Poe Evermore

Last night we got to take a group of  teens on a field trip to see the fabulous and frightening Poe Evermore Show. The show was amazing and the teens had a great time! Read on to find out what famous Edgar Allen Poe stories were told, how the teens reacted, the benefit of doing a program like this and how you could do something similar!

Art Club!

This week we got to experience the talent and expertise of one our own teens! We were directed in how to create amazing cardboard sculptures, and I think this is an Art Club that will definitely be revisited in the future! Read on to see the results!

Dress Day

The GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) got to plan and help implement an amazing event yesterday called Dress Day. This event was based on the idea of teens showing up and just trying on clothes without the idea or restrictions of gender. It was really wonderful to see teens grasp the concept that clothes are just that and embrace trying on different styles. Read on to see pictures from the event!

Food Science! Tea!

Last night we got to explore the science of tea, which was pretty interesting. The teens divided into groups and then tested oolong (which means bird dragon), green tea, and Earl Grey. To find out what the teens discovered and what experiments they did with  tea, read on!

Teen Art Take Over

The teens I work with are super creative, to the point where they put me and my cats (who actually do paint with their paws using watercolors) in absolute awe of their creative efforts. The most recent Art Club idea that one of the teens had was to make sculptures using cardboard. I thought this sounded cool and I wanted to see more. If you want to see more too, read on!

Article on Teen Services

At our most recent Youth Services meeting I got to review some awesome points about working with Teens. My talk was based on this amazing article: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2015/07/30/10-questions-to-ask-about-your-teen-services/. I highly recommend this article to not only Teen Services librarians, but to other librarians who come into contact with teen library users. It has a ton of great information, and really addresses the main concerns and things teens are looking for within a library.

Here are the things I covered at the meeting:

Teen Space (even just being welcoming if you do not have a designated teen space/quiet spaces, some libraries do not because of size constraints.)

Fine leniency (This is case by case and may need to be discussed with a director. Try to keep fines as least detrimental to the teens as possible, teens generally do not have money! This is also a great conversation starter with teens, because you can really find out ways that the teens can pay things off, for example, maybe giving a list of a great manga series the library needs in lieu of money or shelving books. It also encourages the teens to be responsible and start working with money in a less high-pressure environment.)

Get teen input on activities, materials, magazines, books

Outreach Find out where the teens want to go, what areas of the community they want to reach out too, and how to make that happen. Schools are an obvious and good place to start outreach with the teens, but when possible find out where it is they go or want to go.

Positive attitude/Positive language

Cater to teens interests An example of this is polling them for different activities. I do this with our Art Club by giving the teens a picture list of different art activities to choose from. It gets them interested, invested, and makes it more likely they will show up to be part of Art Club! This can apply to lots of other interests and activities, it is so important to just get teens involved in the conversation and provide ways to cater to their interests. 

Talk to them like people ( You do not have to be cool or anything just be you!) If you do not know what lingo a teen is using, do not try to use it too! Instead, use this as a conversation starter by asking them what the word/thing/phrase is that they are talking about. I have done this with the teens, and trust me, it is infinitely better than trying to be cool and talk like they are without really knowing what it means. 

BE GENUINE!!

That is all I really have, I do not think I can put it better than this article, so please read and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Email me to talk more Teen Services: dstates@yorklibraries.org 

Dawn states: What is your best teen tip? 

Swinter!

A party that the teens have a lot of fun with is the Swinter party. It is a summer/winter mashup party and takes place in the summer. Many of the activities featured are typical winter activities, such as make your own hot cocoa, paper snowflakes, snow globes, and finger knitting. This party is a lot of fun to plan, and could be implemented in your own library very easily! Paper snowflakes can be made with little effort, hot cocoa mixes help with the make your own cocoa, and finger knitting is not nearly as hard as it looks!
Check out the photos from the event, the teens had such a good time with winter in summer...or swinter!
Email me for more ideas or a party outline from out Swinter Party! dstates@yorklibraries.org
Dawn states: I like summer better than winter!

Swinter Crew

Laundry basket Relay

Snow Globes

Snow Globes

Ice Melt Challenge

Prizes from Ice Melt Challenge 

Paper Snowflake Making 

Laundry Basket Relay

Art Club: Galaxy jars

Ever wish you could keep a galaxy in a jar? Well now you can,! (or sort of.) For this Art Club, we took tiny jars and filled them with cotton ball fluff, glitter, water and food coloring. The teens got super creative with how they styled their jars, and I think the results are out of this world!
This is basic thing to do and the art part involves the mixing of colors and which colors compliment each other.
Each teen made two jars and they had a stellar time too! It is a really easy activity to pull together, but there are so many wonderful elements that can be tied in besides art, such as science and outer space. Be creative and most importantly, let the teens be creative, it is always otherworldly what they will come up with!
Dawn states; I remember when Pluto was a planet! Leave a comment if you do too!
dstates@yorklibraries.org