East Marion Elementary School in Silver Springs, FL.

Starting this fall, all of the Marion County Public School’s remaining 15 certified media specialists support two schools each. Each school has their librarian on site for two days, with the third day handled as a flex day, meaning librarians can spend the time at either school. The arrangement has taken adjustment for librarians trying to juggle two separate spaces since classes started August 19—but also for students who now have considerably less library instruction.

“It has been very difficult because of sharing schools,” Miriam Needham, the district’s coordinator of library media services, tells School Library Journal.  “It’s not really possible to have an effective program when you’re not there five days a week.”

The new schedule started for some school librarians in the district three years ago, Needham says. As librarians retired or moved away, their positions were frozen, and other librarians were assigned their elementary school campuses. Seven school librarians had already been sharing 14 schools even before the start of this new fall term, Needham notes.

This latest shift in how school librarians were assigned schools started in May, when Superintendent George Tomyn announced that the district was facing a $29 million budget shortfall. That led to 261 layoffs across Marion County. School librarians kept their jobs in the middle and high schools, but lost their clerks and assistants—positions that still remain at the elementary school level, as they help to maintain the library by checking books in and out.

“But that’s really all she can do,” says Susan Dunn, a certified library media specialist at East Marion Elementary School and Anthony Elementary School, of her assistant.

Dunn, who was the full-time librarian at East Marion for 21 years, now spends Wednesday through Friday at that campus with its 700 students, and just Monday and Tuesday at Anthony Elementary with its 350 students. In her 22nd year as a school librarian, Dunn has now jettisoned story time, much of her research lessons, and collaboration time with teachers.

“What I really crave is to be able to have a closer relationship with the kids,” she says. Because when they don’t see me, they don’t know me, and I don’t really know them.”

Anthony Elementary is in its fourth year of having a shared librarian—a different media specialist each year. Dunn is the fourth, and says she is having a hard time getting to know the students and staff, as she’s not as integrated into the curriculum as she would like to be.

“They may be a little gun shy,” she says. “There is a whole group of students I haven’t been introduced to because I’m not there when they come to the library. There’s an assistant checking out books. They come for 20 minutes, and out they go.”

Needham says that the administration’s plan is to restore the cut positions, and not permanently leave the sharing as it is. But that all depends on funding, she says.

In the meantime, librarians like Dunn will continue to set forth twice a week to different school sites, trying to help students at both. Sometimes that means leaving emails unanswered—there were more than 1100 that were unanswered the last time she checked her account. And even as she forges back and forth she knows she and her students aren’t the only one adjusting.

“This is really difficult for the library assistants because they have to put up with another new person, a new personality,” says Dunn. “At Anthony I moved all books from one side to another, moved bulletin boards around, threw things out. The poor assistant is so stressed because the last three librarians did the same thing. I feel bad about it even though I keep moving things around and throwing things away. But that’s a phenomenon that’s happening all over the county.”

San Diego’s new 400,000-square-foot Central Library.

Imagine a school library bigger than the school it supports—with an auditorium, homework center, and a 6,000-square-foot teen room where hundreds of iPads and computers are at students’ disposal. That’s the reality for 9th and 10th graders at San Diego’s new e3 Civic High School, a public charter school literally inside the recently completed 400,000-square foot, $185-million Central Library downtown.

“Where could you possibly get a school where you can introduce bibliographic instruction in your curriculum and also decide how their information gathering will be,” says Marina Claudio-Perez, youth services coordinator for the San Diego Public Library’s new Central Library, which is set to open its doors on September 28. “We have a captive audience.”

Indeed, San Diego’s educational, library, and philanthropic power brokers designed the scenario for this result. San Diego approved a 40-year, $20 million lease for e3 Civic High’s use of the 6th and 7th floors in the new building, says Mel Katz, chair of the San Diego Public Library Foundation, executive officer for e3 Civic High Board of Directors, and owner of Manpower Staffing Services of San Diego.

Future students will also have a voice—giving input in how the library will be integrated into their studies, says Claudio-Perez. “The mapping of the service for them is going to be defined by the students,” she says. “We will sit down with them, my teen librarian and guidance from the teachers.”

The new library includes a 6,000-square-foot teen room.

While 9th and 10th grader make up the first year’s student body at e3 Civic High School, the campus will expand over the next two years, eventually reaching the 12th grade to include 530 students. All will have access to the library’s sculpture court, art gallery, and even a special events room that can handle 400 people, says Katz, larger than the entire student body to start. The library’s resources of more than 1,000,000 books, DVDs, and CDs will also be at their disposal—two-thirds of which had been stored in the former Central Library basement for lack of space, he adds.

“It’s unbelievable synergy to have the school there for the library people,” says Katz.

With e3 Civic High opening its doors on Sept 3—about four weeks before the library opens it doors— its 260 new students have already made use of some of the facilities, including a morning kick-off in the 350-seat standalone auditorium, with breakfast in the courtyard. Students will continue to be encouraged to not only use the library, among other downtown civic resources, but volunteer as well, acting as mentors to younger students.

The new library’s teen room overlooks downtown San Diego.

Although the school lacks a dedicated certified media specialist (students will have to share staff librarians with the rest of the library’s patrons) there is a dedicated teen librarian, a manager for the children’s space, plus staff for the homework center.

The library is also working with adult volunteers so staff can have more direct time with patrons, says Marion Hubbard, senior public information officer for the San Diego Public Library.

Teachers and librarians have already started collaborating about how they can build synergy between the two. Claudio-Perez note’s that the high school’s humanities teacher has just inquired how the game room could be tied into a writing lesson, and she expects other curriculum connections to happen naturally. She knows this will present both a challenge and an opportunity for both parties—and particularly students.

“For many years we have battled against how schools and libraries have tried to have a good relationship,” she says. “But I think this will be beneficial not just for the students and the school, but also the library.”

“Nothing’s impossible in Minecraft,” says Elizabeth Grohoski. She would know. Grohoski recently spent three months using the online game to create a virtual replica of the Mattituck-Laurel Library in Mattituck, NY, complete with a model of the working piano in the library basement (http://ow.ly/nQwCN).

Why? Because Karen Letteriello, comanager of the parents’ and children’s department at Mattituck-Laurel, where Grohoski works as a technical processor, thought the virtual Minecraft library would help attract young patrons. It has.

The project started when Letteriello read a School Library Journal feature story by librarian Sarah Ludwig about a highly successful Minecraft library club at the Connecticut school where she worked. Letteriello wanted a similar program in her library and asked Grohoski, a gamer since the age of six, to create it.

An immensely popular game launched widely in 2011, Minecraft allows users to build in a 3-D virtual world with cubes similar to Legos—but without any of the proscriptive kits and manuals. There are few limits to what a user can create in Minecraft. It’s all about gamers using their imaginations.

After creating a beta version of the project, Letteriello launched the finished site on June 20. The reaction has been a “tornado,” she says, with children clamoring to sign up and play.

Letteriello and Grohoski’s vision of the game features an appealing library-centric scavenger hunt. Each room of the Minecraft library offers a clue inside treasure chests tucked into the virtual shelves. Clues provide students with a summary of the plot, title, author, and call letters—so children can locate the books inside the physical library.

There are other activities as well—a maze, mini-games in which children can locate objects like sheep wool in multiple colors, and eventually a racetrack, which Grohoski hopes to build. Children can play a few notes on the virtual piano or ride up and down the virtual elevator—just like the one inside the real branch. And for those looking to explore outside the building, Grohoski shifted existing Minecraft destinations closer to the virtual library. These include a desert temple, village, ravine, and stronghold.

Students with their own Minecraft accounts can log on from home, or they can play at the library free of charge. The library offers five laptops with video cards, which play the full version of the online game, plus six iPads loaded with Minecraft’s pocket edition.

Letteriello is planning future educational projects using Minecraft and other digital tools. One possibility: a virtual opportunity to explore Ancient Greece and Rome. Her goal is that students will find their library experience as seamless as exercising their curiosity.

“I want them to use [the library presence in Minecraft] the same as they would the actual library, take a book home and teleport into another world,” she says. “I want them to feel the gaming world is just another part of the library.”

Mattituck resident Pam Kaminsky’s 13-year-old son, Collin, is “obsessed” with the Minecraft library, she says. He and his 16-year-old brother, Owen, are also impressed with Grohoski’s expertise with the game. “[Collin] says, ‘The librarian is talking to me about my program? Wow,’” says Kaminsky. “It’s like he has a new connection with the librarians.”

“Now the kids walk in and ask if Elizabeth is here,” says Letteriello. “She has a cult following.”

Children sign up to play on Fridays, when they can interact with others in the virtual branch. “We have waiting lists that you can’t imagine,” says Letteriello. “And Elizabeth continues to build. It’s taking on a life of its own.”

Chicago’s new Back of the Yards Library, a public/school library hybrid.

Staffed with Chicago’s first teen librarians (two part-time staffers share the position), the public library will also have a children’s librarian, plus a branch librarian who is also a K–12 media specialist, who will serve that role at the library for students who come to the branch during class hours. The library shares a wall with the school, but students have to exit their building to enter the branch. Heralded by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the hybrid archetype is reportedly one he hopes to replicate going forward.

“They have the same mission: to educate our children,” says Emanuel, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “It shouldn’t be in separate buildings. It should be in a single building.”

