Official IASL Newsletter Volume 49 Issue 4 is now available on the IASL webpage. Please view the newsletter here

After March 13, 2020

Friday is always a busy day in the library.  Another teacher & I had been working as a team, visiting classes with mini lessons on oral interview techniques. Students were interviewing family or community members about favorite recipes to be submitted to Students ReBuild Hunger Challenge. https://www.studentsrebuild.org/challenges/hunger

Also this Friday students baked delicious apple pie to celebrate Pi Day (using a library cookbook of course!)

Several students had researched & written a grant for mini gym equipment. The funders asked for a phone meeting so three teens gathered around the library desk to talk on speaker phone.

At a brief staff meeting we were told that all schools would be closed the following week. As the news became increasingly grim, California went on lockdown. Schools were closed through the end of the year.

Our staff had several online meetings to help plan for the rest of the semester. As I met with teachers from each class I noted specific topics to research for them & I also created a Covid-19 blog with helpful links. http://emeraldenergyeducation.pbworks.com/w/page/28266715/FrontPage

Several teachers asked about getting some specific items for students so I began to write Donors Choose grants. https://www.donorschoose.org

The first grants were for hot spots since many of our students did not have wifi connections for online classes.

Some grants were for “stress busters” (books, small wooden puzzles, zentangles, peace cards, nature journals & art supplies).

Our school serves students in grades 7 through 12. All are at-risk students, with habitual truancy, behavior issues and histories of suspension, expulsion and probation. Several students live in group homes, foster care and some are homeless. 78% of the students are identified as special education.

During the school year students had gone on bike field trips, exploring parts of San Francisco, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods & National Parks.  Most of our students had never even been across the Golden Gate Bridge! Some teens wrote grants to get bikes after these excursions. As the lockdown continued, I got requests for more bikes to provide a safe way for teens to get outside & deal with stress. 

During the last three months of the semester, several staff members delivered lessons, snacks & other resources to students. They related many requests to me. Many students were essential workers. Several were taking care of younger siblings. We have several teen families, so I wrote a grant for picture books, so young parents can read aloud to little ones. One teen in a group home emailed me requesting a book. After I sent it to her, another teen from the group home asked for several titles! (We have donated books that are being sent to the group homes this fall).

I wrote grants for hygiene kits & healthy snacks. Because our students loved to cook (and EAT) I wrote “Teen Cooking During Covid-19” grants for mini blenders & crockpots.

After March 13, 2020 everything changed. Our students worked hard to attend classes online. With 18 grants I was able to support students with books and much more. Often when staff delivered items to teens, they texted photos to me, showing wide smiles & waves.

“My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything.”– Peter Golkin