How was your trip? It was good. It was very busy.
I think we were, my in -laws out, but that was
okay. It was, yeah. We don't, usually when we
go to Disney World, we're like, my parents live,
you know, like an hour away. So we just do it
in the way that you would do anything like that
where like you don't have to stay all day because
it's not like... Once -in -a -lifetime thing
we're going back in a couple of days So normally
we do like a half day or something and it's like
kind of chill, but we did it like tourists do
it and Yeah So we're all tired now. Yeah, but
it was fun. Good. Yeah How was your break? Awesome.
Yeah. Um, yeah, it was good. It was quiet My
family left Saturday morning and they got back
last night, Saturday night. So I had basically
eight days of just me and the two dogs in the
house, quiet. So that was nice. I got the house
clean and worked on a couple little projects
and stuff like that, but it was good. Good. And
they had fun? Yeah, they had a good time. They
went to Iowa to see Sarah's family and while
here it was like chilly in the morning but like
warm in the afternoon, they got five inches of
snow. Whoa. Yeah. So like they got to go sledding
and stuff like that because yeah that's what
you do in the snow. That's good. Were they prepared
for that? They knew what they were getting when
they left. Yeah they knew that there was a cold
front coming in and so yeah they brought the
appropriate clothing and yeah. Good. It was good.
Good. That's great. Yeah. Hello, I'm Patrick
Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere. and this is
Librarians of Littles, a podcast where we read
books, discuss the books, give makerspace ideas,
and give tips, tricks, and kind of reviews about
things to do in our library with our youngest
learners. Today we have two books for Earth Day,
which is coming up in April, and the first of
those books is Bruce Saves the Planet by Ryan
T. Higgins and published by Disney Hyperion in
2025. And so we've discussed the Bruce books
on the podcast before by Ryan T. Higgins. They're
an amazing series and this is one of the newer
books that have come out in that series. It is
on the 2026 Read Aloud Indiana list. and our
author slash illustrator is Ryan T. Higgins.
He was greatly influenced by Calvin and Hobbes
comics as a child. Initially, he wanted to become
a comic writer. However, after reading Don't
Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, he became intrigued
by early readers and decided to try his hand
at the genre. He currently lives in Maine with
his wife and three children. And some of the
other books that he has written are all of the
Mother Bruce books, which there's a total of
19 right now. Is it just 19? That was that last
count that I found. Yeah, 19 of them. So that's
a lot. The Penelope Rex book series, which is
a total of four books, including The ever popular
we don't eat our classmates The Norman book series
which currently has two books which are Norman
didn't do it. Yes, he did and Norman and the
smell of adventure Yeah, and so for the summary
of Bruce saves the planet When Bruce inadvertently
stumbles upon a protest to stop a factory from
cutting down the forest, he becomes the figurehead
leading the charge to City Hall. The protest
crowd stops the meeting taking place in City
Hall to convince the mayor to stop the factory
from being built. Thanks to the existence of
some rare beetles in the area, the factory cannot
be built because they claim the area as a protected
wild land. And so this is a really cute story.
I like the idea of Bruce just stumbling upon
this protest and just not even meaning to be
a part of it and just getting sucked into it
because in reality in the story he's just trying
to go fishing and when he is unable to do so
that's when he comes back and gets pulled into
this protest and becomes the the leader without
ever wanting to be he Those random little things
that happen that seem to be Misunderstood like
he gets poked in the nose with one of the protest
signs and Well his face well, he has his paws
over his face a news reporter sees that he's
in distress and must be crying over the situation
that kind of thing like silly little things like
that that make it so that he becomes the leader
I love Ryan T Higgins humor in this story because
the the city hall meeting that's taking place,
they keep saying like, we have this important
meeting and a lizard keeps coming in and is like,
sir, the ice cream sundaes are ready or like
the hula hoop contest is about to begin. Like
that's the important things that the city hall
is doing. So that kind of silly little humor
that a lot of the kids aren't going to notice,
but the adults that are reading the book are
going to be like, that's pretty funny. That humor
is always well received. I love that kind of
stuff. And it's just a cute story about the importance
of, you know, keeping those trees and not cutting
everything down, protecting the homes of all
these animals, and keeping the planet healthy.
