Original Proposal Outline

Sarah Hambleton, Abby Prutzman, and Alyson McDonald

Checkout the Book Room!
Needs and Opportunities
As a group, we noticed the need in the book room of the library last
semester when Ms. Pegouske asked the Reading and Math leadership
team to see if we could stay after a few days of the week to organize it
and make it easily accessible for teachers. We started making sure
books were neatly in their place when we were here at Trace last
semester, when we noticed that teachers have to record the books that
they wish to checkout on a clipboard. We decided a more efficient way
for teachers to check out and return the Scholastic books in the book
room is through a scanning checkout system. We all agreed that the
room could be so much more appropriate and organized if each bag of
books was linked to a barcode to scan on the way out of the room and
back to class. Everyone on our team likes to be organized and efficient,
and we all agree that organization is key in every aspect of a school
system in order for it to run efficiently. According to research, teaching
becomes easier and children learn more when teachers share and have
easy access to high quality materials.
http://www.lkdsb.net/program/elementary/admin/Creating%20a
%20Functional%20Book%20Room.pdf
Audience/Clients/Users
We believe that the whole school could benefit from this project
ranging from the librarian, and teachers, all the way to students in
individual classrooms. As a result of an effective checkout system and
organized book room, more teachers will be interested in this as a
resource for their lesson planning and teaching, and as a result student
learning can be increased within the individual classroom. In order to
measure this, we want to create a very short survey to send out to
teachers asking about their opinion of the book room, the current
checkout system, and how often they use the room if ever. Weve
already been in contact with the reading coach, Ms. Pegouske, Ms.
Stone, and they have both already shown interest in the idea of our
project!
Timeline
Date

Goal to Complete

February 3

Write up the proposal

February 10

A, B, C, D

February 17

E, F, G, H

February 24

I, J, K

March 2

L, M, N

March 9

O, P, Q, R

March 16

S, T, U, V

March 23

W, X, Y, Z

March 30

Project Presentation

Product
By the end of the semester, our finished product of the book room will
consist of one bar code that links with a bag comprised of the same
scholastic books, and a set of lesson plans and activities matched with
those books. Each book will have the barcode written inside it, that
way there will be no confusion. There will be a computer and a scanner
linked to all the information located inside the room for teachers to
grab the bag of materials they wish to, scan them, and head out the
door. As a group, we will also create a video tutorial of how the new
check out system will work, and email that out to the faculty and staff
to view on their own time. As a team, well hold ourselves accountable
by meeting the goals weve set each week to accomplish, and work
afterhours with Ms. Pegouske if necessary to complete the task at
hand.
Reality Check
As far as equipment and resources, weve already talked to Ms.
Pegouske and she informed us that there is a laptop Ms. Stone says we
are allowed to use and keep in the book room as a consistent resource
for the school. Bar codes have also already been ordered and ready for
us to use, we will just have to look into a scanner to use in the room.
Our team mentioned looking into an online grant since this is simply
one single resource that we need to complete the project.
Upon completion of our project:

Each book set will have a bag and lesson card

Each bag will have a barcode
Each book will have the barcode written inside

Conclusion
We are fired up about this project because we feel like this is an
attainable and super useful project for us to complete. Would you really
want to rummage through the resources a school had for you if it
wasnt neatly and effectively arranged? We believe that as a result of
this project, more teachers will be using the book room as a resource,
and as a result, more students learning will be taking place at Trace
Crossings Elementary School. Checkout the book room!

Revised Proposal Outline

Sarah Hambleton, Abby Prutzman, and Alyson McDonald
Checkout the Book Room!
Needs and Opportunities
As a group, we noticed the need in the book room of the library last
semester when Ms. Pegouske asked the Reading and Math leadership
team to see if we could stay after a few days of the week to organize it
and make it easily accessible for teachers. We started making sure
books were neatly in their place when we were here at Trace last
semester, when we noticed that teachers have to record the books that
they wish to checkout on a clipboard. We decided a more efficient way
for teachers to check out and return the Scholastic books in the book
room is through a scanning checkout system. We all agreed that the
room could be so much more appropriate and organized if each bag of
books was linked to a barcode to scan on the way out of the room and
back to class. Everyone on our team likes to be organized and efficient,
and we all agree that organization is key in every aspect of a school
system in order for it to run efficiently. According to research, teaching
becomes easier and children learn more when teachers share and have
easy access to high quality materials.
We realized that the ultimate biggest need for this room was to have a
more orderly way for teachers and faculty to return the books that they
checked out, because thats when materials would start to get
unorganized. Ms. Pegouske made it clear to us that anything we
wanted to create, she would be our line of communication to the
teachers in the school.
http://www.lkdsb.net/program/elementary/admin/Creating%20a
%20Functional%20Book%20Room.pdf
Audience/Clients/Users
We believe that the whole school could benefit from this project
ranging from the librarian, and teachers, all the way to students in

individual classrooms. As a result of an effective checkout system and

organized book room, more teachers will be interested in this as a
resource for their lesson planning and teaching, and as a result student
learning can be increased within the individual classroom. In order to
measure this, we want to create a very short survey to send out to
teachers asking about their opinion of the book room, the current
checkout system, and how often they use the room if ever. Weve
already been in contact with the reading coach, Ms. Pegouske, Ms.
Stone, and they have both already shown interest in the idea of our
project!
Our direct audience ended up being specifically the teachers that use
the scholastic book room on a constant basis to return their materials.
We used a short survey that was sent out to teachers to gain a little
insight and feedback about overall thoughts and ideas on the current
use of the scholastic book room.
Timeline
Date

