Sigh of Relief & Reflection on Changes

The first two weeks of the 2014-15 school year have passed and I finally have a chance to reflect on some changes that I have implemented. The first change was not one I brought on myself, but one my district implemented: the addition of a new tech support position. He is housed at the circulation desk and as I've watched him work I am amazed I was able to do anything else other than that job last year! I have been conducting library orientations for 14 ELAR classes (7 more to go!) and I've seen a minimum of 15-20 teachers/staff members walk in each day to ask him questions; questions that would have come to me last year and would have interrupted my train of thought, lesson, workflow etc.  The addition of this new position  has been a HUGE relief and has allowed me to focus on just one or two jobs (librarian and library assistant) rather than three. It's a bonus that the man in this position is just a stand up guy who is willing to pitch in if the library checkout line gets too long.  I'm glad our district leaders recognized the need for support in the library, still waiting to fill that assistant position, but we're taking steps in the right direction.

At the end of last year I decided to change our fiction section to a genre arrangement. The past two weeks I've introduced the system to my students and have reviewed our poster/bookmarks that explain our distinctions of the different genres.

 

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive -I've had students clap as the system was explained! One shy 8th grader walked in yesterday; not an avid reader, but he would checkout new books at least once a month (maybe twice)last year. As we exchanged hellos and I told him I was happy he finally stopped in for a visit, he asked me about the poster and stickers on the books. When I explained the system and told him he could now just stop in the adventure or sports section and all his favorite topics would be in one spot, he looked at me and said, "That just gave me chills."!! I nearly cried and hugged him, but I didn't want to scare him away!

I've heard about circulation numbers increasing with this new genre arrangement and I'm sure I'll be eager to see if that holds true for my library, but even more than that, I want to see if this will change my students' reading habits. From what I've seen this week, I'm pretty positive I will see a change.

Some of my students have already implemented self challenges to read at least one book from each genre. That would be 12 books in one year and for a busy middle schooler whose desire to read has possibly slipped, I think that's pretty impressive. I vowed to help each of those students reach their goal!

As I've spoken to approximately 1,000 students these last two weeks during orientation, I've asked them about a theory I'm formulating based on what I've noticed since our school opened six years ago.  My students are able readers, it's a small percentage that are below grade level, yet I see a large number of students reading books far below their interest and ability level. My theory is that they are selecting these books, often favorites from 3rd or 4th grade, because that may have been the last time they remember reading being fun. Around 3rd or 4th grade reading becomes work, stripped away of the pleasure of falling in love with a character or a storyline. It becomes an endless series of summarizing each chapter, finding the main idea of each paragraph or looking for vocabulary words. And while I see the need for that kind of specific instruction, I also see the pureness of reading being stripped away with these tasks that constantly pull students away from the story. It's something I've seen with the homework assigned to my own daughters. When I tossed out this theory to my students I saw lots of heads nodding in agreement.  That made me simultaneously sad but energized. I am on a mission! I hope the new genre arrangement will rekindle that spark for pleasure reading. When my students see that favorite elementary book in a favored genre section, maybe they will notice that grade and ability appropriate book right next to it and see if that reading spark is still there. I'll still be roaming around in my role as matchmaker, but hopefully serendipity intervenes and a relationship with books is renewed. A librarian can dream, but this librarian will dream AND actively work toward creating those reader relationships.

a quote I saw on twitter that summarizes my thoughts on this year!

Pushing while Still Supporting

Recently I came across an old photo while cleaning.  It was a picture of my first communion celebration and I was posing with a group of my elementary teachers – the Sisters who guided my faith and education since I was an infant.  Staring at the picture through my adult eyes (it’s been resting on my bedside table since I found it), I see the women very differently.  These women had a calling, not only to God, but also to educate children.  A few years ago I attended a funeral for one of them, Sister Henrietta who was the principal, and I recalled how high her standards where for all of us as students.  When I spoke those words I looked into the eyes of  Sr. Florentine, another teacher who was present and I realized Sr. Henrietta’s standards must have been just as high or higher for her staff members.  As an educator I could totally relate to those expectations set by Sr. Henrietta, with one exception -she lived with her staff.  Suddenly those smiling faces in the picture looked different.  These women shared a home, shared meals together, prayed, laughed and, I’m sure, cried together, and many times they often vacationed together.  Can you imagine doing that with your fellow faculty members on campus?  How did they deal with being evaluated by someone they would eat dinner with that evening?  How did they handle work conflicts while still living peacefully together?  I’m sure there were arguments, but I have an idea as to how they did it. They were an amazing support system for each other, for every aspect of their lives. I think one never put herself above the calling each of them had – to educate children.

