Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Lashir.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give ideas for makerspace
connections, and give tips and tricks for working
with our youngest learners in the library. With
Teacher Appreciation Week just around the corner,
we decided that we would discuss a couple books
about teachers. So we have some really great
books about teachers that might be good choices
for during Teacher Appreciation Week. The first
book that we'll be discussing is called My Teacher
is a Monster. No, I'm Not by Peter Brown. It
was published by Little Brown Books for Young
Readers in 2014. This particular book has won
a few awards, the ALSC Notable Children's Book
2015, the Children's Favorite Award 2015, the
Junior Library Guild Selection 2014, and Publishers
Weekly Best Books of 2014. Peter grew up in New
Jersey. As a child, he loved to tell stories
with pictures of whimsical characters and settings
from his imagination. And as he got older, he
added words to his stories. He studied illustration
at Art Center College of Design, where he took
many courses on children's books. After graduating,
Peter moved to New York to be closer to the publishing
industry. He worked on animated television shows
while signing his first book deal. Since then,
Peter has written and illustrated many books
for children. He currently lives in Maine with
his wife and dog. Some of his other books include
The Curious Garden, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, Fred
Gets Dressed, Children Make Terrible Pets, You
Will Be My Friend, Flight of the Dodo, Chowder,
the Wild Robot series, and he also illustrated
the Creepy Tales series, the Creepy Carrot, Creepy
Crayon, and Creepy Pair of Underwear written
by Aaron Reynolds, which I didn't actually realize
that he was the illustrator for those. I mean,
I've read those books so many times, but it didn't
click in my head that he was the illustrator
for those books. I think I noticed it, like,
I always read Creepy Carrots with my Creekay,
and that's the scariest we get, and I scare some
kids every year at Halloween. and I have to go
y 'all it's carrots and they go okay but I think
I noticed it like two years ago when I was reading
the wild robot series with my personal kids at
home yeah and then I was like what Peter Brown
I didn't realize that and like it took me a minute
to make that connection as well and I did um
when I because I've read this book this week
with my students and One of the things I did
mention was you know the wild robot because it
just became a movie They came out this fall and
so a bunch of my kids had seen the movie So I
made sure to make that connection. I was like,
this is the guy that wrote that book He wrote
this one too. And so they thought that was the
coolest So the summary of this book Bobby has
a big problem at school Her name is Miss Kirby.
Miss Kirby roars, she stomps, and she gives out
consequences. She is a real monster. When Bobby
goes to the park one Saturday to get away from
his school problems, he runs into Miss Kirby.
As they interact outside of school, they find
that they actually have some things in common
and enjoy being around each other. Back at school,
Miss Kirby still stomps and roars. But is she
a real monster? I really enjoyed this story.
I love reading it with the kids because the kids
think it's so cool to have this like monster
character on the page that's doing all this stuff
in the classroom. And what I like to do with
it is I like to have the conversation with the
kids and like... after the first couple pages,
she was stomping as she's carrying books and
saying, you know, make way kind of thing. The
kids are getting loud and she's telling them
to settle down. Bobby's throwing paper airplanes
in the classroom and she's calling out his name
and he's losing recess time, that kind of stuff.
And I kind of point out to the kids after those
first couple of pages, I'm like, is she doing
anything that any other teacher wouldn't do?
And they have to kind of, like a lot of kids
are like, yeah. And I'm like, OK, what is she
doing that your teacher hasn't done in your class?
And they have to stop. And they're like, oh,
well, no, I guess not. But the fact that it's
a monster doing it, they're like, oh, yeah, she's
evil. She's doing all this horrible stuff. And
I'm like, but what is she doing? And I kind of
pointed out, I was like, she's asking him to
move out of the way while her arms are full of
books. She's telling the class they need to calm
down and settle down because they're being too
loud and not staying focused. she's giving a
consequence because he threw a paper airplane.
And after like that first page, when he's throwing
the paper airplane, I say, are you allowed to
do that in class? Would your teacher be okay
with it? No, of course not. Okay. So what is
she doing that's so monstrous? And they're like,
oh, you know, um, but I like, so like, I love
to point some of that stuff out as we're reading.
