Renovations Coming to the Library

Renovations+Coming+to+the+Library

Yanelis Perez, 21st Century Journalist

Get ready Shawnee Mission South students because there’s going to be some changes. Librarian Debi O’Brien said that the changes in the library should be done by the beginning of the next school year. The coffee bar is still going to be open from 7 a.m to 7:35 a.m. The wall will have outlets for students to charge their computers. Students don’t have to stop at fast food anymore to get coffee. They can now buy it at school and spend time with their friends.

All the furniture from the library will be changed. They are going to flexible sitting. Every chair, table, board etc. will be movable but they haven’t decided how they are going to place the  projectors screens.

“When you think about the library, think of it with everything out,” O’Brien said.

Now that Shawnee Mission schools have computers, a lot of students go to the library for help. The computers come from the school district and when the seniors graduate they turn in their computers to the school. The school will give the computers to the new freshmen for the next year. There is a four-year cycle. When the four-years pass the school trades the computers in and they will get new ones. Students who take summer school can keep the computers until the beginning of school. O’Brien says that the computers help because that’s where the students are getting information.

“Reading in your Mac is the worst thing in the world but computers have become second nature for us,” O’Brien said.

English Language Learner teacher Jonathan Callison says that he can find more information online than he can find in a book. Sometimes the computers can get really slow and it’s frustrating, he says. But he likes teaching with computers. It has its advantages.

“I love the ability to access information but it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work,” Callison said.

Callison also prefers to give the assignments online. He likes the Google classroom because it’s more transparent and organized. The students won’t lose their papers because they have them in their computer.

“Oh! One of the advantages is that I can read it. Some students handwriting is hard to read,” Callison said.

ELL and the Spanish teacher Yanira Reyes says how she thinks about the new changes in the school, including the computers and the renovations, especially about flexible sitting. Reyes says she would like to have flexible seating, such as chairs and couches,  in her classroom.

“I think I would like to have both half and half, sillones los dos,” she says.

Her classroom is like her other home.

“I want to feel comfortable and I would like to have a little kitchen too,” she says.

Reyes would also like an open view in her classroom with a big window, but it can be a little distracting for some students.

And those are some of the school renovations that will done before school starts.