As a first year High School Librarian the Blog, “Don’t Shush Me! Adventures of a High School Librarian” spoke to me. The Blog is easy to navigate, colorful and has new, fresh information on it and can be located here: https://dontyoushushme.com/ The creator of this Blog, Kelsey Bogan, is a high school librarian and a professor. She has also been published in several different journals and magazines. She has presented at several conferences and events. I feel like this blog has a wealth of information in it for all librarians but especially for high school librarians. There is a lot of good information, resources and videos for all librarians as well. Topics range from collection development to makerspaces. I can’t talk about everything, so I am going to try to contain myself to a few highlights from this site.
Picture of Kelsey Bogan
Kelsey Bogan started off in 2014 posting reviews on popular Young Adult books. I found that she originally started this blog as a young adult class assignment but later turned it into her personal High School Librarian blog (Bogan, 2014). In 2018, she started branching off into sharing articles and videos that focused on helping better the library targeted at high school librarians. Later she moved on to providing tips and tricks for librarians. All these resources are archived on her blog page for viewing. She even makes it easy with a Blog Index at the top of the page so you do not have to search through her monthly posts for the post you need. She also does presentations and consulting so if you are looking for someone with High School Librarian experience you may want to check her out.
There are a lot of interesting items to read on her blog site. One thing I really like about her Blog is that she shows the date on the main screen before you click on the article to read it. This helps me as a reader decide if I want to click on the article or if I think it may be irrelevant because it is too old or unrelated to what you are looking for. I also like how each article has a picture as well as a title and date. Having a photo makes it easier to remember what that article was about for quick reference. Also, having all this information in one place saves the reader a lot of time, especially when citing information.
The last part of her blog site I would like to talk about is her Who to Follow on TikTok tab. Being a brand-new librarian, I appreciate that she took the time to include this tab. I do not know many librarians yet and I am always looking for legitimate librarians on social media. I have learned a lot of things from TikTok videos, so I am always looking to add them to my professional TikTok library. She even breaks down the TikTok library into Elementary, Middle and High School levels. I cannot wait to see what I learn from others that are in the same profession. Keeping up with the latest trends, even if they are TikTok trends, is a part of my job.
The Blog that Bogan wrote on September 10, 2023 about “This or That” questions is a great blog to read to get ideas about asking questions as a storyteller. I know as storytellers we don’t want to ask the same boring questions over and over so this list could give you some great ideas on new questions. Also, this blog lists: 50 Would You Rather (This or That, 2023) questions. These are always fun to incorporate during storytelling at the beginning or the end of the story. You can also use these as ice breakers or exit slip questions. These short, quick questions add fun to any lesson. This Blog inspired me to include a This or That Weekly segment on our morning news. The students can read the This or That statement of the week and the student will have to come to the library to vote. For example, next week the This or That question will be, would you rather be invisible or be able to read peoples thoughts? Then students would have to come to the library to get a token so they can vote in the two jars that I provide. At the end of the week the winning vote will be announced, and we will start over again. I hope this will add traffic to my library and I can offer book ideas to the students while they are having a little fun too.
As storytellers, another Blog on Bogan’s (2020) site I would like to highlight is Picture Books for High Schoolers. As I learned from my lecture (Watson, 2023) this week, back in 1996, Susan Danoff understood the importance of storytelling in schools. She was coined with helping create educational programs that implement storytelling in school settings (Watson, 2023). We are now in 2023 and I still feel storytelling is important at all grade levels. In this Blog, Bogan (2020) talks about the fact that even high school students enjoy having picture books read aloud to them. Reading books aloud builds community that high school students are missing. Bogan (2020) decided to pilot a program where she started reading picture books aloud to high school students. She called it “bedtime stories.” The student response was greater than anticipated. This Fall, she has decided to order more picture books for her high school collection. Picture books are used by high schoolers for pleasure reading and social and emotional skills (Bogan, 2020). I too, want to increase the picture book collection at my high school. Another school in my district made a picture book closet for their Teacher Cadet students. I am thinking of implementing this same type of project next school year. I have already heard of some push back from district personal about having picture books in a high school library so I may have to be creative to get it approved. Even Greene (2010) agrees that children at all grade levels can benefit from storytelling. The activities the teacher uses with the story may change and differ in difficulty, but the same story can be used at different grade levels, to include high school.
Two other Blogs of Bogan’s I think storytellers could use are her blog’s from August 10, 2022 & August 18, 2022 on Weeding: For Equity, Accessibility, & Relevancy Part 1 and Part 2. As storytellers it is important for us to weed our collections from time to time. We need to make sure our collections are equitable for everyone. Storytellers could use the tips and tricks to help make sure their storytelling collections are meeting the needs of everyone in their community.
Below are six tall tales I read this week:
References
Bogan, K. (2023, September 10). Big list of “This or That” questions to use in the library. Don’t Shush Me. https://dontyoushushme.com/2023/09/10/big-list-of-this-or-that-questions-to-use-in-the-library/
Bogan, K. (2020, August 10). Picture books for high schoolers. Don’t Shush Me. https://dontyoushushme.com/2020/08/10/picture-books-for-high-schoolers/
Bogan, K. (2014). About. Don’t Shush Me. https://dontyoushushme.com/about/
Watson, S. (2023). Storytelling residencies in schools. [PowerPoint Slides].
Greene, E. & Del Negro, J. (2010). Storytelling Art and Technique Fourth Edition. Libraries Unlimited.
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