Andie Townhouse 

LIS 773-01 
Dr. Erin Wyatt 
November 29th, 2019 
 
Introduction: 
Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School is a private Jewish day school in the heart of the 
Lakeview Neighborhood. We serve students N-8th grade, 550 students. We are a bilingual 
school, whereby students spend two hours of their day learning Hebrew. Since we are a 
private institution, we are not listed in Illinois Report Card database.  
 
Reflection: 
 
Our main focus of the interview was on teaching and learning. Since the majority of my day 
involves clerical and cataloging duties, I felt Rena was the perfect subject to reflect on 
teaching and learning, as well as collaboration culture amongst teachers, which she felt was 
missing. Upon asking Rena about her greatest professional challenge, she told me that “lately, 
it’s felt like the library’s become increasingly marginalized. We’re not held to the same 
esteem; people think the writing’s on the wall with this industry. Libraries are disappearing. 
We’re not getting the same foot traffic. I fear that they are going to make our library smaller 
in the future.” Pushing further, I asked Rena about her work with teachers, and how she feels 
the library ingratiates themselves with teaching, divisions, curriculum, and lesson planning, 
and she told me that “as a librarian, we are always looking for kindred spirits. Over the years, 
I’m finding less and less of those..” When I pressed on this question, I wanted to know why she 
feels this way, given that I’ve seen amazing collaboration with the third grade team, namely 
with field trips to Devon Avenue to explore the country of India, fabrics, spices, and small 
businesses, and she confirmed that while this was true, it was only because “the third grade 
team sees the librarian as a member of the team, as essential, as somebody who’s a true 
collaborator, and as a superlative.” This statement struck me as both eye-opening and sad 
because I see in my colleague someone who has amazing ideas, but when there are colleagues 
who are not as willing to see the good in them, it creates a multi-car pile up of emotions, 
everything from isolation to distrust, so I knew then that I wanted to focus my design thinking 
around this issue.  
 
Lastly, when I asked Rena about where she feels she spends most of her time, she frankly 
said, “Reading. Being disciplined in the reading of children’s books is where you should spend 
your energy. The big piece for you, in the future, is you need to read things other than graphic 
novels (I am addicted to them, as most people can attest).   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Design Thinking Solution: 
 
Since we would like to improve the collaboration culture here, service learning was the first 
step in designing curriculum that could include many collaborative partners. After the 
interview was over, we received ​Muse m ​ onthly subscription, and “Makers” were the topic of the 
entire magazine! I then read an article about a very special person named Will Jamison whose 
makerbox is located right underneath the El tracks, and who works out of a recycled shipping 
container (​http://voyagechicago.com/interview/meet-william-jamison/​). I had no idea he was a 
“local person,” so I decided to dig around for his contact information. Along with Rena, we 
then made photocopies of the magazine article for middle school art and classroom teachers, 
as well as their division head. Will wrote me back! Together, the three of us set up a phone 
conversation, with plans to move ahead and tour the space to see how we could integrate 
curriculum into such a neat concept, narrowing it down to 5th and 6th graders who also do 
community gardening and food insecurity.  
 
 
Objective: 
To collaborate with teachers we normally don’t work with on a creative endeavor, and to find 
curriculum takeaways relegated to urban planning, outreach, and diversity for middle school 
students, including a consumable that can be taken with them for future use with a belief or 
saying important to them (via a t-shirt or tote bag).  
 
Connection to the Future-Ready Framework: 
● Building instructional partners  
○ Boxville Project Lead, Bernard Lloyd 
■ https://www.boxville.org/new-page-2 
● Cultivating community partnerships  
○ “Thinking outside the box,” looking at the notion of before you can repair, you 
must re-engage the community  
● Empowers students as creators 
○ Making and tinkering with Will Jamison   
 
Timeframe: 
 
“Be Innovative” grant due by March 1st, 2020 to bring Will Jamison to our school as an “artist 
in-residence for Fall of 2020. $3500 package to include 3 making sessions with middle school 
students, an all-school assembly, and materials and supplies. 
 
 
 
 
 
Obstacles: 
 
If the grant is not funded, then we could conceivably take kids on the Green Line to 51st 
street, instead of paying for a bus. This would cut costs significantly. We could potentially 
use funds from MS art and the library budget to cover around $2,000.  
 
 
Evaluation: 
We are still in the planning stages, but here are some photographs I took before 
Thanksgiving Break. We have our next debriefing meeting on Monday, and have sent 
thank-you cards to Will and his team for welcoming us into the space.  
 
Here were our takeaways: