I just finished an article y Joellen Killion called Are You Coaching Heavy or Light? I'm having a hard time finding it online, but if you search for it, you can download it.  Again, I'm drawing parallels from a coaching article to school librarianship, but they really aren't outside the realms of possibilities. I'm at the beach right now, so while the author uses the terms light and heavy, I'm thinking shallow and deep. We start out in the shallow end. We learn the terrain, grasp the temperature, better understand the way the water is moving. If we want to get more than our feet wet, however, we have to venture out into deeper waters. I laughed when I saw Ms. Killion used these terms near the end of the article! Possible shallow behaviors: book recommendations lists of websites materials that support read-alouds attending PLCs teaching that supports subject standards These are important as the help build relationships with teachers and students and they are defini...

I’ve been thinking a lot about the place that librarians have in the curriculum continuum in a school, and this has led me to reading books, blogs, and websites of curriculum coaches and a few principals.  Ms. Houser recently posted titled, “ How to clarify instructional coaching roles & responsibilities .” As I was reading it, I thought this could really be beneficial to school librarians too. I’m going to modify the list a bit to fit what we do.  1. Define what school librarians do .  Make a list of what you do daily, weekly, monthly, and even annually. As an elementary librarian, what people see me do is teach, and at times it may look like I’ve got a good bit of spare time. But there are so many things that go on in the background when I’m not teaching.  I loved that she included the question, “Where am I stretched thin?” Those times are on us before we know it, so let’s highlight them and see how we can make those times or tasks less cumbersome. Find a partn...

I am a school librarian! You've heard me say this before. Do I sound like a broken record? I hope so.  This spring, I sent out a survey to members of NC School Library Media Association. One of the questions asked about job title. Most of the job titles listed did not contain the word librarian . oh my! Our jobs have changed, but so have the roles and duties of teachers, counselors, and administrators. We’ve all evolved in our professional roles. Technology has touched and changed every position in schools. But in many cases, the school librarian title has changed so much that the position of school librarian cannot be identified by looking at a list of school jobs. And we wonder why outsiders don’t know what we do. I've sung this song before, but today, I want to add a new verse.  In the past, my concern has been for our identity as school librarians. When people hear the word librarian, they know we deal with books, computers, coteach, lead PD, but with different t...

I stripped the walls in the library of all decor. Don’t get me wrong, they looked good - really good, but I’d had a passport theme up for the last three years and it’s time for a change! I’m keeping the same color coding - Yellow - Fiction Blue - Nonfiction Red - Picture books Why am I doing that now you ask? I don’t know. It’s legit crazy with inventory and DLMI and all the books being returned and county orders coming in, but sometimes you have to do what you want to do and not just what you have to do! I’ll share the progress in a few days. 

One of our stations has various building materials (actually several have different sets of various building materials). But this one currently has K-Nex and Magnet shapes. Here's a third grade creation from yesterday. It's a spinner. If you look carefully in the second pix, you can see the blur of the spin.    

I want to write, but I'm too busy to think. The best I can do right now is construct to-do lists. NOT feeling like a thoughtful practitioner.

Yesterday, I spent the day at East Carolina University at the Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit! This was the first one I've attended (thanks to Sedley Abercrombie). I've looked at it every year for the past six years thinking I should go, but just haven't made the commitment. Thanks to Alan Bailey and his team at ECU for putting on this great event! Pros: Quality sessions led by NC librarians. Food - breakfast, lunch, and snacks (and it was all really good!) Networking - this was actually easier than at larger conferences Cost - $30 covered opening session with John Claude Bemis, three sessions, door prizes and more food than I could eat. Location - we were all over Joyner Library. (I love being at my alma mater!) Cons: Location - don't laugh. It's a long haul on Friday afternoon from Winston Salem to Greenville. Although not as long because Sedley and I travelled together. Traffic is never as bad when you have someone to talk to. So next year, b...