Author Archives
Clinical assistant professor in the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of NC at Greensboro working with school library candidates. Former elementary, middle, and high school librarian in Virginia, Mississippi, and North Carolina.
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Reading Between the Lines
In teaching this summer the final class students take in our program, I invited students to submit draft cover letters they might write to potential employers for critique. Well written, I believe the cover letter is the most important part… Read More ›
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If There Is Time …
If there is time at the end of a lesson, students will complete an exit ticket, one of my licensure candidates wrote in her lesson plan assignment for our class on the school librarian and the curriculum. After weeks of classes… Read More ›
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A Different Take on Advocacy
It has been a challenge, I confess, preparing a class of preservice school librarians for the teacher and instructional partner responsibilities of a school librarian. I have in one class students who are already experienced, accomplished classroom teachers alongside students… Read More ›
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Point of View
As I was working with one of my students this week trying to help her come up with a doable goal project to undertake this final semester of her program, I recognized that, as is typical, she had suggested many… Read More ›
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Deja Vu
Sometimes, I watch my grandchildren with the television news as a backdrop or when adults in another room debate, rebuke, or defend the hateful adult speech, irrational adult behaviors, and nonsensical adult attitudes and actions that have become our current… Read More ›
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Ghost of School Librarians Past
Just like Ebeneezer Scrooge in the Dickens’ classic, our profession is haunted by ghosts of our past, our present, and our future. There is the bespectacled spinster, hair in a bun, wearing sensible shoes with finger to pursed lips –… Read More ›
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Handling It All Well?
Last week during a school visit with one of my student interns, we talked about how her school librarian supervisor spent a goodly amount of her time managing and troubleshooting the school’s abundant technology. It was evident that the school… Read More ›
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Assumptions
Of all the topics that I cover in my school library licensure preparation courses, of all the assignments that I require of my future school librarians, none gives me more pause than assessment or evidence-based practice. Assessment of student learning… Read More ›
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Leading with a Vision
In 2010, AASL President Nancy Everhart (2013) began a Visions Tour highlighting 35 outstanding school libraries across the country in the hopes of positively influencing parents, administrators, policy makers, and the public to the value of school libraries and librarians…. Read More ›
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Starting Off: Where Not to Begin
Last month I tackled a question from one of my newly hired school library students who wanted to know: “Where do I begin?” Since then, as I have continued to mull this over, I realized there is another side to… Read More ›