Episode 5: Escape Rooms Are Curriculum with Maegen Cockrell

What if the reason your big library event flopped had nothing to do with the event and everything to do with the timing of the ask?

In this episode of The Library Stage, Amanda Hunt welcomes Maegen Cockrell, high school librarian at Killeen High School and district lead librarian for high schools in Killeen ISD, now in her fourteenth year in education and sixth as a librarian. Maegen shares the two-year arc that changed how she builds library programming: a fully decorated Christmas escape room that drew exactly one group, followed by a benchmark-review escape room built at a teacher's request that pulled in nearly every student in the room. Her takeaway is one every librarian can use tomorrow: when the escape room is the review day, buy-in stops being something you beg for.

⚡️ Note: a storm knocked out power mid-recording, so this episode runs shorter than our usual 18 minutes. The format's not changing — the weather just had opinions.

Pillar: 🩵 Discovery

🎁 Steal these: Maegen is sharing two complete escape rooms, instructions included.

• 🔓 High school benchmark review escape room — rhyme scheme, figurative language, satire, irony, Morse code, and a custom library map
• 🔓 Third grade scaffolded version — author's purpose, figurative language, story elements, and an alphabet cipher

Plus, stick around for her Curtain Call featuring:

• 📖 Maegen's book recommendations — If We Never End by Laura Taylor Namey, Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson, and Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson (out August 4)

Follow Maegen: 📱 TikTok: @megmercedes | Instagram: @ms.c_histteach

Think your library story belongs on the stage? Pitch your talk: thenextgenlib@gmail.com

Hosted by Amanda Hunt, MLS (@TheNextGenLibrarian) 🌐 thenextgenlibrarian.com

#TheLibraryStage #SchoolLibrarians #TaketheStage #EscapeRoom #BreakoutEDU #LibraryProgramming #SecondaryLibrary #ElementaryLibrary #TeacherCollaboration #DiscoveryTalk