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Passive Programming in the Middle School Library

3/29/2025

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I went to a fantastic session at the Texas Library Association Conference in 2024 about passive programming, led by Elizabeth Herndon, Rebecca Gruen, and Nancy Limmer, and I put a ton of their ideas into practice the following school year. Passive programming is essentially what you put out for people to engage with - but you don't have to be standing there or directing anything about it while it's happening. It's an invitation to come in and create, which is my favorite thing ever.

Mini Contests

I started out with Mini Contests in the library. Full of success with my new 3D printing skills the past spring, I decided to 3D print prizes for various contests we would run in the library - and we would rotate the types of contests, so it could speak to artists or word-o-philes or photographers and builders. When the 3D printer developed a crisis of self in late October, that threw a wrench in our prize plans, but we did have some fun contests worth repeating. In fact, I'd argue that you get more participation when students and staff know what to expect because they've seen examples before.

In my previous school district, we had Special Spot Photo Contests each year, where families took photos of students reading books related to their environment. For example, a family on vacation to the Grand Canyon might submit a photo of a student reading a book about the Grand Canyon, or a student reading a book about butterflies might be photographed in her back yard. I shifted that to a Literary Pets Photo Contest in the fall, where students submitted pictures of their pets "reading" books. I added all the pictures to a Google Form and invited staff members to vote for their favorites, and then I 3D-printed an articulated octopus and some stackable cats and a flexi dog for our top three prize winners.
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We ran a book-themed tissue box contest, but we didn't get a lot of entries. This might have been better suited for elementary students, or more successful if I already had the tissue boxes available to decorate at a station.
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We also had a sticky-note waffle drawing contest - an idea I got from the TLA presenters (above). I added each new entry to the display as they came in, which encouraged more students and staff members to create their own. I had my student Library Aides vote for their favorites, and then (since we had a tie), I asked a few regular student library visitors to add their votes to the mix. We 3D printed some waffle prizes for those winners, too.
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3D Printed Waffle Prizes (it's not really a waffle cone, but we pretended it was)
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Dino-waffle-eating Flip O Rama
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Prize-winning waffle drawing
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Sticky Note entries added to a rolling pocket chart display stand
We were going to have a Word Invention Contest and a Spooky Story Contest and more, but we had a giant jam in the 3D printer that paused our prize-making for a while, and then November through May was pretty much a blur, so we never got back to the contest thing. Lots of goals for next year, though!

Activity Stations

I love STEAM and maker mindsets and having lots of options for creating in the library. However, some materials are really messy and need some supervision, so I can't have them out all the time unless I want to spend most of my time cleaning them up afterward (which I do not). Still, there are lots of activities we can have out in the library to engage students that don't require direct supervision or assistance. I found that when I vary what I have out, it keeps it fresh and interesting for students and it doesn't clutter the space so we continue to have lots of room for library lessons and visits.

Some of the passive programming stations I've had out this year include:
  • A Rubik's cube station with stop watches - students add their names to the whiteboard leaderboard when they solve the cube in record time
  • Coloring Posters
  • Stick-Together Posters (earn a batch of stickers with each book check-out)
  • Building materials like marble run mazes, dominoes, and Keva Planks
  • A Lego table - when students are really attached to a detailed build, I add it to our glassed-in display case near the library entrance so others can see it
  • An I Spy Tank
  • This or That voting stations
  • Word of the Week Giant Dictionary Challenge
  • Board games like Mancala, chess, Apples to Apples, and Uno
  • A Buddha Board
  • A green screen with background noise filtering microphones for podcasting, videos, and book commercials
  • Bookmark Creation (we laminated the finished products)
  • Flores de Papel - tissue paper and chenille stems

I save some of the more complicated materials, like jewelry making, crochet, washi tape, calligraphy, button making, Shrinky Dinks, and Perler beads for designated Maker Days, when I have time to pull all the materials out and supervise them for the day.

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Resources:
Maker Mindsets - a Rationale for Reluctant Teachers
Introducing a Maker Mindset to Students - Beginning of the Year Activity
Hosting a Schoolwide Maker Day - Elementary
Picture Books with Maker Mindsets




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Maker Days in the Middle School Library

1/18/2025

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While I have been an advocate for STEAM instruction and Maker Mindsets for years, I have my middle school library colleague Jacqui Isser to thank for this particular model. Jacqui maintains a really gorgeous library newsletter she creates in Smore, and attentive student readers of the library newsletter will pay attention to upcoming Maker Days and check in with her to get passes to attend.

