Beecher Feature

1. February Highlights

• Blind Date With a Book
• Recent Lock Stars
• Let's Get Candid

2. Resource Reminder - New for physics, chemistry, and algebra

3. Summer Reading Student Questionnaire - help!

4. What are we worried about, Indiana??

We had a great time watching our students using their school library media center to meet their academic and personal needs this past month. Below you'll have a sampling of our Blind Date With a Book participants. We wish we could have gotten a picture of everyone! If you missed out on visiting our Blind Date With a Book activity, never fear....we think it is a keeper!

You'll also see some photos of our most recent BreakoutEDU activity. Mr. Griffith's US History students were incredible! The puzzle was challenging and the kids stuck with it by working collaboratively in their groups and pushing through to find solutions! We love the engagement!

Finally, we hope you enjoy a small sampling of a few random candid photos of students using their school library.

Innovation teacher, Mr. Griffith, and his US History students spent a couple of days in the library working through a challenging BreakoutEDU activity. What a joy it was to witness their perseverance while working through some of the tricky clues! One team even had lunch in the library so they could keep working on "breaking out"!

If you have not tried a BreakoutEDU activity with your students, your library team wants to let you know we have your back. The students typically love the activities and it shows through the level of engagement we see regularly.

We hope you enjoy some of our latest random candid shots of our students using their school library!

We have recently acquired three new items that will hopefully inspire our math and science teams. These are print (*GASP*) and I know if we put our heads together we can develop activities that incorporate the cartoon guides highlighted below. Read on to learn more. We would love to brainstorm with you!

Cartoon illustrations not only add a touch of humor but also enhance the text by depicting the principles discussed. Use for whole group instruction or stations! Our students could eventually make some academic cartoons of their own!

Believe it or not, summer reading programing starts several months ahead of summer. That's why our partners at IndyPL are seeking student input about summer reading titles.

The Summer Reading Program is looking for suggestions from students for booklists to share with this year's readers. Can you ask your students to fill out this form to let us know what they might like to read this summer?

Here's the form address: https://airtable.com/shrMag5QFuOf3CfpW. Or copy and paste the handy-dandy QR Code.

Advocating for School Libraries and Educators - We understand collection development!

The earthquake death toll in Turkey and Syria has risen above 41,000. War continues to rage in the Ukraine where more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides have lost their lives. According to the World Food Program, "A record 349 million people across 79 countries are facing acute food insecurity... More than 900,000 people worldwide are fighting to survive in famine-like conditions."

Back home in Indiana, we're worried whether students "have access to 'raw' and 'disgusting' works," according to an article in Indiana Capital Chronicle. Those would be "school library books that deal with sex education, drug use, violence, sexual abuse and gender identity." These books are considered "harmful to minors" and there's a bill being considered by the Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee that would allow prosecutors to charge teachers and school library staff with a crime. Rational minds would point out that none of our school libraries collect obscene or pornographic material.

While some might feel it would be a pretty natural response to limit our collection development work to materials that do not touch on any of the "hot topics" so that no one can accuse us of "harming kids", I also know that plenty of you would argue that it's not the right thing to do for our students. Students may seek out books on controversial topics for any number of reasons and we, as trained educators, understand these reasons and realize the importance of guidance in their quest to, perhaps, understand a friend or relative....to write a paper...to figure out their own path...to do research before discussing it with others. Books are windows and mirrors, friends, which is why trained educators (yes, this includes school librarians) are key to helping our young adults filter content they need for the own personal and academic growth.

Here's a link to the United Nations Crisis Relief page where you can donate to assist in any number of the crises going on in the world. And here's a link to the World Food Program if you're moved to make a donation to end hunger. They seem more urgent than jailing educators for books someone thinks are harmful.

The Decatur Central High School library media center works collaboratively with teachers and administrators to foster a safe, welcoming, and academic library space for all learners. We curate resources to support a standards driven curriculum as well as resources that will stimulate our students and teachers personal growth. The library team strives to provide guidance in research, problem solving, critical thinking, and information literacy to all of our DCHS patrons.

Email: dbeecher@decaturproud.org
Website: https://www.decaturproud.org/central-high/media-center
Location: 5251 Kentucky Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: 317.856.5288
Twitter: @dmbeecher