With the arrival of the holiday season, I have been taking stock of the many things for which I am thankful. I wanted to share some of these reflections, as I think they have some direct bearing on being a… Read More ›
Blog Topics
Prior Knowledge and Inquiry in Reading
Reading and Knowledge Often students will ask me to read an essay or paper and give them feedback on the content. About five years ago a student came in with an assignment where the teacher had given each student a slogan… Read More ›
Invite Your Legislator to School Day!
“They make all of the decisions, but they have no idea what’s really going on in our schools.” How often have you heard fellow educators make statements like these, in reference to superintendents, school board members, or legislators? I usually… Read More ›
Increase Students Following on Social Media
Do you have a library Twitter account? Maybe an Instagram account too? When we started our library social media accounts, we received followers from other libraries or librarians, but we were not getting student followers. What could we do to… Read More ›
The Time for Advocacy Is Now: Why Telling Your Story Is So Important.
Having been a lifelong reader and library user, I had all sorts of assumptions about school libraries in general. First, I thought that stakeholders would instinctively know the value of an effective school library. Secondly, I had always been under… Read More ›
Libraries Welcome All Families: Community Partnerships to Fund Collection Development for English Learners in Urban Connecticut
By Jillian Woychowski One of the most difficult moments of the month was observing my English learners come to check out books with their classes and not be able to find anything they could read at the high school level…. Read More ›
College Resources in the Library
One of my favorite parts of working in a high school library is helping students figure out what they want to do with their lives–what do they want to be, where do they want to go to college, or, if… Read More ›
Why Clubs Matter
The beginning of the holiday season made me think about caring for others and building trust with students. When I was the librarian in a middle school, one way that I made connections with students was starting clubs. The clubs… Read More ›
This Is How We Help Future School Librarians
Several years ago when my co-librarian switched from working in a law library to working in a public school library, her internship was something like our school district saying, ”We’re desperate. You’re hired.” A few years after that it was… Read More ›
Speed Dating with Nonfiction Books
It’s a never-ending dilemma: how to get overworked high school students to read for pleasure. Too often, teens associate reading with mandatory curriculum books. The Scarlet Letter, A Tale of Two Cities, Things Fall Apart. . . though some teens… Read More ›