Have you ever thought about having students as volunteers in the library? For the past few years, our campus has been working hard to develop leadership qualities in our students. We began by reading the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People as a campus book study. Then we introduced the book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids to all classrooms, and focused on teaching these 7 habits to all our our students.
The change in our school has been tremendous! The one aspect that I’m really impressed with is our 5th Grade Leadership Program. All 5th graders go through a Leadership Academy, and at the end they all “apply” for jobs around the school such as:
- Greeters = help greet parents and kids at the front of the building in the mornings
- Morning Announcers = help make the announcements in the morning
- Watt Watchers = go around school making sure lights are turned out in empty rooms
- PreK Leaders = help in the PreK classrooms
- Kinder Leaders = help in the Kinder classrooms
- Safety Patrol = help remind kids to walk at the end of the day and help out at the buses and parent pick-up
For the past 2 years, I’ve been lucky enough to have a group of students apply to be “Library Leaders” (volunteers in the library) and come help me. At first I was completely excited about getting help! Unfortunately, my school doesn’t get many volunteers (or any for that matter), and I’m usually managing the library on my own. (My only consistent volunteers are my mom and dad when they come to help out during the Book Fairs!)
I quickly realized that while having a group of 5th graders come to library to help was an awesome opportunity, it could also become a headache if I was having to always tell them what to do. So, I once again went into UBER-ORGANIZED mode!
The first thing I did was brainstorm a list of all the “jobs” that were always needing to be done in the library on a day to day basis:
- Shelving returned books
- Adding new Magazines to the plastic holders
- Stamping and labeling new or donated paperback books
- Finding lost/misplaced books
- Straightening up shelves and pulling books to the edge
- Cleaning and organizing centers
- Turning on computers and logging into the library account
- Helping decorate and manage mini-events and Book Fairs
One of the first things that popped out of that list was SHELVING! Last year, I at least had 5-10 minutes in between classes to shelve books. Unfortunately, this year, the schedule just didn’t allow for that and I have usually 4-5 classes back to back in the morning and then again in the afternoons. This means that I end up with about 150-200 books that need to be shelved at one time. Having a system where my leaders could help me with shelving would definitely make my life much easier!
So I created badges for each of my Library Leaders that listed “jobs” that they could do anytime they came in the library. I could also use these for the rare times that I would actually get a volunteer in the library. This way, I didn’t have to stop what I was doing to tell them what to do.
I copied the badges on card stock, double sided, and stuck them inside plastic name badge holders that I had purchased. I hung them on the wall near my office using push pins. Whenever they came in the work, they would put their badges on, and then they would hang them back up whenever they left.
They worked well, but unfortunately broke over time. I also noticed that the library leaders would sometimes spend more time talking together, than actually working.
Over this past summer, I tried to find a better way to utilize library leaders.
I thought that if each library leader was responsible for certain bookshelves within each section, then when they came in to work they could go to “their” bookshelves, and at least be a little more spread out. To figure this out, I counted the number of bookshelves in the Fiction, Everybody, and Non-Fiction sections. Then, I divided the number of bookshelves in each section by the number of Library Leaders I had. This told me which bookshelves to put on each of the badges. I copied their name and job descriptions on cardstock again, but this time I laminated them back to back and hole-punched them in the center. I hung them on heavy duty nylon lanyards that I purchased, and this has worked out so much better.
This year my Library Leaders even came up with a great suggestion to rotate the shelves and put a different focus on each day of the week. So together we created a schedule and posted it above their badges on the wall.
I love the concept of having students take on responsibilities around the school (especially the library). I tweeted this post and plan to also share it with the principal and guidance counselor. Thank you for sharing. Oh yeah! I'm going to visit your TPT and Teacher's Notebook for the badges.
Thanks Pam! I absolutely LOVE my Library Leaders, and hope it works as well for you! Let me know how it goes!
Wow! I love this idea. Thanks so much for sharing.
You're welcome! 🙂
I love this set of materials!! I bought as soon as I saw it on TPT. I was wondering the names of the fonts I needed to download to make the shelf rotation page not so jumbled! Thanks so much!!
Thanks! 🙂 I'm glad that you are finding it useful! The title font is from Lettering Delights and it's called "Funky Chicken". The font for the days of the week is called "Mouse Memoirs" and it's from fontspace.com (which is free). :0) Hope this helps!
I’ve had student volunteers helping in my K-5 school library for about 5 years. It started off with just a few and now it’s grown to over 30 student volunteers. At the beginning of the school year 4th and 5th graders fill out an application if they’d like to work in the library. After two weeks of taking applications, each student who applied comes in for an interview. Along with myself, I enlist the help of the principal, assistant principal and school counselor. We call the students in one at a time and conduct a short interview. We take notes on the back of the application they’ve returned and I make my final selection from that. Once I’ve trained each volunteer to shelve books, they pick a row to be responsible for. I post their picture above the row, and it’s something they take pride in maintaining. Each student volunteer also works in our student store one day a week (this is by far their favorite part of volunteering). They also have a pictured ID badge to wear when volunteering. Also, some of my volunteers come in and are actually cleaning each book in the row they are responsible for! I am so thankful for my student volunteers, they work hard to help keep our school library maintained and are such a help to me.. Linda
I love the idea of interviewing the interested students! Our 5th grade teachers give all their students a job application, but there's no interview process per se. Maybe in our future! Thanks for the great ideas!
