I was getting burnout I was feeling that something else something new and I decide to get my Master's Degree in library science I've always loved literature I've always loved research and I've always loved teaching so I got my master's degree from MTSU job opened up here and then the absolute best job in the world pictures don't spend any amount of time in in the library in high school library there was the one librarian and she would shush you're just sort of a almost like a a central meeting place how do you develop that kind of a culture the first year Brian and I worked together are for the year like our Focus for the year was called breaking down barriers we kind of evaluated what had been set up in the school there have been lots of barriers to these the library even so much as I didn't couldn't use one set of doors but I have been at a different place Brian never been anywhere in a library but here in so we both sort of came to it with fresh eyes and thought what can we do we would hear people say things like we can't do this or got to be really quiet or we got in trouble if our books were overdue and we were like personally attacked and so Brian and I really kind of thought through those things and we spent a whole year just breaking down barriers to be looking at what we could do to make people feel welcomed in the library and sell a lot of what you see now when you come in as just a really focused effort to make people feel during relationship and I was part of the first year also have just making sure teachers felt good coming in and they can feel comfortable coming in on the desk is like cheers where everybody knows your name place a belly up to the bar and they'll just talked his for 10 minutes and tell us things that we like and sometimes tells things would rather not know but we love our faculty we love and they come in and they feel comfortable when they come in Studio obviously coming in to where we have how many in the morning what's the purpose of the library now learning no one would ever so whether it's cool learning or self-learning go before school there's a lot of just listen to podcast this is how I don't learn and some of our teams are learning are not just things in the classroom but they are learning by chatting with their friends before school sharing whatever sitting together at a table looking at something on their phones together checking the news on the computers before school however they're learning and then of course during the school day they're learning via assignment and things from your teachers but it's really about learning and just creating a place where they can come and chat and teach them to be lifelong Learners because we had adults learn differently but I'll share a video with Brian you watch the video yesterday that I wanted him to see a that would be really good in me an article yesterday cuz that's what adults do and we'd like our team to kind of feel learning that way to before school I feel like they do that and it lunch yeah we have some that are at a puzzle table these guys just now finished third third puzzle dissing Esther every single morning they mean in the back and yes they're doing a puzzle but they're also building a relationship puzzle we have social area is just going on in different ways variety of resources social resources and he was just sitting in the library before school started and he came over I have never seen so many kids checkout book they are still doing that to we haven't lost that but I feel like we've created more you're probably getting more kid checking out the book because you're bringing kids into that Library who might otherwise come there for the book. Somewhere else for social Axe and then they pass a book to eat the title or conversation makes them want to pick something up in my in my right after the radio that we had Falmouth announces money and they started this like from control office they started giving us DVDs for students check out and Michael librarian and I were both a little critical of that a little judgy that's not what a library for but what we found I had a large yes I'll talk to you at school and said that he has no kids were coming in checking out a DVD and grabbing a book improving their reading and taking VT home and the whole family with listening to a movie in English and improving their skills and so when I got here I told Brian about that for a while and finally decided this year so teachers have donated DVD and we have a DVD collection right there when you come in the latest and greatest we're going is like classic teenage if you were having a slumber party at your house or against God called they're in there with their class they walk out and we literally see people do a 180 I didn't know they had these you don't know half of what we have, and they are evolving we're always looking up what is something we can try to work if we ever had 5 days in a row when our lunch was open if we didn't have a class to show a movie so with that person we showed was it's for Halloween with it and so we show that is coming in and having lunch and then he was a kid watch a movie while they eat so November we did we did Grandma Halloween we should have never seen green ones they should have been Gremlins correct so that all weekend more Morgenstern coming in during lunch and now we're about to play a Wii play Harry Potter cuz there's sort of a Christmas thing to it we did not lie DieHard that were not work because it's our Christmas movie but she'll probably five in the library. you know that was an evolution simulation. Creating a culture from that moment to where you're at now was it that you felt like you found your your voice I think there