Ruth Lednicer, Chicago Public Library’s director of marketing and communications, confirms that the city will eye opportunities like Back of the Yard where public libraries also serve as school library spaces, although she insists school libraries will not disappear.” “I don’t think it’s safe to say schools won’t have libraries,” says Lednicer. “We will take what we learn from this and adapt where we go forward, just as we won’t close public libraries and move them into schools. This was a perfect storm.”

Like many municipalities, Chicago is well familiar with shrinking budget lines. The city cut more than 3,000 positions, including teachers, while closing 47 elementary schools for the 2013–2014 school year.

At the same time, however, CPS built new library spaces inside four elementary schools at a cost of more than $2 million. The spaces have opened for the current school term, according to Dave Miranda, deputy press secretary for Chicago Public Schools

Unfortunately, CPS’s Department of Libraries and Information Services now has fewer staff members to support its teacher librarians going forward, according to Marie Szyman, vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association.

“They have an enormous task to keep us all organized and they do an amazing job,” she tells School Library Journal, although she notes that the department “has been reduced to just a few people left.”

The Back of the Yards Library, with separate entrance to  the high school at right (glass building).

Partnerships between public libraries and schools are certainly common. Many work in tandem to encourage students to get public library cards, attend events, and sign up for summer reading programs. Szyma, too, promotes her local branch as a teacher librarian at Nathanael Greene Elementary, where she makes sure her students get library cards.

But cities are beginning to blur the boundaries between schools and public libraries.

Miami-Dade, for example, recently announced it would open five of its school libraries located in educational technical centers to public patrons this fall, even as it looked to close at least some of its branch libraries to balance its 2014 budget.

The partnership between the Back of the Yards Library and Back of the Yards High School will be a unique one, however, as they were designed to be shared. The public library will be open six days a week, and is in an area that lost a branch. Lednicer sees the new space as helping the community and also its students—a mission she believes libraries are designed to address.

“They do serve the same purpose,” she says. “Libraries and schools are here to educate kids.”

But whether having a public library double as a school’s media center—even one that’s just steps away— will serve students as well as one located inside their own building is unclear. With school just starting, some are waiting to see how the new model works.

“Is it worth trying or better not to approach it that way?” asks Szyman. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this works.”

These changes come as the district faced a $304 million shortfall in its budget for the 2013–2014 school year. The city agreed to borrow $50 million just to get schools open as Superintendent William R. Hite had threatened to delay their opening without those funds.

In addition, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) passed a measure [PDF] during a contentious meeting on August 16 allowing principals to hire back staff based on the needs of the school—and not based on seniority. Parents and educators both voiced opposition to the measure by the SRC, which replaced the school board in 2001 with appointees from the governor and the mayor.

“I am heartbroken that we are having a conversation today because our government has abandoned an investment in public education,” says Daren Spielman, president and CEO of the non-profit Philadelphia Education Fund, who gave his comments during the meeting.

How school librarians may fare in the coming days is unclear. At least one school librarian whose position was transferred from an elementary school to a high school was told librarians may be hired back should the $50 million came through. Still, this is in a district that saw assistant principals, secretaries, school nurses, and guidance counselors—among other staffers—laid off at the end of the 2012–2013 school year.

“Apparently, they pretty much let principals decide how funds will be allocated in each building,” says Deb Kachel, co-chairperson of the legislation committee for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA). “So it’s very uneven which schools will have librarians and which won’t.”

Pennsylvania saw a 6 percent decrease from the number of school librarians working in K–12 schools between the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 school years, according to statistics from the PSLA. For example, Harrisburg, PA, which had eliminated its certified school librarians for the 2012–2013 school year, has now eliminated all library staff as well—and is hoping to use volunteers to run its school libraries for the new school year.

Each year, PSLA runs a staffing survey across its 500 school districts starting in the fall. Eileen Kern, PSLA president, says she does not have a feeling how the numbers will come out this year. But while she sees urban areas, including Philadelphia, losing school librarian positions, other areas are also suffering, with 62 percent of school librarians in the state serving more than one school.

“That’s pretty alarming to me,” says Kerns, who nonetheless sees the urban school districts being hit the hardest. “I know it’s a drastic situation in Philadelphia.”

Carol Heinsdorf agrees. As former president of the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians and a national board certified teacher, she is watching the situation unfold in her city wondering how these changes will, in the end, affect the 136,000 school children set to head to classes next month.

She adds, “The ability of school librarians in Philadelphia to work effectively to promote academic achievement is wiped out.”

During a maker party at the New York Hall of Science, kids used
MaKey MaKey circuit boards and Scratch programming language.
Photo courtesy NYSCI

Tinkerers of all ages are flexing their creative muscles during the Summer of Making and Connecting, a global project geared to empower digital crafters and match people with maker activities, online or on the street.

Running from June to mid-September, the campaign offers dozens of ways for kids, parents, and educators to make stuff digitally during the summer months and beyond. The venture is sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation in partnership with the National Writing Project (NWP) Educator Innovator and the Mozilla Foundation.

“People really love to play and make something,” says Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, NWP’s director of national programs and site development. “There’s a piece deep within us that wants to create, and we’re seeing it across so many domains.”

The project kicked off in June with the Maker Party, an online happening linking interested makers with design events, maker camps, coding challenges, and other activities. The idea was for people to bring their do-it-yourself spirit and apply digital tools to remix, collaborate, and share their creations over the open Web. Summertime makers are using the hashtag #clmooc on Twitter and elsewhere to tag their projects. You can also follow activities on the NWP Educator Innovator blog.

Makers can participate in real life, from Brooklyn to Uruguay, at physical events listed on the Maker Party site. Virginia-based educators Chad Sansing (@chadsansing) and Melissa Techman (@mtechman) launched a program called #nerdcamp this spring, and it’s continuing through the summer. On a recent July day at #nerdcamp, a mix of adults and one student were happily huddled together programming Arduinos, open-sourced circuit boards, to work with LED displays.

“The whole point is to tinker and see,” says Sansing, a language arts teacher at Shelburne Middle School in Staunton, VA (and author of the SLJ feature story “Life with Raspberry Pi”). Not all #nerdcamp projects succeed, however. That doesn’t matter to Sansing—and it shouldn’t to participants, either, he says. He especially likes it when grown-ups experience the rewards of “what it’s like to work on something you want to work on, for a long time, where you’re fully engaged.”

Virtual Summer of Making and Connecting participants include Susan Angel (@zsuzsannangel), a sixth- and seventh-grade teacher in Vancouver, BC, who built a short slideshow using Haiku Deck to promote her teaching and learning credo. Valerie Hill (@valibrarian), a teacher librarian at the Lewisville (TX) Independent School District and adjunct instructor at Texas Woman’s University, built a 3-D virtual book about media before and after Gutenberg. Adapting templates that Sansing had made, Techman crafted a page featuring thoughts people encounter while writing.

What happens to this outpouring of activity come September? The Summer of Making and Connecting “is not meant to live in the summer and die,” says Techman, a school librarian at Broadus Wood Elementary School in Earlysville, VA. “We want to bring ideas from the summer into classrooms, public libraries, and to other constituents.”

NWP’s Educator Innovator project is working on strategies to keep the creative connections flowing. And for those who didn’t get a jumpstart on the event this year, NWP and its partners plan to launch another one in the summer of 2014.

“This really is a movement,” says Eidman-Aadahl. “We want every young person to see that they can be a creator and maker of their own life.”

Photo by Ben Ostrowsky

Draconian cuts to Miami public libraries—nearly 45 percent of its branches shuttered and more than 250 staff positions lost—stand to impact the community, including  Miami’s school children.

“The worst case scenario is 22 libraries would have to be closed,” says Lisa Martinez, senior advisor in Miami-Dade’s Office of the Mayor, who oversees its library department. “The Mayor has charged us to bring that number down.”

At issue is a budget cut proposed by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and approved by county commissioners, set to go through October 1. Lawmakers are trying to reduce the branches that may have to close before that deadline, and Martinez believes she is close to bringing the number of branches cut to 16. Still, they pose a monumental loss of service to Miami’s K–12 students, as some of the public libraries slotted to shut down are close to Miami-Dade County public schools.

West Kendall Regional, a 39,000 square-foot space and one of the original 22 slated for closure, is a 10-minute walk from Felix Varela Senior High School, and on the same block as Hammocks Middle School.

In the coming weeks, Martinez is analyzing schedules, community needs, and  the geographic locations of the branches to try to stretch library resources, and attempt to save some of the branches that are in danger.  She’s also looking at partnerships to offset costs, possibly reduce hours, and also considering ways the library funds services.

“If we have a library that has a staffing level of five, and one is responsible for maintaining the computers, how do we make sure that we deliver services, not just offer computers in the library,” she says.

School libraries may also be considered for some partnership, says Albert Pimienta, instructional supervisor of library media services for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, who says public school personnel are expecting to meet with the mayor’s office and the public library “on what the impact may be,” he says.

School libraries do work with the public libraries in Miami-Dade by cross-promoting events and encouraging students to get public library cards among other activities, he says. But school libraries are not meant to support public needs, adds Pimienta. While 343 of its schools have libraries, not all are staffed with certified media specialists. Some have clerical staff who handle circulation duties, but sometimes for just a few hours a day.

“I don’t think our intent is to serve the public at large,” he says. “I would be hard pressed to see how we could serve the public if it came to that.”

Laura Spears, a doctoral student at Florida State University, spent 30 years in South Florida, and taught online at Florida State University’s School of Library & Information Studies. She believes that the way public libraries are funded needs to change dramatically to ensure access for everyone.

