Hey everybody, we are back once again and I am super excited. A couple of weeks ago, we had Casey Boyd recorded from back a couple of years ago when I was doing a different podcast and she shared a great lesson. She is back with us and she is going to be sharing another great lesson with us today. So I'm super excited. Casey, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.
Why don't you take a second just in case, I don't believe it's possible, but just in case people don't know who you might be. If you could take a second and just tell folks a little bit about you, that'd be great. it's possible. Believe me, there's people that don't know me. I'm serious. Well, look, my name is Casey Boyd. I am a 26 year veteran of school libraries exclusively. So I am a proud school librarian. I have worked at the K-12 libraries at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
I have had two experiences working in central office. one time as a library coordinator, the second time as a library director for a small school district in southern Illinois. So I have a wealth of experience working with school libraries. Currently right now I work for the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, D.C. Oops. And I work at a school called Jefferson Middle School Academy. It's a sixth, seventh and eighth grade school located in southwest D.C.
And this is my eighth year working at Jefferson. Jefferson's interesting because not only do I have a library, I also have a dedicated maker space. So I don't have to constantly clean up because class needs to use the space. It's dedicated. And if I do have a dedicated, if I have a group that wants to come in and use the space, I just close the sliding glass doors. And I'm like, everywhere else but in here because it's a hot mess. know, so that's the beauty of it. that's awesome.
I just started a little Lego station area and I don't have a separate space. So every time there's something else going on, I got to clean up all Legos and then bring it all back out. I am with you. Man, that is awesome to have that little. pain. It's a real pain to do it. you know what? Eventually, when people see that the program is really captured interest of the children, they'll find a way for you. absolutely. Kids are loving it.
like, mean, as soon as you give them that chance to be physically engaging with stuff in school, that's something that they don't always get a lot of opportunity to do. So I think the library has that extra ability to bring the kids in for that, too. You know, when we've got those makerspace engineering spaces, STEM spaces, whatever we're calling them. It definitely does. We see a real, a different child in the library in the makerspace program.
And I've had many of teacher colleagues come in and say, this kid doesn't show me this side of themselves in the classroom, but here I'm seeing this. wow. Yeah. So yeah, it's possible. Yes. Now you have been in a lot of different library positions and you've been in a couple of different libraries. You've been across the country working in library spaces. So like, how did you end up getting into librarianship in the first place? What was sort of your path to the library?
I was working in corporate America. I was a corporate recruiter for middle management for federal federal express or FedEx. Hated it. Was making really, you know, nice coin, very good salary, but hated it. You know, and what ended up happening was my father swooped in and my late father was like, I know you're not happy with your day to day. Maybe you need to consider education. And at that time, Chicago Public Schools was doing some very unique staffing.
And they were looking at areas where they needed various positions. And one of them was, you know, librarians. They needed librarians desperately in certain areas of the city. So I got into a program that many people, which is now the norm, They do a cohort program while they're working on their degree. They're actually working in the library. And that's how I eventually got my MLIS. The difference is my program was three years long, where most people will finish their program in two years.
Mine was three because there was summer work. didn't want to bombard us with class during the school year. And I'll be honest with you, my first school assignment, I was ready to move, but they wouldn't let me move until I actually graduated. Well, it was a long three years. It really was. Well, I mean, it doesn't matter how much money you're making if you are miserable all the time.
So I'm glad that you were able to find something that fits you so much better because you are clearly in the place you're supposed to be. mean, you are just a force in school librarianship. So that is that is a really I want to say fortuitous, but it more feels like fate, like that you end up in the place you're supposed to be. Well, I look at it this way too.
I have a love for the field and my love for the field gives me the patience and the tolerance to commute, to have long commutes to work, an hour commute to work and sometimes up to 90 minutes commute home in the DMV. And what I end up doing is listening to a lot of podcasts and other programming, know, audio books to let the time pass by. So I won't go nuts in my truck. Because a lot of people will be like, no, it's too far to drive.
you know, once I kind of uncurl myself from my truck, because, you you're sitting in the car that long, you're cramped up, you know, and you see the kids waiting for you. And they're like, hey, how you doing, Miss Boyd? And, you know. It just brings us special joy to your soul that you're like, whoa, we're going to have a great day. Because here are these kids, they're ready to go. They're raring to go. They're excited that you're here.
