Colleen Venable: Words of Advice in our Zoom World

I have a big sign on my refrigerator, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt.  The project yesterday was hosting a Zoom meeting. It went really well. I was fortunate to receive a grant from LAMBDA LITERARY.ORG to host an author who wrote a book dealing with LGBTQ issues.  Our high school was very fortunate to read Kiss Number 8 and meet Colleen Venable.  Our students read the book and even created some delicious burritos to complement the cheese fries and the role of “comfort foods” in the book.  

Even over Zoom, Ms. Venable’s exciting and friendly personality shown through.  She invited the students into her home, shared some secrets of the profession and encouraged our students to keep working.  Colleen admitted she submitted 31 books before she finally got published.

She reminded the students to be humble, you can always get better.

Ms. Venable also told the students her secret to becoming a writer: “you work hard.”

Her secret to becoming a cartoonist, “just keep drawing.”

“Push self doubts back, ask yourself what do I enjoy, and if you do what you enjoy you will get good at it.”

This is so important in today’s world. As we stay home and are left with hours to explore the web, look for webinars for what you enjoy and find the time to practice. Take time to draw a cartoon, or paint, or code.  

Colleen shared her working panels with our students.

Tech Tips for the Corona Environment

With all schools on lockdown, I created a newsletter to inform our teachers about some tech tips available. Read my latest newsletter here.

Life as a Solo School Librarian

This year my school decided to downsize from two librarians to one. This is a big change, as for the past five years we operated with two full time librarians. I am now a “one size fits all shop.” I do it all, from cataloging, to ordering, to weeding, to teaching classes, to monitoring the open access periods, fixing the printer and helping students and teachers on an individual basis. It is challenging, for sure, but the day goes fast.

My most important takeaways, thus far, is prioritize, and know everything will never get done. I try to make a to do list each day before I leave, so when I arrive the next day, I know what needs to be done. I also try to use shortcuts, when I can, such as order books already processed from vendors and using booklists from ALA YALSA or the NYPL Best Books for Teens to help me select books to purchase. When creating bulletin boards I use pre cut letters and create quick designs using a paper cutter and a printer. Pinterest is great for bulletin board ideas.

October Bulletin Board Using Precut Letters and Book Jackets Reproduced on Copy Machine, precut designs purchased on sale pre Halloween.

Show Me The Money

Money talks.  Money has value. Money can help you turn your passions into reality.

Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on Unsplash

As a teacher, I am often at the bottom of the decision making ladder when it comes to curriculum design.  However, when I create a grant, I get to control and direct a curriculum plan of my own. I have won grants to create a gardening center in my school, an entrepreneurship corner, a cooking club and a “read and relax center.”  All of these programs have been started with small grants from a variety of sources, including Lowe’s Toolbox for Education, the NYC School Library Services Division, New York Agriculture in the Classroom and Donor’s Choose.

How did I win these grants?  

Tip 1: Start small. It is much easier to win small grants than large grants. The applications are shorter, the requirements are often easier to meet and often there is less competition. One of the first grants I won was from Lowe’s Toolbox for Education. I was awarded $5,000 to create a “relax and read center.” With the money I was able to purchase a couch, some benches, lamps and tables to create a relaxing environment in my library where students literally would “relax and read,” just like the name of my reading center.  I also won a travel grant to attend a library conference from the Nassau County Library Association. This is a local award limited to members of the organization. Because the grant is limited to librarians who are members of the organization, there is a smaller pool of applicants and the competition is less.

Tip 2: Do your homework.  You must read everything about the grant before you begin to apply and follow all the instructions.  By careful reading, you will learn exactly what the grantors are looking for and you can tailor your application to meet their needs.  You will also learn who qualifies for the award and will not waste your time on grants that you do not qualify for. For example, many grants require that the institution is in a high poverty area with a certain percentage of students qualified to get free school lunch.  If your school does not meet that requirement, you will not get the grant, no matter how creative and wonderful your application is.

Tip 3:  Get a Team Together

No matter how wonderful you are, it is almost always better to have more than one person working on the grant.  Some projects require more than one person. It is also helpful to have a backup in case you can’t do everything.  Organizations also like you to involve many different facets, for example, parents, teachers and students. It is best to have representatives from each class of people.

Tip 4: Tailor Answers to Questions Asked

Don’t use one application for all grants.  Remember when you were job hunting? Your chances increase if you write a different cover letter for each job you are applying for.  The same thing applies to grant writing. The more specific you are, the better your chances are. Read the application, go back to the research, see what type of projects won in the past, and tailor your project to what the organization is looking for.

Tip 5:  Write Clearly

Remember the 5 Cs from writing. Write clearly, concisely, compelling, creative, and consistent.

Tip 6: Proofread

It’s very important, don’t skip it.  While you are proofreading, ask someone to read it and offer you comments. It helps to have a fresh look. After you are working on something for so long, you often don’t see the errors.

Tip 7: Don’t give up.

