Clean Up My Act

My husband knew. He knew right away that somehow, I'd squeeze in a reference to our newly purchased washer and dryer into this week's blog post. He even guessed at the way I'd connect it to education. (To paraphrase his assumption: "you will probably talk about things like how do you know what you don't know to find things out, like shopping for a dryer and making the best decision and becoming prepared to make those decisions").

He was right about the new appliances, but not necessarily about the approach. 

September is a time in the school year to start things fresh, with new supplies, an extra-tidy space, and renewed energy. This is definitely true for me. Last year, I started the school year without that time to clean things up and physically prepare (because I was in Alaska just before school began). This year, I set up the space with more intention, spruced up our new Library Tree, and planned some lessons.

The library tree is gorgeous! I never had great places for book displays and now, I have a beautiful spot to highlight specific titles in a visually appealing and dynamic way. I bought the fake leaves and intend on switching them out depending on the season. (It's a mix of green and yellow because it's still technically summer even though I'm getting fall vibes.) It's my goal to rotate the books in this display regularly. Mr. Malisani was the one who found books and matched them up with stuffed animals at the bottom. The middle section contains all sorts of "first day of school" picture books, such as "The Kissing Hand", "You're Finally Here", and "The Day You Begin". 

The rest of the library looks nice too. I realize that I haven't shared current photos of the most recent changes to the space, so here's a quick overview.

We brought back the old circulation desk because it's smaller and the wood matches the new tables better.

The loose parts storage area, skinny pig cage, and big bins filled with things students use are much more accessible now than they were before. 

The new tables (with matching blue chairs to replace the library's signature purple-brown chairs) are on the carpet that was replaced during the 2020-21 school year (when the library was closed).

This bookshelf is for the multilingual / bilingual books. Behind it is my work area, that spills out from my office. Now I have a space to work where I can see what's going on in the library a bit better, but still have the option for retreating into my library office for privacy. 

The Everybody book section has more bean bag chairs and the pillar has been transformed into a birch tree, complete with chicken wire / paper-maché branches.

This desk is the second circulation desk, for self-check out. Behind it is the green screen area for filming purposes. The fiction section is now in a comfy yet spacious alcove.

This is the view from the second circulation desk. It provides another great view of the library, so any supervisor can see what most students are up to while visiting.

What I love about school libraries in September is how clean they are. The book shelves aren't in complete disarray yet. Everything is in its proper place. It won't stay like that, of course. I'm not a library dragon, and libraries are meant to be used. I didn't expect that the book I chose to use for my first week lessons would disappear on the very first day. (Thankfully, a bookstore had a copy so I bought another one for myself. Naturally, the very next day, I found my missing book hidden on a shelf in the non-fiction section.) 

My lessons seemed to go pretty smoothly, except for that missing book drama. (I had to pivot quickly on the first day, because all of my loose parts provocations were based on that specific book.) Here's a quick peek. 

Guidance

My very first guidance lessons went well. I had a "meme component" to the plan, which appealed to the students, revealed some interesting presumptions about intermediate classes, and served to inform my work on the use of memes for instructional purposes. This still fits with the theme of this blog, because all the memes used were "clean ones"; they were school appropriate because I used cards from the family-friendly game "Family Meme Night".

Library

Now that I have an adequate collection of loose parts, spaces for students to build on, containers to hold the loose parts, and sign holders to share the prompt, I feel like I can do an even better job of my library loose parts provocations, even better than when I presented on the topic at OLA Super Conference in 2024! I feel like I'm even doing better at documenting it, between the photos and the notes taken on my phone based on what the students said their visuals represented. The students did a very good job of cleaning up after themselves by putting the supplies back in the containers. 

ESL

I'm still working my way through all the initial assessments that I have to complete with my ESL students, but I got this idea from somewhere and grabbed it to use on the very first week. We played Spot It but I insisted that they say the name of the object that they found as a duplicate on their card and the card in the center. Afterwards, they had to write some sentences based on the pictures. It was fun and they willingly wrote! I also obtained for them some clean, new folders that they can put loose papers in, which is a lot sooner than I was ready last year. 

STEM

Never allow a teacher-librarian to enter a bookstore during the first week of school. I went in to buy just a single book, to replace the one that went AWOL. I walked out with five books, including Ashley Spires' new book, "The Most Magnificent Team". Even though the book was a bit of a long one to read to squirmy Grade 1s, the point about teamwork during STEM challenges was important to hear as we worked on creating whatever they wanted out of Keva Planks.

This effort to "clean up my act" extends to myself and my environment too. As part of my "refresh" goal for 2025, I made a point of wearing a bit of makeup to school each day (just eyeliner and lipstick) every day this week, and proudly wearing some of my newest Fluevogs. (For anyone that's counting, in September 2024, I owned 19 pairs of Fluevogs. In September 2025, that number has jumped to 29 pairs. I might be a little obsessed.)

Shoe Selfies

Day 1 (September 2, 2025) = KKBB ^^^

Day 2 (September 3, 2025) = Baroque Cortana ^^^

Day 3 (September 4, 2025) = Fermare ^^^

Day 4 (September 5, 2025) = Tina ^^^

Warning: the last photo of this blog post is disgusting. When we prepared to put in the new washer and dryer, we swept and mopped and cleaned the floor under the old appliances. It was so gross! Cleaning inspires more cleaning. We are going to clean up the back of the basement a bit more now that it's tidier. This also inspired me to clean my keyboard. My son owns a keyboard cleaning kit, complete with a tool that snaps keys off so you can do a deep clean. This is a photo of what my home desktop computer keyboard looked like when I started to clean it out thoroughly. I should mention that I never eat at my computer desk and I haven't cleaned it ever using this special device. (My usual cleaning method involved hitting the keyboard against the desk and hoping dust would fall out.)

The educational tie-in is simply this - don't be afraid to clean. Clean up your approach to match the students in front of you. Clean up your physical space so it lends itself to calm teaching and learning. Clean and clear your thoughts of any self-doubt or too much negativity. It may not stay that way - I'm reminded of Mr. Incredible's lament in the first movie that he just cleaned up this mess and he's like the maid and he wishes it could stay clean for just a little bit longer - but good things happen to those who clean (I guess - I'm admittedly not much of a cleaner!).