Hi, I’m Blake.

Welcome to a sample of learning spaces and artifacts
I designed throughout my 11 years at a PK–5 school.

Just before the summer of 2019, I learned I would be the library media specialist at Satilla Marsh Elementary. I immediately grabbed a tape measure and began mapping every inch of the space. I transferred my drawing onto a digital artboard and spent the next six weeks categorizing all 14,000 books into 54 genres.

Picture books in piles across the carpet, each pile topped with a yellow sheet naming its genre: School, Fantasy, Humor, Thinkers and Makers.

Shelf plans drawn in Illustrator, with each genre sized in inches across eight-foot shelving units.

The library

An aisle of completely empty wooden shelves running toward the workroom door.

"What's your vision?" my principal asked. I was ready for the question. I presented her with a binder of research, guides, and other librarians’ experiences to illustrate what a new layout could possibly do for our patrons.

After receiving the green light, my first task was a data-driven weeding process. Getting rid of books is a tough call, but we needed room for more stories that reflected the current lives of our students.

After removing nearly 2,000 titles with an average age of 27 years, most of which had not been touched for over five years, the remaining 14,000 were ready for “genrefication.”

Three main color-coded sections defined the room: books with pictures, books with chapters, and books with information. I measured each shelf to determine how much space every genre needed.

I also considered traffic. Early reader series got their own corner so our youngest students could spread out and take books off the shelves. Graphic novels were front and center, our most popular genre. STEM led the informational section, because that was our principal’s focus. Fantasy went in the back, which was also very popular, so that the remaining genres were sandwiched between high-traffic areas.

Diagram of the shelving colored by section: green for books with information, blue for books with chapters, red for books with pictures.

Cutting printed genre signs at the round table, with Animal Stories, Fantasy, and Humor signs in three colors and a row of empty stand-up frames behind.

My grandmother, in a red gingham shirt, working through a cart of chapter books with the genre list beside her.

Genre stickers being applied to picture books at a round table, with a sticker sheet, book tape, and scissors laid out and a cart of color-coded spines beside it.

Rows of framed genre signs lined up on a table, ready to be placed.

Sticky notes and framed genre signs going up along the shelf tops under the Books With Information banner, with THINK, CREATE, SHARE lettered on the wall.

I rolled out a school-wide series of orientation lessons for each class in the building. I gathered input and made even further changes. Soon, the students wandered less, found things more quickly, and recommended more books to their friends. Checkouts increased 25% and were driven more by voluntary visits as opposed to teacher-required visits.

Teachers began genrefying their own libraries, both independently and with my assistance.

Pointing out the sections to a class gathered under the red Books With Pictures banner.

A still from the library orientation video: a red arrow points to a green-edged shelf of space books with a framed Space sign.

The space did not remain static. As students’ browsing behaviors changed, so did the shelves. As the state of publishing changed, so did our collection.

Computer stations in front of green-edged information shelving, with THINK, CREATE, SHARE, GROW lettered across the wall above.

The rebuilt library: a red Books With Pictures banner and a blue Books With Chapters banner hang over shelving runs topped with framed genre signs, with a wooden DISCOVER arrow on the far wall.

The information section: a green hanging banner, shelves edged in green, and framed genre signs along the shelf tops.

After five years, the library was busting at the seams again, this time with an average age of 17 years, ready for the next librarian to come in and make room for a new generation of learners.

A Black History Month 2022 poster with a striped heart above a shelf of face-out books, with a smaller framed version of the sign on the shelf.

Picture-book biographies displayed face-out along a low shelf, with a framed Black History Month sign among them.

A display of picture books about voting and civil rights along a shelf top, with a framed Black History Month sign.

Holding a picture book up to the camera in the green-walled studio, with a microphone and light stand in frame.

A tall bookcase of books by Latinx and Hispanic authors, with framed National Hispanic Heritage Month signs on two shelves.

A library table covered in featured books laid flat and standing, with New Books and Check Me Out signs.

A student reads an open picture book about Ruby Bridges and fills in a graphic organizer on the desk.

Reading a picture book aloud to a class in a tie-dye shirt, with a map of North America on the board behind and a student’s hand raised.

Flexible Spaces

Students standing and kneeling at three red-edged whiteboard tables, building numbers with blue base-ten blocks and writing equations directly on the tabletops. — Students using base-ten blocks on whiteboard tables I constructed

A rolling six-drawer cart labeled Easy, Medium, and Hard Challenge, each drawer followed by a matching answers drawer.

Before the library, I was a special education teacher. I taught in both resource and co-teach settings. For five years, I shared rooms with over 30 of my colleagues.

Every layout was different. Some teachers taught Read 180, with dedicated zones. Others taught Eureka, which was more whole-group and had students at their desks with manipulatives. Some teachers had leveled libraries. Others sorted by genre. In some rooms, I had access to a Promethean panel, and in others, a large whiteboard sufficed.

A student picks LEGO pieces from a red tray of sorted parts on a whiteboard table, with the robot and its build sheet beside it.

K’NEX pieces in bags and build cards spread across a table around an Engineering Design Process card: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve.

A LEGO robot carrying markers draws overlapping circles on a whiteboard table while students watch and one steers from a tablet.

Students building and coding LEGO robots at the whiteboard tables, with parts trays and a tablet on the surface.

Some of my best teaching was done without screens. Kids love paper, drawing surfaces, whiteboards, and tactile objects, especially if you provide choice, varying levels of difficulty, and personalization.

I tried to personalize nearly everything I could for students, including:

Behavior checksheets
Calmdown areas
Mobile activities
Graphic organizers
Folder covers
Posters and sayings
Fidgets
Seating and workspaces
Math manipulatives
Reading materials
Schedules
Emotional thermometers
Social stories
Timers
Personal bins

The walls

The Illustrator layout in black rectangles: a top row of tall poster frames each with a small card, a long banner with three small cards over two beside it, and wide frames along the bottom.

There was a big empty wall in the school. I measured it to make sure we filled it up as much as we could.

The finished Read Across America wall: student posters in black frames, each with a card naming its designer and the book that inspired it, around a poster-challenge banner with theme cards beside it.

A second run of student posters on the same wall, a lion poster reading Always have an open mind and an open heart at the left.

Poster challenges became a school-wide staple. Students would read a book and design a poster inspired by the book. I taught kids as young as second grade how to use Adobe Express. They beamed when they saw their creations on the wall.