Ask for feedback if you don’t get the grant.  Try again and again. Success comes after you learn from your mistakes. If you do get the grant, remember to follow up. Write thank yous. Post to social media. Keep the grantors updated on the wonderful progress you are making.  The world keeps getting smaller and smaller. People will know you and if they see you run successful projects, someday, someone may come to you with money to donate to your organization.

Follow your dreams. Use google alerts  and sign yourself up for newsletters to your favorite organizations to find out about grants.  Good luck.

Teaching Social Activism Conference May 19, 2019

Gardening in the Classroom with Tower Gardens Won Through a Grow with Us Grant from NY Aginthe Classroom

Join me at the Teaching Social Activism Conference at the Museum of the City of New York. I will be presenting a workshop entitled “Cultivating Tomorrow by Gardening Today” together with the students of Veritas High School. I will be giving tips on how to get winning grants to inspire passion and create engaging learning experiences for your students.

March is Women’s History Month and NYC Reads 365 New Book Deliveries

We are so excited to get our new books from NYC Reads 365.  Because I Was A Girl by Melissa de la Cruz is the perfect book for inspirational stories about amazing women and the women who inspired them.  There are beautiful, moving black and white photographs of famous women.  Thank you to the School Library Services divison of the NYC Dept. of Ed. for creating a libguide to highlight the new books selected for the Read 365 List.

Welcome back to school and Happy New Year!

This is my latest newsletter, created with S’more.com. I love the simplicity of it, so easy to create, so easy to disseminate.  The staff loves it too. I get great feedback.

FHS Library Promotes Diversity

My latest edition of our newsletter, celebrating diversity.

NYLA SSL: Make, Learn, Inspire

I was fortunate enough to attend the NYLA SSL Conference again this year as a Laura Wedge Scholarship winner.

It is an honor and a privilege to share and learn from my colleagues across the state. I always come away with more ideas than I can implement in a school year.  This year was no exception.  I had so much difficulty choosing which workshops to attend.

I was so impressed with the librarians at the Localvore WORKSHOP I attended.  Librarian Gail Brisson and special education teacher Melissa Bryant collaborated to create a monthly teacher luncheon totally grown, cooked and prepared by the self contained ISS students.  I was totally overwhelmed with the extent of the student involvement, from creating an entire vegetable garden with materials donated by Cornell University.

I also attended the Copyright and Fair Use workshop by Jim Belair, SLS Director and Anne Dalton, Esq.

They simplified the teaching exemption to the Fair Use Laws by reminding us 1: it must be tied into teaching, don’t show a movie without a lesson attached, 2: material must be from a legal source, don’t use something you found on Youtube. and 3:it must be shown for display and performance only, not a money making opportunity.  Keep a record of the questions that you presented with the film to show that you were using it for teaching purposes.  They shared 2 excellent resources created by ALA:  The Fair Use Evaluator:  which will help you justify the material you showed as fitting under the fair use exception  and the Digital Slider which clarifies when copyright laws expire.

Programming Made Easy was another workshop I attended which gave me some fast, practical ideas for programming in the library.  Some of the ideas explained and demonstrated were a Battle of the Books competition run by  different middle schools in the area and culminating in a competition between the schools, a family reading night, coffee house days and poetry slams.  I was excited by the comments of the librarians about how the students look forward to the events from year to year and begin requesting specific programs as early as September.

Some of the resources are now available online.   More are to be added shortly.

I thank NYLA SSL for giving me the opportunity to attend the conference through the Laura Wedge Scholarship Award.

I encourage all my fellow New York State school librarians to become members of NYLA.    The dues are very reasonable and open you up to exciting programs and resources.  It is very easy to remain isolated when you work in a specific school, but when you become part of a larger organization, you grow your network of professional contacts and are able to learn and grow exponentially.

 

November Happenings

This is my latest newsletter. I created this with Smore.com.

S’more lets me see how many people read my newsletter and how much time they spend reading it.  I like the platform and recommend it to others.  If you are interested in getting a trial subscription, click this link.

Barbara Stripling addresses NYC School Librarians

I recently attended the Fall New York City School Library  System Conference at Citifield.  We were fortunate to hear from Barbara Stripling, former president of A.L.A. One of the most powerful things she told us was to lead from the middle.  “You are more powerful than the principal and your colleagues.”

It is so encouraging to remember how important we are as librarians.  I also heard Dr. David  Loertscher, creator of the School Learning Commons website.  As librarians, we have to make it happen.  The whole world shifted with the creation of google. It is our job to bridge the gap, collaborate with teachers and help them create and empower our learning communities.

Finally, we were so lucky to hear Sharon Draper, winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award, five time National Teacher of the Year Award and author of Tears of a Tiger, Out of My Mind, and many other books for teens.  She told us “don’t just tell me about your story, write the book.”  She reminded us of the need for diverse books and how there could never be enough books for the diverse student body around the country.  Her advice to new librarians: “read 100 books, then read another 100 books, so you are always ready to find the perfect book for the child who says ‘I don’t read books’.”