The amazing Sisters. Maintaining their focus

Another group of educators I am so lucky to know is the staff of the high school I attended.  How wonderful to be able to enjoy them through adult eyes!  Because of Facebook I see that many of those teachers still carry on relationships with each other as well.  Similar to my elementary teachers they all had the calling to educate or work with children in some way.  Again, I am sure the frustrations with each other, the curriculum, or administration were present, but they sure masked them well!  I never heard about any of it (perhaps teenage oblivion/narcissism is a good thing?) But I see them now, and they genuinely care about and support each other through this new stage (retirement) of their lives. That caring and support didn’t just happen recently.  It had to have been present when they were working together.  

As I reflect back as an adult on both groups of educators, I believe that support and care they had for one another was one big contributing factor to that safe feeling I had at both schools.  The staff seemed at peace with each other, hence the safe, peaceful feeling I had with them as a whole.  I knew they were concerned about me as a student, they wanted to push me as far as they could in their classes, their focus was educating their students.

It seems so simple: support the common goal of your colleagues to provide the best education to the students on your campus. But in reality, it’s difficult to push past egos (“my way is the best”) and feelings (“why is he/she always trying to upstage me?”) and maintain the focus on the students.

A few weeks ago I read a great blog post by Pernille Ripp http://goo.gl/D6AuDi about teachers bullying teachers.  To me, it’s a must read for any educator.  In addition to the courage to share her experience, what struck me were the comments to her post about how this had also happened to other teachers.  I was not stunned so much as sad that the egos of adults get in the way of the education of our children in so many cases.  I have heard numerous administrators tell staff to leave their problems at the door and focus on the students once they enter the building.  But what happens when the safe place is outside the building?  How are teachers expected to teach with passion when their own sense of professional value or worth is questioned or threatened? How do we push each other to be the best without pushing each other over the edge?

This year I created a 5 word GPS.  A guide map, if you will, of the direction I want to take this year on my campus.  Two of those words are support and community.  In reflecting on that picture, the blog post, and the friendships I can see among my high school teachers, those two words I think are what helped my teachers from elementary through high school provide me with the safe, encouraging environment I needed to succeed as a student.  I hope to do my part to provide support for each of the teachers on my campus and build with them a sense of community so they each feel our campus is a place where they matter not only as a teacher, but also as a person.  I strongly believe that when someone feels good about themselves, when they feel that they matter to others, they will work hard toward a common goal: providing students with the best environment where education will flourish.

Finding a Focus

You know what today is?  It is supposedly the end of my third week of "vacation". Officially I have been off contract for three weeks as a school librarian, but you know how those three weeks have been filled? Each day I have done one of the following:

• presented at a workshop, 
• attended a technology conference,
• participated in planning sessions for staff development or programming for the 2014-2015 school year.

I jokingly refer to this month as my "pro-bono" month because, contrary to popular belief, teachers/librarians do not get paid for work they are involved in outside of their contract days. Somehow the ridiculous idea has been deeply embedded in those outside of education that a teacher's work stops when the students aren't there.  I have realized more than ever that is terribly, terribly incorrect. This past month, while I have participated in the conferences,planning sessions etc. I have also begun embracing the power of Twitter as a professional development tool.  The ideas that are swirling around in my head are so numerous that my head is beginning to hurt!  If you are an educator and have been reluctant to venture on to Twitter, "because who needs another place to stalk celebrities or old high school classmates?", then I respectfully ask you to reconsider.  I have used Twitter during the last month as a place solely for the purpose of professional development.  I follow leaders in my field, as well as authors and publishers, and my colleagues so I can share ideas on how to improve my effectiveness as a teacher/librarian and improve student learning.  It's amazing!  I once heard someone say "If you're the smartest person in the room, you need a bigger room!" While I don't profess to be smarter than anyone, Twitter has become for me the largest room in the world. It's sort of like attending a mini conference every day, listening to ideas, reading about the outcomes and sometimes seeing the plans in action.  It's fabulous and scary all at the same time.  There are so many wonderful ideas out there that I want to try them all, but how in the world can I do that? When will I have time to properly implement these great plans?  