So I really enjoyed this story. I always think
that the Bruce books are amazing and are definitely
fun reads for all of our students. They all love
Bruce and his grumpy attitude. It's just kind
of silly and the kids really receive that well
And so I would definitely another five out of
five for Ryan T Higgins for this book Yeah, I
agree all the things Ryan T Higgins is always
great. It does have his classic humor in this
book Love the adult humor sprinkled in with all
the everything for the kids. It's got those wonderful
illustrations that are not too overwhelming,
very clear, it's not the the colors that he uses
aren't like overly bright but it's eye -catching
enough that it'll definitely get the kids attention
and it's not too not too much going on in the
page so that the kids can focus on everything
that they need to focus on but it also does have
those the little extras with all the little word
bubbles and everything that you can either choose
to read or not depending on the type of class
that you have in front of you so it's just another
wonderful book from him there's a reason why
there's so many and yes you know they always
sell out they're always checked out at the library
they're great books really wonderful yes and
I also love that he has a lot of the characters
returning over and over again so in this one
the geese are still there and then the mice from
another previous book are in it and so like so
many of the characters are just become returning
characters and so there's that continuity between
all of the books that is really great as well.
Yeah that's true that's a good point I love it
it's good stuff. Yes. And so for a makerspace
activity for this, I think like I was trying
to think of what I could do with my students
for Earth Day. And I think honestly what I would
do is I would work with the teachers to make
sure that this didn't become a giant mess. But
I would love to do the like where the kids can
grow some flowers. And so like just get a couple.
You know, egg cartons are pretty easy to come
by and cutting them up so that the little cup
is there. And I would let the kids get their
hands a little dirty. I'd have like a container
with the soil for them to put in and buying some
flower seeds is pretty cheap. And so having some
flower seeds that they could put into the soil
and cover it up and the water would probably
be the thing that I would definitely I would
be the one to help them out with that part not
to make just a giant muddy mess but you know
doing a couple of those little things and then
being able to send those back to the classroom
and like put them maybe out on like the windowsill
in the classroom so they get some light if the
room has that opportunity or to send them home
with the kids so that they can try and grow their
own flowers something like that I think these
kids a lot of And I don't want to generalize,
but a lot of our students don't spend time getting
dirty, like getting their hands in soil and that
kind of thing. Like when they go outside, it's
to go outside and play on the playground equipment
or to go play a sport. There's not a ton of these
kids that are out digging in the dirt and trying
to plant flowers or searching for earthworms
and stuff like we used to do. And so giving the
kids some chances to do that and get their hands
dirty and have fun and be learning and be helping
the environment and doing all of those things,
I think that would be an experience that a lot
of our kids won't have had at that point yet.
And so I think that would be a lot of fun. It
might get a little messy, but it'd be a lot of
fun. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of our kids don't know
that it's OK to get messy. I think they spend
a lot of time inside on screens a lot and they
just don't they don't get dirty like they used
to. And there's a lot of kids that like really
have a little mini meltdown when they do get
a little bit dirty. So that would be a really
great experience for them. And then that's an
excellent tie in with this book, too, because
there's a lot with like, you know, talking about
endangered species and such that like it's that
isn't really taught beforehand so like that's
another great way that you could incorporate
that and like why you need to plant trees and
why it's important to have you know green spaces
in general and how you know planting seeds and
in general is a great thing to do for the environment
that's a wonderful tie -in love it yeah i think
it would be a lot of fun i think a lot of the
kids would really enjoy it and you know just
If the plants, if they do it right and the plants
grow, then we can take it from an Earth Day activity
to a Mother's Day present real fast, you know?