And then I really enjoyed this book because Peter
Brown does a great job with his illustrations
are so like geometric in shape. There's like
lots of like, straight lines, but there's like
circular shapes in there and stuff like that.
It just, I love the pictures. The colors are
really unique. Like there's some darker colors,
but like that bright green of the monster teacher
pops off the page. And he does a really great
job in this book of as they're in the park together,
she slowly, her color is changing. her appearance
is slowly changing and it's done incrementally
so at first the kids don't notice it until it's
almost completely done and they're like wait
a minute she's not green anymore and she doesn't
have this giant jaw like that kind of stuff and
she slowly becomes human looking and i just love
how subtle it is because like if you're not paying
attention you don't actually notice like oh that
color is a little bit less green and it's becoming
more pale colored like It's just a really fun
story and by the end of it the kids are like,
oh She looks like a person. I was like, yeah,
she does and then they go back to school and
she's doing all this stuff and she's looking
normal and the last line before the last page
is Is she still a monster? And all the kids will
answer. It's like you're reading the book. And
so it's not necessarily a question that's posed
out loud for the kids to answer, but all the
kids answer, no, she's not. And then you flip
the page and he threw another paper airplane
and she's yelling his name and she's green again.
And they're like, wait, what? So it was really
fun. I loved reading it with my kids. They really
enjoyed it. And we were able to have some really
good conversations because I started pointing
out, I was like, when is she green in the book?
And they're like, when she's mad. And I said,
are you sure? And they're like, what do you mean?
I said, is she, is she mad or is she giving out
consequences? Like is someone else making a bad
choice and she's just having to be the enforcer?
And they were like, what? And I said, so we went
back and we looked and I was like, see here he's
throwing paper airplanes. She's yelling at him
not to do that. She's green here. They're getting
loud. She's telling everybody to settle down.
Like all that kind of stuff. And they're like,
Oh, Yeah, it's not when she's mad, it's when
the kid's mad. Yeah, it's when, and so I was
like, are you sure? Like, so I was like, and
then I was, I just asked him the question. I
was like, do people just turn green and become
monsters? And they're like, no, I said, okay.
So if that's not something that normally happens,
why do you think she looks like a monster? And
there's a couple kids that slowly start to pick
up on it. It's, but it's a hard concept, but
they're like, well, cause she's acting like when
I was like, But again, she's not really acting
like a monster. She's acting like a teacher.
And they're like, oh. I said, but he, I agree
with you, he thinks she's acting like a monster.
And they're like, oh, is that why? So like, it
was fun for me. I loved it because we were able
to have some really good conversations. And I
point out to my kids as like, you know, your
teachers worked hard all year dealing with you.
And that's not an easy job, you know? And so
like, it was fun to be able to point out to them
like, your teacher? doesn't enjoy having to get
onto you and call out your name and give you
consequences, but it's something your teacher
has to do to make sure that you're still learning.
Your teacher has a really big job to make sure
that you know everything you need before the
end of the school year. And if they're having
to like, trust me, if they didn't have to get
onto you, if they didn't have to call out your
name and tell you to stop or pay attention or
sit down or any of those things, like they would
be 100 % okay with that. But that's not how kids
are like you guys have to learn the teachers
have to give you some kind of consequence that
consequence might just be calling out your name
or having a conversation with you or it might
be something bigger like you lose a little bit
of recess or something like There's a whole other
conversation that can go into whether taking
away recess is a good idea or not But yeah, like
there has to be some kind of consequence sometimes
so that you learn your lesson and maybe it won't
happen again because we want to be focused on
teaching you instead. And so like, I think a
lot of kids actually want walked away like, oh,
my teacher doesn't have this malicious joy of
you know, like, if it was a good book, it's in
like I said, I brought a lot of good conversations
to my classes. I really liked it a lot. I think
it's just that he's got that kind of humor where
it's kind of subtle. It's just fun. And again,
I love, I love the illustrations because they,
that geometric almost, it's not super simplistic,
but there is a simplicity to it that the kids
are just kind of drawn to. And so I think this
is a really great book. It's a fun story. It's
a little bit older, like I said, came from 2014,
but it's a fun book. I would definitely give
it about a four and a half out of five bookmarks.
