Reflections on 9th Grade Orientation

This is the first time in 12 years as a Teacher-Librarian that I've made Freshmen Orientation completely a hands-on task. As such, I thought it called for a moment of reflection.

Soooo...this was good. It was. At the end of two days, I feel like I've done more than reinforce the stereotype of boring libraries to 300 kids. Every student was engaged every period from bell to bell.

     

• Did it work perfectly? No
• Did they leave knowing what I needed them to know about the library? I hope so.
• Was it my most successful orientation? Absolutely!

First period Day 1 was a COMPLETE disaster! Students don't have access to YouTube, so my screencast video of how to search on the OPAC wasn't accessible. The ThingLink contained waaaaay too much information, and the ipads needed to access the audiotour were locked in the cart to which the key had disappeared. Talk about a lesson plan going south.

Thankfully, Mrs. Skinner and her first period students were all SUPER gracious, helped me breathe through the mess, and promised they'd come back for do-overs. By second period, though, an AP came to the rescue with lock-cutters, I revamped the ThingLink and questionnaire, and I decided to run the Destiny video from the library Smart board. (Why I didn't think of that to begin with, I don't know.) 

Even though things were running a heck of a lot more smoothly, it was just too much. We never had time to puzzle the activity, and every period ran out of time to play the formative assessment--a Kahoot quiz covering what they'd learned that day, so they left without me knowing exactly how much was gleaned from each station.

At the end of the day, Mrs. Skinner suggested that I nix the MakerSpace station to preserve time for the more need-to-know stations, and I thought that a good idea. To ensure each student received the information I needed them to know, I also changed the puzzle activity to a simple activity rotation. Day 2 went much better all the way around; however, I felt a bit of that not-enough feeling when a student asked me at the beginning of first period, "Do we get to do the MakerSpace today? I heard that was really fun!" DOH!!! 

At the end of Day 2, Mrs. Offenbaker's feedback was to give the ThingLink to the classroom teachers as an in-class pre-teach the day before in preparation for them coming to the library the following day. I liked that idea too. 

At the end of the day, here are my successes:

• Students had fun in the library! (ALWAYS a win!!)
• Students interacted with library equipment: Smart board, Destiny catalog, ipads, etc.
• Students learned the layout of the library and how to locate books in a genrefied system.
• I didn't talk all day....snoooooooozzzzzzzzzzzze....
  And...here are my takeaways:

• Keep the station rotation to ensure every student is presented with the information I need them to know.
• Consider partnering with English 1 teachers to Pre-Teach the ThingLink information prior to orientation day to allow time for lesson closure and formative assessment.
• Consider scheduling a "maker" day orientation with various projects students could choose from paired with a blogging reflective piece to cover the English TEKS in lieu of trying to cram it in with definite need-to-know information.

Even though we ran out of time on both days, I guess the biggest testament to a successful orientation was that Monday morning, The Cube was teaming with freshmen. I'd call that a win!