Picture
I've been an official librarian for three months now, and I am loving this job!  Mind you, I end each nine-to-ten-hour workday exhausted physically and mentally, but it's a "good tired".  I still have a backlog of tasks to get done, my desk looks like a snowstorm of papers and forms, and I'm working out the kinks of my routines and balancing the work "on the floor" with clerical obligations.  But I've established a working schedule with lots of mini-lessons, got Newspaper Club and fifth grade lunch bunch book clubs off the ground, and survived my first book fair which netted five-digit sales.  None of this has been accomplished as a solo librarian, however; I could not do this job without my uber-efficient, well-experienced assistant, wonderful IT support,  and the many volunteers who sort and shelve books and managed the chaos of the bookfair with me.  It takes a village to run a library!

 
Picture
After a year-and-a-half of applying, seven interviews for seven different libraries in two districts, and hearing the words "it was between you and one other" a few of those times...I was offered a job in an elementary school library in the same district in which I work.  This accomplishment would not be possible without the fantastic tutelage of my SHSU library science professors, the overwhelming support of my administrators these past three years, and the encouragement--and tolerance--of my family, friends, and colleagues.  

I was offered the job less than a week ago, so I am still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of leaving the classroom and my students.  That is the tough part of being a support teacher; we often see the same students year in and year out, unlike our general education colleagues who get a "fresh start" each school year.  We become family in our support rooms, and those I've had the pleasure--and heartache--of teaching these past three years make it hard to say goodbye.  I also work with an amazing staff of teachers and administrators, who recognize the needs of children from all angles and strive to lift them up as high as we can take them.  To leave them for mostly unknown territory makes my knees quake a bit.  But their support will carry me through, I know; I have learned so much from their examples of professionalism, camaraderie, and compassion that I can only be successful, wherever I am planted.

To the readers of this blog, thank you.  Thank you for being there, thank you for considering me for jobs, thank you for helping me get this new position.  I'm not sure if I'll continue posting on this site, with the active web presence the library already has and will need to be maintained.  As soon as I am established there, I'll post the links in this blog, in case you want to follow my continuing escapades in education...only this time, as a librarian.

 
Picture
(Photo courtesy of Round Rock ISD)

This is my own children's alma mater, Anderson Mill Elementary School, as well as my current place of employment.  I am wrapping up my third year as a special education teacher here at AME.  I do some inclusion support, but the majority of my experience on this campus has been in the resource room, working with scholars in small groups on their individual educational objectives.  I have spent time interning and subbing in the library, covered classes for bathroom breaks (we had a passel of expectant teachers in my wing one year!), and I've sponsored the Chess Club on Mondays during this past school year.  

Today, however, I was fortunate enough to substitute in a fifth grade classroom in the morning, and a first grade classroom in the afternoon, in order to give those teachers some much-needed time to use as they needed.  It was an eye-opening, exhausting, and educational experience!  

Eye-opening:  Seeing how scholars perform in the general ed classroom, and ways in which they are the same as and differ from my caseload.  I am reminded once again that my students' goals should be the same as their peers, even if they are met on timelines as individual as their learning difficulties.  Learning differences abound in the general ed environment, too, and I applaud the teachers who differentiate for classes with dozens of students to accommodate.

Exhausting:  Working with, and monitoring, a dozen or more students at one time keeps a teacher on her toes!  Fifth grade was involved in group activities much of the morning, and the temptation to socialize instead of solve word problems is tough for that age group, especially with eight days of school left.  On the bright side, I've never been told "Yes, ma'am" that often in one class period; it was refreshing!  In first grade, the scholars were so eager to read and write and share their learning, they were practically standing in line to present their work!

Educational:  It was evident that both teachers had routines and class environments that nurtured their scholars and made them feel safe at school.  The fifth graders allowed me to group them for their activities without complaint.  When they needed to switch classrooms for their big final project work, everyone knew where to go and what to do.  The first grade teacher had a lovely windchime that, when brushed against, immediately cued the scholars to clean up their current projects and scurry to the listening carpet.  They pointed out the helper charts in the room, did not hesitate to lead the partner-read chant, and thoroughly enjoyed sharing books with each other.

What a great, heartwarming experience to be had today, right outside my classroom door, in the school that's been part of my life for 14 years now!