Goal to Complete

February 3

Write up the proposal

February 10

A, B, C, D

February 17

E, F, G, H

February 24

I, J, K

March 2

L, M, N

March 9

O, P, Q, R

March 16

S, T, U, V

March 23

W, X, Y, Z

March 30

Project Presentation

Revised Time Line and Log

Date

What we did

February 3,
2016

Created a timeline and proposal

Sent out a survey monkey to teachers

February 10,
2016

Initial meeting with Mrs. Pegouski for information

about the book room
Decided to focus on return system and barcodes

February 17,
2016

On Samfords campus
Regrouped and revised timeline/proposal

February 24,
2016

Created book return box

Began working on barcodes

March 2, 2016 Continued working on barcodes

March 9, 2016 Created video to explain book return process to
teachers
Continued working on barcodes
March
16,2016

Finalized return video

Continued working on barcodes

Product
By the end of the semester, our finished product of the book room will
consist of one bar code that links with a bag comprised of the same
scholastic books, and a set of lesson plans and activities matched with
those books. Each book will have the barcode written inside it, that
way there will be no confusion. There will be a computer and a scanner
linked to all the information located inside the room for teachers to
grab the bag of materials they wish to, scan them, and head out the
door. As a group, we will also create a video tutorial of how the new
check out system will work, and email that out to the faculty and staff
to view on their own time. As a team, well hold ourselves accountable
by meeting the goals weve set each week to accomplish, and work
after hours with Ms. Pegouske if necessary to complete the task at
hand.
Our final product of our time spent working in the book room ended up
being a complete return system for teachers to stick by, a video
tutorial for teachers to walk through, bar codes written inside each
book with a matching bar code on the outside bag, and worked on
setting up a program for volunteers to come in and work the book
room after our time at Trace was over.

Reality Check
As far as equipment and resources, weve already talked to Ms.
Pegouske and she informed us that there is a laptop Ms. Stone says we
are allowed to use and keep in the book room as a consistent resource
for the school. Bar codes have also already been ordered and ready for
us to use, we will just have to look into a scanner to use in the room.
Our team mentioned looking into an online grant since this is simply
one single resource that we need to complete the project.
Upon completion of our project:

Each book set will have a bag and lesson card

Each bag will have a barcode
Each book will have the barcode written inside
Return system, box, and video tutorial
Volunteer program to come and work in the book room

Conclusion
We are fired up about this project because we feel like this is an
attainable and super useful project for us to complete. Would you really
want to rummage through the resources a school had for you if it
wasnt neatly and effectively arranged? We believe that as a result of
this project, more teachers will be using the book room as a resource,
and as a result, more students learning will be taking place at Trace
Crossings Elementary School. Checkout the book room!
We found our project to be really important and useful for the teachers
and students of Trace Crossings. Research showed us how important
organization was to keep a school running and functioning, especially
when it comes to the school's use of materials. We found this project to
directly affect students ultimate learning inside their classrooms. We
felt that we left Trace Crossings, knowing that we set up and started an
important system that would further teachers use of these important
materials and growth in student learning.

Final Project Reflection

Our Google project group came up with the idea to create a book
check out and return system for the book room in the library. We came
up with this idea after meeting with the reading coach and looking at
the books I had taken out of the book room and had yet to return. We
first sent out a survey monkey to all the teachers in the school to
collect data on how they felt about the current check out system in the
library. Prior to our project teachers would have to write which books
they were checking out on a log. When teachers were finished with
their books they would have to check them back in through the log and
place them in the correct bin. That is where the issue arose. Teachers
indicated on the survey they felt the book room was unorganized. They
also indicated that they feel the book room is an important resource
and they would use the resource more if it was more organized.
We set out then to improve the book room. Sarah and Alyson
worked on developing the return system. They created a Return Box
that sat in the book room. Abby put barcodes in the back of each book.
The barcodes were meant to keep books with their set and help find
their place if they were misplaced. We think this project was an overall
success and the teachers at Trace appreciated our work to improve an
important resource that they use. We learned two main things from
this project. First, we learned that organization is a key component to
student success as well as making resources more easily available.

Second, we learned that working with students directly is more

gratifying than working indirectly to improve learning. We believe that
we made an impact with our project. However, if we were to do it
again, we agree that we would choose a project where we were able to
directly work with students.
The principle that reflects our project exemplifies organization of
materials in the school. We could use this principle with our students in
every aspect of our classroom. Whether that is setting up routines in
the beginning of the year, using neat handwriting, or keeping our
binders and desks in order, research clearly shows that organization
positively impacts student learning.
Student learning was directly impacted, with the hopes of a
better return system and organizing the room more, would draw more
teachers into the room, to easily use these materials in their
classrooms. So our project directly impacted students, teachers, and
other faculty members at Trace Crossings, including the reading coach
and librarian. The final results showed teachers were happy with the
new return system based on our data. We hope that Trace Crossings is
able to secure parent volunteers throughout the year to keep this
system in place.