Math in the Library?

SAY WHAT?

Yes, you read that right.  One of my goals this year was to incorporate math into the library programming.  I don't know about the rest of you, but math is not my strength.  I struggled with math in elementary school, middle school, high school and college (cried in college when I had to take Algebra because I was SO sure I would never get past that class and get my degree).  So when thinking about my weakness and creating goals for the year, I chose a focus on math.

My first course of action when doing most anything is to READ about it.  Believe it or not, there is very little written on the topic of math in the library.  So then I visited with our math coach for ideas.  She reminded me that I'm not expected to teach math (WHEW); instead, I could create displays that use math concepts around my space to create interest and to remind students that math can be used anywhere.  So I have worked this year to remember to try to display more math texts and to create displays that might create an interest in math

The first display I created was an interactive Dewey Order display.  The Dewey Decimal System uses numbers to organize books by subject and to organize subjects that are alike together.  This display allows students to take the book spines down, mix them up then re-order them back up onto the wall.  There is a key above the display so students can see if they ordered the books correctly.

The second display I created was a bar graph display to show the results of the AEA Be a Champion and Read submissions.  As you can see, much like the Iron Bowl, Bama came out victorious.  RTR!

The third math display I created was a bar graph to show students which books were liked most of those books written by our visiting author this year, John Archambault.  Not surprisingly, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom won by a landslide.

I have also created a math book display in the windows of the library to show students (and teachers) that we have many math related resources to use and enjoy.

My most recent math display is on the door of our library.  It features a line graph created by Destiny to display circulation statistics along with a list of questions to answer using the line graph.  I've had several students sit on the floor and try to find the answers to the questions using the graph.