Oh, that's a good point. I love that. Yeah. Good
one. Let the kids like, and you could start by
letting them decorate the little cup that you're
gonna put the plant in so it's personalized,
it has their name on it, whatever. Yeah. I've
seen, I even saw, like if you did it, In like
a bigger cup than like not an egg carton kind
of thing, but if you did like an actual cup I've
seen online where The kids like paint their hand
white Green and blue and kind of make it look
like an earth and then they put their handprint
on the cup and different things like that so
like however Creative and messy you want to go
with it. You could do a lot of different things
with that, but yeah, yeah Love it. Yeah be lots
of fun All right, which brings us to our Library
of Littles Makerspace Spotlight for this week.
So we've been talking about different devices
and different things that we can use with our
students in Makerspace and kind of giving reviews
and some ideas of how they can be used. And so
this week, the Sphero Indy is a fun toy designed
from the Sphero company, for pre -k students
and up, the Indy turns a screen -free play into
problem -solving through computational thinking.
Students place colored tiles, each one with coded
instructions, and watch as the Indy car robot
navigates a course or a maze, and whether they're
modeling a classroom routine, retelling a story
plot, or solving a puzzle, kids can learn through
interactive play. Along the way, students are
also developing essential skills like color identification,
sequencing, decomposition, pattern recognition,
and cause and effect. When they're ready, the
Sphere EDU Junior app lets them reprogram the
indie with block -based code, making for customized
movements, sounds, and colors for new challenges
and endless fun. This is built for early learners,
so it's intuitive, it's durable, and it's rechargeable,
so all things that are really important if you're
going to be using them in the library. And it's
built to withstand a busy classroom with excited
hands. Indie provides flexibility to grow alongside
the students. The Indie, they're not cheap. A
single Indie student kit costs about $150, which
is not. excessive at all $150 for one of these
is a reasonable price the class pack which is
16 robots is about $3 ,200 and it includes 16
robots two sided code mats printed literacy card
decks of four of them and it offers hands -on
ways to explore letter recognition, story structure,
logic through collaboration, and screen free
learning. These things are really cool. The squares
that you put down for the robot to identify are
like a pliable bendable plastic so they're not
going to crack or break or get like torn very
easily. And it's a lot of fun each Color tells
Indy what to do. And so you put down the robot
and then put it on the go and it starts moving.
And as it goes over other colors, it reacts based
on the colors it sees. It's a lot of fun. Caroline,
you actually won one of these at one of our previous
TLAs. And so you have a personal one now, right?
I do. We love it. Yeah. Your kids, do they play
with it a lot? My kids love it. Yeah. They had
a great time teaching their grandparents how
to use it. that was kind of funny to watch because
there was like it is pretty intuitive but you
do have to like play with it a little bit before
you like really figure out all the things and
that was that was fun to watch the grandparents
kind of like Figure out what all the dip because
each of the mats that Indy drives on has a different
color and each color Tells Indy to do a different
thing. So when it drives over like the pink one,
it'll go straight I could be wrong about the
certain specific commands but and if it you drives
over like purple it'll like turn left and Then
start going straight. So it'll each of the coding
mats are different color and each color makes
it do a different thing. And it was just really
funny to get to watch grandparents learn how
to do it with the kids. That was a great time.
And my kids have also brought it to school with
them a couple of times as well on days when their
teachers let them bring like they were in fourth
and fifth grade and their teachers let them do
like a game day for like a reward. And they brought
Indy to school and let other kids learn how to
use them too. And they loved that as well. Will
say that it's like it is expensive But it's it's
a big upfront cost, but it's so durable Like
this might be the most durable thing that I can
think of. I don't know As far as like a coding
tool for younger kids, it's pretty great The
Indy car is really cute. He's a little blue guy
and he just looks He looks like a little indie
race car and kids love him. It's pretty great.