Our students go through the application process and a library quiz before the interview. If selected they need to attend 2 of the 3 training sessions to become a library student aide. I love the name Library leader! I think I will be changing from student aide to leaders!
Oh Lisa! I like the idea of a library quiz! What kind of questions do you have on that? Is that something you have saved that you could share or post? I’m sure there are others (like me) who would be interested. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Sandy
I just recently stumbled across this post. I love the jobs listing on the back of their name tag! Save me from talking and giving instructions, especially if they come in when another class is having library time. I allow 4th grade and higher (we are a K-8 school) “apply” to be a library helper. They fill out a short application (including a section for teacher approval). From there I narrow down based on students who didn’t finish the application (they didn’t fill out both sides for example). If there isn’t too many, they all get it from there. If there are too many, I’ll get more picky based on answers they put. I also love giving them a section they are responsible for every time they come in – giving them more ownership of their library.
Hi Stephanie! Yes, the job listings on the back has saved me LOTS of time…and helped them be more accountable for what they need to do when they come. 🙂 Our 5th grade team usually does the application process but I usually go into the 5th grade classrooms and advertise for what I need in the library as well. 🙂
When during the day are your 5th graders able to come to the library to work? What are they missing when they are in the library? Part of lunch, study hall?
Hi Beth,
The 5th grade teachers came up with an application form that the students filled out that gave basic info (name, teacher, jobs they were interested in, positive character traits they had that would make them a good worker, etc.) I was given the applications for students who put library as their 1st option and then I interviewed them. I asked questions like why they applied for library, what did they think the job looked like, what strengths they had that would help them in this job, etc. Depending upon the number of applicants I narrowed it down to 5-6 and offered the job to them. Those that didn’t get this job were then given to their 2nd choice and the process continued. Usually kids got their 1st or 2nd choice. The way our 5th grade leaders work is they come during their recess time after they do their initial walk if they want to work. I ask them if they want to come just once a week or twice a week, and most of them say twice. I typically have 5-6 leaders so I rotate them (2 come Mon/Wed, 2 come Tues/Thur, and 2 come Friday and another day). They also are able to come before school and work up until our last bell and anytime during book fair week as long as it’s okay with their teacher and their work is done. It is totally optional to come work, but I’ve been lucky with the students that have applied to work for me. There have been a couple that applied and slowly stopped showing up, so I asked them if they had changed their mind about working in the library (which is okay). I then posted on the 5th grade hallway that there was a new opening in the library for anyone who wanted to apply, and the process repeated. I hope this makes sense. 🙂
Sandy
This was my first year in the library. This was also the first year our school has tried Library Leaders. They loved it the first 3-4 months then I started losing them. I also found that they did not want to do the Non-fiction section. How do you keep yours involved all year?
Hi Jill,
That has been a problem for me, especially our first year doing it. Since then, I’ve really talked it up when kids ask me if they can help. If they are currently NOT in 5th grade, I tell them all about the application process and let them know that I’d love for them to apply when they are in 5th grade. One other thing that I do is have them help me during book fair weeks. I let their teachers know that they can come down ANYTIME they are done with their work and want to come help. As a “thank you” I do give each 5th grade leader a $10.00 gift certificate using my Scholastic Dollars to go shop at the bookfair. I let them choose their books on Monday/Tuesday and I put them aside, but they don’t get to purchase them until Friday (our last day of sales). This way, they still have to show up to “earn” the books. The also give them little “goody bags” for each holiday…nothing special but things like pencils, erasers, small toys that I find at Oriental Trading or Target’s dollar isle. Just a little something to let them know how much I appreciate their help. Finally, I let them peruse through my vendor catalogs and they get to help me “shop” for new books or series to buy for the school. I hope some of these ideas help you!
Sandy,
I cannot begin to thank you for all of your great ideas! I have been in education for 30 years, 27 in the library. Up until last year, I have always had an assistant, and she was awesome! Being
by myself in the library has made me have to be more organized and plan ahead. Your lessons for grades K-3 are awesome! I have always had student volunteers, but I am going to try your Student Volunteers in the Library packet. I love that it is detailed because I usually forget something very important to share with the students.
I am always looking forward to seeing what you come out with next!
Thanks for the kind words, Paige! I really do appreciate it, and I’m glad that you are finding my ideas helpful! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your summer, and I hope you have a great upcoming school year!
When I try to print the badges and the rotation schedule I’m only getting what I typed in…no borders or pics. Am I missing a file/print step?
Thanks!