Productive Struggle

For the last week and a half, my colleague Josh Allen and I have been taking Breakout EDU to the classrooms of our 2nd-5th grade building. It's been an illuminating experience for all of us.

As we've watched students work through the game, one of the most common comments I've heard from the teachers has been, "How can you just sit back and watch?"

Let me just tell you. Sometimes it's hard. Very hard. It's hard to watch as students don't use the resources given to them. It's hard to watch as students skim past clues. It's hard to listen to students who aren't listening to their group members. It's hard to see students who are so close to getting something but are missing a small detail. 

It's hard to watch students struggle.

We as teachers want so badly to see our students succeed. But sometimes we forget that in order to succeed, sometimes we have to struggle. 

The opportunities that Breakout EDU offers are what I'd call productive struggle. 

Breakout EDU, no matter what game, teaches our students to be critical-thinkers and problem-solvers. They must determine what is and what is not important information. They must decide how to use the information they've been given. It teaches them to be good team members. In order to succeed, Breakout EDU requires team work. It requires students to take turns. It requires them to share their ideas and explain their thinking. It requires them to listen to each other. And Breakout EDU teaches our students to persevere. It requires them to shift their thinking when something doesn't work. It requires them to work past frustration and to build off the ideas of others.

Now, of course, we're not completely heartless. We intervene and redirect groups that are becoming toxic and derailing themselves. We don't want the struggle to become debilitating.

One of the most important things that we do at the end of every game is to reflect. Even if groups fail to breakout in the allotted time, we take the time to celebrate and recognize the things they did well. And we always take the time to ask them what they learned about the experience and how they'd use what they learned for next time. Almost always someone brings up the ideas of reading more carefully, of noticing, of listening, of working together, of trying different things.

And we always talk to our students about how all of the things they've learned are things that can be applied outside of Breakout EDU . . . in the classroom, during math or reading, at recess, at home. 

Because in the outside world, the struggle is very real.

Using Padlet to Support Personal Professional Development

I love learning.

I love sharing.

I love sharing what I'm learning.

The more learning and sharing (and brainstorming and innovating and growing) I can do, the better!

I'm constantly looking to improve. I'm never satisfied with the status quo. I use social media such as Twitter and Voxer to challenge myself, to learn and to improve my professional practices. But for me, there's still nothing quite like actually attending an educational conference. It's the environment. It's the social interactions. It's being face-to-face with other passionate educators who want nothing more than to improve themselves in order to improve the educational experience for their students.

As a Teacher Librarian, I attend conferences not only to further develop my own practices, but I am always on the lookout for resources and ideas that I can share and support with my students and staff to enhance their educational experiences. I attend conferences as much for them as I do for me.

So there's always the burning question: How can I share my experiences with those who weren't there with me?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with this. Sometimes this sharing can be a difficult. Sometimes the learning centers around new practice or tool introduced in a session. Those are easy to attribute and share. But so many times, what I take away from conferences can be more about mindset, inspiration, connections, and/or new opportunities for my students, my staff and for my library. The learning I take away from a conference may not always be obvious and easily traceable. There are so many amazing ideas shared by amazing educators. The learning I'm doing is much more subtle.

All that being said, I realized that I wanted and needed to be much more intentional and transparent about sharing my learning with my administrators, colleagues, and even my students.

To this end, I decided to utilize one of my favorite new obsessions, Padlet. While attending two fantastic conferences in the last month: ITEC (Iowa Technology Education Connection) in Des Moines and NSLA (Nebraska School Library Association) in Omaha, I created the Padlets featured below as a way to share my learning with my administrators and colleagues. I not only shared these Padlets with my administrator and specific teachers via e-mail, I also shared the links and discussed my learning during recent leadership team meetings at my building. And because sharing is caring, I've shared these Padlets with several members of my PLN. Now I'm sharing them with you!

I'm obsessed with using Padlet with my students as a way to capture and share their ideas, but this was the first time I'd used it to capture my own. I love how visual Padlet is. I love that you can add text, pictures, links, videos, etc. I love the it succinctly and efficiently organizes my learning in a way that's easy to capture and share. And I loved that it allowed me to share with my colleagues and administration in a way that will allow them to engage with my learning too.