“The bottom line is library funding really needs to be shaken up, but it has to be important to the decision makers,” she says. “It’s not clear to me that somebody like Miami-Dade’s mayor feels like it’s important.”

Paul Lee, a Highland Park scholar and former student at the high school, says he got the initial call about books being thrown away at 9 pm on June 20, and drove over to the school with a flashlight to investigate. “I had three friends with me and we spent two hours recovering as many books as we could,” Lee tells School Library Journal. “There were shattered monitors, glass everywhere, metal desks, broken pieces of wood. We crawled amongst all that.”

According to Lee—who was in the school as the collection was being built in the 1970s, when there was a push to include more black studies in schools—it included African American, African, and African Caribbean works. In later years, he helped build the AV portion of the collection, recommending VHS tapes, educational audio cassettes, and some slides, he says.

Although Lee says he found fewer than 1,000 books in the dumpster, he believes there were nearly 10,000 books in the school’s collection, including such titles as Mike Rowe’s Chicago Breakdown (Da Capo Press, 1973) and Bell Irvin Wiley’s The Life of Billy Yank (1952).

However, Donald Weatherspoon, the emergency manager for the Highland Park’s school district, says that by October of 2012, when he was appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, there were only about 2,500 books at the school—not 10,000. The school librarian had been laid off in 2009, he says, and so the “place had been lying fallow for all those years.” He doesn’t dispute that there may have once been 10,000 titles, but without a prior catalog, he has no way to verify that information.

Weatherspoon—who was appointed to bring financial solvency to the district, which is in receivership—admits that a cleaning crew was in the school the night Lee found the books in the dumpster, but insists the books in question were discarded in error. Titles had been inventoried, boxed, and then set aside, he says. “What happened is that the cleaning crew went into a room and removed everything when they should not have removed materials that had been identified,” he says. “It was a mistake.”

Now, Weatherspoon says, he is working to get records, yearbooks, and any other books that have some meaning and value to the school district to be set aside.

“There was never a plan to throw anything out that was of historical value,” he says.

But that doesn’t quell Marcia Cotton’s concerns. Cotton is a board member from the Highland Park Renaissance Academy Board of Directors, a board which represents the Leona Group, a charter school company which runs the district’s schools.

Cotton says she didn’t know about the books being removed until Lee and others came to protest at a recent board meeting. Her co-board member, Andre Davis, resigned soon after, frustrated.

Cotton has stayed on. But as a graduate herself of Highland Park High School (the school’s original name), and her daughter also a graduate, Cotton says would have liked to see some of the books herself —if she’d known they’d existed.  “Where were they being stored?” Cotton asks. “Were they on shelves? In boxes? Were they forgotten about? Were they even being used to educate the children?”

Weatherspoon says he had informed the Leona Group’s superintendent that cleaning crews would be in the building. He also says a new library is set to be built in the high school for the fall, and he offered some books to the charter school group, which he says “to the best of my knowledge…took some.”

He also says he understands that emotions run high around the books, but believes the concerns may be misplaced.

“Some of these books are so out of date they don’t have the significance that a lot of people are placing to them,” he says. “But that’s not for me to decide. We’re preserving what we have so hopefully we can give them back to the city and the city can decide to keep them in their own community.”

In the meantime, Lee says he is adamant that the books and audiovisual materials he found last month will not be handed back over to Weatherspoon or the district anytime soon.

“We’re not going to give them back to have them thrown out again,” he says.

In the Sarasota County School District, all high school and middle school media specialists have been cut for the 2013–2014 school year, according to Gary Leatherman, communication director for Sarasota County Schools. Of the 12 positions, 10 took teaching assignments, and two were hired in roles where they will now coordinate scheduling, testing and progress, he says. Aides will now staff the media centers. Sarasota cut its elementary school media specialist position in 2010.

Marion County Public Schools has cut 15 of its 30 elementary school librarian positions for the 2013-2014 school year, although 11 of those positions had been vacant due to a hiring freeze for the last three years, according to Kevin Christian, the district’s public relations officer. The remaining 15 professional media specialists have been assigned two schools each, and will be staffing these locations with the help of paraprofessionals.

In Pasco County, the school district has done away with the media specialist role and created a new position called an “information communication technology literacy coach,” according to Linda E. Cobbe, director, communications and government relations for the district school board of Pasco County. Former media specialists have since been “hired for the new positions or were placed in other classrooms or appropriate jobs,” Cobbe tells School Library Journal.

Although retaining jobs is laudable, putting media specialists inside the classroom is not an ideal solution, says Lynette Mitchell, a library media specialist for the past 22 years, 13 of those years at Crystal River High School in Crystal River, FL.

“People with tenure can’t be let go,” says Mitchell of why she believes many media specialists around the state are being re-assigned. “But putting people who have no classroom experience and haven’t been teaching the curriculum into classrooms with 20–25 kids?”

Elementary and middle school media specialists had been potentially on the chopping block for the 2013–2014 school year to help close a $2 million budget gap in her district of Citrus County, FL, Mitchell says. But, like in other counties, the roles were re-named. Now “teacher on special assignment/media” is the new title, which means the position could now be staffed by a teacher with a media center background—but it also could be filled by someone who is just out of school, says Mitchell. A request for comment to the Citrus County School District was not returned.

“I think they want to change the name because they wouldn’t have to keep the person who was presently in that position,” Mitchell says. “We have tenure. We have a special services contract. It opens the door to yearly people. If you’re not grandfathered in, you’re always on an annual contract.”

On a positive note, Mitchell has not yet heard of any media specialists in her district who have yet been let go or re-assigned, and school board members tell her they do not want to see these new positions on the cutting block. “They said, when budgets come up, they want media specialists’ jobs off the table,” Mitchell says. “This should be the last time we have to look at it.”

However, she admits, “Board members change. So we never know.”

Sasha, a three-year-old girl with light brown hair, is trying to get Elmo back to Grover. It’s 12:35 p.m. on a Friday in early April, and she’s dragging one-inch pieces of virtual railroad track across an iPad screen in an effort to link the two characters. But Sasha is having trouble understanding how to make the pieces connect. Courtney Wong, a research specialist with Sesame Workshop and designated “child whisperer,” encourages her to try again.

“Okay,” says Sasha, now attempting to make the digital Elmo move across the screen—to no avail. Frustrated, she stabs at the image. “C’mon, c’mon, Elmo.”

It’s just a regular day of app testing at Sesame Workshop. Located in two rooms on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, these offices might seem a world removed from the TV show street featuring Oscar’s trash can, Gordon’s stoop, and the ever-cheerful presence of Big Bird. Those enchanted icons are about 20 miles away, on a sound stage at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Long Island City, in Queens, NY, where Sesame Street—now in its 44th year—is filmed.

In this office building, a new kind of magic is being crafted: Sesame Workshop’s digital content. Here, and at other locations, the Workshop has run more than 76 tests over two and a half years to understand how children, ages three to five, adopt and adapt to touch devices in their learning. The brand wants to ensure Sesame Street’s continued success—in a new media world.

A young tester puts an app through its paces at the offices of Sesame Workshop.

Capturing the digital audience

Competition for the pre–K digital audience is stiff, with networks from Disney Junior to Nick Jr.—both nonexistent when Sesame Street launched—vying for the opportunity to educate young children with apps. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Dora the Explorer are deep in the game.

So are Ernie and Bert, since Sesame Workshop considers its digital incarnation to be crucial to its original mission. “The goal has never changed from back in 1969, which is to reach children where they are to get them ready for school, and also to reach underserved children,” says Jennifer Perry, Sesame Workshop’s vice president of worldwide publishing. “Anything that becomes a destination for parents, we have to be there.”

In 1969, that destination was TV. Most families had televisions in their homes when Sesame Street first went on the air. Cocreator Joan Ganz Cooney’s idea of using TV for early learning was revolutionary at the time. For decades, Sesame Workshop and its groundbreaking show owned the block on educational television.

Given that history, the Workshop’s entry into digital involves seismic changes for the organization. While TV and books aren’t disappearing, tablets, smartphones, apps, and ebooks are increasingly drawing preschoolers’ attention. Sometimes it’s Dad handing off his Android during a long wait at the doctor’s office. Other times it’s a school media specialist launching a series of iPad literacy apps for kindergarteners.

Surveys confirm that devices are pulling people away from TV, and devices also tend to be cheaper. Americans spent about 127 minutes a day using mobile apps in 2012—up from 94 minutes a day in 2011—compared to the 168 minutes a day they spend watching television, according to Flurry Analytics, an organization that follows mobile app trends. Today, smartphones are practically given away with many mobile plans. Revenue from app sales generated about $15 billion globally in 2012, and is projected to rise to $25 billion by the end of 2013, according to Gartner Inc., a tech research firm.

Sesame Workshop’s digital earnings are up, too. The organization has seen its digital revenue grow from 5 percent of its total in fiscal year 2011 to 13 percent in fiscal year 2012. According to Sesame Workshop, digital is projected to comprise 15 percent of its overall revenue by year-end June 30.

Making the Workshop’s digital content stand out is crucial, given the direct competition and the vast number of apps for sale—more than 300,000 iPad apps in the Apple store alone. On a recent day in April, Nickelodeon held the third and fifth spots among the top paid iPad apps in Apple’s iTunes education section. Disney had eighth place, with Sesame Workshop’s Potty Time with Elmo at number 41. Among paid iPad books, Disney held three of the top 10 slots, Nickelodeon had two, and Sesame Workshop’s The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone (originally published by Golden Books in 1971) appeared at number 11.

