A school library consisting of backbones instead of spines of books will be expanded thanks to a unique funding program by the public school board.
Foothills School Division will dedicate $1 million over the next five years for the Classroom/Program Innovative Projects (CPIP).
“It was developed to spark innovation and grassroots ideas to improve student learning,” said Pam Rannelli, Foothills assistant superintendent of learning services. “One of the criteria was collaborative effort — a project that they think will enhance student learning.”
The division approved 14 proposals at its Dec. 21 trustees meeting.
Oilfields High School ran a successful human library last year at the junior high school level and is using the grant to expand the program.
A human library has people, rather than books, being “checked out” for students to question. Last year’s speakers included unique human books such as a transgender student who had gone through high school, his mother and “Santa biker” — a former member of a motorcycle gang who is now a Santa.
The human library will run over three days in March for high school students and one in April for junior high school students. There will be approximately 140 human library books.
“Last year was just a trial and it was fantastic and this year we thought we could try it at high school and bring it to other schools,” said Oilfields High School librarian Nadine Russell. “In order to bring in Foothills and Highwood high school students we need funding. It’s not something an individual school can pay for if we are going to look at all the other schools.”
The human library fits well with CPIP because it promotes professional development in the division — one of the criteria of the grant.
“We are bringing together a team of teachers, from Highwood and Foothills, who are going to look at the high school curriculum and see how we can fit the actual human library and the discussion with the human book into the curriculum,” said Russell, who is also working closely with Oilfields teacher Conor Hart on the project.
“The students don’t just hear a story, they question, bring it back and interpret (the information) into the curriculum and the activities they have to do for their classes.”
Approximately $140,000 was granted for the initial projects.
These projects will occur in eight different schools spanning from elementary to high school. They include building blended learning math portfolios, cross-curricular film projects, school wide writing programs, outdoor education for intervention with at-risk students, a human library event and project-based learning on issues such as sustainability and water as well as math and sciences.
Funds for the projects came from the division’s surplus.
“The board saw we had surplus dollars and wanted it spent in a way that impacted on student learning,” Rannelli said.