And as an added bonus, utilizing Padlet has allowed me to continue to reflect on my learning in a more meaningful way.

This Ain't Your Grandma's Library

Maybe you're a veteran librarian. Maybe you're a new librarian. Maybe you're not even a librarian. Maybe you just like to visit your school's library from time to time, either to find a book or to cut through to your ultimate destination.

No matter what your connection is to your school library, when you cross the threshold, I'm hoping you feel it. Can you feel it? 'Cause you should. Can you?

Feel what precisely, you ask?

The energy.

The potential.

Times. They are a changin'. And they are exciting!

Today's libraries are no longer a quiet place dedicated to housing books. They are dynamic places dedicated to the exchange of ideas, the sharing of passions, the uniting and collaborating of learners. They are often noisy. They are often messy. They are no longer about just books. 

They are definitely not your grandma's library.

Our school libraries and our role as the teacher librarians who work from them have evolved rapidly in the last several years. The changes occurring within our spaces require a mind shift for all parties involved: administrators, staff, students, and sometimes even fellow librarians.

When Cynthia Stogdill and I decided to join forces to begin our Twitter chat #mwlibchat, we did so with the intent of not only bringing together fellow Midwestern Teacher Librarians, but also with the intent of celebrating, promoting, and advocating for the changes that are happening (or should be happening) in our school libraries. 

I'm so excited that we are officially launching this adventure this evening (August 11, 2015). Together we can do amazing things.

So I invite you to join in the conversation. Let you library's voice be heard loud and clear. Help extend the impact of your program well beyond the walls of your library. Let us learn from and support each other. After all, 

#mwlibchat official promotional graphic for the 2015-2016 school year created using Canva

Telling My Library's Story

A picture is worth a thousand words.

There is a need right now for librarians to tell their story, or rather to attempt to show others the amazing things that are happening in school libraries across the nation.

And this year has been absolutely amazing. I sound like a broken record, but I am so blessed to work in a school district that understands that the library is more than just a place to house books and that the impact of the library reaches well beyond the physical space itself.

There were so intangible things that we did in the library this year, but I did my best to document some of the major events and to celebrate the wonderful things happening in my library this year. Here is my attempt to tell our story:

Reading Resolutions

Anyone who thinks that librarians just sit around and read books all day has clearly not stepped into a modern library lately. Those who think there's even such a thing as down time in the world of a librarian make me burst into a fit of maniacal laughter. Silly people.

In my former life as a reading teacher, I often found time in my day to sit and read with my students. After all, isn't modeling a behavior one of the most effective ways to demonstrate it's importance? In order to recommend books, I needed to be in the know. I needed to read what they were reading. And it justified my love for YA lit (as though it need any justification in the first place). It would be no big deal for me to crank out a few YA books a week, sometimes (okay, quite often) more.

Little did I know my position as a Teacher Librarian would severely cramp my reading style.

I am now the Librarian who doesn't read.

Okay, okay, I read, but nothing like I did before. My "To Read" list and the subsequent pile it has created on my nightstand (and the floor next to my bed and under the bed and on the coffee table and the kitchen table) has become a bit of a hazard and a had prompted me to take a stand. It's not okay. Something must be done.

So, as we start this new year, I'm having my students write their own Reading Resolutions and take on a Reading Challenge (Reading Resolution and Reading Challenge). I am a firm believer in doing everything I ask my students to do before I ask them to do it, so here are my resolutions and my commitment to them (and myself):

1. Read one professional article a week and one (whole) professional journal a month

I'm an avid Tweeter and definitely get my fair share of professional development via my beloved PLN I've cultivated there. However, I'm horribly guilty of seeing a Tweet about a great article, saving the links of these great articles I want to read . . . and then not quite getting back to them.

I also have quite a collection of library journals (School Library Journal, American Libraries, Knowledge Quest to name a few) just begging to be devoured. Sure I've thumbed through them, perused an article here or there, but there's such a wealth of information and inspiration to absorb, I'm missing some good stuff.

I owe it to myself and to my students to constantly grow as a professional (and as a person). I used to read articles and journals constantly. It's a practice that I sorely miss, and I'm publicly recommitting myself to it!

