The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age was recommended by me to one of my colleagues during her presentation on developing teacher leadership. Over the past few months, I’ve been gradually working my way through it, trying to soak up as much from it along the way as I could. Here’s my … Read more
Like many school libraries, my district has been gradually shifting from print reference to digital reference. Yet when I first arrived at my library four years ago, we still had several hundred reference books, filling up three large floor shelving units. The majority of these books were out of date. Over the past four years, … Read more
In the four years that I have been at my school, we had never had clubs that met during school. But this year, we started holding clubs every other Monday with the 6th graders. I was so excited when I found out about this opportunity, and I immediately knew what I wanted to start: a … Read more
Everyday, when I come into my library and sit at my desk, I take a look at my vision board. It helps to remind me about what I’m working towards. Some of these dreams may be ridiculously big. Some may never happen in the way that I plan them. But I want to keep reminding … Read more
Taking Baby Steps Towards Starting a Makerspace As you know if you’ve been following my blog and Twitter account, I’m a bit obsessed lately with the concept of Makerspaces in libraries. I’ve been brainstorming and grant writing. I’ve been telling everyone I know about my vision for what I want my school’s library Makerspace to … Read more
(Post inspired by this TED Talk) My crazy, creative childhood shaped who I am I was a pretty creative and quirky kid. My parents tended to give me a lot of free reign. I spent my time as a child creating my own games to play, both by myself and with friends. I would build … Read more
Recently, changes in Pasco County’s media centers have been making the news. Pasco is adjacent to my school district, so naturally I’m interested in what’s going on next door. Last year they eliminated their media specialists, much to the chagrin of their parents and students. Now they’re talking about modernizing their media centers to keep up … Read more
I’ve been hearing so much about the value of Twitter chats for professional development ever since I joined Twitter professionally in August . But I had always been too intimidated and/or busy to try one. I finally decided to take the plunge last week. I started out by reading up on the basics of participating in Twitter … Read more
For the past several years, I’ve wanted to have a media center fundraiser that involved crafts. Students at my school tend to be very kinesthetic, and they are so much more engaged when doing something with their hands. I’ve also been learning a lot lately about Maker concepts, and I wanted to incorporate some … Read more
Just before Thanksgiving break, I attended my state’s media specialists conference, FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education). It was an amazing, enlightening experience. I got to mingle and network with other library professionals, attend some great breakout sessions and workshops, and meet up with some fabulous authors. I look forward to this conference every … Read more