Michelle Folk
"I love that the videos are short, and there are so many topics on issues that they really care about."
Michelle Folk, Teacher Librarian
Harvest Intermediate School
DeForest, WI
What has been one of your favorite or most engaging lessons or activities that came out of the library in your school over the past few years?
I have kind of an odd teaching schedule. We have about 950 kids in our school, and I am part of the specials rotation called Encore. It’s for a week at a time so once a month for seven days, I see six different sections of kids. That hasn't been the best time for me to really get into research and tech integration skills, because I really like that to be tied back to something they're doing in the classroom. So last year, I came up with different activities I thought the kids would love and I had them all available. I had a few different things at each grade level, but a lot of them were the same at every grade level. I let them pick what they wanted to do. It was giving them a chance to play, which maybe doesn't sound academic, but they don't get time to play very much anymore. I had things like Magna-tiles, origami paper, and Plus-plus pieces that can be formed into different things. I did a breakout box activity with the 6th graders. Some of them got to paint on tiny canvases. It was just very much of a “Find what you love doing among these choices, and go for it.” We did that for four or five days out of the seven days that we were together. It was amazing to see 6th grade boys building Magna-tile towers. They loved it. I used some great YouTube channels, like Art for Kids Hub. He has amazing drawing tutorials for even someone like me who hardly ever does drawing. We just did hands-on analog activities. Spirographs - I bought spirographs because I remembered that from when I was a kid. That was really fun. It allowed the students to see the library as a hub of creativity.
How do you envision a library being a place that helps create stronger connections across the school community?
That's something that I, and probably every librarian, am always working on. We have professional development opportunities within our district, and anybody can propose a class that you can offer to staff members and teach it after school. I just proposed a class to teach staff about the library resources that both students and teachers can use. It will be showing them what's available, how to get to them, and how they can use it in their teaching. Most of it is digital - things like BrainPop, breakout box puzzles, Kids Discover, ClickView, Streamable Learning. Last year, I found it really difficult to get some things off the ground because it's really hard in a building as big as this, with over 950 kids, to get the information out in a meaningful way. It has to be at the right time for each person, because everybody has a different workload at different times. So that just-in-time concept is really hard. I sent out a two-question survey to all our staff members, asking if they would attend a class like this and if they would like to collaborate with the library. I got a really good response, so I proposed the class, and I think it'll get approved.
What is one way that you've seen video spark curiosity for a student or a class?
Sites like ClickView and BrainPop have a huge amount of topics or categories. I think just letting kids go on there and click around to start with what they're interested in. The length of the videos is wonderful because their attention spans are maybe different than what they used to be. I love that they're short, and there are so many topics on issues that they really care about. Putting information in a place where they can easily find it, so if they have some free time, they can go to ClickView or BrainPop and learn about airplanes, or whatever their interest may be, is great self-exposure allowing them to discover what is meaningful to themselves.
How do you help students think critically about the resources they're finding information from?
Anytime they're interested in learning about something, you just take the opportunity to remind them that, yes, you can Google it, but you don't know what you're going to get. We have books here, online encyclopedias, and other digital sources we know we can trust. Sometimes you do have to go to Google, but check out a couple other sources to see if it matches. There's not a systematic, formalized way of teaching that skill in my building, so it's just anytime the opportunity pops up, being ready to have that little conversation.
If you had 10 minutes at the Wisconsin school principals or school administrators conference to pitch them on the role of the library media specialist, what would you want them to know?
I would urge them to take us out of the Encore or Specials rotation and free us up to push into classrooms and meet with teachers so that in a relevant context, at-the-time-of-need way, we can go into that classroom and help with resources, researching skills, digital citizenship, information literacy, technology integration - all of that. It's so much more meaningful when it is done collaboratively, and the students see it for an authentic purpose.
One last fun question: Is there still a printed encyclopedia set in the library?
There is one printed set, I can't remember what year it's from. It's a world book where all the spines make a picture. We keep it out, and most kids can't reach it, but they'll ask about it. We talk about how it's cool to have this on paper, but the benefit of digital is that it can be updated immediately. We also have dictionaries, and kids love to take them down and look through them.
Lightning Questions
1. What book are you reading now?
For the book club that I'm in, I'm reading A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum. It's a story about a 1990s Palestinian girl, but also jumps forward to life in Brooklyn when her daughter is the same age as her. For school age reading, I'm desperately waiting for a copy of The Frindle Files, which is a sort of sequel to Frindle. Frindle is one of my favorite books and is what I recommend when a student doesn't know what to read. I recently found out Andrew Clemens wrote another Frindle story shortly before he died.
2. Who is the ONE person you follow on social media that you always learn something from or who makes you laugh?
It's not a person, but I love to follow We Are Teachers. Their content is spot on for what it means to be a teacher these days, whether it's tips for classroom management, games you can play with your students, career advice or funny stories. It's the perfect mix of content that both supports teachers and has student needs at the forefront.
3. Favorite tech tool currently?
Canva - a life saver for people like me who don't have the graphic design gene.
4. What is the best part about your role that others might not realize?
When a brief moment of discussing or recommending a book to a student turns into a genuine connection that continues over time.
5. What is one piece of advice you've received that has been the most beneficial to your career?
Progress and change take time.