You didn't take off, and the library will be open for recess. I was so shocked because we recently just got a library space in my school. We've been working without a library space and it's only been open. mean, basically since the beginning of this year for these students and we've kind of been figuring things out as we go. This is the first September that we had one, the first October that we've had one.
So, but we are now at a point when every day when I come in for the past like eight weeks, as soon as I walk in the door, the kids are like, you're hoping the library, right? You're gonna open the library and they can't wait to run in. So it's really. It's really wonderful to see like they've got those connections with the library space and that they want to be there. They want to take advantage and that we can give them that opportunity I think is really awesome.
So I'm totally there with you when the kids really do make it all worth it. Well, yeah, I always explain to administrators and teachers that, you know, you have different kids that really align to different programming in the school and we have to embrace and support it. And maybe that wasn't your thing when you were in school, but you have to respect that it is the interests of the students that we serve. Mmm, yeah. A lot of our kids that come to our school, they are athletes.
We are known as an athletic powerhouse middle school, mainly because of the great coaching. have gone to, a lot of our teams have gone to conference. They have one conference in our district. They've done extremely well, okay? And so that's always been the focus. I worked really hard to say, hey, let's remember some of our quieter kids, our kids, and I don't wanna call them nerds, know, that's what I was called when I was a kid because I went to the library.
But our very deep thinkers, our kids that want to sit around and just have discussions and talk to one another and have intellectual conversations with each other. engage in activities, games that require a tremendous amount of thought and planning and strategy and give them that space that they can have. And then some of them, they could have a place where they could be quiet to get away from some of the loud kids. Let's give them that space and opportunity as well too.
Yeah. Well, I think it's funny that in talking about this and sort of like setting our stage for what we're going to talk about, we're talking about how much we appreciate, how much gratitude we have for the students for us, you know, to get us in the door. But we're actually going to talk about a gratitude program that you do with your students. And why don't you sort of lead us into like, how did you, what's the background of this? Like, where did this idea for this program?
Okay, okay, well, I'm not trying to throw my district under the bus. My district pays for, of course, my books in my library, okay, every year. And I am a Title I school, so I do get a percentage of that Title I money that falls back into my program. What my school does not fund is anything regarding my MakerSpace program. Yeah district nor the school. So that's always been on my dime.
So I've always written a Donors Choose and sometimes creative fundraising and then sometimes creative budgeting on my part from my own dime to bring the resources in. And I'm a T-MU expert. I'm gonna tell you, if you wanna learn how to use T-MU to the utmost, talk to me, I can tell you how to use it. and make it work to your advantage. When a lot of people were afraid to use T-MU, I was using it.
So I was doing all these programs and everything, and I noticed that some of the kids were like, had kind of a almost borderline kind of nasty expectation, like this needs to be done, it has to be done. And I'm like, ho, ho, partner, no, I'm just saying something. I'm paying for this project. And I knew that project was being paid for me by me. It wasn't Donors Choose. And they were like, really? I'm like, yeah, dude, really. I'm paying for this.
And once they were informed, was like, know, there were a couple of knuckleheads who were like, you know, shrug, whatever. But the majority of them were like, dang, you know. Then I started thinking about it and then along came Christina Holswice and her wonderful Demco Library planner. And when you start going through that planner, like the first time you learn about all of these different observations, remembrances that you've never celebrated before.
And I didn't know there was anything called gratitude month. I never knew anything about it. And then I happened to talk to one of the counselors and they were like, yeah, gratitude month is well known in the mental health field, because it's really aligned with a lot of the work that they do. But I was like, but actually it can be aligned in with across the curriculum, and it can be done through the library program. So I started thinking. So I know this is long story, but it'll make sense.
So what I did was I use a lot of mannequins in my library to tell stories and also to use them as part of displays and book displays. So because I'm one of the lucky ones in my district, I have a lobby for my library and I the lobbies in the center along with my circulation desk, which is huge. And then on the left side, I have the maker space and the nonfiction room. the right side, I have my office and I have a fiction room, okay, with all the books that are aligned to those areas, right?
