Categories
Tech

A Little History… And a Lot of Rambling

In my parish, Monday and Tuesday were PD days. The first day was a district PD day and the second day was a school PD day. I am part of the administration team, so to some degree, I usually know the topics before they get delivered. As a librarian media specialist and school technology facilitator, I wear many hats. The past two days, I wore the librarian hat! I’m navigating my way through and trying to be heard.

I go back and forth between how to build a strong library program at my school. I love books and I want students to love them too. I’m always tweaking my master plan to make that happen.

Here’s the history…I work on a campus that houses K-12th grade. I first accepted the librarian position at my school in 2014. I took over a library that was only open to K-3rd grade. I immediately included 4th and 5th grade on my schedule. 4th and 5th graders need to smell and feel books too, right? All was good for a few months, but I wanted more. My library schedule felt forced so I adjusted my schedule and set flex time. This helped because it allowed students the opportunity to return books and check out books as they saw fit. Offering flex time in an elementary library encourages students to take responsibility for their reading. Over the next 2 years, progress was made. I allotted more and more flex time, taught students how to check in and out their own books, built relationships with teachers and students, started the AR program, increased circulation and lost a ton of books.  Still, it wasn’t enough. I was frustrated. Something was missing. My mind kept wandering to the room adjoining the library. THE MEDIA CENTER I wanted it to be mine, so I came up with a plan. The director of the school was a wonderful man and had a niche for “teaching the kids.” He had also hired me for the elementary librarian position and was please with the progress I had made.

I asked and he made it happen. An new elementary librarian was hired and I started from scratch. No books and no one was reading.

This is my 2nd year. It’s coming along. I will keep pushing until everyone is reading. Building relationships with teachers and students help. But I want more! I will not quit until everyone is reading!

How do you measure the success of your library? What incentives/programs do you use to push reading?

Categories
Teach

Books, Books, and Moving Forward in 2019!

I read. I read all the time. But sometimes I spend to much time on social media reading about everyone else’s life. Sometimes this is good (I get great ideas) and sometimes this is bad. I should focus more on my own goals. Moving forward, I’m going to choose better reading material. I’m going to hold myself accountable and set high expectations.

In 2018, I read 24 books. Most of these books were young adult. Some were professional and some were on the middle school level. I am going to do a better job of reading more middle school books. I can do that!

A librarian’s job doesn’t stop at reading. We also need to promote! Here are a few of my favorite go to books from 2018.

I post the book cover of the books I’ve read on the media center door!

Young Adult

Middle School

Professional

How do you let the students know what book you’re reading? What books are on your “go to” list for middle school students? What professional books should I read?

Categories
Teach

Hello World and Headed Back Down the Rabbit Hole!

I couldn’t imagine going to a job that I didn’t want to go to. Instead of complaining about going back to work, I spend Christmas break dreaming of returning to work and implementing all my crazy ideas. I get so excited when students run into the library to say “Hi” and tell me about all the books they read during the break.

Does that really happen? No. (Maybe a few students.)

But I want it to. I know that if I want students to come in to see me, I have to give them a reason. Books aren’t enough. I wish it was. For most of the students, other relationships have to form. There must be trust.

One thing I purchased over the break is a letter board. I’ve been eyeing them for a while now. I picked one up at Wally World after Christmas for 66% off. I couldn’t pass it up. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. But I know, it’ll start conversations. As soon as I unwrapped it, my daughter flocked to it. “What is that? What are you going to use it for? Can I put the words on it?”

Conversations will happen. I’m not sure where they’ll go, but the students will take the lead. And for that, I am happy!