was a time when we had there was good morning good morning Jenna row and we had so many they were standing everywhere popular's me and become in that morning something coming in a different environment than I allowed cafeteria in the morning or allow gymnasium in the morning so we held back a little bit to make it not super quiet but it made sure that we have one side for social and one side for quiet and somehow that social experiment worked and I think we found our sweet spot as last year it was in the morning and windows can start coming in and get our groove of what place is going to do in the mornings now would you say about that repairing relationships in the second year we really worked on teachers to come in and let it teach like me cuz we both enjoy the teaching teaching and so we wanted to get more of them in so we could do research look so that probably took all of that second year of individually seeking people out asking. won't you please return to the library we promise not to yell at you we promise not to yell at your kids come back probably got 30 year is when like our calendar is really cold and Brian could we watch a movie there's literally only been probably the three weeks that we haven't had something going on during 4th grade in one of those weeks I know was because we had blocked out to order book we had done that ourselves so we can spend our money well though we are booked our calendars always full and I think that's already happening in your three research not perfected it cuz we can always make it better oftentimes Missy works with bookstore Spring Source database sources switch to come in today or taken care of research can be this very stressful event. Just so we can show them what to do more education benefit prices most important I do we actually had two Librarians into Clerk the tenant did not get the difference between the two but a clerk is the person you're thinking of just damping and things like that to do that while we both have master's degrees so you have your regular teaching degree your for your bachelor's and then you have a master's degree because it teaches you the management of a library which is the aspect I think people don't necessarily understand but we have to order books well and you know I engine at my old school I had lots and lots of money and here I have a fine amount of money but you're supposed to be a good Steward no matter if you have lots of money or you know a good amount of money but you've got to spend a Time comparing prices we have to work within the budget we have to work with the bookkeeper we have to make sure pios are pulled before we order we have to compare three places to get the best price for that takes time we have to be teaching we have to manage our student work they have to be processed we have to tell our students and guide them in that work often we have to cover the book genre fi Dar collection a couple years ago so we have to make decisions and we did that we were hearing from student lots of management things go on in the library that people don't necessarily see in the ordering of the books goes along with the curriculum of the school and with what teachers are asking for the projects that were play teaching fiction you know we want to make sure that it's geared toward teen though it's not necessarily the latest and greatest adult book we don't you know some of our kids those things but it needs to be a teen ventured collection one of our Logan so I guess is that we want everyone to find them self on the Shelf so we try to make sure we have a wide variety of books that would appeal to everybody so you're right there is a lot that goes into people don't necessarily see what genre are your local bookstore and usually go to your section which one you really like the most and well there's a cup of authors where's the romance Johnson's great our circulation 25% in the first year and is students go to their spot that they really like separated by genre to begin with traditional catalog is just an F or fiction and the first three letters of the office so just how it is how it has been done I guess John's vacation is about probably a ten-year-old idea and some libraries really take the plunge like them Elementary School libraries have an animal section and it has fiction in fiction put together and we didn't do that we figured Dewey Decimal the non-fiction that took care of John replication already so we have only genre fide are fiction section describing your idea people ask sometimes about you books young adult books on it go on a road trip he's got all of your books in one thing you say people ask if you mean parents acted nobody ever asks we got this they wanted to know on a certain like age level and someone gay and three weeks later he was done with an NSAID when can I get the second book Rick Riordan actual book for like travel and convenience not our lives are different than students and Brian are both actually audiobook listener and I was an audiobook in the car when I have our students and so we feel like to do better stewards of our money but an audio books are more expensive than print those anyways we just funnel them to the public library who does have the we just think that our students line Sprint that is used and the ebooks that we have it's all research which is fine but that's how I was being used when coming into the library is there's a we have authored that they Baba before you know that someone so book is gay tell me now and there you want to buy the book that you're is a reading number one that checked out type of love would you guys when I guess I want to see that's not my wheelhouse but it's not about me it's about them just walked