I think it's a really fun story to enjoy, to
kind of. know, just start out the thoughts about
how challenging it might actually be to be a
teacher, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. All the
things you said, I thought it was a really fun
book. Like you said, with the illustrations,
I love how subtle that change was with Miss Kirby
going from monster to human. It was, like you
said, it was just so subtle that the kids really
had to like pay attention to even notice it and
like it was the kind of thing that you have to
like look back through those are my favorite
I think some of my favorite ones to read where
it's there's a change so subtle or something
happening so subtly that you have to like look
back through to like really make sure that you
pick up on it yeah um it kind of helps kids with
like rereading and things like that like really
paying attention to books but it was like funny
enough to like really grab their attention and
um really, but it also made the kids think a
little bit about what it means to be a monster
and why they might have to have follow some rules
sometimes and kind of helps the kids build that
empathy a little bit. Yeah. Good choice. Loved
it. It was fun. I liked it a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
So make your space activity to incorporate with
this book. I thought let's turn into the skid.
In the book Bobby twice at the beginning and
at the end of the book he decides he's gonna
throw a paper airplane in class so with this
book I would definitely give the kids an opportunity
to make paper airplanes. This would be more crafty
than most activities that I like to do but give
them like In front of the class everybody gets
a piece of paper and in front of the class you
kind of teach them how to fold because being
younger kids, four and five, that's going to
be a whole new process in itself. But taking
the time to teach them how to fold the paper
in half and make that crease and then opening
it back up and bending corners to the crease
and that kind of thing, making a very simplistic
airplane. taking the time to do that. If you
want to give them a few minutes to color with
some crayons or markers to decorate it so it's
their own or put their name on it, however you'd
like to do that. And then I would take all the
kids out to the front of the building or the
back of the building wherever you have some free
space. and give them that chance to fly those
paper airplanes and see how they do. If you wanted,
you could do it where you have like a starting
line and you could measure how far their planes
go. You could add some math into the lesson,
incorporate that and just kind of see, let them
have fun. Let them try it out. Talk to them about
why this could be a really big disruption if
you did it in the middle of a classroom, right?
But being outside doing it. where there's open
space and you're not going to be distracting
other people would totally be acceptable and
just give them a little bit of time to be have
some fun and enjoy themselves be kids, you know.
Like I said, you can add in that math aspect
or the science aspect of how far does it go?
What can we change about it to make it go farther?
All that kind of stuff. If we start from a higher
position, we'll go farther. If we throw it up
or straight ahead which way does it go that kind
of stuff you could do a whole lot of different
like physics kind of lessons for pre -k with
it but i just like the idea of giving them that
chance to go outside and try it out and see what
happens because i bet a lot of these kids and
especially when they're four and five year olds
probably haven't ever built a paper airplane
before to try it so just give them that experience
let them let them go out there and have a little
fun yeah I think you're right. I think that sounds
like a whole lot of fun. Yeah, that's I love
the creativity of it of getting to design their
own paper airplane and and they do need to be
able to, you know, that's a great, you know,
physics lesson and all that good choice. Yeah,
a lot of fun. Yeah, I think I think that a lot
of kids would enjoy that and you could even if
you wanted to do this with older kids like kinder
first second grade, you could do it and the number
of YouTube videos with some really intense like
designs. You could give the kids like more complex
planes that they could try and design to try
out and see which which version goes farther
and that kind of stuff. So you could even change
it up so that like older kids are doing the same
similar thing, but on a different level. So absolutely
vary it a little bit and be a lot of fun. Yeah,
it's fun for all ages. Yeah. I mean, even grownups
like that sometimes. Yeah, of course. Like, you
know, if I get a chance to throw a paper airplane,
sure, why not? Alright, so for our library of
littles management tip this week, we've talked
back and forth on and off about our makerspace
laboratories that you have at the early learning
centers at your campuses. So We've talked about
kind of how they're split up. We've got the six
zones the construction and engineering simple
machines tinker table coding robotics the creation
station and the organic mechanics, but We haven't
really talked about like When we first got it
design like when we were coming up with everything
for it when we're trying to set it all up how
we funded it because Like a lot of people I'm
sure would love to have a makerspace lab it comes
down to money. Because be fair, like makerspace
supplies, it's expensive. The companies that
make these things, first off, if you're buying
quality stuff, they need to be able to last,
which means that it's going to cost a little
bit more money. And there's a lot of times where
the companies that make makerspace supplies know
that it's for educational purposes, which tends
to. rise the price a little bit also. So it ends
up costing a lot of money to supply everything.
