School Librarian Interview: Collaborate

The second school librarian interview I conducted focused on the Shared Foundation Collaborate. The librarian interviewed was Jennifer Thrift, an elementary librarian. Mrs. Thrift is the librarian at Charles Pinckney Elementary School. She is known throughout the Charleston County School District for creating engaging lessons and library transformations that facilitate student collaboration.

The main way Mrs. Thrift implements collaborative opportunities is by creating library transformations, STEM activities, and playing games. For example, one library transformation she created was a surgical room. Not only does she have the entire room set up like a surgical room, but students also received gloves, scrub caps, and masks. The students were presented a task of having to "diagnose" patients by cutting and putting together different text features. This provided students an opportunity to collaborate and challenged them to work together to complete the task. 

All of the library transformations that she creates involved large amounts of collaboration between teachers, faculty, and the school librarian. There are times when a whole grade level is involved in the collaborative process. These ideas begin with a classroom standard that is difficult for students or is not a very fun/interesting standard. The classroom teacher and librarian collaborate for days to figure out the best type of transformation, gather materials, and set up the library for the transformation. 

Mrs. Thrift explained that one of the biggest challenges with implementing these competences is collaborating with classroom teachers. It takes time to build relationships with teachers and to trust each other. She also explained it can be challenging to find the time to create collaborative experiences because they take time teachers often have time limits and standards to teach. It is important to advocate for the librarians role and how these experiences can foster student learning. 

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