Designing for limited attention spans

Those charged with building the next generation of Sesame Workshop educational tools are doing so with as much thought and research as Cooney invested in the show. But now, more than ever, a three-year-old’s attention waits for no one.

“We have to be nimble,” says Betsy Loredo, editorial director of Sesame Workshop, who is part of the team charged with re-inventing the Sesame Street brand for the digital domain. “Incredibly nimble. That, in some ways, is the antithesis of how we’ve been doing business for a very long time.” Traditionally, that process has been about “testing, testing, testing, and don’t put it out there until it’s perfect,” Loredo says.

“What we are now grappling with is how to balance this thoughtful approach with the incredible speed with which innovation and technology shifts are changing the landscape for kids,” she explains. “I think that’s a struggle every creator of print books currently faces. It’s just compounded for us by this heightened commitment we have to testing and to being a standard bearer for a fun and educational ‘safe space’ for preschoolers.”

An ongoing challenge is figuring out how to make learning fun so that a child doesn’t lose interest and tune out along the way. With that in mind, Sesame Workshop is constantly thinking about how app instructions are delivered to kids. A particular consideration is how long a child must wait before she can launch a story, a game, or any of the 75 live apps the Workshop has available in the marketplace.

“We used to have longer instructs and longer types of prompts,” says Mindy Brooks, Sesame Workshop’s director of education and research. “But now, we’re in this age of immediate responses.” She hits her finger repeatedly on the table, mimicking how a child might interact with a touch device.

Brooks and her colleagues are well aware that if children are comfortable with other apps, they expect to be able to navigate Workshop apps easily, too. They come to the apps thinking, “I can do this,” says Loredo.

“And it’s not responding,” adds Brooks.

“Then it’s broken,” concludes Loredo.

That isn’t the experience Sesame Workshop wants to deliver to the 16.5 million kids and parents it reaches on digital platforms every quarter. As of April, 35 Sesame Workshop book apps live on platform devices including iOS, Chrome, Windows 7, HP, Symbian, and Kindle Fire. And nearly 155,000 book apps have been downloaded so far in 2013, with 1.8 million downloaded since Sesame Workshop launched its first book app in December 2009.

Partnerships with big tech

Sesame Workshop’s dive into digital is aided by partnerships with third-party technology firms, including a $1 million pledge from the software company CA Technologies. That company is working with Sesame Workshop to develop a package featuring videos, lesson plans, and games, including the one three-year-old Sasha was testing, for a future STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) hub on SesameStreet.org.

Another recent partnership, with mobile outfit Qualcomm, focuses on augmented reality tools. For today’s children, this kind of cutting-edge technology is taken for granted, allowing them to play with and explore their surroundings.

At Sesame Workshop’s Upper West Side location, Loredo and Brooks launched a recent smartphone prototype that resulted from the Qualcomm relationship. On a smartphone screen, a grocery list appears for Big Bird. Eggs, carrots, and cereal are items on the list, and the child is charged with finding those same printed words in her environment. Holding the smartphone, the child selects a word and then aims the device at words he or she sees displayed in a grocery store, a restaurant, or wherever she is at that moment. When the phone’s camera sees the right word, such as “milk,” Big Bird exclaims, “Milk, mmm milk.” The screen then pulls up a word tree, providing the child with more context and definition.

Previewed at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the app is expected to launch this fall. It’s already gone through two formative rounds of testing and recently completed a month-long study with about 200 children in a few Head Start Centers in rural Idaho. Sesame Workshop wants to ensure that three- to five-year-olds can enjoy the app without frustration.

From book to app

Sesame Workshop’s ebookstore carries more than 160 titles, with approximately 100,000 ebooks downloaded to date. But print books still sell far more—to the tune of 27 million copies in 2011 alone.

Classics like The Monster at the End of This Book have been refashioned for today’s burgeoning reader, who may encounter his first title in electronic form—still, likely, while sitting on a parent’s lap. Almost prescient in its interactivity, the original version of The Monster at the End of This Book features Grover warning the reader not to turn the next page because of the monster at the end. Of course, the curious child turns the pages anyway, tearing down brick walls and infuriating Grover, who, at the book’s closing, reveals himself to be the anticipated monster, albeit a “lovable, furry old” one that the child adores.

In app form, the reader still pages through the story, sliding fingers along the corners where digital pages flap audibly. The on-screen Grover reads each word, but now we see him tying and nailing the pages, building a brick wall and complaining as the child breaks knots and smashes bricks, animated for today’s young digital users.

Molding future tech

Looking ahead, Sesame Workshop is planning to innovate far beyond book- and TV-derived experiences. A team of employees is analyzing cutting-edge technologies to see what learning experiences they might best support—and they’re even pushing developers to tune their new tech to children’s needs. Miles Ludwig, managing director of Sesame Workshop’s Content Innovation Lab, leads a five-person research and development team in pursuing technologies they expect will become available globally to children of all economic levels. Recently, Ludwig shopped a prototype application to firms working on voice recognition. His hope is to partner on a tool that children play with in which they give Cookie Monster clues to guess what animal they’re thinking about. Since voice recognition software is currently optimized for adult men, says Ludwig, it’s not ideal for the high-pitched musical tones and particular pronunciation that can come from a child’s mouth. Sesame Workshop hopes to change that.

As new technology develops, Ludwig and his team are also considering other places around the home where they could potentially interact with children—for instance, on screens that may be in an oven door or on a refrigerator.

“One of the things we’re thinking about now is embedded devices connected to the home, these sorts of concepts of the future, and what does that mean to us,” says Ludwig. An example might be when “Abby just shows up on this refrigerator screen and communicates something about healthy eating.” Another scenario could involve the Count helping a child count the eggs in a refrigerator, an activity based on the “Number of the Day” from that morning’s Sesame Street TV episode.

Delight in learning

As Sesame Workshop focuses on its longevity, its educational stronghold—the pre–K years—remains its primary focus. Back in the testing room, Sasha is on the iPad, tickling a swimming trunk-clad Grover; she sees him holding lightweight objects like flip-flops instead of heavy ones like metal keys. Sasha’s goal is to get him to let go of objects at the right time so the light ones float into the center of an inner tube. Sasha can’t quite time it right—and the objects end up floating outside the target, missing the goal. Wong offers encouragement.

“Let’s try to aim for that tube,” says Wong.
“I will try,” says Sasha. “I missed!”
“Uh oh, did that float?” says Wong, as Sasha selects a heavy object instead.
“Oooooh,” Sasha exclaims.

From another room, the researcher and show producer laugh, watching as Sasha navigates the game with a toddler’s intensity. She slides her finger once again over Grover and—success. She squeals.

“Look Mom!” says Sasha, immersed in the game. A child’s delight, delivered. Sesame Workshop hopes it’s a learning moment, too.

While the state and city’s own budgets have yet to be finalized—and could result in more money going to schools—the School District of Philadelphia began to send layoff notices last week, with many certified school librarians receiving them Saturday and into this week, according to a person close to the matter. The Philadelphia School Reform Commission approved its budget at the end of May that stands to cut 3,783 positions from city schools.

As of Wednesday, June 12, six elementary school certified librarians, one library instructional media assistant, one middle school certified librarian, and one high school librarian had received layoff notices. Two high school certified librarians—including one who had just spent $85,000 on library resources from a grant—have been given forced transfer notices. Another high school librarian, who holds three other certifications, was told by the school principal that there would be no funding for that position in the coming year.

One librarian who received a forced transfer was told they could wait to see if a library position opened if they didn’t want to take the teaching position offered, but in choosing that option they could could not collect unemployment, according to the person close to the matter.

Repeated calls to the district and to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers were not returned.

The certified school librarian positions are just a few of the nearly 4,000 school-based roles that the district is planning to lay off, including some teachers, secretaries, assistant principals, counselors, and school nurses, among other positions. Layoffs take effect June 30.

Still, there is still a chance that more funding may come to the school district, according to Brett Schaeffer, communications director of the Education Law Center, a legal advocacy and non-profit educational group in Philadelphia. Schaeffer recently testified before the City Council about how losing 100 school nurses two years ago adversely impacted Philadelphia school children. He believes there also will be a negative impact from losing school librarians as well.

“So the way this works is that the School District has to pass its budget before the state and the city, which means there’s a chance—however small—that additional funding will emerge between now and September,” Schaeffer tells School Library Journal. “It’s happened that way in the past. The question is what the amount of money would be. The district is looking for $300 million to close the current gap, but may get only $100 million.”

While Philadelphia school librarian Carol Heinsdorf has not yet received a layoff notice, she is concerned. As an advocate for school librarians in the past, she believes that even with budgets tight, these positions are just not as important to higher-ups as others in the school system.

“People in positions of power and authority have always said that there’s no money for school librarians,” she says. “But the fact of the matter is it is not a priority.”

In Philadelphia, noontime aides demonstrated earlier this month outside City Hall, while Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter traveled to the state capital in Harrisburg to appeal for more aid for city schools. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has stated that, should the district get more money, many positions would be restored, and he is asking for $60 million from the city, $120 from the state, and $133 million from union concessions for that purpose.

