Faculty and Staff Interviews

 

Kyle: Hi, Alli. Thanks for chatting with me today. Why don’t we start with an introduction, how long you’ve been with Cathedral, whether you’ve always been a librarian, things like that.

 

Alli: Good morning. My name is Allie Decker, and I’m the school librarian. I work closely with our K–4 students throughout the year, and I work with our Upper School students on different, smaller projects. For example, I’ll have a book talk in Grade 5 and 6 English. If we can find time in an Advisory group, I’ll have a book talk or talk about book week, or, if we’re having an author coming, I’ll talk about that — that kind of thing.

 

Kyle: What’s a book talk?

 

Alli: A book talk is when I go into a classroom with a book and I’ll say something like, “This book is called The Outsiders. It’s by S.E. Hinton. Let me tell you a little bit about it.” Hopefully you leave the students with a cliffhanger, and then they’ll all want to read it. Sometimes, I do a book talk that’s on a specific genre or theme, or I’ll do a book talk on something that’s going on in the world.

 

Kyle: What else do you do with the Upper School students?

 

Alli: Last year, we started doing Fabulous First Chapters, where I went into Grades 5 and 6 every Thursday and Wednesday to read the first chapter of Something Fabulous — to hook them and get them interested in that title. We’re going to pick that back up soon. Something else I’m doing this year with Grade 5 is to get some time in their study skills class with Ms. Munz and Mr. Talbot so that I can work on some research skills, some information literacy skills, help them with homework if it is appropriate. Also, I’d like to do some media literacy, news literacy, talk with them about being smarter online and being savvier about marketing, media bias, commercialism, and even politics. Those are ways I’m trying to work with the Upper School students. I don’t have as regular a schedule with them as I do with our Lower School students.

 

Kyle: How often do you meet with our Kindergarten through Grade 4 students?

 

Alli: I see each grade once a week. And then I have DEAR — Drop Everything and Read — with Grades 1 and 2. We’re doing DEAR in the Lower School Commons this year so that we can spread out, lie down, curl up in a corner, whatever the boys need to get comfortable while they’re reading. I ordered a whole bunch of books I wouldn’t have in the library for space reasons, books like Dog Man, Captain Underpants, all of the Who Would Win books — books that are a little more fun to read because we really want to keep the boys’ attention for that whole 30 minutes of DEAR time; we want them to really be working on sustaining their attention for the whole time.

 

Kyle: When you meet with the different Lower School grades, how long are you with them?

 

Alli: It depends. I have 25–30 minutes of library time with the Kindergartners, 35–40 minutes with Grades 1 and 2, and then 40–45 minutes with Grades 3 and 4. I’ll read with them, do lessons with them, and they can check out and return books. That said, the kids can come in any time their teacher lets them to check out or return books as long as I’m there.

 

Kyle: How many books can students check out at a time?

 

Alli: Kindergarten students can check out one book at a time. As you move to Grades 1–4, if they’re good library citizens and they’re returning their books on time, they can take up to three.

 

Kyle: What about Upper School students?

 

Alli: Honestly, I don’t have a limit. In general, I let kids take out what they want as they increasingly show me they’re being responsible. If they’re doing a report or research, they can check anything they need out, or even if it’s for fun or recreational reading.

 

Kyle: Is there a time limit?

 

Alli: Two weeks, but we’re fluid. We’re a small enough school, and I really want the library to be a place where the students don’t feel pressure or limited.

 

Kyle: Do you give out any awards or recognition for voracious readers?

 

Alli: I’m thinking about giving some kind of library award, maybe at the end of the year — something to draw our community’s attention to students who are really good library citizens, showing up and helping, or students who are really good at returning books, or maybe they just read a lot. I think it would be nice for kids who aren’t necessarily the athletes on the roof or the artists in residence, kids who shine in the library.

 

Kyle: When you look at the Kindergarten through Grade 8 journey with respect to reading, how does that change?