So I said, how about I do a gratitude display? The gratitude display is not gonna have any books with it, it's gonna be interactive. And because I got a heat press and a cricket through Don't Just Choose, Made a t-shirt. It was orange and you know orange is always associated with the month of November because of you know, Thanksgiving I Ended up getting I made a t-shirt and a t-shirt basically said what are you thankful for? Who are you thankful for?
and so I cut out all these leaves and I had stick pins the first year That was a big mistake because some of the kids pulled the stick pens out and they were playing with each other and you know, I don't recommend that. So what I recommend you doing is use safety pens instead, okay? So, so again, disclaimer, use safety pens, not use stick pens. And what I ended up doing was I gave it to the student and I said, just, you know, you don't have to write your name on it.
Just say what you're thankful for or who you're thankful for in your life. Hmm. some kids wrote parents, teachers, some said my life. There were some real good ones, like the fact that my parents are not arguing, the fact that my brother's sister are not beefing anymore and my brother finally moved out and now our house has peace. It was all sorts of...
Wow. things that kids were saying and you were just like and some of the teachers were coming down and reading them and and then some of them were like I think I know who this kid is and then one teacher would say I know who this one is but I was like so glad I didn't have those kids put their name on it because that would have been a hot mess right but the
thing is is that they really buried their soul on these little leaves that they safety pin to the skirt that was attached to the mannequin so the shirt was orange, the skirt was just fabric, it was black, and they safety pinned all of the skirt, the leaves that they had written on to the skirt. So then I said, hmm, let's take this a step further. Let's roll this into you're grateful, you're appreciative of various things, let's hone this in, reel it in.
Let's say we are grateful, we are appreciative of the adults in this building. So then we said the first Monday in December has been designated at my school as the JA MakerSpace Teacher and Staff Appreciation Day. Good. What we do as a makerspace club is we think of some type of project and then we deliver it. Now remember, I'm having fun. So I'm talking about 60 teachers and staff. Then you're working with additional people in the building, security, lunchroom staff, custodial staff.
We got the foreman's, even we got the crossing guards. then, you know, this is DC. have, because we're downtown area near the Capitol. And since the nonsense down, you know, what happened January 6th, we have police that are on duty daily in the morning. when we're receiving the kids and then that dismissal. So it's just a practice because we're in, because we, our school is located in the downtown DC area near the Capitol and the mile, okay?
So we made sure that the police officers that are on duty, so sitting in their cars, you know, they got one. So last year what we did was we did ornaments and We did the type of ornaments where you get them from the Dollar Tree, you fill them up with paint, and then you turn them upside down, you let them drip dry, totally bone dry. And then we take the Cricut and we take adhesive vinyl and we put a nice design on the outside that will compliment the various colors that we, a paint we use.
to color the inside of the ornament. We did that. Some of the kids did perler bead activities. now I always go with perler bead activities mainly because they're so, it's a very inexpensive activity and it goes so far. So some of the kids did this. They went around, asked certain teachers, you know, like, One teacher is a big New York Jets fan. No, Giants fan. So they did a perler bead design that said New York Giants. We have a couple of teachers who were Jewish.
So some of the kids did like menorahs, other symbols to make sure that our teachers, another teacher who's Muslim, teachers that are not Christian, where we remembered their faith and we found a symbol that represented their faith. And we gave it to them, you know, in December, you know, at the same time. It wasn't exactly during their time of their holiday celebration, but we wanted to give it to them all at the same time. You kind of understand where we're going with that.
So. That's what we've done in the past years. We have done friendship bracelets for our teachers. Past years, we have done some light stuff like zipper pouches with using the Cricut, you know, like pencil pouches. You can get pencil pouches from in bulk from Tmoo or even from Amazon. And then you can come up with real simple design. And the kids are cutting the vinyl, using the Cricut, and then they're ironing it onto the canvas.