In the meantime, cuts continue—and should some funds be returned to the school district, it’s unclear how they would be re-allocated and which positions may be brought back to schools.

“What is clear is that school libraries will be hurt,” says Schaeffer. “My guess is that, given the choice between having a school nurse and a librarian, schools will pick the former. Those are the kind of decisions that schools will be facing. It’s not pretty.”

“Brother Mike” Hawkins (at left) and YOUmedia’s Spoken Word team at the
“Louder Than a Bomb” poetry competition in Chicago, March 2013.
Photo courtesy of “Brother Mike” Hawkins.

Taylor Bayless, a librarian with the Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia youth learning space, runs a podcasting program for teens. Since Bayless had no previous experience with podcasts, she was “muddling through” the learning process along with the kids, teaching herself as she was teaching them. “Someone working with youth has to have the capacity and desire to learn new technology,” says Bayless.

That was one message that came out of an hour-long chat on using social media in libraries, part of a month-long discussion series focusing on teens and the future of school and public libraries.

Sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and Connected Learning, an online learning network, the five programs that ran in May were all about how to engage that most fickle of consumers: teens. During the online discussions, media specialists and librarians who work with young people in new media offered their insight and best practices on how to successfully engage teens and tweens.

Participants were encouraged to comment using the #futureoflibraries Twitter hashtag, watch through Connected Learning’s Google+ Page, and chat over Livestream, where the conversations were archived. Speakers included “Brother Mike” Hawkins, associate director and lead mentor at YOUmedia’s Digital Youth Network.

Getting involved with students early on—and supporting their creative efforts while providing guidance about privacy and fair use—is good policy, says YALSA president-elect Chris Shoemaker, the incoming director of the Rye (NY) Free Reading Room. He recommends talking with teens about the content they produce, such as who may view their posts, the identity they’re projecting online, and what information can be traced back to them. Shoemaker works with students to revise their material before they publish. “I would never want a teenager to pull down content after it’s posted,” he says.

At DYN, Hawkins monitors teens’ social media use rather than polices. That strategy has motivated his young patrons to take ownership and think critically about what they post. When the content is inappropriate, Hawkins and other DYN staff are careful to express their concern in such a way that encourages kids and keeps them engaged—and helps them make good decisions. “I won’t say, ‘Take that down,’” says Hawkins. “But I may say, ‘You want to play this on the radio—but I can’t share this with anyone.’ So you can shape things.”

Ultimately it’s the teens themselves who determine how successfully libraries integrate social media. The real acid test? Whether or not they invite their friends into the branches.

Hawkins says, “We have students coming to the [YOUmedia] studio and taking pictures” who then share the images, attracting the attention of other kids, who ask, “Where you at?” The teens’ own posts can be very effective in promoting the library as a cool place, he adds.

Particularly for libraries lacking a marketing budget, this kind of public relations can work wonders. “If [students] see something cool, and they see a place where adults care about them,” says Hawkins, “they’re going to promote it more than we ever could.”

As Chicago prepares to permanently shutter 49 K–12 schools and one 9–11 school program for the coming school year, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is planning to open four new stand-alone school libraries for the 2013–2014 school year—and spend more than $2 million for the facilities.

“I am thrilled that each welcoming school will receive the necessary investment of a central library in their school this fall,” Lisa E. Perez, network library coordinator for CPS Department of Libraries, tells School Library Journal. “By consolidating underutilized schools, we are able to provide students with access to a quality, 21st Century education, including the opportunity to learn the value of libraries.”

Perkins Bass Elementary School, John Harvard Elementary School of Excellence, Leland Elementary Schoo,l and John T. McCutcheon Elementary will together receive $2 million just to build new library spaces in their schools, according to Molly Poppe, deputy press secretary for CPS. Additional monies will go into capital funding for new air conditioning, windows, paint, and new cabinetry, among other needs. The remaining so-called welcoming schools already have school libraries, according to Poppe.

How these libraries will be run, however, is unknown. Teachers and school librarians currently on staff at the closing schools will be eligible to follow their students to each new school. But Poppe says it won’t have final staffing numbers until budgets are finalized in the fall.

“We don’t know what [staffing] will look like because we don’t know how many students will be going to welcoming schools,” says Poppe. “We will look at that over the summer, on how we’ll allocate resources.”

Chicago’s plan to shutter the 50 schools for 2013–2014 follows a trend happening in major cities across the United States from Philadelphia to New York City—with municipalities shuttering schools for what they say is lack of enrollment, and, as a result, lack of funds. The decision has been met with anger from families and educators alike, with parents attacking CPS for selecting schools that seem to target minorities, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Chicago parents last month filed two lawsuits, arguing both that the proposed closings are discriminatory, because the overwhelming majority of the students are those districts are African-American, and that they would be hurtful to special-needs students.

“I’m representing parents whose neighborhood schools have meant a lot to their kids and to them, and the lawsuit is really a cry from them to be treated fairly and to ultimately get the attention of the school board to the problems they face,” Tom Geoghegan, the lead attorney for the lawsuits, tells SLJ. “There aren’t enough resources in any of these Chicago schools, including textbooks. But the claim that these closings come because the schools are underutilized and under-sourced is a hollow one. The answer to under-sourcing is not to jam kinds into larger classes.”

Calls to Chicago’s Office of the Mayor were not returned.

National organizations, including Save Our Schools, have rallied against the U.S. Department of Education to push for changes to policies that include continuing to close public schools in favor of charter schools. School libraries have also been affected, with school librarian positions being cut across the nation, including most recently in Elyria, OH.

“In some ways it always seems to me it’s like a parent saying, ‘No I’m not going to buy you any new books until you improve your reading,’” says Gail Dickinson, president-elect of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), who is nonetheless optimistic about the fate of school librarians and libraries in the country. “Nothing this important can be endangered.”

But while Marie Szyman, a teacher-librarian at Nathaniel Greene School in Chicago and vice president of the Chicago Teacher-Librarians Association, is not in danger of losing her job for the coming fall, she’s seen many benefits—from matching grants to professional development days for its school librarians—slowing disappear in the Windy City. And she’s watched as her students’ own library books slowly fall apart, not to be replaced. To her, the potential loss of some of her colleagues is a casualty—even as she knows her own position is secure.

“I feel we’re all affected,” says Szyman “What happens to one school happens to all of us.”

Additional reporting by Sarah Bayliss.

Teachers and parents alike are unsure about the topic, but it’s never been more important

Islam proved a tough subject for Coco Huguet when she went looking for resources to use with a fifth-grade global history class at the Hewitt School five years ago. “I looked all over the Internet for teaching material on [Islam] and couldn’t find anything,” says the English and history teacher at the all-girls school on New York’s Upper East Side. “Up until a few years ago, there was very little, especially for younger kids.”

But this fall, Huguet’s students will read the novels The Breadwinner (Groundwood, 2001) by Deborah Ellis and Andrew Clements’s Extra Credit (Atheneum, 2009), along with a National Geographic history reference, The Islamic World (2005)—as part of an attempt to enhance student understanding of the religion from an academic viewpoint and also provide a deeper context to the concerns permeating today’s headlines. “This year they’re going to be more aware,” says Huguet. “Some of these issues, especially Afghanistan and the division you see about the Mosque are coming to a head.”

Between recent threats by a Florida pastor to burn the Quran, our nation’s ongoing presence in Afghanistan, and protests at the planned site for Park 51, an Islamic community center and mosque set to be built two blocks from the World Trade Center site, the topic of Islam is a tricky one, especially in K–12 schools, say many educators.

For starters, it can be difficult to find appropriate materials to bring into media centers and classrooms. And then, parents can object to Islam being taught to their children, as protest groups across the Internet can attest. Of all major religious groups in the United States, Muslims trigger the most feelings of prejudice among Americans, according to a poll released in January by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. More than four in 10 Americans, or 43 percent, admitted to feeling at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims—as compared to 18 percent feeling similarly toward Christians, and 14 and 13 percent toward Jews and Buddhists respectively. And just 37 percent of Americans say they even know a Muslim American personally, according to a recent Time-Abt SRBI poll, with 46 percent believing that Islam actually supports the idea of its followers bringing harm to nonbelievers (http://bit.ly/dlchZy).

This prejudice can play out when organizations hear of Islamic culture being taught in schools, as Linda Tubach discovered when she launched a weekend professional development course for Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) teachers four years ago. “The Anti-Defamation League sent observers for a couple of years, and one person objected because [the class] was on the Jewish Sabbath,” says the retired high school social studies teacher, who runs the program through the interfaith group Fellowship of Reconciliation, which offers teachers salary point credit for the two-day course. “But that’s subsided, and our last class had no observers. People just seem to accept it at this point, and we feel very good about that.”

Participating teachers travel to the Helen Bernstein Professional Development Center in downtown Los Angeles to create lesson plans and review Internet sites for use in K–12 classes. They’re also treated to Middle Eastern luncheons and dancing. But the goal of the class is for educators to learn how to encourage questions and dialogue among K–12 students, specifically on the subject of Islam.

In a recent session, Tubach had two teachers role play—one assuming the role of an Israeli and the other a Palestinian—acting out a historic event from different viewpoints. The hope is that by addressing real history and potential stereotyping together, teachers will treat the subject matter with more confidence in a classroom setting. “People worry about backlash when they take on these issues,” says Tubach. “But we found you can handle that successfully if you design a class that meets high standards.”