I offer a lot of building and arts activities for students on a regular basis through passive programming stations, but my Maker Days offer a little something extra. Here's how I set it up:



I schedule Maker Days about once a quarter, on Fridays. I would like to offer them more often, but our school calendar is really packed and it becomes challenging to find a time when there isn't an assembly or field trip or other conflict that would keep a lot of students from attending.

I advertise upcoming Maker Days to my Library Club students first, with information at the club meeting and in their Club Google Classroom. Then I'll add signage in the library so that regular library visitors know it's coming. I print passes in advance, and students can pick up passes starting the Monday before the Maker Day (they tend to lose them if I give them out any sooner).

Students are able to leave any class with teacher permission AND bring one friend from that same class. They need to have their class work complete to attend, and they can stay for 20 - 40 minutes (at the classroom teacher's discretion). I try to schedule Maker Days so they are near the end of a six-week grading cycle - that last day the testing and review is finished, but some students are needing to make up work to turn in, so the teacher isn't starting new content yet. This allows students to attend Maker Day without missing class content.

Our school day has eight periods, so my passes say students can attend at any time between 2nd and 7th periods. That gives me all of 1st period to drag out all the materials, and all of 8th period to put it all away. I teach library lessons, but I have a flexible schedule, so I clear everything else on Maker Days so I can supervise, replenish materials, iron Perler bead projects, and so forth throughout the day.

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What do students make on Maker Days?

Some students are happy just to have extra time with our usual library station materials, including Legos, Keva planks, coloring posters, and board games. But I do like to take out special things on Maker Days, because those are the only days I can manage some of those delicate supplies. I wrote a post about Maker materials with a variety of ideas, and here are some others:
  • Jewelry Making is hugely popular with my students - I have fishing wire and elastic cords, clay, glass, and letter beads, charms, spacers, jump rings, lobster claws, pliers and scissors, earring hooks, and a few other supplies at this station.
  • Zentangles and calligraphy are more fun with some examples - I have some cardstock squares, a guidebook with examples, and pretty pens at this station
  • Perler beads (see post link above) continue to be popular - I try to iron those projects all day so they are finished and ready to pick up after school
  • Origami star jars and fortune tellers
  • Magnetic building kits
  • Puzzles
I wondered if middle school students would still enjoy some of these activities or find them too young, and I've consistently found that they are happy to have a little time to create without high stakes for a while. Our students carry a lot of expectations and Maker Days are a great way for them to have some time to enjoy the process of making something - whether it's nostalgic or new to them.

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Community Quilt Project

1/5/2025

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Our campus is celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, and I wanted to mark the occasion with a lasting tribute in our library, which has gorgeous high ceilings and nothing on the wall space near the top. I decided I would love to have a community-created quilt (really a wall-hanging), displaying "shelves" of student-created fabric book spines, surrounded by squares of "book covers" on three sides.

Did I let the fact that I don't really know how to sew stop me? I did not. Did I have a moment of terror when the parent volunteer who was helping me moved to North Carolina in the middle of the year. I did. I really did. However, this project has been a really great collaboration tool this year, and I'm excited to see it finished.


The Vision

I have an incredible talent for picturing amazing things in my brain that inevitably fail to translate when I try to create those things with my hands. See: cookie decoration, Bento box magic, all kinds of drawing tasks, and yes, sewing. Still, I know what I want it to look like, so I drew a lot of sloppy sketches and set out fabric to help people see what I was going for.
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I bought royal blue fabric for the background, and white glitter iron-on vinyl for the title letters. I bought brown fabric for the shelves, and tried to stick with rainbow colors for the square outline and book spine fabrics.


Supplies

I measured my wall space, and I'll need the quilt to be about 7 feet long and about 4.5 feet tall to fit in the big space I have planned. I bought some royal blue fabric for the background (blue and gold are our school colors), and some brown, wood-looking fabric to form the three book shelves. Then I bought an assortment of fabric packs - many in 10 x 10 inch squares in classic Crayola colors, so there would be a little cohesion to the overall look.

I first started to create sample squares with a talented parent volunteer, and some talented library aides. These were very helpful for other students to see before they made their own. The first big generative push was at a Library Club meeting, where the quilt book spines was our designated craft that day. I had pre-cut spines and squares, fabric pens, fabric glue, charms, ribbon, thread and needles, fabric scissors, and additional fabric.