I think it would, I've had mine for five or six
years and it's going strong and it's been through
kind of a lot. So yeah, it's a really good, it's
expensive, but it's a long -term investment if
you want to think of it that way. It's a good
one. And yeah, they've got some really great
stuff on their website also for different things
that you can use the indie robot for. Like we
mentioned, it can be used as a way to kind of
retell a story by having the indie move and as
it hits certain things the kids hit certain points
of the story or you can just have them try and
get from point A to point B. and they can put
out the little mats to make it so that the card
gets where it's supposed to go. There's lots
of different ways to use this, so there's lots
of different ways that the students can be learning
while using it and having fun with it, which
makes it really a great tool because it's so
versatile in how it can be used, you know. Yeah,
it's a great one. Agreed. So, highly recommend
the Indie robot from Sphero. That's on my list
for next year to buy. Probably not a class set,
but I'd like to buy two or three of them for
my library to use with the students because I
think they'd have a good time with it. It's a
lot of fun. I will say having floor space is
good. You need the floor space for it. Having
it on a table, You can do that, but I think floor
space is better for it. It's risky. Yeah. Floor
space is better for it. But I'm fortunate, my
library, I've got plenty of floor space. We can
use it and still have a good time with it. So
I'm thinking about getting a couple of them next
year. Yeah. Because they're a lot of fun. Well,
any kind of a whole group space where you would
do like a story time with kids sitting on the
floor, like you would really just have the kids
sit like in a circle. Yeah, and put Indy in the
middle and that kind of a space would work, but
you did I mean that does take a significant amount
of floor space so Yeah, it'd be fun though, and
I think the kids will really really enjoy it
so definitely worth it. It's a good one Well
the other book that we're gonna talk about today
is called our planet There's no place like earth
and it's published by Henry Holton company in
2022 This one is part of the Our Universe series
by Stacey McAnulty and the illustrator for this
particular book is David Litchfield. I didn't
realize and that the so Stacey McAnulty did all
the Our Universe books which is like the Our
Earth my first 4 .5 billion years or something
like that and like Moon and there's one about
the Sun and all the Planets the newest one is
gonna be Venus coming out soon and I didn't know
they didn't all have the same illustrator that
was news to me all the same author yeah lots
of different illustrators who knew I don't I
don't think I realized that I knew she did all
of those books and I love them because they're
yeah they're a lot of fun to do read alouds and
I love that they're that they're like a really
good way to introduce non -fiction books to young
readers because they're a lot of fun and they're
colorful and really great. So I love that series
and I'm looking forward to the Venus one that's
coming out because I really enjoy reading all
of these with the students. But I didn't realize
that they were different illustrators for the
books. Yeah, he's only done like two or three.
Okay. But I don't know. And there's some that
are different publishers too. It was interesting
to me. This particular book has gotten a couple
of awards. It got the Golden Kite Award for best
non -fiction book for young readers in 2023,
and the Illinois Monarch Award in 2023, and the
Florida Literacy Association Children's Book
Award for K -2 in 2023. And the author Stacey
McAnulty spent about a decade working as a mechanical
engineer. designing airline seats. She stayed
home to have children and raise her kids and
then she decided to devote her time and toward
writing instead and she became a full -time author.
She currently lives in North Carolina with her
husband and their three kids and three dogs and
she loves to do author visits. I wish I lived
closer to North Carolina so we could do that
but she looks like she has a lot of really great
presentations. I'm trying not to hold against
her that she's one of the designers of airline
seats. Yeah. I'm sure she's not the reason you
get no leg room in those seats. I'm sure that's
not her fault, but I'm finding it hard not to
hold that against her. But no, that's really
cool. And yeah, if we lived... Because like I
said, I love these books these that her all of
her books have been really enjoyable If she was
lived closer, I definitely want her to come and
talk to my students about how she does her research
and everything That would be really cool. It
would be really cool. I know She's written over
40 books to date and all the books are either
middle grade novels or picture books Some of
the more notable ones are the our universe series
that we just talked about The miscalculations
of lightning girl forever 12 brains not just
a zombie snack. I want 100 dogs and millionaires
for a month Yeah, and so our Illustrator David
Lichtfield is that how we're saying the last
name which film Has always yes, which film he
has always had a passion for drawing as a child
the he created Star Wars Indiana Jones mashup
comics for his older brother and sister. And
as an adult, his work has appeared in books,
magazines, newspapers, and on shirts. He lives
with his family in Bedford, England. And he's
had quite a few books. He has worked for more
than 15 other published works, including Ocean,
Waves for All by Stacy Mecham. McAltony. The
Earth, my first 4 .54 billion years, also by
Stacey McEnulty. And then we got Watercress by
Gregory Maguire, Miss Muffet or What Came After
by Marilyn Singer, and A Shelter for Sadness
by Anne Booth. He also wrote and illustrated
the boy and the giant, my friend Billy Whiskers,
the bear and the piano, and the dinosaur next
door. Yeah, and in this book, it's like the rest
of our universe series. It's a nonfiction book
and it gives a brief overview of the earth, why
it's the only planet in the solar system that
can support human life. And then it goes on to
talk about what climate is How it's currently
changing and why it's a bad thing that it's changing
and then what we can do about it I think this
one was like a really really excellent nonfiction
introduction to climate change in general and
the importance of Just taking care of the planet
overall like the rest of the our universe series.