And then that's something that we were giving away to teachers, you know? so your makers club, you've talked about, I've heard you talk about your makers club before. This is, these are middle school students and they're, am I recalling correctly that you sort of run it almost like a, like a business training opportunity for them? Is that, am I recalling that right? do, I do.
And what's so interesting is that some of the girls lately, they have gotten into the, you know, this big raise right now is the silicone beads with the focal beads that are made like they're key chains. Some of them are rear view mirror decorations. Some of them are even bracelets. And I've taught them how to use the loop turners without, you know, like destroying their fingertips with the tip, because it's really sharp.
Yeah, it's like, okay, well just imagine you are taking a hook and you're hooking the bait, you know, for fishing, when you're out fishing. You know you have to be careful with that hook, right? It's the same kind of concept. You have to be very careful or you could hook your finger. Hmm. Okay. So the loop turner is a device that pushes the string through the holes in every bead so that you can string them together. I'm sorry I didn't explain that. no, no, that's okay.
I bet you most people know I just, haven't had a lot of makerspace experience other than the Legos that I've got out right now. So it's always interesting to hear like, here's a thing and that's a thing. a lot of people don't get into this because it can be messy like, perler beads and it can't, and it's more expensive than perler beading. So that's one of the reasons why I stick with Teemu because you can get more for your buck with them, you know, for the supplies.
And one of the things is that these girls have picked up using these, you know, putting these silicone beads together and some of their designs are beautiful. They have gone out. and they've sold them to people. One girl makes this really intricate design using pony beads. They're like a glass bead. And it's a special design that is a very thick bracelet. It's a special design that she's done.
And she said, I was just on the bus and this man, he rides the bus the same time he saw the bead design. We started talking and he said he wanted one. And I didn't think he was serious about it. And then he gave me $10 and he said, I see you every day. So, you know, I want you to bring it and I'm going to see you. So make sure you bring me my, my, my design. And she did. And she said she made $10. And then she came in, she was trying to give me $5.
And here's half because I got all the supplies from you. And I said, no, no, you did this. I said, no. happy that you were creative in this respect. You keep that, okay? All right? entrepreneurial experience there. I love it. exactly. So it's not just that, but it's other little things that they're learning how to do. And like for the open house we had in the fall, one of the parents actually said, hey, show her how to do this stuff.
at Christmas time, depending on what she picks up well, this is one parent, whatever she picks up really well, then that's we're going to buy her for Christmas. then, you know, our church has this bizarre will pay for a table for her to sell her things at the bazaar. And I'm looking at Savannah like, girl, you're gonna learn how to fix all this, how to make these things so you can make some money, okay?
Because mean, because the supplies, for some of the supplies are really, really, really, really cheap. But then some of the supplies can be expensive. And if you're smart, you can price it up and really make a nice coin off of it. well, mean, they deserve to get recompensed for their creativity and the beauty of the products that they can create. So, it's not necessarily just about the cost of the materials, which is a great lesson for them to learn too. Your time is worth something.
So that's great. right. And then even one little girl was selling some at church and she said, what do think I ought to sell this for? I sell this, how much should I charge? And I said, well, you got to consider your audience. Who's your audience? And she said, well, some of the ladies that sit on the first row at the church, I said, okay, so these are probably women on the motherboard, the deaconess, they are on fixed income. You cannot charge a lot of money.
you're on what's called a fixed income. So make the bracelets affordable. And so that was a great lesson for her to understand that you have to take a look at your audience, you know, when you're deciding what the cost is going to be as well. You you have to be fair about it, you know. Yeah. So they're doing all these different projects kind of throughout the year. They're working on different kinds of things or they kind of focus in on things that they particularly enjoy doing. Gotcha.
And so the appreciation day element of it is maybe they're using some skills that they've already learned or they're maybe learning some skills that they can apply other places to, I would imagine. Yeah, I try and teach them something new every year. And it's also, it's like me too. I got into the beads, the silicone beads over this past summer, because I was sick in the hospital and you can't move. So I'm just sitting in hospital, just doing my thing.