And so I figured we should talk a little bit
about some of the things that we had to do to
get some of that money in place. The first thing
that we did was at the time the district was
very willing to help educators with funding unique
initiatives within the district. And so grant
writing for the district to say, Hey, Like this
is what we're looking to do. This is why and
giving clear -cut reasons with connected to like
Pre -k doesn't have teaks but the standards that
we need to teach and the things that the students
should be expected to be able to do by connecting
it directly to the educational outcomes that
will be provided by it explaining the need for
on the campus for why it would be so beneficial
as far as not just to give the students the opportunities
but to help give the teachers more options of
how they can introduce concepts and that kind
of stuff. Just going through and filling out
that application and we were fortunate enough
to get a pretty sizable donation from our district
and from the friends of the district funding
that they gave. We also filled out some outside
grants and Kroger Marketplace was actually an
excellent donor for the makerspace labs, they
gave us quite a large amount of money to be able
to purchase supplies and get some things going
that way. I think that we didn't at the time,
but I think that doing like a donors choose or
like crowdfunding of some kind, if you're in
a smaller area, like there are lots of people
that are willing to donate to those things. As
I said, since teacher appreciation week's coming
up, my campus counselor sent out an email to
our campus this week saying hey if you're interested
in doing any kind of Donors Choose it's time
to do it because a lot of companies will like
match or like help out teacher and education
related Donors Choose is this coming week they're
during teacher appreciation week so that's always
a great time to be trying out some of those grants
and things like that. doing a couple of those
things to get the funding and then deciding what
to actually have in your makerspace to begin
the year and to begin the process is let's be
real it's it can be overwhelming for sure it
is it was yeah it took us quite a while to really
be able to kind of organize our thoughts for
it i think that having those zones that we were
going to use for the for the setup for our makerspace
definitely helped us when we were trying to make
purchases because we could decide like, hey,
this particular zone, if we're doing construction
and engineering zone, like what kind of things
should we have in there? So that's when we were
started looking, we're like, well, Lincoln logs
would be a good thing for that. And this would
be good. And so Having some ideas of how you
want to set up the makerspace so that you can
start thinking about supplies is definitely helpful.
Yes. I personally feel like purchasing things
that will last should be like your first step,
like buy things that are going to be not consumable,
like the consumable things. I feel like those
are the things that I would wait till the end
to do because lots of times those consumable
things are things you can get donations from
from either teachers or from the community that
kind of stuff like lots of people are happy to
donate paint and construction paper and that
kind of stuff so instead I would spend the money
on other things like Lincoln logs or robots or
you know that kind of stuff for our tinkered
table zone we put out a request for old devices
like old DVRs and radios and things like that
so that we could have the kids pull stuff apart.
But what we realized is, for like that particular
table, some of the things that we came across
were if we're going to have the kids deconstruct
things, we need the right tools for them to do
it. But we need kid friendly tools. And we also
need safety tools like goggles and things like
that So like there's a lot of things that start
popping up as you start building Your list that
you're like, oh, but if we're gonna do this,
then we probably need this too. And so kind of
just what we ended up doing was we made a spreadsheet
for each of the zones and started putting items
in it and as we thought of more things we kept
adding to that list and then Looking for the
best deals to make sure that you're not overpaying
for those things was also a challenge. But we
took our time, like we were fortunate. We decided
we were doing this in like, well, we started
this process in like January by about March is
when we decided we were going full tilt into
it. And that's when we started making our lists
of supplies. And we knew That we wouldn't be
actually purchasing anything until about July
anyway, so that gave us plenty of time to Curate
our lists and see what we could afford based
on because at that point we had already started
the fun getting the funding so we knew kind of
a Dollar amount that we had to spend and so we
could start kind of breaking it up into the sections
and spending the money That way it took a lot
of time. It was a long process and we had yeah
there is Well, we had a team of people helping
with it. We had a team of, yeah, there were like
eight of us that were working on it. And it was
all of us. And we all spent hours working on
it and going to different websites and checking
prices. And, and like, the other thing is, is
there's a lot of stuff that you might just not
know is out there until you start searching.
