Empowered Learning
Most charter schools are hard pressed to fund
professionally staffed libraries, but Monarch
Academy, part of the Aspire Charter Schools
network, had the foresight to do just that. Keisa
Williams has been Monarch’s librarian for the
past five years. She is always trying new things
to keep her program relevant to students,
and her use of technology plays a big role in
her success. Monarch Academy received the
prestigious National Distinguished Title I School
Recognition Program Award in 2008—an award
that recognizes marked, sustained academic
improvement in schools serving high-poverty
areas. A strong school library program is part of
the recipe for that success.
Monarch Academy serves about 350 students
in grades K– 5 in Oakland, California. The school
population is 97% Latino students of Mexican
heritage and 3% African-American. Ninety-seven
percent of the students are low income. The
library operates on a fixed schedule in which
Williams sees classes while the teachers have their
preparation periods. This doesn’t stop her from
providing a strong, curriculum-based program that
Streetside Stories is a San Francisco-based literacy arts nonprofit that helps
students share their life stories, connect
with the arts, and improve their literacy
skills through the power of storytelling.
heavily infuses technology. Her one-room library
has three areas: a computer center, a seating
area, and a storytelling area. It houses a cart of 24
computers, a whiteboard, and listening centers in
addition to a collection of about 7,000 print titles.
Monarch’s fourth and fifth grade students
recently participated in a digital storytelling project
called Streetside Stories, part of the Teacher’s
Edge program funded by the U.S. Department of
Education. The library played an integral role in
Getting Connected
Why are those kids wearing long sleeves and
sweatshirts? That was the question that fourth
grade Arizona students asked their teacher when
they were on a Skype call with students at Horace
Mann Elementary School in West Allis, Wisconsin.
This real-life observation led to a conversation
about variations in climate—one of many
interesting discussions initiated by Skype calls
that Mann librarian Chad Lehman facilitated with
his students and others from around the United
States, as part of his class geographical research.
Technology is evident throughout the library
and in the adjoining computer lab. Together, both
spaces provide 35 desktop computers for a school
of about 400 students in grades PK– 5. Libraries
in Wisconsin are not subject to the severe funding
shortfalls common in other states, thanks to the
Common School Fund, a type of public education
financing established by the Wisconsin Constitution
to ensure a consistent budget to help maintain
quality libraries for its students (see Resources).
Lehman’s students seamlessly move from print to
electronic resources. A robust collection of 15,000
print items and audiobooks serves as a springboard
for many technology-based learning experiences.
Recently, a classroom teacher read the book The
Squiggle by Carole Lexa Schaefer. Grade 1 students
followed up in the library by interpreting squiggle
lines in Kid Pix software to create various fanciful
electronic drawings. They used the pictures to create
Voice Thread digital stories, which allowed students
to create verbal descriptions of their artwork.
In another project, grade 5 students began the
year by writing goals for themselves in class. At the
library, Lehman taught the students how to import
digital photos. Next, students uploaded their photos
to a magazine cover generator app at the Big Huge
Labs website and added their goals as “articles” on
the covers. Students printed and proudly displayed
the covers outside of their classrooms.
Prior to becoming a school librarian, Lehman
worked for eight years as a third grade teacher.
When asked why he made a career move, he said,
“I wanted to do more with technology, and I knew
that the school librarians in my district worked with
technology a lot.”
