Library Journey

Well, I have been trying to get my head around narrowing down my search. I really get  how students feel when you say ,'choose anything you want within the area of study'. Sounds great but intimidating as heck :) They are used to immediate results to specific questions, and I would like to work with them on this skill, however that is for another time. I am working through it for myself right now, and having some old school techniques am chunking and isolating words and topics. I have been working on developing a learning commons that reflects the population at the school and tries to push the boundaries of what a library can be used for. I have listened to a number of very useful webinars and have attended some conferences, as well as visited libraries. But this is all in the past:) So, I started with evaluation of online resources . This didn't really get me far. Terms like databases , advanced search and ethical were good but not, I realized, where I wanted to go.

Third year of doing start up and it has gone very well. Nothing too complicated (ha ha) just a new email system, new sign in and saving system for students to learn meaning we need to have orientation for every student, which means interrupting teachers classes. But it has gone very well 😅 Did I say that there was a new teacher librarian working with us? It should ease the work load a little especially when our support staff is away. There won't be the guilt about covering lunch etc. as we can share and there will always be someone at the desk. The best part of startup is seeing all the students, new and returning. We made some big changes to the library layout and it's being supported in a very positive way. We have had more books taken out and interest in the reading section.  Plus more students hanging out for lunch. Not bad for the first four days.💫

Do you ever feel like you've been the same thing too long, no matter what you do to grow, change and/or extend your teaching? This was me. I had been working as a high school English teacher in Dawson Creek for 17 years. In our district there is only one high school in my community and so I had no opportunity to change placements. That doesn't mean it isn't a great place to work, but because of the school size there weren't many choices. It didn't mean that I wasn't growing and changing my practice as a teacher, but.... One day 2 years ago I was suddenly on the schedule to be in the library for one period a semester. I hadn't advocated for this so it was a surprise but not an unpleasant one. That year had been a very successful year of teaching, one of those years where everything meshes. I had been doing critical thinking, step-away-from-the-front teaching, designing my own strategies with ideas from the book, 'Socratic Circles' by Matt Copeland.