And so like we went to different websites and
just did searches for makerspace materials and
looking for all the different things. And they're
The problem with that, it's a great idea to be
able to see what's out there. The problem with
that is that you gotta make sure that you read
a lot of reviews of some of the materials, because
some of the stuff looks super cool, and then
you get it, and you're like, I don't know what
I'm gonna be able to actually use this for. That's
true. You get kind of blinded by how flashy something
is, and it might just not be the best. And especially
with pre -K, it might be too complex for the
kids to use. And we also read a lot of stuff
about durability because, again, pre -K, you
want it to last and you don't want to drop it
once and have it break apart and that kind of
stuff. That's a lot of that is checking those
reviews, reading what people who have actually
used the materials have said about it, all that
kind of stuff. It's definitely a process. It's
worth doing though, especially if you can get
the funding for it through some grants or, um,
through some crowdfunding of some kind. There's
so many cool things and the, uh, the kids in
the end, the kids are the ones that get to use
it. And they just love, love the opportunity
to go to the makerspace because they get to explore,
try all those new things. It's so fun for them.
It's worth it. There's a lot of. Time involved
in it, but we're gonna make it a little easier.
I am going in our show notes I have two links
to some of the spreadsheets that we made with
the items that we purchased to start our Our
makerspace labs and so we're gonna include those
in the show notes for anybody that would like
to be able to see Some of the ideas get some
ideas of what? we spent. To be fair, some of
the pricing is definitely going to be a little
different because this was done about nine years
ago, eight years ago. So lots of inflation has
happened since then. So pricing is definitely
going to be a little bit different, but it'll
at least give you some ideas of some possible
purchases to make so that you're not starting
from ground zero. You can take this and adjust
it to fit your budget and give you some ideas
of some potential purchases to save up for in
the future and so we're going to include that
in our show notes today to give everybody a little
extra to help them out yeah which we all need
a little bit of help right absolutely especially
with an undertaking that massive it is yeah it's
so big but the end results are so worth it it's
very worth it All right. Yes. That's for a lot
of our kids. That's like their favorite thing
in the world is doing the makerspace things.
Yeah. Yeah. Cause they, that's their favorite.
It's my favorite too, really. Yeah. Doing something
a little unique. That's, you know, we'll have
long -term benefits for them. Yeah. Anytime I
can give the kids an experience, you know, something
that they can take, they can walk away and they've
got that memory of being able to put their hands
on something and do it. Especially our pre -k
kids that don't, so many of them, well, they
are, pretty much all of them are at risk. That's
why they're in pre -k. Otherwise they wouldn't
qualify for pre -k in Texas anyway. And there's
so many of our kids that don't get unique experiences.
