Diane Chen

Girls' Lunch group of the Library Club

How do these things keep happening? We had too many students who wanted to be part of the library club during advisory period so we divided into several groups including boys' lunch on Thursdays, girls' lunch on Tuesdays, and the regular advisory period. That 154 student group kept growing somehow and seems to be over 180 with a student population around 900. 

I began the girls lunch group with 37 girls planning to come at lunch the first day, then as they realized it was a staggered schedule and actually it meant 3 separate groups of students were coming, more students appeared. Some of the lunch groups are smaller with 8-9 girls around a table in the Kennedy room. 

But then along comes the group of 6th grade girls who brought their friends who desperately wanted to be in the library club and part of something that was actually doing something. (Their vocabulary, not mine) So I grid the tasks they want to accomplish and tell them to get themselves organized into working groups. This sixth grade group keeps growing and growing as they bring in more chairs and we suddenly have 25 bodies crammed into the tiny room. They bring each other up-to-speed, assign tasks, and make their plans for next week. Some of them go to put up more WrestleMania posters and they come back with <you guessed it!> more girls who want to work during lunch in the "calm" of the library instead of the cafeteria. 

So what has come from this group so far? They are currently organizing their arguments to convince the principal to allow them to have:

• a Spring book fair with a diner theme, food, and entertainment in April
• a night at Books A Million for families to shop for the holidays
• a night at the Southeast Branch of our Nashville Public Library system
• a field trip to a local college library
• a field trip to the Nashville Public Library downtown branch teen room
• Book Bingo
• a Book Swap
• Display creation groups
• Video taping of advertisements for events and booktalks
• Poster making to encourage reading
• Wrestlemania promotion
• Writing contests including the new flyer about the 250 word contest. This flyer has tabs so students can pull off the URL and enter the contest. That group distributed these to every room for display
• a sleepover with author Cynthea Liu (author of Paris Pan Takes the Dare)
• Library Workers who get out of class to help in the library, and
• a Library pet. 

I have to wonder what the Library Club would do if we met altogether. World domination? Peace in the Middle East? A cure for cancer? Please, don't give them any more ideas today. I need a vacation. I think I'll go hang out with a few thousand friends in Charlotte, North Carolina for AASL. Look me up and give me your donations to the Spectrum Scholarship. My library club courtesy subcommittee will even send you a thank you.

Posted by Diane Chen on November 3, 2009 | Comments (0)