I've come to the conclusion that I need to find a focus (shouldn't really be a lightening bolt moment, but there it is!), a way to zero in on some of the great ideas I've discovered in the last few weeks and months.  One of the great ideas I heard was from Dave Burgess who suggested teachers create a 5 word GPS (click on the link for his video explanation or watch the video below) for their year.  This 5 word GPS could help keep you moving in the right direction to accomplish your goals.

I LOVE the idea, but haven't managed to narrow it down to just 5 words, I'll share those as soon as I find just the right ones. What I DO have is 5 areas of focus and that's a start!

1. Arranging my library according to genres - I've completed that task, but now need to focus on how to promote that to my students.
2. I have helped create a framework for supporting my teachers with the use of iPads in the classroom - the follow through on that will be a year long task.
3. Using Twitter and Instagram to promote the library and it's resources to my students - this actually began last year, I just want to amp it up a bit this year and definitely include pieces on digital citizenship.  This can actually be combined with the genre promotion, so my focus is actually a bit more zeroed in - yea me, progress already!!
4. Creating a MakerSpace in the library - I think for the sake of my sanity, I need to limit that to a weekly session; perhaps during special "maker months".
5. Campus-wide Research Focus - looking for ways I can be in every class to instill, in both teachers and students, the idea that research isn't scary and it's actually something we all do every day - just informally.  However, we need to amp up those "formal" skills in every curriculum area.

Sooo, it looks like it will be another busy, but exciting year professionally.  I've decided to use the month of July as my month to zero in on my priorities.  I don't want to hear about ANY new ideas (please, my brain REALLY is hurting from all the exercise!!) - I just want look for people who have experimented with the ideas I have for the upcoming year.  I want to use this month as my preparation month, my build-a-plan-of-action month, my reflection month OHHH and by the way, I also want to spend this month rejuvenating myself, spending time with my family, preparing mentally for the fact I will have a daughter in high school next year (where did THAT time go?)!  One month doesn't seem long enough for the list of goals I want to accomplish by May 2015, but it's all I have left.  

So here's to the start of my real "vacation", may it be as restful as I need it to be and may it involve creating LOTS of great memories with my family.

Library Transformation -part 2

When I last posted about the genre project in the library, I was in the middle of generating reports, labeling books, and changing call numbers in our library program. I began with all the sports books, moved to mystery, horror and historical fiction. Pulling these books and moving them to a temporary location cleared out enough space on my shelves to start shifting books to make room for the new genre sections. I estimated the number of shelves each section would take and started the big shift. With each new genre I pulled, I shifted all remaining books to the ends of the fiction section of the library.  I had students help with all of the shifting and a bonus cleaning opportunity appeared! (Strange, but true, observation: I would call teachers during their study hall period asking if they had any students who would like to assist in the library each time we had major labeling or shifting to do.  80% of the helpers were the male students.  Not sure why this struck me as odd, but it did.  Maybe they just liked the ability to move around - they always managed to turn it into a race!)

Library ninjas playing the dusting game

When all reports had been run, books re-cataloged and "stickered", I ended up with about 200-300 books that were still on the shelves waiting to be designated a genre. This might have been my favorite part of the whole project. I called in one of my ELAR teachers and asked if her class would like to help in this final stage. I explained each of the genres and why a book would fit in one and not another. They had a great time deciding on the genres and I LOVED eavesdropping on this discussions. It was great to hear them discuss setting, character and plot.  The best news? They tore through those final books in one 90 minute period!

This was definitely the messiest time of the entire process, but it lasted only 2 days.  I had giant stacks of books on nine of the library tables.  I'm not going to lie - it got a little ugly and there was LOTS of shifting this time around, but my amazing library volunteer and the library ninjas helped tremendously!  Bonus was I did an obscene amount of squats that qualified for my exercise for the Summer.  I will not feel bad about foregoing any Summer exercise thanks to this project!
So all that remains is labeling the books that are being returned and creating shelf signs to designate each genre. I can already tell this will help me with some of my purchasing decisions.  I have a great visual indicating I need to purchase more books for my sports section as well as my adventure and humor sections. Stay tuned for circulation updates.

Neat and tidy, waiting for the new year!

Stay Still or Move On?

