Book to Art Club

Last year as I was searching online for something other than what I found, I came across the Library as Incubators Project website. Started by three University of Wisconsin School of Library Information Studies students, Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Jones, its mission is to demonstrate that libraries are a place to create and to connect. I was struck by the creativity behind this but most significantly, I was struck by the offshoot of this organization, which is the Book to Art Club. It puts a new spin on book clubs by encouraging these events not only to be a meaningful discussion but also a time in which book club members make something inspired by the book that they read. 

I knew we had to sign up and register our school as our own chapter within this larger book to art club movement. Our chapter can be found here. With an impressive list of books that have already been explored in a book to art club, our chapter was able to recycle an art project centered around the book Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. There is a book to art club pinterest page with great ideas, which is where I discovered creating invisible ink for Liar and Spy. This time, however, we read Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood and created our own book art out of old dictionary pages. 

I have no doubt that the third book in our book to art club will inspire us to create something great too. We are reading another Georgia book award nominee called Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere by Julie T. Lamana. I already have some ideas brewing for future masterpieces. As a place to create and to connect, our media center is proud to host our own book to art club chapter.

Organized Chaos

It is both a joy and a pleasure to watch the creativity unfold in a technology exploratory that focuses on programming and robotics. When people walk into our Lower School Idea Lab, at first glance, it can appear hectic with quite a bit of movement, not to mention an elevated volume. This, however, is part of the joy. Having the opportunity to make, move, and mingle can be very motivating. There is a process behind our organized chaos. To understand our genius at work, here is the breakdown of our process:

Step 1
Build a Design Team
As a class, we host a discussion about modern day design firms. We brainstorm about what we believe would be succesful traits among a strong design team. We spend a lot of time sharing characteristics of individuals that we believe would be beneficial to have on a design team. The consensus is that problem-solving skills are a must. Then, we come up with interview questions to ask potential design team members.

Step 2
Mix & Mingle
We put our interview skills to test and mingle with our peers to determine who we would match well with on a design team based on strengths and weaknesses. 

Step 3
Contact Cards
Using contact cards and the information we learned from mingling with one another, we create a list of six individuals that we believe we could work well with on a design project. We know we may work well with people we may not have anticipated. We approach this part of the process with an open mind. 



Step 4
Rotations
The design teams are formed as a result of our contact card exercise. It works like a charm every time! After learning the makeup of our design teams, we start our rotations. Rotations include working with the following technology tools:
Building a Robot with Hummingbird Robotics
Coding with Lego Robotics
Programming with Sphero
Digital Storytelling with Scratch
Virtual Reality with Google Cardboard
Constructing a Computer with Kano
Creating Electronic Circuits with LittleBits

Step 5 
Presentation Day
We present our creations. This is where we show what we have learned. We have rubrics that provide a framework for being able to articulate the process. This is a great opportunity for each of us to learn more about a tool other than the one that we just used in our rotations. We become experts for one another as we learn more and share our resources and knowledge. 

After presentation day is over, we rotate to a new technology tool and the learning process begins again. By having the freedom to explore, create, make, and connect, we build upon skills that will make a positive difference in real world problem solving scenarios. We learn to rely upon each other by respecting our different areas of expertise. We learn how to cultivate meaningful relationships that will help us accomplish what we set out to do. We learn to navigate in an environment that encourages us to be resourceful. We learn to be a part of our own strong design team.