It's got the the subject is kind of your host.
So in this one, it's the earth and the earth
has, you know, eyes and it's a very smiley earth.
It's very happy and kind of tells you a little
bit about itself, I guess. And so the earth is
your host in it. And I think that's kind of a
great way to get kids kind of engaged and get
them kind of interested in it. Because it's so
smiley and friendly, it kind of peaks the kids
interest because the pictures are very vibrant
there's a lot of naturally of course there's
a lot of earth tones in it so it's kind of calming
uh when you're reading it but it's not the pictures
aren't too overwhelming and there's still plenty
of like blank space where the words are so that
you can kind of point out those words and notice
a lot of that as well when you're reading and
i love that it starts out as like very vibrant
and hopeful and It you know tells you all the
great things about earth it does get into the
bad things and You know why global warming is
a problem that needs to be addressed Those couple
of pages like you can feel the distress there,
but then it's like wait it's not too late and
you know talks about the importance of reducing
reusing recycling and using alternative forms
of energy and you know it has a brief introduction
to like you know solar energy and wind power
and things like that so I overall it wasn't it
didn't feel like condescending talking to kids
kind of felt like it was You know, a friend talking
to another friend was kind of the vibe of the
book in general. So it's not, I think that it'll,
you know, that the language that it uses isn't
too much and it defines everything really well,
like the bigger concepts like climate and everything.
And it does discuss how climate is different
from weather because I think there are people
that do deny climate change in general. don't
recognize that there is a difference between
climate and weather. They're not the same thing.
So it defines that really well. So that's great
too. I just, I don't know. I loved it for a non
-fiction book about just Earth Day in general.
I guess it doesn't cover Earth Day, but taking
care of the planet in general and why it's important.
It was just, I think it was kind of the perfect
introduction to that. Really accessible for younger
kids. It's great. Like the rest of the series.
The series is fabulous. Yeah. Agreed. It's a
really good book. I enjoyed it. I loved how it
did point out that like Earth is the only planet
within this range that has the right temperatures
and how its average temperature is like 57 degrees
and you know how planets closer are too hot and
planets further away are too cold and that kind
of thing and then like you said like it does
say it does have some issues like these are problems
that we're having but it's not too late and we
can fix them and so i love that it hits all of
those topics and i think these are things that
like if we teach the kids now hey we need to
make sure that we're being intentional with the
choices that we make because it does have an
impact on our planet we can we can have an impact
on how our children, how our students impact
our futures realistically. And so by reading
these books at younger ages and talking about
how simple little choices can change the outcome,
I think it's an important message to start early
so that it has that impact and our students can
learn from that and help heal the planet a little
bit. So I think it's a really great book and
I love the entire series just because they're
such informative and enjoyable non -fiction reads
for our kiddos. Yeah, it was really good stuff.
And I think for any makerspace activity with
this one would be, because there is a lot to
do with recycling as one of the, and reusing
actually, as one of the ways that you can help
the planet. So anything to do with recycling
or reusing things, I think would be great. I
think I would probably do some kind of an art
project where I would like bring in a lot of
recycled materials, have kids cut it up and create
new art with it. Whether it's like just coloring
on old pieces of paper that we're reusing from
like, hey, remember when we did this project?
