Because of you…

It’s those unexpected, spontaneous moments that tend to happen right when you need them.  After a busy week at the OLA Superconference and some stressful moments in my personal life, I was excited to return to school and do my “regular” job.  Reconnecting with the kids and my colleagues was a welcome sense of the familiar.

A simple chat at the circulation computers brought me a magical moment that I didn’t know I needed.

I noticed that one of the middle school aged students who I had worked with quite often over the years in my role as support teacher and teacher librarian was signing out a book from one of my favourite series.

https://lornaschultznicholson.com/one-2-one-series/

As we chatted further about the books and why we both loved them, I noticed he was trying to decide between a pile of novels.  I suggested he take them all home and spend some time perusing them and just decide which ones he might want to bring back another day.

He was very happy with that plan and I told him how thrilled I was to see him so excited about books.

He looked at my me and responded simply “Well, it’s because of you.”

I thanked him but he went on…

“You are the reason I am so passionate about reading. Before you I thought reading was just something extra we had to do. I figured I could just watch movies and TV and that was as good. But you showed me that you get so much more from reading a book.”

Now… I instantly teared up (something I am known to do easily throughout my school community) and told him he was making me cry. He replied “I know. You cry a lot. But it’s true. You made me love books.”

This moment lifted me and reminded me that the impact of the library learning commons is not always measurable in test scores and budget lines but, in the hearts and minds of the students we serve.

It’s inspired me to start sharing a “Because of you…” blog series to highlight the people who have inspired, supported and connected with me on my educational journey thus far.

Stay tuned for those posts in the future but, know that you too are impacting your students each day and you never know when they might just share a moment of success that they feel is all BECAUSE OF YOU!

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