2. Read more Children's Lit

This is the challenge part of my Reading Resolution. I taught 7th grade Reading for 13 years and proudly proclaim my adoration of YA Lit. However, my role has changed. I now serve roughly 950 readers in 2nd through 5th grade. I have discovered that I've got a major deficit with Children's Lit (for the purposes of clarity, I'm referring specifically to those early chapter books) which is a disservice to my 2nd and 3rd graders. I intend to remedy this one very quickly.

Having my own children (ages 6 and 9), having been a Golden Sower reader for the Primary Grades while teaching in Nebraska, and the Children's Literature classes I took while getting my Reading Master's and Library Science degrees, have given me some familiarity with Children's Lit. However, I need to be in the know about all the new good stuff that's out there! Luckily, thanks to my solid Twitter and librarian PLNs, my monthly deliveries from Junior Library Guild, my own children, and all those library journals I've amassed, I'm fairly certain I can choose some quality reads to start with.

My plan is for every YA book I read, I will read two Children's Lit books (they do tend to be a little shorter and quicker reads). I'll feel okay if I can read 4 Children's Lit books a month to start. Not ideal, but it's a start.

3. Increase my literacy promotion

As a librarian, one of more important roles is to build a culture of readers. As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I feel like I've done a fairly good job of increasing literacy promotion at my school, but there's so much more that could be done.

The biggest thing I want to accomplish is to create a group of student reviewers. I have a library website that I maintain (not always well) and had originally intended to post recommendations weekly for picture books, early chapter books, and more advanced chapter books. I admit this endeavor has been an epic fail. So I want to turn over the power to a group of students I've been slowly nurturing during these last few months. The plans are in place, so be on the lookout for the student reviews to begin to appearing by the end of the month on the Titan Hill Library page.

I've also got some great book displays, Tweets, and some literacy celebrations still up my sleeve!

Are those the only reading goals I have for 2015? Absolutely not, but in trying to find balance with every aspect of my life, I figured these were the most important for me at this very moment.

So there you have them. My Reading Resolutions for 2015.

So the question is:

Best of intentions

You know when you start a new project and you have this perfect vision of everything you're going to accomplish and all that you're going to do, but then reality sets in and you realize that you had the best of intentions, but you've kinda dropped the ball on some things?

Welcome to my reality . . .

I had the best of intentions in starting this blog. I really did. My intent was to chronicle my experiences as a first year Teacher Librarian. To document the ups and downs, the triumphs and tribulations. To share my progress with my fellow librarians who were embarking on a similar journey to define (or redefine) what it means to be a librarian and what a librarian's role should be in schools.

And then reality set in . . .

If you've read my previous post about striking balance, I'm admitting epic failure with this blog. But I've got a very good reason.

I've been given the most amazing opportunity to create my dream job. I shouldn't, but I feel almost guilty when I tell people this, especially other librarians. I mean how many people get to say that they were given the go-ahead to fulfill their vision? I am so blessed to have had this opportunity fall into my lap.  I am blessed to have an administration who got "it," who were visionary enough to understand that our school's library could be so much more than a room to house books and that the librarian could do so much more to support literacy and technology if given the opportunity to extend beyond the walls of the library. I'm so blessed that they saw the potential of rearranging the specials schedule to allow for collaboration and support of the classroom curriculum. I'm blessed that they truly value literacy and want students to have access to an abundance of literature and technology. And I'm blessed that they've entrusted me to make it all happen.

And my students and staff! How do I even begin to talk about how amazing they have been, especially the staff? Without them, my dream job would have faltered and failed. My staff has welcomed me into their classrooms and their lives with open arms, constantly giving me opportunities to prove my worth and to help support student learning. We've been working hard to develop lessons that integrate technology and allow students the opportunity to practice their literacy skills and see the value of reading (okay, I fully admit that last statement sounds like some sort of idealized mission statement, but I totally promise that it's true).

So, basically, I'm saying that I've been a little busy. And I dropped the ball.

And with that having been said, I want to recommit to myself (and to you) that I will reflect and document my journey with more regularity. I'd love to commit myself to something as ambitious as once a week, but the reality is . . . that may not happen. But you're busy too, so you'll understand! But just know, I truly do have the best of intentions!