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Shared Foundation V: Explore

        Melissa (Missy) Young graduated from the program at USC last fall and is in her third year as the librarian at Sand Hill Elementary. She has been so helpful and encouraging throughout the beginning of my school library career. 

        Missy makes a point to share fiction and nonfiction texts in her lessons with students. She provides many opportunities for students to connect and demonstrate their learning including written responses, STEAM-related activities, collaborative, and hands-on activities. Students can also earn additional time to create in her Makerspace sessions. She shares many of these lessons and activities with the elementary librarians in our district. I am working to incorporate them in my own library as I work to build up my materials. 

        She also believes in the importance of showing students kid-friendly sites to access for information and uses these for various lessons. 

        Collaboration is one of Missy's passions and one of my areas of weakness. She sends out newsletters and includes helpful tips on their Teams pages. She loves getting ideas from teachers and helping them expand their students exploration opportunities. 

        Exploring can look different from one activity to the next. It's important to provide students with as many experiences as we can as librarians. 

        

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