It's American Education Week!

Facebook has this really neat feature that lets you "see" your memories from previous years.  This is what popped up for me today and I think it bears repeating.

Sandy Fletcher Bixby

November 17, 2013 · 

Tomorrow begins the start of American Education Week. Please don't tell your children you are coming and then not show up. It crushes their little hearts and makes for very uncomfortable/awkward moments as the teacher helps them work through their disappointment while others (including other parents) look on. Better to say you aren't coming and surprise them.

Please take a few minutes to look around and see all the wonderful things being accomplished in your child's classroom. But don't compare your child to another. Life is not a competition and we all have unique strengths and weaknesses.

Speaking of looking around, see how much your child's teacher goes above and beyond. Those bulletin boards, book displays, locker and desk tags don't just magically appear by little school elves. smile emoticon

Please remember this is not about you and your friends. Put away the cell. Don't talk to your neighbor. In short, if you wouldn't want your child to do it while learning is happening, you shouldn't be doing it either.

Remember, this is a day in a life. One tiny glimpse into life in a classroom. You wouldn't want to be judged for your job on just a short moment. Be fair in judging the teacher. They like to hear positive feedback too!

And above all, remember to smile. Your little angel is sneaking peeks at you (even if they were told not to) and they want to make you proud!

I hope your classrooms and libraries are full of families that see YOUR worth and the importance of what YOU do each and every day when no one else is watching or seems to care about your little corner of the school.  Because YOU make a difference.  YOU are growing a reader, a critical thinker, a synthesizer of knowledge and a citizen of the world...and that's a REALLY BIG DEAL!

Love for the Little People

On the 28th I wrote a long post about feeling like one of the rotting pumpkins in the library.  You never saw it (thankfully) but it was cathartic and it made me shift my thinking.

Last Friday, our district had a 1/2 day professional development day so teachers could work on report cards.  I always use that time to accomplish tasks I can only do at school.  Things like cleaning my office and changing displays and bulletin boards. 

On this particular day, I decided to set aside an hour to work on weeding my Everybody section.  You see, with all the unDeweying that has been going on in the last year, the Everybody section has been neglected.  (And again, in the interest of complete honesty, I don't know if I have ever done a conscious weeding of that section.  There goes my name back up near the top of the bad librarian list!)

I had 2 goals in mind while weeding.  1) Take a look at the condition of my books.  2) Do I have diversity in my collection or is my Everybody section just a mumbo jumbo of "fun" books for little people?  This was a big topic of discussion at my recent district wide professional development.  I need to make sure I have books in my collection that kids can "see" themselves in. 

Okay folks.  Lesson learned and ready to be passed on.  Ready.  Get a pencil. (I'll wait!)  Here it comes:

WEED YOUR EVERYBODY SECTION!  DO NOT WAIT!  DO IT NOW!

I am only through EG and here's what I have discovered so far:

1) My collection is a lot more diverse than I realized.  There are some wonderful hidden gems on them there shelves.  Note the use of the word hidden.  The shelves are so crowded right now that students just keep reaching for the books on the ends of the top shelves so the same old same old books are going out the door.

2) I have a lot of yucky books that I did not even know were yucky.  They look nice from the outside.  They get checked out a lot.  But open them up and they have scribble marks on the front pages and wrinkled pages from being shoved in bookbags/desks and ripped pages that are taped back together and broken internal spines.  My students deserve better books than that. They don't have to ready yucky books when we have plenty of lovely books just awaiting someone to read them.  Plus, how embarrassing to have them take that book home?  YIKES.   

In my defense, I do weed books as I shelve/check in.  But time is tight and I don't have the opportunity to open them all up and take a peek.  At least when I am finished this round, I will have a head start on making my collection stay better maintained. 

Also in my defense, I have a book hospital for broken and unloved (or too greatly loved) books.  So some of these titles should have definitely fallen into that basket via student input.

3) I had multiple copies of books.  I don't need 3 copies of the same book.  I can use that real estate for another book that a different child may love.

So now I have another item on my to-do list.  The goal is to use at least one planning a week to get the Everybody section in order so my collection will be ready for uploading when district ordering time arrives.