In case you haven’t noticed, school librarians are going through a lot right now in the United States. It seems like something new every day is under attack: our impact on student learning, our budget for providing print and electronic… Read More ›
pandemic
New Books, New Beginnings
It was too quiet in my library last year. Silence…crickets. There were no laughing kids, no one creating something in our makerspace, no one playing games and talking with their friends, and no one checking out books! Because of COVID… Read More ›
How Teamwork and the AASL Standards Positioned Calvert County Public School Libraries for the NSLY Award
Three years ago, the idea of applying for the National School Library of the Year Award through AASL seemed distant. The school librarians at Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) in Prince Frederick, Maryland, were doing great things in the district…. Read More ›
Explore How to Reach for Better in the Sept/Oct Issue
As educators, school librarians, and professionals we have all had the training necessary to properly do our jobs. Training for classroom management. Training for library best practices. Training on new and emerging technologies. Those professional development and learning opportunities came… Read More ›
Meeting Our Students’ Reading Needs in the Midst of a Pandemic
There is nothing more satisfying than reaching my goal for how many books I can read in a summer. In fact, I pride myself on how many books I can get through in a summer, setting the goal realistically but… Read More ›
7 Library Changes I Hope Remain Post Pandemic
Not Our First Pandemic Working at a school that has been around for 150 years means that this is not our first pandemic. Our school historian and our archivist are closely reading the documents from the 1918 influenza outbreak. We… Read More ›
Get Ready to Make It New: Embracing Change in 2021
Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands… Read More ›
The School Library during a Pandemic
I never could have dreamed that Friday, March 13, 2020, would be the end of “normal” for quite a while. As the school librarian I brainstormed ways to assist students and teachers in my middle school. How can I keep… Read More ›
Not the Disaster We Were Preparing For
We prepare for fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, but not a pandemic. There are so many disasters for which we prepare. Our school has drills for tornadoes, earthquakes, and fires. We even have emergency plans for chemical spills at the nearby railroad…. Read More ›