 

Alli: That’s a really good question. It depends on the kid always, but in general, they become excited to learn to read in Kindergarten and Grade 1 — it’s all about them having the ability to read and showing off to me or their parents. I would say at the end of Grade 2 and in Grades 3 and 4, they’re getting into series, finishing whole series, reading all of the Rick Riordan or Warriors, for example. They develop interests in genres and authors they’ve discovered. They start to develop their own reader personality and identity, like adults; some of us like biographies, some nonfiction, some fiction. I start to see that a little bit in Grades 3 and 4. In Grade 5, sadly, I start to see the kids not reading for fun as much, not reading as much to fill free time, or identifying as someone who does or doesn’t like to read. It’s around Grade 5 that we really need to nurture their reading habits, their enjoyment of reading. The kids just get busier. There are more things competing for their time. They start to get assigned harder things to read from their teachers, so they’re using that reader muscle for their schoolwork, which is great, but I do feel like I lose some kids at that age. I’m working on ways we can connect with them in Grades 5 and 6, remind them that I’m a resource, that the library is a a resource, and that reading is fun! There’s new stuff coming out all the time, stuff I want them to hear about and check out.

 

Kyle: What do you have planned for this school year with respect to events and authors?

 

Alli: It’s a super-exciting year! We’re continuing with Shopping Night — we’ll do another Book Swap next year. Shopping Night this year is going to be really fun because it’s going to be a little bit more holiday-focused. We have a lot of fun things planned, we’re going to have some celebrity guest readers at the event, which will be held at Books Inc. on Wednesday, December 6. It’s a shopping night for parents to come with children, with grandparents, with alums, whoever wants to come, and shop for the holidays. There’ll be a story time as well, and I think this year we’re going to do Christmas cookies, maybe some mulled cider, maybe some hot cocoa for the kids, maybe wear your jammies. More details to come!

 

Kyle: And what’s the Book Swap?

 

Alli: The Book Swap was something we did last year. We brought in over 900 books in amazing condition; we ended up with so many beautiful books in every genre for every grade. Our parents are incredible! We allowed the boys to come in and choose two books per kid during their free time. And then what we didn’t swap with our own community, which was a lot because we limited the boys, we donated to the Bayview Mission. They have a shelter for families who are unhoused, a day program, a holiday gift-giving program, tons of services for children and families. They took our books for their shelter library gave some of the books to families for the holidays.

 

Kyle: On that subject, how do our families donate books?

 

Alli: I redirect them to other organizations or ask them to hang onto them until next year’s Book Swap. We don’t have the storage space here.

 

Kyle: What else is happening this year?

 

Alli: We have two authors visiting this year. Matt de la Peña will be here this Thursday, October 26 — we’re super-excited to welcome him to the school. He talks and writes about being a mixed-race kid, growing up in California, what his experience was like, what his experience as a student was like, and now what it’s like to write using that lens. He’ll be talking with Lower School students first and then Upper School — he writes for both lower- and upper-school students. He’ll be in the Lower School Commons with the Lower School students, and in the Chapel with the Upper School students. We’ll also have some of his books for sale for parents to buy — he’ll sign them for the kids.

 

Then we have another author coming in May, Oliver Chin. He writes mostly for Lower School. He is an Asian American man who writes about that experience, and he’s written this great series called Tales From the Zodiac, which is all stories of the Chinese Zodiac. They’ve been popular in the library, so he’ll be a fun visit in May.

 

Kyle: Anything else fun happening this year?

 

Alli: We’ll have a holiday book list of recommendations from me. That will come out around our Shopping Night. And then we’ll also have our summer reading lists, which come out towards the end of spring. We publish those every year to help folks with their holiday and summer reading.

 

Kyle: Last question, can you talk more about your library volunteer opportunities?

 

Alli: Volunteers help me do some of the things we’ve just been talking about. They help me shelve the books, stay organized, keep the library tidy so that the boys can have the best, optimal visit when they come in. We will have opportunities for people to help me with the events that I talked about, but for regular library volunteering, we really need folks to come in for just an hour or two a week to just get really familiar with where everything lives, check on the return cart, get everything back onto the shelf.

 

Kyle: Thank you so much for all this information, Alli, and all the work you do — from one bookworm to another!

 

Alli: Absolutely — my pleasure!