 
Picture
...you have to teach it.  I have been reminded of this adage during these past two weeks of hosting an intern in my classroom, who, by the way, is just a smidgen away from being an awesome teacher.  (That smidgen is getting her own classroom and setting up her own routines and space, something that can only be experienced, not taught.)  I knew we had gone over a lot last week (see previous blog post), but it wasn't until she had to complete an assignment listing the responsibilities of a teacher beyond direct teach that I truly realized what she had seen during her short stay in my resource room.  She filled pages with notes on conducting assessments, maintaining the guided reading library, attending meetings of all kinds and at all levels, continuing professional development, after school duties and extracurricular activity sponsorship.  Any questions I had in my mind about why I sometimes felt scattered was answered in that one assignment.  The responsibilities of teachers these days is so much more than delivering lessons and guiding learning; that almost seems to be the tip of the iceberg, given the amount of behind-the-scenes work I and my colleagues are engaged in on a daily basis.  

I'm not sure why I am surprised, however.  During my MLS program, my cohort was asked to compile a similar list of librarian duties.  The responsibilities go far beyond collection maintenance and circulation.  And now that I've been made aware of all I do as a classroom teacher, I'm confident I'm up for the challenge in the library, as well.

Thanks to my wonderful intern for the reminder.  I hope she got just as much out of her time in my classroom as I did!

 
Picture
I wish I had a picture of my classroom door bird bombing last month, but unfortunately it didn't arrive in my inbox from the tablet-camera that took the picture.  The story is still fun:  I put the holiday du jour on my door each day, and on National Bird Drawing Day, Ms. Selby and her students took it upon themselves to draw birds on sticky notes and cover my door with their artwork.  What a fun way to end the day!  I did save the notes and taped them to construction paper for posterity.

Since then, I have been the lucky recipient of a Region XIII education intern in my resource room!  We just wrapped up week one of two, and it's been wonderful having an extra teacher for my students.  She is doing so well, and feels so comfortable teaching, that she's going to take over for an entire day next week.  I'm sharing as many resources with her as I can:  professional and children's book recommendations, websites, social bookmarking, my self-created open-ended reading and writing work for students, anchor charts, etc.  We've reviewed our electronic special education paperwork program, talked about developing PLAAFPs and IEPs, attended an SSI meeting and an ARD (with parent permission, of course), behavior plans and modifications...We've done a lot in one week already!

The picture above is of my coffee table, from last year.  The piles of books have changed titles, but they still remain.  We are a family of readers, and I'm already saving book recommendation emails to spur my summer reading into action.  Four more weeks, and I'll be basking in the sunshine of my backyard with book in hand, enjoying our summer break!

 
Picture
This bulletin board is located outside of my classroom, which also happens to be next to the school cafeteria.  In the past, I've done boards on visual literacy using different posters with questions to spur comprehension.  I really wanted to make it a school-wide reading board, though, so this year I tried something different.

Back in the fall, I distributed pumpkin cut-outs to all of the classroom teachers, with questions about favorite books.  The teachers asked their students to fill them out, and then turned them into my mailbox to be added to the board.  It was such a success, that I followed it up with snowmen for the winter (favorite places to read/ people to read with), hearts for February (books I love), and now kites for the spring (favorite character from a book, and why).  I'm thinking of finishing up the school year with suns, for summer reading recommendations.

As you can see, it's been a big hit with the students!  I don't change the pre-made decorations at all; just the change in fill-in shapes is enough to give it a different look each "season".  And it gives me great insight into what students are reading!  I think this would work great in a library setting as well.



 
Picture
The big news today in my classroom was "We got mail!"  If you've read my blogpost on The Three Ninja Pigs  then you'll know that the author, Corey Schwartz, commented on my post. This led to an email exchange, bookmarks for my students, and her offer to respond to any letters they wrote to her.  What teacher can pass up a real-life writing assignment like that?  So my students went through the writing process, produced their final copy letters, and I took photos of their papers using our document camera in the classroom.  I then emailed Ms. Schwartz the jpegs--easy peasy!

And today, Ms. Schwartz was kind enough to send her replies!  Not just one letter to the class, but a reply to each individual student and our one group letter.  I printed out duplicates so we could keep one of each in class and the students could take their own copy home.  I've distributed half of the letters; the other half will go out later this week, when the students are done with content focus groups.  Ms. Schwartz has asked them some questions of her own; I think we'll be writing more letters soon!

I love this avenue for exhibiting our IB learner profile of "communicator"!

 
Picture
No library experience to report this week (sigh).  I have, however, begun a month-long writing challenge put forth by the women behind the blog Two Writing Teachers called the "Slice of Life Challenge".  By joining the challenge, I have committed to writing on my blog every day during the month of March.  Since the writing can be of a personal nature versus professional, I've chosen to post on my reading blog, More Books Than Time.   Not all of my posts are or will be reading-related this month, but I'm hoping that my followers (all six of them!) will understand and put up with my musings, rants, and raves during this challenge month.