I've been swallowed up in the library transformation project and I've abandoned my blog-but not for long!  It's also May, which as any school educator knows is the most hectic month of the year.   In the middle of the chaos I have had some interesting conversations with people that have caused me to consider the impact I have on my profession and students. I truly have the best job in the education business.  I have the opportunity to share great books with students and encourage teachers to use these books in their curriculum. I am able to attend some pretty amazing conferences (the Texas Library Association one is my hands down favorite) and meet some of the best writers in the publishing world.  Then I get to  share those experiences with my students sometimes in the form of author visits. I have the opportunity to design and implement library programs that encourage students to read new authors or genres and to perform a musical or written talent in a safe environment.  I have the opportunity to explore new technologies and instruct students, but mainly teachers, on how these technologies can enhance and expand student learning.  I have the opportunity to create some fabulous learning environments as I collaborate and teach with some of the best teachers I've known. I have the opportunity to instruct my students and colleagues on updated research techniques that are so crucial in today's world of excessive information.  Once I really sit down and think of the opportunities and the responsibilities that are a part of my job, I am simultaneously energized and exhausted.

In the district in which I work a new position has been created that involves many of the same opportunities, but based off a campus setting. The focus is on technology and librarians and assisting/instructing librarians on how they could utilize new tools or techniques on their own campuses.  What an amazing opportunity! The impact in this large district, which currently has 115 schools but is still growing, could potentially be huge.  I have loads of ideas already on how I could see this new position impacting the lives of our students and teachers.

I have several friends that have either retired recently or moved on to new positions.  I'm always curious as to how they came to the decision and the most common answer I receive is, "I just knew it was time". I've done a fair amount of reflecting on this new position and if I should take a chance and apply for it.  Each time I think I'm ready to do it I come back to several things.  Most importantly, a promise I made to my youngest daughter that I would not leave the school where I work until she has the chance to attend.  I've always wanted to work in whatever middle school my children attended and that worked out very well with the first one.  Another big factor is the students.  The 11, 12, 13 and 14 year-olds I have the opportunity to work with everyday provide an energy for me that I find sustaining.  When I think about the frustrations I experience in my job, it's almost 100% of the time with adults!  I seek solace with my students.  They bring me back to focus and underscore why I chose the profession I did.  I chose it to help them, to feed off their excitement, and provide them with opportunities they might not expect in a library.  Some people say middle school educators are a special breed and I agree, but I also know that this is one of the few places I can let my inner child out every day.  They keep this forty-something gal young and that is one thing I definitely consider a perk! Finally, the staff I work with is truly outstanding.  They have generously allowed me into their classrooms to co-teach and fearlessly tried out my crazy ideas. I have learned so much from them and they, like their students, energize me to think of new ways to impact our students.

I am glad this opportunity presented itself to me.  It has allowed me to pause and reflect during one of the most hectic times of the year.  It has caused me to determine that I am just not ready to move away from my students, my teachers, and my campus.  I worry about missing an opportunity and I hope it won't be the last one.  I'm definitely torn between having the chance to have a bigger impact and forge new directions or staying put and building on what I have established at my current campus.  When it comes down to it, I can't imagine not being so close to eager, energetic, enthusiastic students every day.  I can't imagine being away from a crucial energy supply in my life.  Like my friends have told me, I just think I'll know when the time is right for me to move on.  Right now it looks like that time might be a long way from now.

Helpful Hints For Rounding Up Library Felons!

It's that time of the year in the library. Time to really start hassling my students to return long overdue library books. In previous years I've run overdue reports, passed them out to my reading teachers, and held a contest to see which teacher could be the first to get all her classes to return library books. I would wait until I had about 50 students left on the list and then I would start making phone calls home. That entire process was long and tedious. I've started doing things a little bit differently.

Last year I started utilizing the library Instagram account to get the attention of my students that the time has come to start looking to for long overdue books. I generally create some image to post online. Here are some I have used:
My daughter created this one.

I created the one below:

My most recent message created with mematic app

This year I posted a similar "overdue library book" message on the school Twitter account as well as the PTA Facebook page.  Our PTA also has an extensive email list and the message will be sent that way as well.

Of all the techniques I've tried, the one that seems most effective is a phone alarm reminder. I ask students to set an alarm on their phone to remind them to look for their library book. I generally ask students to set the alarm to go off around 8:30pm and I also request they use the "old car horn" (the majority of my students have an apple device) alarm sound since it's one they rarely use and it seems to catch their attention.  For any students that don't have a phone or iPod, I use something called a wrist reminder. 

paper bracelets come in packs of 30.