So having something like that for them really,
I think is very impactful, more so than the average,
for the average child. Yeah. All right. For our
next book for Teacher Appreciation Week, we're
going to read Thank You Teacher or talk about
Thank You Teacher. It's written by Kate Barry
and illustrated by Sarah Varon. It was published
by Balzer and Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins
in 2023. And this one is not on any awards or
lists. I just picked it because I really liked
how appropriate it was for Teacher Appreciation
Week. Kate Barry holds an MFA from Vermont College
of Fine Arts with an emphasis in humor. I didn't
know there was an emphasis in humor until doing
this research, so that's fun. I know. She's been
a featured presenter at multiple conferences
and events such as the Texas Book Festival and
the Writing Barn. She is the former humor columnist
for Austin Family Magazine and she currently
lives in Austin, Texas. Some of her other books
include Chicken Break, Penguin and Tiny Shrimp
Don't Do Bedtime, Coby Eats Pizza, and Scorch
Hedgehog of Doom. Awesome. The illustrator, Sarah
Varen, grew up in the suburbs of Illinois. She
earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art
Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the School
of Visual Arts in New York, where she is currently
on the faculty. Some of the other books that
she wrote and illustrated include Detective Sweet
Pea, Book 1, My Pencil and Me, hold hands, new
shoes, sweater weather, bake sale, chicken and
cat, chicken and cat clean up, robot dreams,
and the present. And she has also illustrated
President Squid by Aaron Reynolds and Odd Duck
by Cecil Kestum. That sounds great, yes. Gonna
go with it. So in this book, it's the last day
of school and there's a classroom full of students
who are pretty much reminiscing about the past
school year together and they're telling their
teacher thank you for all of the special things
that they've done together throughout the school
year. And this book isn't really It's not like
super groundbreaking or anything. It's pretty
much exactly what it sounds like where the kids
are just saying like it's very aptly named just,
you know, thank you teacher. It's just them saying
thank you for all the things. Thank you for pushing
me to, you know, do that thing that was really
hard. Thank you for teaching me to, you know,
for everything. And it has like a lot of individual
things that they're thanking the teacher for.
Each page only has like a sentence or two on
it. And it's just like, you know, thank you for
encouraging me when I didn't think I could do
it something simple like that and it has like
a big bold illustration there of you know the
class doing whatever is being described on the
page and I really liked it because it was very
I think a lot of our kids like they like their
teachers and everything they you know Ideally
our students love our teachers and our teachers
love our students and all the things but our
kids don't really think of our Teachers, I don't
think as real humans They like think of the teachers
as just like living at school and they're there
kind of like in our first book that we talked
about They're just there to like get on to them
and that's the it the end I liked this because
it really like broke down for the kids like Look
at what your teacher is actually doing for you.
I think are both of these books that we picked
this week kind of do a really good job of illustrating,
you know, teachers are humans. Surprise, surprise.
And the teachers really do work hard. This one
especially like shows that like breaks down.
Kids are so egocentric that I think they don't
notice how much work goes into teaching them
and how much the teachers do. for the kids on
a daily basis. I know, obviously, we as teachers
notice that because we're doing all the work.
But the kids are developmentally, they're meant
to be egocentric, you know, at this age in, you
know, up until like, second grade or so that's
like, technically, when early childhood lasts
developmentally. And there's just such a strong
focus on the self that they don't notice the
people around them and all the things that they
maybe are being done for them all the time and
this like I just really liked how well it pointed
out like no your teacher is doing all of these
things for you and you do need to say thank you
and like it is hard to say goodbye at the end
of the school year and part of that is because
your teacher has been working with you and doing
all of these amazing things for you to make you
a successful little human. So yeah I thought
it did a really great job kind of exploring that
and showing the kids how hard teachers do work
on a daily basis and at the end it was kind of
since it's the last day of school it's like it
was it you know the kids in the illustrations
the kids and the teacher got kind of got teary
-eyed like oh no we have to say goodbye but then
at the very end it was like oh no it's okay summer's
here we get to relax now a little bit. And then
we'll do it all over again, you know, in the
fall and we'll build a new classroom community
and build those relationships again. But I thought,
I thought it was just a different, it was, it
just did such a good job showing the kids all
the little things that teachers do. So it wasn't,
I think, hmm, I think it, I mean, it wasn't terribly
like funny or anything. I was like, I think I
was expecting a little bit of humor in there
being that it was written by an author who specializes
in humor, but that's okay. I think I would probably
give it a four out of five because it did such
a good job showing the kids all the things that
teachers do. Yeah. I think it was, yeah, I agree
with you. It was a super sweet story. I liked
that there was kind of like the rhyme scheme
to it as the kids are listing all the different
things that the teacher actually ended up doing
for them throughout the year. So it was, yeah,
it was just super, it was a very sweet story,
very cute, very bright, colorful pictures that
I think that in itself will probably keep the
kids engaged for the story. Like you said, there's
only one or two sentences on a page. So that
bright picture helps to keep their attention
and keep them engaged. Yeah, it's just a sweet
story. And it does really just remind you of
all of the things that a teacher does to impact
the, their students. It is that at the end of
the year, it's that emotional time of the year
where, you know, it's time to say goodbye, but
we're onto a new adventure. We get to spend summer
and then come back in the fall for a new school
year with a new teacher and make those relationships
again. And so yeah, it's a, I agree with you.