I chose to do the challenge to flex my writing muscles.  As a teacher of reading and writing, I feel it's important to model those actions as well; I want students to "do as I do", not just "as I say".  I won't be sharing every single post with them, but I will share my struggles to write thirty-one cohesive, interesting pieces.  And when I'm not successful, I'll share that, too; students need to know that failing does not have to lead to shutting down, and failed attempts at writing do not mean failure as a writer, or worse yet, failure as a person.  We celebrate the attempt, and strive to improve!

 
Picture
Immediate disclaimer:  the picture to the right is NOT of me!  But it makes for a good illustration of how my week has been.  We are wrapping up a full week of practice STAAR testing (the state standardized assessment for those of you who are not in Texas).  I could write a post about my opinions on the preponderence of testing in our schools...but I'll save that for my elected officials.  What I'd like to write about today is the flexibility that is required of teachers--and librarians--these days.

I was supposed to be in the library yesterday morning, covering for the librarian again, but due to the number of students requiring small group and individual administration of tests, I was needed to test.  At the librarian's request, I was able to open up the library and get all the computers booted up before the assistant arrived for her morning shift, so I did get to help in a small way.  The rest of my day, as much of my week, was spent in test administration.

I may have mentioned that prior to working on my current campus, my previous teaching experience was post-college, 1987-1993.  I was out of the classroom for seventeen years, working as a tutor, neonatal ICU assistant and clerk, and ARD facilitator.  I felt just like that newly-graduated teacher again, returning to the classroom after almost two decades.  What I quickly learned is that a teacher's day/ week is much different than what I experienced back then.  Years ago, I would have entire weeks of solid routine days; my classes were used to certain work being done on certain days.  Nowadays, students are pulled for collaborative days, speakers, district assessments, state assessments, and special projects.  We have focus days in which they work on math or writing all day in small group rotations.  Even on our "regular" days, students and teachers need to remember which specials the students attend (we are very lucky to have music, art, p.e., and Spanish!).  Teachers--including myself--are also pulled to attend professional development workshops and attend committee meetings and job-alikes.  Add in the usual student and teacher absences, and it makes for quite a bit of disruption to the "routine"--if that even exists anymore! 

What this means is that I have had to learn to be VERY flexible, especially in my role as a pull-out resource teacher.  I rely heavily on our shared online campus calendar and principal's weekly newsletters to plan on interruptions to my schedule.  I've also learned to "let go" of that which I have no control over (at least most of the time!).  Most weeks, I look over the grade level teams' lesson plans (also through our share drive) to see how I can connect the learning in general ed to what we're doing in resource.  At times, it feels like I am in reactive mode more than proactive... but that's okay, too.  I have learned to think of it as prescriptive, not reactive, much in the way a doctor prescribes a "cure" for what ails you.  We can't always predict exactly what a student won't understand, what support is needed for that special activity--and so I have to be flexible enough to provide services at point of need.

I have seen this flexibility at work in the library during my internship.  The librarians were dealing with "surprises" on a daily basis, with facility, tech, and equipment requests, incoming shipments, and specific teacher and student needs.  I don't think I had a repeat-routine days while I interned at the elementary and high school libraries.  This may be a test of flexibility; it also keeps the job fresh and interesting.  I am glad that I returned to the classroom while working on my MLS degree, because this experience will surely add to my effectiveness as a librarian.

    


 
Picture
Another morning spent in the stacks of Anderson Mill Elementary School!  This time, I was on my feet almost the entire morning.  There were loads of books to check in and shelve, students to help, an online resource lesson to teach, and another read-aloud.  With computer practice and checkout going on at the same time, it was great to have the assistant there to help monitor the students.  I was really impressed with the class who heard the read-aloud; they were making connections and asking very insightful questions for second graders listening to a creative nonfiction book.  During the quieter moments of shelving books, the assistant (a degreed librarian herself) and I enjoyed booktalking about our latest reads and to-read lists.

I spent a lot of time in this library last spring, fulfilling the required 130 hours of internship for my MLS degree.  The librarians here and at the Westwood High School library were generous in sharing their time and talents.  Two vastly different settings, collections, and patron populations gave me insight into the full spectrum of the school librarianship experience.  I have professional experience at the secondary level due to my eleven years as ARD facilitator at our district's DAEP and my teaching experience has primarily been at the elementary level, so I've spanned the PreK-12 grades with my "paying gigs" as well.  I have found that good service in the educational setting doesn't differ from one grade level to the next.  Connecting with staff and students is the top priority across the board; otherwise, why bother to come to work?  I love helping students and teachers find the resources they want and need.  This is the same whether I'm teaching, at a desk job, or behind the circulation desk.  Connections make my work relevant, increase my personal learning network and broaden the scope of resources I can provide for others.  Connections, drawing on the expertise of colleagues and students, and sharing all that knowledge is what 21st Century Learning is really all about.  And that makes me smile!