It’s a trip to a learning carnival on Wednesday and Thursday for some teachers on campus as the library is transformed into an instructional showcase to provide new classroom techniques.

“Our instructional showcase is to allow teachers to play with new technologies and programs and fun things that they may not have heard of or may not have tried yet to see how they might incorporate them into their classes,” librarian Chelsea Hamilton said. “We’re doing it all through Flipgrid doing a flip hunt so we’re integrating some of the things that we’re trying to show them and we have makers face stations, we have some library stations, we have some educational technology stations, and then we also have just some fun games so they can play bean bag toss or ring toss or make fun antlers, and we’ve got giant jenga so it’s a good place for them to come learn and it’s also a place for them to blow off some steam.”

One of the primary learning goals of the instructional showcase is providing faculty with tips on how to integrate new apps into teaching.

“So far, I’ve learned about an app called Google Keep,” pre-calculus teacher Kortney Smith said. “It’s like sticky notes and it connects to your Google Drive and now I’m trying to create a digital portfolio with Bulb. Those that choose to come will definitely learn some new apps that they’ve never probably heard of that will help them maybe get a little more creative in their classrooms.”

Although the instructional showcase is annual, the activities and learning opportunities vary from year to year.

“This one seems a lot better,” Smith said. “They have more opportunities for growth, a lot more things that we hadn’t seen last year, and it’s self paced so I can come back if I wanted to.”

Teachers will have the opportunity to win prizes, socialize, and eat food with library aides providing assistance.

“Since we already have the books out because of the renovations, all we had to do was move the tables around and we set up new lounge areas and then we created signs and we did all the gifts,” senior Kyra McCracken said. “We were kind of just responsible for getting everything set up and then getting all of the gifts. We made some of the projects like we made different types of games and we brought in stuff for all the teachers so that they could be interactive with each other.”