It's a super sweet story and very cute. I think
that it's a great one for near the end of the
year during teacher appreciation week, that kind
of thing for sure. Yeah, I thought for this one,
it would be a lot of fun to write a thank you
note for a teacher. A lot of our kids maybe may
not be writing just yet if you're doing it in
pre -k, but they could still draw a picture or
make a card of some kind and they could dictate
the message they want to share with their teacher
on there and you could encourage the kids to
like think of something specific don't do like
yes say thank you but what is something special
that your teacher does that you really enjoy
what's your favorite thing that your teacher
does or what's your favorite time of day when
you're with your teacher and like kind of make
them think about it a little bit use their brains
a little bit a lot of fun I think that would
be fun just to hear some of the ideas that some
of those kids come up with for that too. I think
there'd be some really interesting answers to
that question. I think that'd be a lot of fun
to see. Yeah, for sure. And that it would be
such a sweet thing for the teacher to receive
a thank you note from all the kids with their
favorite thing that is their favorite thing about
their teacher kind of thing. I think that would
be a lot of fun. That would be sweet. Think it
would too. I think the teachers would really
appreciate it a lot as we appreciate all of our
teachers, too Yeah, it'd be a kind of a fun surprise
Yes, I think that's really cute now. I kind of
want to change my lesson plans for this week.
Yeah That would I think that's a really cute
idea I'm I like that a lot. That's a good idea.
Yeah Alright, well, thank you all for joining
us today on this episode of Librarians of Littles.
We hope you found some fresh ideas for inspiring
our young readers, and please be sure to subscribe
and connect with us on social media. Happy reading!
Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
of Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legier. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by J .D. Adams.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
of Littles. You can follow us on bluesky at littleslibrarian
.bsky .social. And you can send us your emails
at librarianoflittlespod .gmail .com. Okay, so
real quick because it made me think of it like
you were saying how like it's kind of emotional
at the end of the year and stuff So like I said
last night My son had his band banquet and so
he's in middle school. He's in seventh grade
so he's gonna be like the big dog on campus next
year being the eighth grader and Like all of
the eighth graders that were there after the
ceremony and everything cuz they give out awards
and stuff like that at the end of it like It
was Don't know why it was as surprising as it
was but the number of eighth graders that were
emotional and like full -on like tears hmm because
They're leaving these band directors that they've
had since Sixth grade so they had them for sixth
grade seventh grade and eighth grade and they're
leaving these band directors to go to middle
school and Like it just shows you how much of
an impact those educators have on these kids
because these kids were like full growth, like
eighth grade boys. Like, so we're talking like
14 year old boys that are like these big gruff,
I got to be manly man kind of boy, like sobbing
because they were having like, this is basically
the beginning of the end of their middle school
year, their middle school years. And they're
having to say goodbye to these people that have
had such an impact. on their their education
it was it was so sweet just to see them like
drop that facade of like uh gonna be the cool
middle school kid to like actually just show
some emotion and like realize that these people
have played such a a big part in their their
education it was just it was really sweet to
see it so like that's sweet and sad yeah it was
it was yeah so um Those good teachers, they always
leave some marks behind. They do. I don't think
we get that as much in pre -K because we don't...
I don't think they know. The kids don't realize
it. Not really. Some of them do. I will say that
a lot of the kids don't, but every year... Some
of them get it. Those parents... They are the
ones that are in tears. Like the parents are
the ones that are like, thank you so much. Thank
you. Like, I've seen so much growth. Thank you
for everything you've done for the kid. Like,
so the kids might not notice it as much, but
so many of the parents do at least. And so that's,
you know, that's something.