But few students have an opportunity to take a class on world religions—let alone Islam. With budget cuts fairly standard across U.S. school districts, electives beyond the standard English, science, history, and mathematics courses are pretty limited. “Our school can’t afford to have more exotic classes because we’re already cutting back on others,” says Mithi Hossain, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan. “We did have a college-level course on Arabic after school. But that’s a language. And it was cut.”

Hossain, who serves as vice president of Stuy’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), is very passionate about her Muslim identity. She’s worn a hijab since the fifth grade and wishes more students at her school—beyond MSA’s 25 members—understood details about Islam. While elementary school is a little early to introduce the topic, she says, she believes that certainly high school students should be educated in the nuances of world religions. “When you’re going out into the world, you can’t rely on stereotypes to make decisions,” she says. “I believe school is the right place to learn about these subjects like Islam, as long as it’s not biased. I know that’s a very difficult thing to do. But if it’s coming from a teacher who is well educated and not from a Muslim background, then sometimes it’s more acceptable. Sometimes people are more willing to hear from a person with a different background than what they’re teaching.”

Knowing how to craft such a lesson is key. For teachers who don’t have access to professional development programs like Tubach’s, guidance on how to structure lesson plans is available online. New York’s Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility has a “Teachable Moment” section on its site, which covers subjects from “Engaging the Muslim World” to a fairly topical one called “NYC Muslim Community Center: Why There? Why Not?”, which includes tips on how to guide a student discussion on U.S. and Muslim relations.

Schools across the country have accessed these lessons and have also been helped directly by Tala Manassah, deputy executive director of the Morningside Center, who believes that a properly constructed course can be effective in combating stereotypes. “You want to approach this from a historical side so they have some context,” says Manassah. “Because some of this squawking that goes on with controversial issues comes from ignorance.”

Nancy Gallin might concur. The history department chair at the Hewitt School for the past 15 years occasionally encounters queries from students that give her pause. “You’ll get the odd questions like, ‘Are Catholics Christians?’” she says.

But her students are taught about Islam through multiple disciplines and over many years to help stem that lack of knowledge. In the eighth grade, students learn how the Quran figures as a document of religious law, while ninth graders study the Crusades and the extension of Islam into Europe. By 10th grade, they’re prepared to examine the religion within a more current context. “My general approach is to note similarities between today and history,” says Gallin. “Because of the Muslim Community Center, I’ll talk this year about the fact that xenophobia goes back to the Alien and Sedition Acts [of 1798]. And I’ll connect that to the point that even though we live in a country with such an eclectic culture, some people think they’re more real of an American than others.”

Yet even a well-prepared teacher can watch a spirited conversation among students about burqas and the Five Pillars of Islam dissolve into a heated argument or even cross into proselytizing. Knowing not just how to present material, but how students may even respond, can make the difference.

Diane Moore helped pilot an online program, launched this fall through Harvard Divinity School, to turn public school teachers into peer scholars who can then teach the topic of Islam to fellow educators.

“One of the main things we’ll be working with is not just content, but how do you teach about [Islam] and what you should be attentive to,” says Moore, a professor of the Practice in Religious Studies and Education, and director of the Program in Religious Studies and Education at Harvard. “Content knowledge is not insignificant, but it is the how of teaching religion that is really critical. How do you introduce the subject to your students when they have their own misperceptions? So part of it is anticipating what your students already think about this.”

That kind of teaching may be imperative in helping teachers overcome concerns that prevent them from even broaching the topic of Islam or Muslims in class—even if they believe these are subjects that could be helpful for their students. “There’s a real consensus that public schools need to teach more about religious diversity and aren’t doing a better job because so many teachers are afraid of touching the topic with a 10-foot pole,” says Henry Goldschmidt, program associate with the Interfaith Center of New York, which runs professional development courses for teachers every summer.

For the two dozen or so educators who come for the weeklong program in New York, the Interfaith Center offers visits with community religious leaders including those from the Jewish, Santería, and Christian faiths, lectures from academic experts, and even field trips to different houses of worship—outings K–12 teachers can arrange for their own classes. The hope is that teachers will see religion as more a base of lived traditions and not just historical doctrines—and in that way make the subject more accessible and alive to K–12 students.

“That’s one of the reasons K–12 curriculum is reduced to historical facts and dates,” says Goldschmidt. “It’s simpler for students and teachers to get their hands around that. But while they may be able to recite the Ten Commandments, they may not have any understanding of the lives of Muslims, Buddhists, or Jews living in America today.”

But that’s not going to be the issue with Gallin’s students at Hewitt this fall. Every Thursday morning, the school holds a town meeting—usually filled with reminders for children to bring in permission slips, or about parent conferences. However, Gallin says she’s going to use the time to keep the school community more aware of the current issues surrounding Islam.

“I’m going to call people’s attention to what’s going on in downtown New York, in particular, with Islam,” she says. “I think if we’re assuming these young women are going to be citizens of the world, they should know what’s happening around them.”

Resources foR teaching about islam

Luckily, you can find a lot more material online today than in recent years. Many organizations offer K–12 curricular guides, and while it’s still a challenge to find content for younger grades, these resources are a good place to start:

Elementary School

Access Islam
Thirteen.org

Ten multimedia lessons for grades 4–8 about Islamic holidays, traditions, and cultures, from Ramadan to the Quran.

Children’s Book Study Guides: The Librarian of Basra and Alia’s Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

A way to introduce the Iraq war to younger children by discussing the Library of Basra that burned.

Information on Islam
Woodland Junior School, Kent, England

Offers simple history questions for younger students complete with photographs and a multi-faith calendar.

Middle School

Extra Credit study guide
Andrew Clements

Guidance for teachers to help students discuss the story of two sixth graders, a young girl in Illinois and a boy in Afghanistan, who become pen pals.

Geometry and Islam
Asia Society

A student activity that incorporates Islamic textiles and architecture.

Teaching on Controversial Issues: Guidelines for Teachers
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

A teacher guide to presenting complicated and potentially controversial subjects.

High School

NYC Muslim Community Center: Why there? Why not?
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

Background regarding the proposed mosque and community center, with guidelines for conducting a discussion with students.

Islam, Empire of Faith
PBS Educational Resources

The first of five lessons aimed at students in grades 6–12.
The World of Islam
National Geographic

National Geographic story on Islam, with links to online forums, bibliographies, Muslim organizations, and a digital Quran.

SLJ‘s Recommended Titles

Picture Books

ADDASI, Maha. Time to Pray. tr. by Nuha Albitar. illus. by Ned Gannon. Boyds Mills. 2010. RTE $17.95. ISBN 978-1-59078-611-6.

Gr 1-4–During a visit to her grandmother in the Middle East, Yasmin learns about her religion and finds a way to pray at home, even though there are no mosques where she lives. A warm intergenerational story, told in English and Arabic, with  illustrations that feature Islamic geometric designs and Arab architecture and culture.

ADDASI, Maha. The White Nights of Ramadan. illus. by Ned Gannon. Boyds Mills. 2008. RTE $16.95. ISBN 978-1-59078-523-2.

Gr 1-4–When Noor, who lives in Kuwait, sees the almost-full moon rise, she knows it’s time to prepare for Girgian, a Muslim celebration observed mostly in the Arabian Gulf states during the middle of the month of Ramadan. The story underlines the importance of sharing, self improvement, and community welfare. Highlighted with moonlit hues, the attractive illustrations are done in a style that reflects one of many Muslim cultures.

JALALI, Reza. Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracle. illus. by Anne Sibley O’Brien. Tilbury House. 2010. RTE $16.95. ISBN 978-0-88448-321-2. LC 2009046324.

Gr 1-4–Shirin is disappointed because she is too young to fast, but her father encourages her to do good deeds. As Ramadan ends, the family prepares for Eid-ul-Fitr, and a big surprise awaits Shirin, a “miracle.” O’Brien’s watercolor illustrations depict a Persian-American family.

KHAN, Hena. Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story. illus. by Julie Paschkis. Chronicle. 2008. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-8118-6062-8.

Gr 2-4–A seven-year-old Pakistani-American girl learns about the Islamic calendar and enjoys a special dinner with her family. Typical events follow, such as a celebration of the “Night of the Moon” at the community center. Then Ramadan is over, and the next day is Eid. Paschkis’s stunning paintings incorporate Islamic tile art, adding to an authentic sense of the culture.

MOBIN-UDDIN, Asma. A Party in Ramadan. illus. by Laura Jacobsen. Boyds Mills. 2009. RTE $16.95. ISBN 978-1-59078-604-8.

Gr 2-6–Leena faces a difficult decision when she wants to fast during Ramadan, but also wants to attend her friend’s pony party. She decides to do both, but finds that resisting the tempting treats isn’t easy. When it is time to end the fast, her friends come with cake, and her mother invites them to share the iftar dinner. This well-told story is a great resource for discussing choices and religious differences

ROBERT, Na’ima B. Ramadan Moon. illus. by Shirin Adl. Frances Lincoln. 2009. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-84507-922-2.

K-Gr 4–A girl explains what happens throughout the month as people pray in mosques, listen to imams read verses from the Qur’an, and perform good deeds. The language is poetic, and the art shows the moon’s waxing and waning phases as the family worships and rejoices.

WHITMAN, Sylvia. Under the Ramadan Moon. illus. by Sue Williams. Albert Whitman. 2008. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-0-8075-8304-3.

Gr 2-4–In a lyrical text, Whitman describes how a modern family observes Ramadan. Soft pastels captures the events and family interactions, and show women in hijaab giving hugs and talking on cell phones.