Well, we didn't finish like using all these papers
for it. So we're gonna, you know, color on these
again and use them again because we're not being
wasteful, we're using what we've already got
and things like that. So I think as far as that
goes, that would be different depending on your
campus and what you've already got on hand, but
just, and maybe you could, like I would probably
bring some stuff from home to like old cardboard
boxes and stuff and cut them up and like kids
color on that too. So that there's just more
materials for them to use. But I think that would,
again, that would depend on your school, what
you've got on hand, and if you have anything
at home you kind of need to get rid of that kids
could reuse to create new art with and just give
them a bunch of crayons and markers and glue
and just let them go to town with all that. I
love that idea. I love that. That's a really
great way to do that because I definitely see
a bunch of kids like using the leftover paper
and stuff to make like a collage or you know.
Make a mosaic kind of picture or something like
that. That'd be a lot of fun for the kids I think
they'd have a good time being able to use all
those recycled piece of paper and other materials
to make something that they could feel proud
of Be really cool. Yeah, and I've done that a
few times like at the end of the school year
when I just have like extra stuff That I'm trying
to get rid of and kids usually really love that
like that's usually one of the favorite things
Because they I think it's because they have more
creative control over what they're doing. It's
less defined as far as what I'm telling them
to do and they're just Creating so they have
a lot of it. It's good stuff. Very cool. Yeah,
I Got to try that this year because I do have
a lot of pieces of paper and random things Well,
thank you all for joining us today on this episode
of Librarians of Littles, and we hope you found
some good ideas for inspiring our younger readers.
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 Legere. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD 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 librarianoflittlespodatgmail .com. Did you
apply for the job in Northwest? I did not. I
didn't either. No, for a couple reasons. My team
is really good this year and honestly, I can't
even wrap my brain around what Northwest is expecting
from that job right now. Yeah. When they've already
said that every other librarian in the district
is going to be in rotation, like I don't know
what they're gonna expect from that position.
Yeah. I've, like I said, I've got a really good,
solid, strong team. And we've, we just found
out, like literally in the last week or two,
my art teacher's leaving. Oh. Which is really
disappointing because she's really good, but
she's like, she was set up for failure. I tried
to do everything I could to make it so that she
could do the job but the expectations put on
her were just not reasonable. Yeah. She also
has all of her family is out of state and she's
got two sisters that are both having kids and
that kind of thing. Her husband has a master's
degree in business and was told that if he drove
trucks they would work make it so he could work
his way up the ladder to get a job he's looking
for. It's been three years and he hasn't. And
so he can make in the state they're moving to,
he can make the same amount of money that he's
making here. And the price, the cost of living
is substantially lower. So she did a remote interview
and accepted a position teaching fourth grade.
Okay. And so she's leaving, which is not necessarily
a reason for me to stay, but the rest of my team
is really strong. I want to like, the rest of
my team has also said, like they don't, none
of them want to be the team lead. They want me
to keep doing it. Cause like I said, I always
get just thrust into those positions. I don't
know. And it also doesn't hurt like not that
this is a final this would be the final reason
or anything but our district has said like since
they're paying for TLA like even just the just
the admission to TLA but they're paying for TLA
and the hotel and all this stuff basically you're
promising to stay for at least one more year
if you do if they do pay for it I forgot about
that which I'm okay with I don't mind but yes
pay having to pay back $1 ,600 is also not something
I would like to do. So, you know. For me, it
was like how supportive everybody was with me
randomly being like, hey, I got to go take off
for like maybe two weeks or something. And everyone
was like, okay. And I was like, really? I don't
think that would have ever happened in Teller.
No, I agree. They would have been like, good
luck. I probably would have gotten docked actually.
Yeah. Between that and then the other thing was
like my principal did send out the email again
like cuz he sends it out Every year asking like
are you planning to stay? Are you looking to
do any changing kind of stuff? Which doesn't
really apply to us as much Yeah, it's more of
are you coming back or not for us? But for like
the classroom teachers like do you want to move
grade levels that kind of stuff? Whatever and
in it one of his questions is about like what?
are you looking to do? Like what are your goals?