I saw these at Office Depot and they work great. I write or attach a mailing label on it that reads, "return library book" and attach it to the students' wrists.


Hope some of these can be useful for you during this busy time of year!

The Change has begun!

Last week I wrote about implementing a big change in my library - arranging my fiction area according to genres.  This week, I jumped right in and started the first steps.  I have to say up front I would NEVER have even considered this if I did not have the amazing parent volunteers that I do.  There is no way I would stay sane trying to do this alone, while also keeping the library open to students.  One volunteer in particular is my motivator. She can sense when I need a pep talk and will encourage me when things seem overwhelming. She's, in a word, AMAZING!!!

Before deciding on making the change, I read several blogs and articles about how to approach this process, but the most helpful by far was Leigh Collazo's blog. She laid out the entire process so neatly that this intimidating task seems much more doable.  I started out with her framework and made minor adjustments that fit my collection and my students. A million thanks, Leigh, for documenting  your process so nicely!  I think it's key to have record of how any library is arranged so whoever inherits the library next can easily pick up the arrangement.

My first step was deciding on the genres I would use in my library, and then picking the one genre I thought would have the least amount of books.  For my collection that was the sports genre (or so I thought!  I recently worked on mythology - my collection is severely lacking in this area!).  I ran a report in our library software using the keywords of "sports" and listing other individual sports.  That generated a few hundred titles.  My library volunteer and I then began pulling these books off the shelf and loading them on book trucks.  We then played around with our software to determine the correct call number for each book. We decided on F AAA - Sports.  I thought it was important to keep that "F" in front and just tack my special genre label on the end.  After that decision was made, each book had to be scanned and the call number changed.  Again, I had a fabulous friend come in to help me with this process.  I've decided this whole change will take a village!

Pulled books ready for stickers

After the call number was changed it was time for stickers.  I decided I would just color code each book instead of removing the original spine label to save time, as well as keep the uniformity of the labels.  I also didn't want to change any of my specifications with the companies I use to purchase my books for the library.  And I love the colorful stickers :-)  While one class came in the library this week, my volunteer suggested I ask the teacher if her students could help put stickers on the books. She thankfully agreed, and in 25 minutes those students put stickers on the entire sports collection and half the Historical Fiction section. Library Ninjas are awesome!!  I'll definitely be going back to this method with each section.

Library ninja helpers, the sticker monsters!

After the stickers were placed on the books, they were moved to a bookcase in my library classroom as a temporary location.  They look nice, don't they?

newly "stickered" books in their temp location.

My next step is to make room in the main library to start shelving the books that have been "stickered".  This will be a little tricky.  I would like to avoid the "bookshelf shuffle" as much as possible, but I'm afraid there aren't too many ways around it.  Time to get creative!

My Journey With Poetry

Poetry Month Wrap-Up

I'll confess a little secret. I used to hate poetry -with a PASSION! It drove me crazy and made me feel like a complete idiot. Metaphors never made sense, I found it impossible to use words that rhymed and not sound like a 2nd grader in a phonics lesson, it was just tedious and tiring.
Then I took a Latino American Poetry class at The University of Houston and a whole new world opened up for me. My textbooks came from this tiny little press on campus - Arte Publico Press. This press at that time was housed in a dark, narrow basement, but when I opened the door that place became like a secret garden for me. In those books I found poems I could understand, about people and situations I knew, and the words had a rhythm that felt comfortable, not foreign.  I've never looked at poetry the same way since -until I began teaching middle school English. I was preparing the poetry unit and I started getting that nervous feeling, trying to make sense of the poems written in a time to which my students couldn't relate or trying trying to use poems and poets these students studied in elementary school seem fresh. We managed to get through the unit, but I knew I was leaving the same bad taste about poetry for my students that was left with me at their age.
 
I started a quest in the years that followed to find the right poetry for my students. I've been fortunate enough to convince some teachers to pick up on the genius of poets like Helen Frost so that a new generation of students can discover the beauty of poetry and hopefully discover their own secret garden. I've also managed to bring poetry a little more mainstream with events like The Library Lounge where students have an opportunity to read aloud their own poetry or read aloud works from published poets.

Poetry month is a time for me to cast the poetry net a little wider and hopefully get a few more students hooked on this art form. Below are four ideas I tried out this year.