And I said, you know what, if I can do this this fast, these kids can too. Yeah. I'm gonna teach them how to do this. And yet, but yet I'm still gonna keep some of the older skills, older projects still as, well, if you don't wanna do this, you can do this instead. Now I have some kids that are like, I don't like this. I wanna still do the old activities, some of the older activities. I have some boys that have gotten, that shown some interest in the silicone beads.
So it all depends on what it is. Mm-hmm. And I have boys that still come back to the, they still come back to the Perler Beat activities because they're able to show so much creativity. I've had kids that have made Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, symbols from like Wu-Tang Clan, Batman, different college, like the Commanders. college teens, Michigan, you know, I've seen a little bit of everything. Hello Kitty, the girls are crazy. They do a lot of Hello Kitties.
And then I buy the lobster clasp key chain. And then I always tell them, listen, it's plastic and it can still snap. I always recommend, these are presentation type of projects, clip it to your book bag. So that's how they have held on, know, some of the projects have held up so well is that the kids leave it on their book bags and they use it as, I guess you could say zipper pulls. Okay, yeah. Because if they use it as a key change, they'll be torn up. You know how that goes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, as soon as you bring middle school kids in contact with anything, it's gonna get torn up, Yeah. Yeah, and then also too they're clumsy, you know, a lot of them are naturally clumsy. So that's the other factor in it as well. Well, I love that they're getting lots of different skills. They're thinking about how they can apply this, not just in Maker Club, but also beyond that.
But I love that you also have channeled it into a way to sort of give back to the school and sort of help the kids recognize like the adults around you do a lot of things that you might take for granted. Let's take a minute to give them some appreciation. so that's the thing is that we talk about this a lot. The kids have a tendency to come down and librarians can agree with me that are listening to this podcast.
They come down and they will vent about a teacher that has made a man for whatever reasons. And I sit and listen to them and I say, especially they're crying. I push the tissue across the desk at them and say, okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then when they finish, I'm like, get over it. Okay, because listen, you are still learning. You're still growing. You are a young adult. This is the adult in this picture, and they are doing things in your best interest. And you just need to stop.
And it's not going to go your way. So you just need to, you know, just get with the program. Okay? Like, come on now. I love that. Do they actually listen to that? Because... Okay. summer, summer hard way children. It takes them a while before they really get it. I mean, today is Sunday, Friday. I was called out my name, and in front of a bunch of kids and the teacher had to take the social worker had to walk the kid away and then brought the kid back and the kid apologized profusely.
And the thing is with being a teacher today, or working with young people, especially in middle school. You can't take this stuff personally. You have to forgive and move on. And I always look at it like this. The kid that curses you out today will be your champion tomorrow. You gotta let stuff go. that's one of the things about, I think middle school in particular is where I haven't worked with much with many younger kids.
I've been in middle school most of my career, but I was, I've worked in high school too. And I feel like I never really saw it there, but middle school, you will get the same body come in, but a completely different kid inside that body from day to day. they just, the way they act and the way their brains are going and hormones and you know, everything all going on at once. you never know who's walking in the door, even though you might recognize the face.
So like you said, you can't take it personally. It's part of their, you know, they're growing and at some point they'll settle on, you know, at heart, they're good kids and eventually they'll get there. They don't always display it as well as they could, but at some point it'll, it'll click. Also too, it doesn't take much to set them off where their whole morning or sometime their entire day is off.
And like, as I'm saying this, I'm thinking about some of my most chipper kids that come in the library and they could come in and be a totally different child. And I will ask them, hey, this is not a good day, right? They just shake their head. I said, okay, why don't you just spend some time alone over there, you know, so.
you're over there by yourself and no one agitates you, you know, maybe you just going to be a little bit by your, you know, to the side away from the rest of them because it doesn't take much for that to happen. nope. that's another, I was just at our state teacher conference and I was talking about libraries for two days. And that's another great thing that school libraries offer to students in schools.
Like they're a place that a student can go that maybe has different expectations for them and that they can find that space to just, sometimes you just need to be by yourself for a little bit and not too many classrooms necessarily can offer that. Whereas the library sometimes is that good. place to retreat and just regather yourself. That's right. It can be.