For Older Readers

Fiction

ABDEL-FATTAH, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? Scholastic/Orchard. 2007. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-439-91947-0.

Gr 7 Up–Amal, a devout Muslim, decides to wear the hijab full time. She faces typical teen concerns and deals with  misconceptions non-Muslims have about her religion and culture. The novel deals with some heavy issues, but it’s also very funny. See also Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Ten Things I Hate About Me.

CLEMENTS, Andrew. Extra Credit. illus. by Mark Elliott. S & S/Atheneum. 2009. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-4929-9.

Gr 4-7–Illinois sixth-grader Abby Carson and Sadeed Bayat, the best English-language student in his Afghan village, become pen pals, but because it isn’t proper for a boy and girl to correspond with one another, he must pretend he is his sister.  He can’t keep the secret though, and the two become friends and learn about one another’s culture and connect through their shared love of Frog and Toad Are Friends.

ELLIS, Deborah. Parvana’s Journey. Groundwood. 2002. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-88899-514-8; pap. $5.95. ISBN 0-88899-519-9.

Gr 7-10–This heart-wrenching sequel to The Breadwinner (Groundwood, 2001) follows 13-year-old Parvana as she searches through war-torn Afghanistan looking for her mother and siblings who had disappeared in the tumult of the Taliban takeover. An unforgettable read about the will to survive.

STRATTON, Allan. Borderline. HarperTeen. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-06-145111-9; PLB $17.89. ISBN 978-0-06-145112-6.

Gr 7 Up–Sami is bullied at school because he is a Muslim, and the administration doesn’t do anything to stop it. Then the FBI breaks into his house and takes his dad away, unjustly assuming that he is a terrorist. A fast-paced thriller with strong characterizations.  

Nonfiction

CALVERT, John. Divisions Within Islam. ISBN 978-1-4222-0533-4..

KAVANAUGH, Dorothy. Islamic Festivals and Celebrations. ISBN 978-1-4222-0534-1.

––––. The Muslim World: An Overview. ISBN 978-1-4222-0532-7.

LUXENBERG, Alan. Radical Islam. ISBN 978-1-4222-0536-5.

MELMAN, Anna. Islam in America. ISBN 978-1-4222-0535-8.

RADU, Michael. Islam in Europe.  ISBN 978-1-4222-1363-6.

RUBIN, Barry. The History of Islam. ISBN 978-1-4222-0531-0.

SKLAR, Tanya. Islamic-Jewish Relations Before 1947. ISBN 978-1-4222-1361-2.  

    ea vol: 64p. (World of Islam Series). Mason Crest. 2009. Tr $22.95.

Gr 6 Up–These titles clarify issues facing the Muslim world and show the diversity of opinions within the religion. They also show the diversity of thought and opinion within Islam, In order to get a broad picture of the Islamic faith, the books work best as a set.

ELLIS, Deborah. Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak. Groundwood. 2004. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-88899-554-7.

Gr 7-9–Alternating accounts from young people between the ages of 8 and 18 show the devastating effect of war on their lives and how any sense of childhood has been stolen from them.

HAFIZ, Dilara & Imran Hafiz, & Yasmine Hafiz. The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook. Acacia Pub.. 2007. pap. $11.95. ISBN 978-0-9792531-2-6.

Gr 7 Up–A fine introduction to the basics of Islam. Quotes from teens tell what it’s like to be a Muslim in America, and the authors address dating, dancing, drinking, and drugs. The conversational style will appeal to teen readers, whether practicing the religion or wanting to know more about it.

 See also: Picture Book About Islam Ignites Twitter Battle

“I’ve always been told there’s not enough money,” says Carol Heinsdorf, the former president of the Association of Philadelphia School Librarians and currently employed as a certified school librarian in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). “And now we’re bring told there’s not enough money. So what’s changed? I will say certified school librarians have not been a priority of people in position of authority affiliated with the SDP.”

To date, there are just 43 certified school librarians in more than 250 schools, says Heinsdorf. And SDP is looking at potentially cutting these positions, along with a reported 3,000, more to try to balance the 2013–2014 budget. Repeated calls to SDP were not returned over the course of a week, and a request to speak with Lori Shorr, the mayor’s chief education officer in Philadelphia, was declined by email.

But the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) says that the district is trying to get cuts equal to $133 million from the union through salary reductions, increases to health insurance, longer days and reduced prep times, according to George Jackson, PFT’s communications director.

With the union’s contract set to expire on August 31, the PFT has started negotiating with the district—even before Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented the possible budget in mid-April. But the funds the district hopes to reap from the union are only part of what’s needed, with SDP asking the state for an additional $120 million and the city for a further $60 million, with hearings held before the City Council on this week. It’s a scenario that is upsetting to many involved.

“We’re talking about money just to maintain a status quo that’s underserving our students,” says Jackson. “Most of our schools don’t have full time libraries already. We’re already talking to our kids to make them more accountable, and to get everything out of them. To not have a school librarian is a huge detriment.”

Brett Schaeffer, communications director at the Education Law Center, a legal advocacy and non-profit educational group in Philadelphia, testified Tuesday before the City Council on the impact that losing 100 school nurses two years ago had on Philadelphia school children. The proposed budget would cut the remaining nurses even further, going from one nurse for every 1,000 students to about one for every 1,500 students, says Schaeffer. And the affect on losing all school librarians? Not thinkable.

“There’s clear evidence of students’ achievement due to full-time accredited school librarians,” he says. “The idea that they just go to zero school librarians is just not acceptable.”

While requests for funding are likely to continue to be discussed, schools are likely starting to look at what the new situation may require of them. Individual schools will be the ones deciding what they can —and cannot—afford, with principals set to receive just enough money, beyond their salary, to pay for teachers based on their contracted classroom size of 30 students for K–3, and 33 students per class for older grades. If extra funds are restored, however, few believe that school librarians will be a priority.

“If there’s art, music, or a librarian, it’s a principal’s decision,” says Heinsdorf. “But the first thing they’ll want is a secretary.”

Jason Sellers and class onscreen at
the French American International School, San Francisco, CA.

Jason Sellers wanted his 10th-grade English students at the French American International School to improve their descriptive writing skills. So, while subbing for a fellow teacher earlier this year, he launched a three-day classroom project—on writing code.

Sellers, the San Francisco school’s academic technology coordinator and the technology liaison for the University of California Berkeley’s Bay Area Writing Project, says, “You hear a lot about gaming and engaging kids in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects, and I wondered, what does gaming look like in English?”

For three days Sellers found out, adopting interactive fiction as his vehicle. As opposed to programming code such as Java or C++, interactive fiction sites use a pseudo code that’s only recognizable inside a particular game, which organizes the language into commands and variables that tells the game what to do. It’s the principles of code writing, but with more latitude; by stringing together words, kids can create an interactive world, which comes to life onscreen. One of Sellers’ students calls it “3-D writing.”

Lessons are based in Playfic, an online community where users write, share, and play games using Inform 7, a programming system for creating interactive fiction based on natural language. Games are simple to play—users just click and write as they would a text message. While low on graphics and sound, the games can nevertheless be engrossing.

Having played Zork games on a used Commodore 64 when he was a kid, Sellers had some experience with interactive fiction. Even so, he had to spend the previous evening boning up before presenting his lesson to the class. And it was a hit. “It wasn’t just something for their teacher to assess and get a grade,” says Sellers. “They were creating a game for classmates to play and that was fun.”

Most games feature some simplistic narrative, such as rescuing a commando force from enemy fire. But writing narrative code as an English assignment—as opposed to writing code to create a narrative game—not only allows greater creativity in the game design process, but also enhances writing skills and text comprehension in a different genre—an aspect of the new Common Core State Standards.

“What Jason is doing is giving them more tools to create games as producers and not just as consumers,” says Paul Oh, senior program associate for the National Writing Project (NWP). “They’re being given the opportunity to understand the narrative of the game and how to construct their own narrative.”

After posting his project on NWP’s Digital Is site, Sellers has developed a bit of a following. He and four of his 10th graders recently attended the California Association of Teachers of English conference in Santa Clara to present the project, helping teachers in the room craft some code themselves.

Should he try the lesson again, Sellers says he would strengthen the emphasis on descriptive writing, as some of his students were more focused on building a playable game rather than creating a world through descriptive language. But did he feel he got them hooked into a new world of gaming?

“I’m competing with a lot of other ways to spend their free time,” he says. “But I think it’s pretty cool.”

Part of YALSA’s year-long National Forum on Libraries & Teens project, the virtual chat was the first of three planned to broaden the conversation among librarians and educators across the country.

The participants—who hailed from 24 states and all facets of the library community—joined YALSA past president and Linda W. Braun as she tossed out several questions during the hour-long chat, such as whether an off-site event, like a park or community space, can make a library seem less vital. Responses spilled from attendees proclaiming that a library can be both a place and a service.

One participant shared that by having programs out of school, teens are surprised to find their librarian even more cool than they thought. “What I like about off-campus programming is seeing teens back in the library,” noted April Witteveen of the Deschutes Public Library in Bend, OR. “That’s when they really figure out, ‘hey, this nice friendly person works in a library.”

As budgets tighten across the country for both school and public libraries, librarians are seeking new ways to fund programming for their teen patrons—often with fewer resources. Partners can share both the cost and time commitment needed for many events and projects, although as attendees pointed out, librarians sometimes need to adjust their own expectations to make things work, and even “…do things differently than you were planning,” noted Maureen Hartman.