Window Poetry -One side of my library is almost a complete wall of windows, and that wall is what parents and students see when they enter the school. Occasionally I put posters on them, but this year I got the idea I should write on them; kind of like the store fronts common around the holidays. I put up large sheets of construction paper on one side of the window and wrote on the other side. Once I finished one poem, I decided to let students try it out -and their work far surpassed mine, so I happily let them take over the job! Below is an image of what they did. Short poems worked best and the students' drawings really made a huge impact. I've had lots of positive comments on this and it was loads of fun, so I'll bring this back next year.

Library ninjas creating poetic graffiti!

Found Poetry - this is an activity I stole from The New York Times educator blog (GREAT resource - highly recommend it!). It helps me use some of my very interesting magazines that students overlook. I selected and copied at least 10 articles (1 page or less) for each poetry folder. Students were asked to start a word bank of interesting words they found in the article. They were then asked to create a poem using those words and adding only two of their own.  It's a great lesson and some fun poetry was created. Last year I posted some of the poems on the library Instagram account (@nisd_hgmslib). This year I asked the students to post their own and tag it with our library username and the hashtag #hgmspoem. I think next year, I'll have a better response to Instagram tagging.

Students working on found poetry

Poetry Tag - I created a list of contemporary poets that students never see in their curriculum. I cut the list into strips and each student selected a poet's name. They then had to read at least five poems by that poet and select one they would like to share and possibly illustrate.  The tag part of this comes when they "tag" a classmate with their poet and the process is repeated. I REALLY enjoyed this simple activity because students were able to explore Allan Wolf, Margarita Engle, Tracy Vaughn Zimmer, and others they never see in the classroom, in a very relaxed manner. When we shared out the poems, I could tell by the reactions some students discovered poetry can be something they can enjoy. Next year, I would like to bring Instagram into this as well, asking students to post on their own account and then tag it with the library username so the poems reach a larger audience.

scenes from Poem On Your Locker Day

Poem on Your Locker Day- this is our little twist on Poem in Your Pocket day and is now a tradition we have been continuing for three years! Preparation for this starts at least a week before when limericks and other short poems are typed and printed on colorful paper. I try to have at least 30-40 different new poems each year, but I also keep some of the favorites from the previous years. The paper is then cut so one poem is on one slip of paper.  The night before the designated day, a team of secret ninja library helpers tapes one poem on each locker. We have about 1,200 lockers on campus, so a team of 10-15 helpers can get the job done in about 30-45 minutes. The next morning it's always fun to see the students take a poem and read it, stuff it in their pocket, or share it with a friend. This year I had one student turn herself into a poetry bulletin board!

So that's it - Poetry month 2014 is a wrap!  Keeping my eyes open for new ideas for next year. Care to share yours?

A book review that isn't....

We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

I'm not really supposed to give too much away about this book while I tell everyone to go and read it. Here's my attempt!

When you hear the words Martha’s Vineyard, Summer, vacation home, what do you imagine? This book might be about some of those imaginings, but probably not. 

What about a love story of two young teens from opposite sides of the “tracks”?  This book has some of that too, but not they way you would expect.  

What about a generational family story of love and the crazy things we do out of love for our family? There is a lot of that in this book, but not in the way you would expect. 

When you hear the phrase “the perfect family” what other phrases come to mind? The Sinclairs, the top of the family tree in Emily Lockhart’s We Were Liars, have lived what outsiders would see as the perfect life with the perfect family, a sort of Facebook version most of us put out for the world to see - only the good things that are fit for public viewing. Their reality and that of their four daughters is something quite different.  The people responsible for uncovering the truth behind the perfect mirage? Four amazing, beautiful, and very real characters, three of whom are cousins, one who is “almost” part of the family. The story takes place over several Summers on an idyllic island, a sort of family compound.  These summers are where Lockhart lays a trap for readers and makes us fall in love with these beautiful teenagers. We start imagining their futures and we cheer them when they make a bold push away from family traditions/expectations/ideals. 

It’s the perfect Summer read, but not for all the reason you would expect.  It’s perfect for Summer because that’s when most of us seem to have time to think about a book long after we finish reading them.  It’s a time when we can read short books by the pool/beach/lake, but don’t let the length of this book fool you.  You will want, probably need, to re-read this it and you won’t be sorry you did.  I truly and thoroughly LOVED this book. It’s everything I thought it wasn’t and that made me love it even  more.  The ending sucker-punched me, but I didn't mind.  How else could I expect this book to end?  It’s too brilliant to wrap up neatly and that is why I will implore my friends to read this when it is available in book stores (May 13, 2014) and also encourage my students who are ready for it, to dive into it.  But I’ll pass on this warning before they dive, “careful, you don’t know what’s lurking underneath”!  