And I think sometimes when the library program is evaluated or really viewed, you know, about if it's effectiveness, this gets, this part that we're discussing is conveniently overlooked, you know, and it's not until we are, you know, the program is closed or we removed. So it's like, man, I used to bring hit this kid down here when he was having a fit. and the librarian will help us calm them down while we were able to put out another fire. And now this person's no longer here. They got it.
They got to make sure, you know, we have to got to make sure that we advocate and remind our stakeholders of the multiple hats. And I know that sounds very, you know, cliche-ish, but we do, we do, we do wear multiple hats in the schoolhouse. We have to remind people. I imagine that your gratitude project helps that a bit that the students are sort of producing these things. And like you said, you're giving to pretty much all of the adults in the building.
So I imagine your admins at some point, your supervisors are getting these as well. Yeah. are. And they're kind of surprised that everybody gets them, you know? But my thing is, is that if you give it to, if I give it to the admin, everybody in the staff gets one too, fair is fair. And no one gets anything more different or more elaborate. Everybody gets the same thing. Mm-hmm.
Well, it's great almost stealth advocacy in that like you are look at what the library did like look at this thing that the kids took part in and they chose and they made decisions and this is what they produced like that's a great advertisement for what's going on in that space It's a walking advertisement or a driving advertisement, because I look at it this way too. know, kids have made tote bags for teachers, you know.
This year they're going to be making those rear view mirror car decorations, you know, using the focal beads and everything. And I know somebody's going to be getting out their car and say, that's so pretty. the librarian and her club members made this for us. Mm-hmm. Yeah. also showing that, wow, the librarian did that? Hmm. And then they'll probably say, well, we got to get our librarian to do something like this. And then probably they'll go to the librarian.
The librarian is like, yeah, I want to do something like this, funding is the struggle. And maybe that's the advocate that's needed to get it done. absolutely, absolutely, man. And one of the things I love about this is whatever the project is, it sounds like it is very accessible for whichever students, because I am imagining that your makerspace club is pretty much voluntary and kind of open to, I would imagine, most of the kids in the school. Yeah. all the kids.
And this is what I always say when people come and visit us, it's like, you will never know who has an IEP, who is the gifted student, who is the student that's a struggling reader, who is a student that is extremely shy, the student that does not like to public speak, the student that has anxiety, you know, You'll never know it by how they interact with one another when they get in that room and they're in creation mode. Yeah, yeah, hmm. I love it. You're building community within the school.
You're bringing that community outside of the library, out into the community, the wider community. is just, it's such a great, it's a great idea. I love that it's giving back to the school and it's also giving back to the students because they're the ones that are learning these great skills and learning hopefully some appreciation for the adults around them. Man, it's so good. It's so good. So. How long have you been doing this? Because clearly this isn't the first year.
You had kind of talked about different projects over the years. Do you know like ballpark how long you've been... This will be year four. Okay. So, and it sounds like you've already learned several lessons that you have passed on, like not using stick pins, but using safety pins instead. Do you have any other particular things, like if somebody wanted to try starting this up at their school, any particular piece of advice that they should be thinking about?
Be consistent in terms of the date that you do it. I always try and do the first Monday in December because you don't want to conflict with any other celebration, especially in December activity, because it's always a whole lot before school ends. And last year, we were so late getting started to do the activities. It was something that was going on. We were just late, you know, and we didn't do the, we didn't present everything until December 12th.
And it was still a conflict with other things going on. So it was a little frustrating that year. I say, like this week, we're starting on the project. And the next thing is have plenty of examples. Mmm. for the students to gain an understanding of what they need to do. I've tested some stuff out already. I did some samples. So only thing I have to do is lay it on the table. This is the third and the biggest one.
You're going to have some kids that are going to get really excited and they're going to like this stuff and they're going to want to make theirs first and then the teachers last. And you have to really put your foot down with them and say, no, we've got to do this the other way. We've got to get all of the teachers taken care of first. And then here's your, and you know, it's good to have their supplies like as a visual. Here's your supplies. I got it. Everything, all the tools up.
