No Shhing Here

It's almost time for the 2018 winter Olympics and I could not be more excited. I love everything about the event, but I especially groove on the sense of community at a global level. This year I'm trying to find a way to tie together our Makers and the Olympics. Here's what I've got planned: 1) Students using the library's Makerspace will be invited to design Olympic events. I've provided them with four broad categories: spinning, sliding, jumping and throwing. All the events they design must fit into one of those areas. Students are welcome to use any Makerspace supplies (like styrofoam cups, CDs, straws, etc.) and non-consumable PE supplies like tennis balls and four-wheel scooters. They can develop and test their game in the Makerspace. Once students finalize their game, they will submit an "Event Proposal."( Here's a link to the form ). 2) My library advisory committee will test the events and select four or five to include as our ...

Lately, I've been thinking about names. What's the purpose of a name? Does a name really impact how something is viewed or perceived? More specifically, I'm contemplating name changes . When I got married a few years ago, changing my name wasn't a big deal. I know other brides agonize over losing their "identity" when dropping their maiden name, but for me it was a non-issue. In stark contrast, the name change I'm contemplating now seems like a HUGE deal - though I wasn't expecting it to cause quite so much of a stir. Our profession seems to undergo name changes on a pretty regular basis. In the first half of the twentieth century, people who did my job were "librarians." Then, in the 1970s, we became "media specialists," with the clarification of "school library" thrown in to reduce confusion. To be honest, I've always had trouble introducing myself as a "school library media specialist" -- it's a mout...

So, in an earlier post, I lamented a mental block we faced when creating a new mission statement. I'm totally over that now, and four months later, I'm happy to report that we've crafted one that meets our requirements: it must be SHORT and it must in the spirit of a Learning Commons.  Here's our finished product after some additional tweaking and adjustment: Learners engaged in authentic experiences inquire, analyze, and create through shared learning to produce and communicate new knowledge. I have to give credit to Allison Zmuda for excellent guidance in creating this statement. As part of a Learning Commons series of workshops held by our local BOCES School Library System , we got to spend two days with her brainstorming and thinking about the Learning Commons model of school libraries.  Allison challenged us to create a mission statement with the following characteristics: Succinct Memorable Measurable Gives leverage to make substantive change What do...

Usually conferences leave me feeling revitalized and invigorated. Today? Not so much. I left this afternoon appreciating just how much I have left to learn. I might excel in some areas of being a librarian, but in others? Ouch. We’ll save the most painful realizations for another post. Today, I’m just going to focus on why I hate mission statements: They’re always really dense Who the heck bothers to ever read them? They’re a dumping ground for jargon and edu-speak Needless to say, developing a mission statement for my library program was never a high priority. I probably would have continued to avoid it had I not attended today’s session. It took a fair amount of mental arm-twisting, but ultimately we came up with one. It was a team effort – contributors included myself, an elementary librarian, and our district’s technology director. Our goal was two-fold: write the shortest mission statement possible and make it understandable for elementary AND secondary students. Her...