Author Luis Herrera, San Francisco City Librarian

The San Francisco Public Library believes strongly in the power of partnerships and our collaboration with SFUSD is one of the more important priorities we nurture and support. We believe that the public library is an extension of our city’s commitment to invest in public education and a strong working relationship facilitates ways to promote and develop library services that support and enhance the students’ learning experience. As part of this commitment, we have established an informal team of library and school district staff that meets on a regular basis to share ideas and develop projects to support SFUSD’s educational mission. Here are some examples of how the Library is working to support our public schools.

Early Literacy: Preparing our children with the skills necessary to learn to read even before they enter school is part of the public library’s mission and this strategy begins with our emphasis on early literacy. Early literacy is everything children know about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Every Child Ready to Read is the Library’s early literacy initiative to bring books, music, resources, and programs to support parents and caregivers in their role as the child’s first teacher. Our librarians conduct workshops for parents, caregivers and other early literacy partners such as head start to teach essential pre- reading skills that will prepare children for reading readiness as they enter pre-school.

Information Competencies: Critical thinking skills and understanding how to access, evaluate and apply information is an essential 21^st Century skill that will prepare our youth for future success.  The staff at the San Francisco Public Library is engaged in teaching information competencies through one-on-one reference instruction, class visits and library outreach in schools. Last school year, over 81,000 children and teens received instruction on library resources and how to use them. This includes learning how to use the electronic catalog and databases, understanding how the Internet works and instilling the love of books and reading. These are important skills that will serve our youth well throughout their lives.

Classroom Support: The San Francisco Public Library invests significant resources that complement SFUSD’s learning curriculum. The San Francisco Public Library offers a rich array of resources that are free and accessible from the home, classroom or the library. These resources include online encyclopedias, age appropriate research databases and “Live Homework Help” available through a free online tutorial service.  A library website with a wealth of school and homework resources for kids and teens is also available at www.sfpl.org.  In service workshops for teachers and principals are also conducted by library staff.  For example, in the last two years, school principals have spent a better part of their day at the beginning of the school year at the Main Library attending a workshop on the resources available through the San Francisco Public Library.

Our vision is to have every child in our city possess a public library card and to use the library’s resources to enrich their education. Let’s continue the open dialogue and keep the lines of communication open to enhance our partnership to benefit our students' educational achievement!

Parents and teachers: tell us how the public library is helping you support your students!

Can you think of other creative ways for students to use library resources? Share your ideas with us!

Did you know that Summer Learning Loss accounts for more than half of the achievement gap between middle and low-income students?

Did you know that Summer Learning Loss results in a significant loss of academic skills— about 2 months worth of achievement— for students not engaged in any summer enrichment activities?

New Day for Learning is facilitating a Summer Learning Collaborative of individuals and organizations from all sectors of City life – school district, community based organizations, the Department of  Children, Youth & Their Families,  and other city departments, cultural and recreational institutions, and private industry. The purpose of the Collaborative is to prevent the well-documented summer learning loss that accounts for over half the achievement gap between middle class and disadvantaged children.

A further focus is to increase access to physical activity and healthy foods, as children gain body mass index twice as fast during the summer months. Join us in our efforts to expand and improve enriched summer learning opportunities for all children across San Francisco. This is a perfect example of how everyone — not just schools — can contribute to the success and well-being of our students.

As part of the Collaborative’s work, New Day for Learning, the Department of Children Youth and their Families, and the San Francisco Unified School District are sponsoring the first all-city event just for YOU to learn about summer possibilities for the programs you provide. The day will include:

• Opening session – Why summer is so important this year
• 4 Concurrent training sessions throughout the day from Bay Area experts on planning quality summer activities, behavior management, incorporating visual arts, integrating science, staff development, nutrition, physical activity, etc.
• 25 “Get-it-done” workshops featuring creative programming ideas on everything from literacy through theater and outdoor exploration to digital media, science kits and community building.
• 25 Resource tables filled with new ideas for field trips, admission to museums and other attractions, staffing, materials and more!

Summer Program Providers - Join us for a Summer Resource and Information Fair!

Check out the workshop schedule.

April 21

9:30 – 3:00 pm

First Unitarian Church

1187 Franklin Street

TO REGISTER

CONTACT: Melanie Hopson, New Day for Learning

hopsonm@sfusd.edu

Call 355-2202 with questions

George Lucas, founder and chairman of our foundation, has said: “It’s imperative that we create new kinds of schools, freed from an educational system deeply rooted in the distant past and the kinds of schools so many of us attended decades ago.” For more than a decade, our foundation has been chronicling solutions to Industrial Age educational thinking that treat students as widgets moving down an assembly line, where everyone learns the same content in the same way at the same time.

One common feature shared by the innovative classrooms we’ve shown from across the nation in our Edutopia films, website, and magazine is authentic learning, learning that makes “school life” more like “real life.” And one of the keys to authentic learning is taking advantage of all of the places and people in a community that can “keep it real” and ensure that students never have to ask that nagging question: “Why do we need to know this?”

San Francisco, our world-class city, has world-class companies, universities, labs, museums, science centers, parks, and many other places where students can learn about “real life.” In the areas of science, mathematics, engineering, and mathematics, the STEM skills that policymakers from the White House to the state house are emphasizing for the future, San Francisco ranks second to none. Already many of these groups have programs serving K-12 students and teachers, such as the California Academy of Sciences, The Exploratorium, the Golden Gate National Parks, San Francisco State, and UCSF. Many companies invite students to visit their workplaces and have employees who mentor and teach.

For instance, unlike many urban communities, we are fortunate to live near a national park. San Francisco middle and high school students have been working in native plant nurseries in the Golden Gate National Parks, propagating plants from seedlings and learning about the fragile biodiversity of the northern California ecosystem. National Park rangers, adult volunteers, and others work with their teachers to integrate the learning that happens inside and outside the classroom.

What have your children and students learned from one of these San Francisco organizations and companies that enrich their school experience? What more could be done to strengthen these experiences and bring them to more students? How could obstacles be overcome? Dream big. This city and these times demand a bigger vision.