Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a good summer so far. Life in Scottsboro is super busy! Our summer program is widely anticipated each year and this year is no different. We have had numerous children and families in and out of the building for educational programs, story hour, Makerspace fun and the launch of our STEAM Learning Lab. Even with a holiday week we still have families that stop by and use the library. It is a good testament, I feel, to the rich values libraries have in communities.
Our project is coming along nicely. I still haven't had that "ah-ha" moment to come up with the correct name for the program, but I know that will happen in due time.
Right now we are battling the summer schedule of the educators in our community to nail down some additional meetings. The main contacts that I have at the school system are on vacation for a few weeks. Our email communication is semi-sufficient, but there is just something about being able to talk in person about the action plan and all with them. The goal is to meet with the junior high principal in the next week to discuss more about the implementation hour that we have set aside during the school year each month for the program.
I recently connected with the Jackson County Extension Office and will also be using some aspects of the Wonderful World of Leadership curriculum in programs at the junior high school and also programs for home school families of middle age students. That contact and I are meeting this week to discuss the program and see if we will be bringing in a person from the extension office to run the program or if I will be running it myself. Either way, there are a lot of good things in the curriculum that I can build off of.
The goal is to provide middle school students at the junior high school with opportunities to understand the importance of building soft skills and maintaining leadership qualities. Both of these things are taught in 5th and 6th grade and in the 9th grade, but nothing like this is taught in the 7th and 8th grade. The goal is to keep these ideas fresh in their minds so that there is not a lag between swapping grades and schools.