Rudolph Gordon Middle School Library

For my first interview, I spoke with Gaelyn Jenkins (who is a middle school librarian at Rudolph Gordon School) about the shared foundation of "Explore". A list of interview questions can be found here.

Rudolph Gordon School is a K-8 that serves around 1,500 students. Of those students,  Gaelyn Jenkins primarily serves the middle school students. For school demographics, the school has approximately 33% people in poverty, 33% special education students, and they have a low population of ESOL students. The primary race of the students in the school is white with Hispanic students and black students making up the next largest minorities.

For this interview, we really looked at how the Explore shared foundation is used in the library. This was particularly pertinent because that day’s library lessons looked at the different genres and the types of books that can be found in each genre. We talked about the fact that the library is genre-fied and that students are encouraged to find books that interest them (not just something they have to read).

When asked for some examples of how the library program implements the explore shared foundation, Gaelyn talked about how this is well within the librarian's general wheelhouse because librarians are always encouraging personal curiosity (especially since the library is one of the only places in school where students have the freedom to really explore their likes and dislikes). One of the ways she does this (in fact her favorite way) is by going through the different genres with students. She has them take a genre personality quiz where students can identify genres that will be a good starting point for them. This allows students to be able ask themselves questions about what kinds of books they like (“think” domain). Then she uses the results as a starting block to help students find books that will interest them. However, she makes sure that students know that this does not mean that they can only read these types of books. This is also a great project for students because it allows for a lot of the share domain- students are able to talk about the types of books they like and find others with similar tastes. They can talk about the books that they find and make recommendations to other students. Another project that she talked about was the Student Community Project that students create based on the UN Sustainable Development goals. Students have to identify a problem in the local community and apply the UN Sustainable Development goals to then research and find a solution. The culmination of this project is an actionable solution. They present their research to stake holders in the community to see if they can facilitate change.

When asked about some of the challenges that she faces when trying to implement the explore shared foundation, Gaelyn really talked about the lack of time. For middle schoolers, they do not have a set time to come to the library. As a result, her time with them is limited to when a teacher requests library time for their class or to when a student comes in before school or during class times. However, Gaelyn knows that being able to impart her knowledge to students so that they can explore on their own is something that builds on itself. It is something that she can come back to again and again and add little bits of knowledge for the students to build on. 

One of the issues that Gaelyn brought up in the interview that I had never thought of before was that space and travel distance are often an issue. The middle school is actually pretty far from the physical library, as a result, there is instructional time lost to travel. As the librarian, Gaelyn tries to find ways to maximize her time with students and also take away some of the stress for the teachers. Often, she will offer the library up as class space. That way, she can participate in the lesson (or at least listen to the lesson) so that she can then come by and support teachers better in their instruction. Thinking about travel to and from the library as being problem (due to a larger campus) is something I had never considered before. Students need to come to the library since that is where the resources are housed. Having to think outside the box (i.e. move the classroom to the library to save time) to solve this issue is something that I had not considered.

Another thing that I really appreciated from the interview was that Gaelyn really focused on student reflection. A big part of the "explore" shared domain is reflecting and thinking about what you've learned and how you can apply things to yourself. This is an area where Gaelyn really puts the focus back on students and has students engage in discussion. Often, as a teacher, I never had much time for reflection in the classroom. I like that Gaelyn has made sure to make it a priority as she engages students in learning.