And I did say that I was honest and said I'd
love to get out of the rotation because research
has shown that a librarian that's available has
a much greater impact than what I'm doing. But
I also was upfront and said I get based on the
economics of it that's not going to happen anytime
soon and that's not within anyone locally their
control to deal with that but I wouldn't mind
taking on like I did say that at like the district
level I wouldn't mind because like working to
become one of the the library like leaders uh
part of that leadership group and that kind of
thing and so like having some goals of like continuing
to work with The district but You know working
to to put myself in a position where maybe my
voice has some more sway to to start some conversations
about Changing some things like adding another
fine arts teacher Like because if I because I
really feel like if I get if I could get into
like that leadership group and start trying to
have some of those conversations and not just
between us librarians, but also with the fine
arts department. Cause I can't imagine that the
fine arts department is like, no, this is perfect
and it's working exactly how we want it to work.
I'm sure they want like a separate music and
art teacher also. So like to start trying to
build some alliances that way to like, to have
the conversation coming from more than one facet.
Yeah, so that people realize hey, this is something
we should probably consider. That's absolutely
ridiculous. There's not too, you know, I just
yeah, that's the one thing about Eagle Mountain
I can't wrap my head around my fine art. But
to be fair like and the way Eagle Mountain is
doing it isn't great but it's not that different
than what Keller and what Northwest are moving
towards where they're having just rotating people
where you get it for this long and then that
person leaves and some new person comes in like
It's not that different. They just keep a consistent
person on the campus in Eagle Mountain. Does
Northwest do that too? Northwest is cutting back
on their fine arts department. I don't think
they've actually gotten to the point where they're
rotating through yet. but they are cutting like
they went from having like there were campuses
where if they had 700 kids they had two fine
arts teachers that were both teaching art and
then they had two music teachers so they had
like four fine arts teachers on their campus
and they've cut back to just two and some like
stuff like that so like theirs is definitely
a better program but Keller doing theirs where
for nine weeks you had this person and then they
left and went to a different campus and you had
nine weeks of a different you know Yeah, I still
don't know that that's any better than what we
have now in Eagle Mountain. I think it is because
they've got three programs, but they've got one
full -time fine arts teacher. Yeah. And then
two part -time. So you've still got two teachers,
full -time staff. Okay. Yeah. Because you've
got the music teacher doesn't rotate. She's there
all the time. It's just theater and art that
rotate. So it's marginally better. Yeah. Yeah.
Like staffing wise, it's still double. Well,
then maybe that's how you try and push it first
is that you, like, instead of being like, we
need however many elementary schools there are,
what, 30? I don't know how many there are, 25,
something like that, in the mountain. Instead
of saying we need 25 new employees, say that
we need Well, no, you'd still need at least 25.
That would still be 25. Yeah. Yeah. I was just
thinking you probably actually the way that way
you'd say you'd almost need 50, which is even
more money. I don't know. Well, my fine arts
teacher told me like three weeks ago maybe that
at the last really big fine arts meeting they
had across the district, they didn't really get
in big trouble, but like the upper admin fine
arts people were like hey elementary teachers
did you notice that this middle school only had
like three kids join choir like in sixth grade
and that all of them and they were like over
there looking at them like could it be because
we're split in half and trying to teach two curriculums
and you have all these days that are like randomly
taken away from us and like we can't effectively
teach choir in elementary school like of course
not are you serious i think we know what the
problem is no but no teacher can effectively
yeah prepare kids when they're given not when
they're trying to teach two curriculums and most
of them see each kid once a week yeah maximum
yeah so if you're lucky you see the kids 36 times
in the year and you're supposed to teach two
full curriculums yeah Absolutely not. And you
know you don't actually see them 36 times, so
that's it. No, no, and I keep thinking of that
one class that I like didn't see from October
23rd until January 5th or whatever it was. Like,
no. Anyway, so like, I don't know, somewhere
in there, upper admin in fine arts is thinking
about it. they're just not doing a good job thinking
about it right and not necessarily finding a
way to solve the problem but or they're not recognizing
how hard it is could be that too i don't know
probably they're just still operating like their
teeny tiny school district is the main thing
yeah