So when you're done, you all can start breaking into this. And then, you know, the last part is that, just anticipate some kids, they don't have a, a real feel for making some of this stuff. You know, I, I'm thinking of one boy, he, and he, he will constantly say, I'm not that creative. I'm not that creative. Okay. You're not that creative. Then what you could do is sit here and you can cut 16 inch string. You could be my string cutter.
Mmm. can organize this, you can organize that to make it easy for the kids who are putting the stuff together. But everybody's doing something. So everybody's not gonna want to or can do it.
I see kids that wanna do some of it and I'm like, I have to pull them gently away from it because the end product is not coming out exactly the way I wanted to look and it's kind of an uncomfortable conversation, but this is something that I talked to them about in the beginning of Makerspace is that sometimes if we're doing something and I don't see that it's not coming out exactly, I will pull you to the side and kind of reassign you to something.
And I don't want you to take it personal, you know. And I mean, I'm sure that they're going to get the chance at some point to develop those skills more so that in the future, if they want to, you know, maybe they give it another try at some point once they've had some more time to practice and work on those skills. So, yeah. What kind of feedback have you gotten from, let's start with the students. What have the students said about doing this appreciation day?
the students that are participating, their little chests puff out. And what they love doing is when we give the presents to the teachers, they always do it during their lunch period, the teacher's lunch period, because they know that we, well, we're not disrupting them during class and they know that they can find them. You know, that's the main thing. And so they come in the room and at first the teachers are like, I'm on lunch, you need to leave.
And then they're like, no, we have something for you. And the teacher feels like, I feel so bad. I was barking at you to leave because it's my lunch. And then the teachers are just so, you know, and then I usually send my second cell phone upstairs with them. And I think some of the stuff that I, the links I sent you, the link I sent you, there's examples of when the teacher and one of the APs got the, got their present, how they were holding it. And they were like, this is so cute.
And they were holding it in their hand and the kids snapped the picture. Nice, nice. Yeah, and so you did use, there's a link in our show notes for this episode that goes to a post you did that shows some beautiful pictures of what this sort of looks like in action. So that's a really great illustration to show clearly the teachers and the administrators, the adults in the building are clearly enjoying getting this moment of recognition from the students too.
And here's the biggest thing is that like the lunch ladies, they are so shocked that they receive something. And you're just like, my God, you know, and see, I never see them because, know, I have some mobility issues, so I don't, you know, I have to avoid stairs. And to really get down to see them, I would have to take stairs. So the kids end up taking everything down to them. to give them everything.
And it's kind of funny because one year I was going out to my truck early, I was leaving early, and one of the lunch ladies was throwing some garbage out. I noticed she was standing there kind of staring at me, you know, and I waved. I was like, hi, how you doing? She's like, you're Miss Boy, right? And I'm like, yeah, I'm Miss Boy. Thank you so much, I love my key chain. And then she ran in and three more ladies came running out and they were like, thank you. We never got to say thank you.
And it just is little things like that that make you feel good that, you know, how a key chain can make somebody feel like they're appreciated. You know, something just that small that a child made. And also you will never, you know, you not never, but. So many people are so happy to receive something, a DIY homemade gift from a student. They, I mean, at my school, they live for that. They live for it.
Yeah, I would rather have a personal note from a student or a personal project from a student than the gift card or the, you know, basket of whatever they bought at Target or whatever it might be. that, that's, I still have the bookends that a student gave me 15 years ago because he saw that I like to have books in my classroom library and I didn't have a way to hold them up. And he, got me bookends. was like, that is just perfect. Like that's. That's the heartwarming stuff.
You when the kids, you see that they're paying attention and they, you know, they take that time, they take that thought. So, yeah. things. The kids are observant. Yeah, I love it. And I love that you do make a point of making sure it's all the adults and not, know, so often it's teachers or administrators, but to think about all the other adults that are in the building that are helping to make the school run, like, I think that's great. I really do.
Right, because the crossing guard was just like, really, this is for me? I'm like, yes. And I gave him a bottle of water because he's standing out there for so long. I think it's like he's out there at 3.30. He's out there at 3 o'clock until I think 5 because of the after school programs. And then because we're relocated from. We visited DC, we're across the street from the wharf. So we have a lot of walking traffic and people are walking around there to go to the wharf.
