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 […]
Category: Library Learning Commons
When things don’t feel so magical…
The theme of my blog began as a way to capture those magical moments of being in education each day. The lack of posts over the last year doesn’t mean I am not having those moments each day in my role as teacher librarian in a busy K to 8 school. Those moments are plentiful […]
Expanding My Professional Learning Network
It’s been a very long while since I have posted here. And with that comes a strange feeling of guilt and hesitancy to even begin writing. (I also noticed going back through previous posts I open with this apologetic tone often.) But as I was debating whether or not to even begin a post something […]
There Are Bigger Hills Worth Dying On in 2017
I want to warn you – I am not coping well. I am not coping with the hatred, bigotry and lack of humanity I can’t stop watching and reading about on social media, 24 hour news cycles and newspapers. I am teary and angry and unable to stay silent. Truthfully, I am also at a […]
Why Language Matters to the Conscious Mind
Someone once told me that they stopped following my Twitter account because it was so “ADHD” – meaning I am too into everything. (I could unpack how offensive it was to use a term for mental illness as an adjective but let’s assume we can all agree on that one for now.) This critic could […]
Finding Community in Making
Recent events throughout the world and my own social justice journey/learning have brought me to tears repeatedly over the past couple of weeks. I rarely lose my optimistic demeanour but, I wonder frequently how to face the challenges and horrific truths that impact our society right now. Without adding a layer of frivolity to the very […]
A different kind of reading challenge
Summer is an amazing time as a teacher. The challenges of our job are offset by the gift of summers off. As a two teacher household, our family appreciates this time tremendously and we are not naive to the privilege of this time together that most professions do not offer. As a teacher librarian, the […]
Moving Beyond Literature Circles
When I first moved up to teach middle school many years ago the conversation shifted from the importance of guided reading instruction to the value of literature circles. These kid-friendly versions of book clubs were all the rage and teacher guides began popping up everywhere. Moving beyond the standard novel study (the whole class reading […]
A Few Magical Days
A few weeks ago I posted about our school’s plan to inspire a “maker” culture with our staff and students. The addition of makerspaces to public libraries and school library learning commons is spreading rapidly throughout the library community. Yet I struggled with excitement and doubt. My excitement seemed obvious – the chance to […]
Rethinking the “Maker” in Makerspace
Recently, I wrote about the very early stages of adding the makerspace movement to our new school and library learning commons space. Our next step was to meet with interested staff and have a collaborative discussion about the whole concept. Luckily, some wonderful colleagues came out and we had an enthusiastic and reflective conversation. We […]