by singing songs from the school board early November and we usually make like a massive sport we block out of we make our orders and make like a massive order and so when challenges to leave a little bit of the front within the framework of the school system we're not a public library money is turning over constantly we get money at certain time in the account for the occasional Amazon order of the latest and greatest would you have to be judging on everything the latest and greatest we know Sarah J Maas which is backed by Santa Fe must really be one jonra in our life I can appear together but we know she's popular and we try to buy her latest book finished John go to come out with another latest one we would get that but we can't let everything be the latest and greatest that's not how money Works in a pool and so that is one difficulty that we paid Doc and keep up with some of these authors like Jeff zentner or Adam Silvera or or booted Arnold gets Courtney Stevens and people like people like that include me glowing in the dark ages I don't recall there being like current authors that kids read it was we read we read the classics that had been around you know for 20 30 and 40 years or sharing what they read more word of mouth then and before you know like when we were all kids he would have been riding a light like that might have been an assignment where you actually physically write a letter and mail it to an author and maybe the whole class received the letter or 40 officers dead or or whatever but is it really a store like the cult of the author now people are no doubt that it's not just from students from from adults to guess here as part of your conversation with DeWitt school I mean it's like Bono arrives it's incredible it's talking somebody's book festivals around the country and it's creepy when some of them walk in when you know Adam Silvera comes in from New York and he'll go to every year you know when his signing is gone because the bookstore at that middle is a real thing or game changer for here because like you said Adam from New York could not afford to bring him to our school Jeff lived locally and you know there's still a fee for another office visit having Sia with all those people together and then students can choose their favorite the people that they follow cuz obviously different people follow different authors that's a really awesome for the kids to get to see those because we can't necessarily provide that all the time we can do like one author a year but they get to go to Sia and they seem 36 authors mystery is that the Book Festival that happened in MTSU every March couple of librarians here in the county of George creek and a few others I've got that Goin is breathe which is in pain Richard Siegel Foundation I know helps a lot with that one and students from our County and I think a few other counties and then books on Saturday there's a free day for the also wood panels impressive how the whole thing works all over Jersey's Pizza and then some different ones in his impressive now that operation words speech a red wine is from Nashville husband is on mix 92 9 radio stay over here sometimes she'll be on the radio her on the radio Jeff Danner is logo Courtney Stevens is local so we are actually living in a really play Arthur's as well though we we are teachers teacher that you had just really to my third grade teacher Blanton and I have been told that she now lives in Murfreesboro but someone had told me she was really scary and so I spent the first few weeks if they're great crying I would go and then I discovered that she wasn't very she was drunk and had high expectations that she was really fun her mother we called her mother Blanton would come in and help us look like arts and crafts and she was wonderful and I was in a split start Drake clapping it was just a really good experience but her high expectations really changed something in me on the other hand perhaps I was too had too high of expectations because I had a teacher in 7th grade English teacher in her name with Karyn Bryant she went on to become an assistant principal but she was a great English teacher she was wonderful but one day she pulled me aside and said you were too serious for a 7th grader you need to lighten up and go I also know did you hear that and so I really appreciated both of those people particular up I mean I think Miss Bryant that was probably a hard conversation to have with somebody I don't know that I would have that conversation with the students but it it is something I still think about from 7th grade teacher open Jasper Tennessee I was really dumb and crazy boy who didn't really give my best and biggest grammar every single day and I developed love and grammar and the technical things and by the end of the year I realized I want to do that I want to change my life that sounds interesting structure and teachers going to hear anything playing structure is one of the keys to it and I had lunch at him a few years ago and it was so great to tell him what he had done for me I don't know do one quick shout-out Graybar dr. Vincent De Pere library in awards at the Tennessee Association School librarian banquet if we had a she won and nominated her and she was in the thing that I say then we got up when she just let us do our job deal she trust us with it she gives an extra resources she'll come by and chat and see what you guys think about this she is amazing by the word for so I just choose the best guys keep pushing

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RCS Beyond the Classroom Podcast: Blackman High School librarians Misti Jenkins and Brian Seadorf

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