He's also dealing with making sure those people are safe walking across the street to get to the wharf. you know, he has, you know, he's not only dealing with us, but he's dealing with this regular, you know, pedestrian traffic. So I was like, what else would he want besides an ornament gift? Water probably. Yeah, no, that's good thinking. Yeah. Well, I love this project. I love how it impacts your school, both the staff and the students.
We are now going to take a 90 degree turn and go into the book break. So for the book break, you can share any title that you think people might want to know about. And I believe you came preloaded with something that you were excited to share with us. Yeah, I'm excited about this book that's going to be released in March. And the name of the book is called Dear Manny. It's written by Nick Stone. And it is the third book in the series. And well, the Dear Martin books, right.
And I really like these Dear Martin books. this is Jared's story. Okay. This is Justice's roommate. Justice was the protagonist in Dear Martin. And I remember when she first released Dear Martin, Nick Stone, and she's just like, you know, I'm just trying to write a good story. And I'm like, it is a good story. I was one of the reviewers, I was reviewing for Booklist and I gave it a very good review because it was so unique. And I loved her style of writing.
And now here we are several books later, she's into a third book of a series. I'm just so happy for her and happy to see that the series is moving on, but it's it's coming to a close. And sometimes, good series have to have, they do have to come to a close, you know. So it's coming out March. So I'm going to put a order, pre-order in for it, you know, wait for it to come out. Yeah. I mean, those, I loved Dear Martin.
It's such an interesting way to write a story and to have this protagonist really thinking about some important issues, but being a, basically a teenage protagonist and thinking about them from that sort of, I think she does a great job of representing sort of that teenage point of view and helps our readers kind of see it and have a way to enter those conversations as well.
And then taking it step further, I really liked how she weaved the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into the story where he was writing him, writing letters to him daily saying, should I, should I not? Does this make sense? Is this wrong? Is this right? You know, and a lot of kids only know about the teachings of Dr. King through his I have a dream speech, especially the last, what, seven minutes of it.
And they are not familiar with just the wealth and the plethora of all of his speeches that he gave throughout his lifetime. So I liked how she did the research and she found and identified his works that could be easily inserted into his, into this book. Now, if I remember correctly, I believe she's a Spelman grad and Spelman's located in Atlanta, Georgia, which is right across the street from Warhouse College. And that's where Dr. King graduated from. He graduated from Warhouse.
So it's lovely that she was able to make that personal connection through her writing, which I thought was really cool. Yeah, man. Well, that's definitely going on my pre-order list because I need to have the third book of that series. Exactly, And I'm looking forward to seeing it. And there'll probably be a lot of buzz at Live Learn X and also, well, I think there'll be more buzz at it at annual, if anything, because the book will be out at that time.
And she'll probably have a boo for some signings, know, at annual. That's a good point. I'm going to have to see if I can take advantage of that. She's so prolific. I saw the talent in her after the first book and I was like, girl, please, you going somewhere, stop worrying. We needed that, because we don't have a lot of females or males writing about the Black boy experience. And I'm just so happy to see it. So happy to see it. Well, thank you for the awesome book recommendation.
Thank you for sharing this awesome idea for program that we can take our students and help them appreciate what's going on around them while also helping them build some skills. I mean, this is great. If people are, I mean, people should already be following you online, but if they're not, where should they be looking? You know, you can go to sociatap.com forward slash KC Boyd. That's where you can find me and you can connect to my social media accounts. I do not have a Facebook page anymore.
had to take them while I'm in the process of taking it down. But you will finally mostly find me mostly on TikTok, Instagram X. and blue sky and threads. Now, some of these accounts are private. And I'll just say this, if I can't tell if you are a practicing school librarian, if I can't tell, I generally don't allow you to friend me. Yeah, so, and how do I tell? I look at your bio. If your bio is not very descriptive, then I'm sorry. Mm-hmm. allow you access to my page.
that, know, with, well, with the things that are going on now, you know, I don't, this is one headache I definitely don't need. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, again, thank you so much. I really appreciate the time. I appreciate the ideas. As always, it was great to talk to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. you're quite welcome. Always fun.