The community of school librarians is a community like no other. The PLN opportunities are endless and consuming information from our PLN is the most valuable part! What do you find yourself consuming from your PLN? Podcasts? Webinars? Wakelets? Or… Read More ›
Did you know that each year, AASL has a research award competition that ABC-CLIO sponsors? The winners typically speak face-to-face at the ALA Annual Conference or the bi-annual AASL national conference. Naturally, COVID-19 disrupted conference plans and some of the… Read More ›
It’s overdue. We need to tell the stories of how valuable school librarians are. School librarian positions in Rhode Island were beginning to dwindle. Increasing numbers of elementary school librarians were covering two and sometimes even three schools every week. … Read More ›
Communicating the great things that we are doing in our school libraries is so important to advocacy. Letting others know about the projects, new books, and countless other activities can be a challenge. When I thought about improving my communication… Read More ›
Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity” is one of the most popular TED Talks to date with over 71 million views. It’s an inspiring video and one that I have regularly included in my courses to… Read More ›
In my last post, an acknowledged two-parter, I promised that I’d be back up on my soapbox again in the near future. Well, the future is now. I have a confession to make: I fangirl Jacqueline Woodson. If you haven’t… Read More ›
A Panacea That’s Not Snake Oil I’ve heard school librarians called the super-heroes of education, since they have so many skills to draw on and serve their entire school populace. School libraries are often called the Swiss army knives of… Read More ›
Recently, I went to a school library in lower Manhattan whose neglected space overwhelmed the new librarian and me. Not only were books piled everywhere–library books, classroom titles, those annoyingly thin paperbacks–but discarded furniture, musical instruments, papers, technology, and an… Read More ›
This summer has been unique for me. Usually, I jump into professional development opportunities or professional reading, but this summer I have needed a minute. Instead, I have focused on reading for pleasure every day. I have just tried to… Read More ›
My research study titled “Enabling School Librarians to Serve as Instructional Leaders of Multiple Literacies” was recently published in School Library Research. This study was an extension of my previous research focused on exploring how school leaders can foster the… Read More ›