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Supplies - including fabric glue, fabric pens and paint, thread, fabric markers, and scissors
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Pre-cut book spine fabric
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Samples created in advance so students could get the idea
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Library Club students selecting materials for their book spines
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The Next Round

If you didn't gasp when you read "7 feet long," above, you may still appreciate how many book spines that's going to take to fill the space. It was clear pretty early on that viewers will not really be able to see the finer details of these book spines when they're hanging high up in the space, but we'll know they're there. In any case, it was clear I'd need more content, and this project was too complex to leave out as an ongoing unsupervised station, so I got some help.

I have some creative, artistic library aides who were willing to create some additional pieces, including a plant and a cat to sit on the bookshelf ends.

I also reached out to staff members - especially colleagues who regularly collaborate with library programs - as well as parent volunteers - to invite them to contribute book spines and squares to the project.

And I connected with our fantastic art teacher, who brought two of her classes in for two sessions each to help create some squares for us. This brought some really beautiful artistic work, but not all of these students were avid readers, so their ideas for books reached back to their elementary years, and we ended up with some book cover squares that we don't actually have in our library. We decided this was fine, especially since the art was so impressive! The art students, unlike the library club students, also tended to re-create real book covers, instead of creating their own interpretations of the books. Again, this worked out fine, but it was an interesting trend I didn't expect.

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Yet to Be Written . . .

We still have more book spines to go, and the entire mathematical calculation, arrangement, sewing, and assembly of the project to go, but I love having student-created work living in our space, and I can't wait to see the finished product!
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3D Printing for First-Timers - Monsters Under Construction

4/13/2024

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For a long time, I've been 3D printer-adjacent; I've been fortunate to work alongside instructional technology and STEAM personnel on campuses, so I knew what 3D printers could do and encouraged students to use 3D printing as independent project formats, but I hadn't managed the machines or designs myself. I started at a new campus this year, and I knew I didn't want the brand new 3D printer to be sitting in a closet, so I went to some hands-on training, built a lesson, and jumped in with both feet. I hope this post can offer some tips and learning to others out there in similar situations!
The Lesson
I worked with 15 different 8th grade ELA classes in the library - about half were advanced, and half were "on level." There were about 20 - 30 students per class, and I have nine tables with 4 chairs each in the teaching/presentation area of my library.

I started with a read-aloud that was only loosely connected to monsters (I'll take any excuse to share a fun picture book): Alex Willan's Unicorns Are the Worst. The text talks about some characteristics of unicorns, as well as goblins and dragons, so we would be focusing on designing our own original monsters.

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Picture Books with STEAM and Maker Mindset Themes

1/3/2024

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As the former librarian at an elementary STEAM campus, I was always looking for useful read-aloud books to highlight books that illustrate creativity productivity. Whether it's the idea generation or research stage, building and refining prototypes, collaborating and exchanging feedback, or persisting in the face of struggles, there are a lot of skills involved with STEAM education and makerspaces. Here are a few titles that might be useful for classrooms, campuses, and families who want to explore maker concepts.
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Boxitects by Kim Smith
Everyone who's ever known the joy of a group project can connect to this story, especially if you're a big ideas person who likes to be in charge. When you already have a vision about what something will look like, it can be hard to acknowledge other good ideas, much less incorporate them into your own work. This story respects and names this reality so that when team conflicts arise, participants can refer back to the story discussion for solutions and strategies.

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Pine and Boof Blast Off  by Ross Burach
A celebration of imagination and making that is sure to appeal to young students - and more than a few older ones, too.

If you like Pine and Boof, there are more books in this series. And if you teach K-4 kids and haven't done any read-alouds by Ross Burach, run to your nearest library for guaranteed laughs.

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Be a Maker by Katey Howes
The whole book is an invitation to engage in the creative process. It might be particularly helpful to read before brainstorming possible projects or building ideas.


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Made by Maxine by Ruth Spiro
Maxine is shown trying invent something that will allow her pet goldfish to participate in the pet parade. Her persistence and clever re-purposing of recycled objects offer plenty of inspiration for additional projects.



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    Jamie Wright

    I've had the privilege of working with hundreds of students and families in IA, CT, NC, MO, TX, and Canada. I love being a teacher-librarian!
    My previous roles have included preK - 12 music, K-8 gifted and talented, K-8 creative writing, and 5th grade general education. I love reading, writing, travel, and quirky ideas.

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