My principal wants me to level our school library. What's the best way to do this? I see this question way more often than I should. I want to share my views on why leveling isn't the answer to any academic woe. Before I start, I do understand the reasons to level a library. I just don't think they are any good. I understand how intense pressure from administrators can be for increased test scores and programs (like AR) in which they've invested a boatload of money. With that said, the rest is my thoughtful opinion on the why it's not a good idea to level any library. The number one argument I hear in support of leveled libraries (classroom and the main one) is that children become better readers when they read in a range close to their current reading levels. Why do we even have levels? For years, we had readers (at grade level) and trade books. While it's true they were simpler for younger grades and more complex for older ones, they were not leveled. Levels w

I went to NCTIES last week. Every workshop I went to was fantastic! And I could talk for hours about those workshops, but I've started looking at conferences in a new light. That's probably for a couple of reasons. 1) I've gone to so many this year. This alone is incredible. The more you go to, the more you learn how to conference. And 2) I'm planning the conference for NCSLMA for October of 2018. (Just in case you hadn't heard!) So I'm looking at the things I like, and then thinking about the how in making those my own. This year, I'd really (really, really) like to go paperless at conference. NCSLMA is 100% volunteer. When new leadership comes in, we have to decide what to do with old stuff. So I've been thinking more and more about that stuff. We've got it down to amazingly small pile for the number of members, but still, there is stuff. One of the things I wanted to tame this year was the collecting of CEU papers,  along with it's evil twin -