Others agreed, adding that flexibility is crucial when working with outside groups. As Shawna Sherman noted, librarians can also “…learn from partners, see the techniques they use to work with teens.”

Teens can sometimes point the way to better partnerships, added Cherry Hill Public Library’s teen librarian Melissa Brinn, who stated that involving them through teen activity boards or groups, and allowing them to choose partners can be effective. Some popular partnerships highlighted by those at the event included blogging about books on a library’s site for volunteer credit, and even partnering with a college radio station for a podcasting program—one idea Brinn is currently pursuing.

All agreed that it’s critical for libraries and staff to be active and continuously engaged in how to reach teens and provide services, but the chat also focused on what librarians can provide through their own resources versus what can be enhanced through potential partnerships. Braun pushed participants to consider out-of-the-box ideas as well, with those in room sharing programs they do with various film festivals, nonprofit groups like Keep America Beautiful, and local museums.

Ultimately, though, as one attendee shared, as libraries focus on what they believe their young patrons need, they shouldn’t lose sight of what they may truly prefer.

“Teens are always amused at what adults think they’re supposed to want,” said Barbara, a youth service librarian from Albuquerque, NM. “We have a running joke in my teen council about someone who told me once that ‘teens feel threatened by good furniture.’”

YALSA’s second town hall, slated for April 16, will take a look at teen learning environments, so-called maker spaces, and how kids engage with digital tools.  In the meantime, YALSA is encouraging library staff and stakeholders to join the conversation via Twitter (#yalsaforum) and Facebook.

The third virtual meet-up is set for May 21 will a focus on the future of library services.

The funds for its ambitious one-to-one technology program are coming from capital raised by Proposition 30, which passed in California last year and is set to bring $6 billion back to the state’s public school and university system. Passing with just 54 percent of voters, the initiative raises sales tax by a quarter-percent for the next four years, while also increasing income tax on residents whose income exceeds $250,000 for the next seven years. In a state that has seen severe cuts to its educational system—and, in particular, school libraries—the Proposition had fairly wide support, from Gov. Jerry Brown to LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy.

Still, while many in the district support LAUSD’s ability to avoid layoffs, not everyone sees the decision to spend on technology as the correct course of action—particularly after years of budget reductions.

“Money from Proposition 30 needed to go to all those savage cuts over the last several years,” says Warren Fletcher, president of the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), who has worked in the public schools for the past 30 years, most recently as a high school English teacher. “We have students with no access to school psychologists, and elementary school after elementary school that have had to close libraries.”

Indeed, LAUSD has had to cut “thousands,” says Tom Waldman, LAUSD’s director of communications and media relations. “We’ve had a $2.7 billion cumulative budget deficit since 2007,” he says. And while cuts to positions were avoided this year, he notes that’s possible because the responsibility to pay for mental health counselors, for example, is now shifting from schools to LAUSD’s central office. And Waldman says that schools may still actually lose these positions in the end.

“I don’t know,” says Waldman, when asked if schools who currently have these people assigned to them will keep them.

Where LAUSD is putting resources for the coming school year is on a district-wide one-to-one technology program that will first pilot at 47 K–12  schools, most of them Title 1, and costing the district $50 million, says Waldman. Schools will be allocated laptops, tablets, or other tools, along with funds for professional development so teachers can incorporate them into student learning. The plan is to phase in the remainder of the 786 K–12 schools for the 2014–2015 school year with the entire program coming in at about $500 million.

Whether individual schools or LAUSD’s central office will be paying for the materials that can be accessed by the digital devices—from ebooks to online databases—is still unclear, says Waldman. But he adds that there’s “no point in having tablets without the latest materials.”

In addition, Waldman states that the district believes the new technology is necessary to both prepare students not just for careers in this 21st Century but also for new electronic testing that California is rolling out for the 2014–2015 school year.

Yet, UTLA’s Fletcher believes that funding a technology program should not be launched at the exclusion of restoring other missing elements to the LAUSD’s system. Instead, he believes that multiple programs can occur simultaneously—and that the district’s first priority should be to first restore what had been removed.

“It’s not one thing versus another thing,” says Fletcher. “Proposition 30 was a bandage to stop the bleeding, which is not that students don’t have technology but that kids don’t have libraries, and have classes with 30 students.”

After a $4.3 million property tax levy failed to pass in November in Elyria, the district is pushing through $3 million in cuts including its six remaining media specialists among the 21 non-core positions being lost, plus another 22 from administration areas, and 16.5 core roles from the math, science, social studies, and special education departments, he says. Other losses include seventh grade sports teams, as well as a high school television program.

The district hopes to avoid cutting the remaining $1.3 million, because of a new budget plan proposed  by Gov. John Kasich which would send an additional $1.6 million to the district for the 2013–2014 school year, and another $2 million the following year.

The governor‘s plan, which has drawn ire from the Ohio Education Association, increases funding for gifted programming and special education among other areas, but actually reduces the amount per student each school receives from the current $5700 to $5000, says Stephens.

“There is more money in total,” he says. “But the argument is that there are some winners and some losers and that will have to be ironed out.”

Many in Ohio say the state has been in a battle with its legislators for decades since its Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that the way it funds public schools—through property taxes—is unconstitutional, as wealthier districts aren’t forced to make as steep cuts as areas that are less economically advantaged.

“And Elyria is one of them,” says Sarida Volante, president of the Elyria Education Association, an independent chapter of the state union, referring to the challenges Elyria faces in raising capital for schools. The district cut 52 positions last year, and also closed a school.

Last year, Elyria did not have any reduction to its media specialists, Volante says. This year, however, five of the six media specialists cut will be absorbed into other teaching positions, with one permanently losing her job because she doesn’t have other certification that lets her be placed elsewhere.

Without media specialists in the schools, the district is scrambling to find other ways to give students the library access that they need. Elyria is planning to work with the local public libraries to see how they might be able to step in with electronic links or even bookmobiles, says Stephens. In addition, principals will be asked to run libraries, with teachers then managing students in the libraries, he adds.

“They’re expensive for us to run,” he says of school libraries. “We want students to have access but not spend as much money on them.”

Stephens notes that Ohio’s school districts are also losing funds to charter schools—with each new one that opens taking added dollars away from existing public schools that have faced cuts each year. Elyria was paying just $300,000 to charter schools eight years ago—and today pays $6.5 million. “We wouldn’t have to make these cuts if we had that,” he says, of the money going to charter schools.

But even if more funds were to come back to Elyria, Volante fears that it’s very hard to restore what has already been removed from the schools. And while she has been told that media centers will continue to operate, she says the specifics on how have not been shared. “What we know is once we lose our media specialists, the chances of them coming back are very slim,” she says.

Washington DC high school student Golden Rockefeller (right)
was a 2012 STEM Video Game Challenge winner for a game called Electrobob.
Photo courtesy of E-LIne Media.

Students are invited to enter the annual National STEM Video Game Challenge, and organizers are hoping school librarians will help mentor and support kids throughout the process.

In its third year, the contest welcomes students in grades 5–12, including homeschoolers, to create a video game, incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills into their design. Organizers E-Line Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop partnered this year with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to extend their outreach to museums and libraries, including K–12 school libraries.

“The more librarians, the better,” says Christa Avampato, a consultant at the Sesame Workshop working directly on the challenge. “A school library is really a hub of a school, where a lot of workshops, knowledge, and socializing takes place. So a librarian becomes more of a mentor with the kids and, as such, has the opportunity to develop interest in the challenge.”

Getting students excited about STEM subjects is precisely why organizers launched the Challenge three years ago, says Brian Alspach, executive vice president of the New York-based game publisher E-Line Media. And video game design seemed the perfect vehicle. Not only do kids like to play them, but many have also experimented with making their own games using programs such as MIT’s Scratch and Microsoft’s Kodu, which are freely available online. (Students can use these programming languages, among others, to create STEM Challenge entries.)

“When you connect to the interest of a young person, that creates a really powerful environment for learning,” says Alspach. “The concept of kids doing something they enjoy is what we’re trying to instill with the STEM challenge.”

Last year’s winners included the Darwin’s Finches game by Steven Stulga. Winner of the High School Open Platform category, the game turns players into species of birds from the Galapagos Islands, and they learn about natural selection. Owen Leddy’s Pathogen Wars, which took the top prize in the High School Playable Game category, had players traveling through the human immune system.

Students—as well as librarians, teachers, parents, or any adult hoping to mentor an entrant—can take advantage of several in-person events taking place across the country in the next two months. On the Challenge site, a Mentor Resource Kit is available for download, with ideas on how to create your own related workshops, and a webinar is in the works. Marsha Semmel, director of strategic partnerships at IMLS, says the sponsors are hoping to push the contest into more public and school libraries to take advantage of the kind of education taking place in these centers.

“We wanted to highlight the fact that a library, any kind of library, is a good place to teach and learn about gaming,” she says. “We want to promote libraries as effective areas of learning.”

Students can enter in either the middle school or high school categories, depending on their age, and can submit a game on their own or as a team of up to four members. Prizes include an AMD laptop fully stocked with game-making software, a $2,000 cash prize for their winning school, plus a visit to New York City to pick up their award. Registration opened in February, and students have until April 24 to submit their finished entry—just enough time to get your students’ game face on and start coding.