The First Six Weeks

 

And here we go!  It's the end of the first grading period.  Wow!  Not going to lie.  This hasn't been easy.   Teachers are excited about having the students back in person, of course.  However, may of our stay-at-home students are not responding well to the pace & rigor of being back in person.  I keep reminding myself that our incoming Freshman class was in 7th grade when the world shut down.  How can we expect them to just become 9th graders when many of them stayed home for a year and a half?  I am using the Freshman as an example, but the same is happening with all the other grades as well.  Online is much slower than virtual, and it shows.  The teachers are struggling, and so are the students.

However, the library is a different story.  Here, we have had an increase in student involvement.  That might be due to the fact that I visited EVERY English class this first 6 weeks (see August 26th blog entry).  I made that a priority because the students needed to know the library is open for business.  As a direct result, we had a record number of students participate in the Digital Scavenger Hunt, which was the activity for September.  I have a good group who signed up for the 40 Book Pledge too.  It looks like everyone is ready to come back and participate.  That makes me happy.

Here are our library usage statistics for the first six weeks.  Seems like a good start to the year.  Let's hope the enthusiasm continues.