It looks sweet, doesn't it?

Sisterly Love - It's not always sugar and spice and everything nice

Reading the first pages of Dana Reinhardt's book, We Are The Goldens, I could tell this was a book I would enjoy.  It resonated with me because of the relationship I have with one of my older sisters.  The story is narrated by younger sister, Nell Golden, and the story of older sister Layla, who has always been the perfect role model for Nell.  Layla has made a name for herself at the private school she attends because of her superior academics and equally admirable soccer skills.  Nell has followed in her footsteps hoping to achieve the same admiration but allowing herself a bit of individualism with her venture into the school play.  This situation is so similar to the one I had with my sister, who was a senior in high school - gifted athlete, cheerleader and pretty darn smart - when I entered that same school as a freshman.  I would never be considered an athlete (I'm a much better FAN of sports) and I opted for the dance team, a sort of nemesis to the cheerleaders at our school for whatever reason.  Like Nell and Layla, my sister and I shared a bedroom until she left for college and so the bond that situation created was just as strong as the bond that Reinhardt creates for her characters.
Having lived in a very similar situation, the writing touched me as completely accurate. Based on my experience with both of my sisters and what I see with my own two daughters, there is an unspoken language between sisters (possibly among siblings in general but certainly with sisters).  One can tell when the other is upset, one knows what to say or do to smooth things over, one knows which buttons to push to drive the other one crazy and one can definitely tell when the other is lying.   There is also this unwavering loyalty among sisters and no matter how angry one is with the other, it seems like the goal is always to bring peace  back to the relationship.  So is the case with the Goldens.

Nell can tell very soon into the school year that something is amiss with Layla.  She notices the subtle clues that their divorced parents miss. When she uncovers the secret, Nell is horrified and against her better judgement she tells no one.  Nell calls herself "The Keeper of Secrets and The Keeper of Peace in the family". The relationship between the two slowly unravels to the point where they argue regularly and avoid each other, but the one constant remains - their love for each other.  Throughout Nell's internal debate about how to help her sister, she relies on the ghosts of two brothers her family once new, Duncan and Parker Creed.  The brief background on these characters suggest a close bond that was as close as the one shared by Nell and Layla.  The official story is that older brother Parker died at the age of 16 from an accidental fall down a staircase, and nine months later 14 year old Duncan died from an undetected heart condition, however cocaine and suicide have been the constant whispers.  When Nell uncovers Layla's secret she can't help but "confide" in the other two "perfect" siblings - what will happen to Layla if she stays quiet? As an adult reading the story the answer is obvious, but the writing so cleverly portrays the anguish Nell feels (as any sister may feel) of "betraying" her sister. Her subtle attempts at exposing her sister fail and as things spiral out of control the time comes for a more direct approach.  The ghost brothers push her over the edge with this thought, "That's what it means to be the younger sister You know. You know everything."

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this slim novel.  It felt true - an honest portrayal of a sibling recognizing the call for help but unsure how to answer that call.  I would be happy to share with this with my 8th grade daughter and when the time comes, with her younger sister.  It's a story of sisterly love, and the many different shapes/forms that love is expressed. But be aware, it's not a sweet, sugar-coated version (hooray!). It's the messy, frustrating, selfish, but with love-always-at-the-core version. In other words, the real kind of sisterly love.

My very unprofessional pic of this beautiful book, taken in my favorite thinking spot - my backyard :-)

Recognizing the time to change

I've been mulling over a big change in my library for the past several months. The change to shelve my fiction collection according to genres and not simply the traditional way of alpha by author. I've always stressed to my students the importance of knowing the authors and what types of books they write as well as using the catalog to find books they would enjoy. This seems to work very well...for those students who love to read. If my goal as a librarian is to put the perfect book in the hands of each student (especially those non-readers who would rather be anywhere else but the library) then surely arranging them this way will only help me achieve that goal. Lately I've read some blog posts of librarians who have gone to the "dark side" and arranged their fiction section by genre. Their success stories impressed me and some even provided guidance on how they started the transition. I began thinking this might be something I could do. What sealed the deal though was the various discussions I had with several students explaining the idea. Each and every one had a glint in their eye, a smile on their face, many clapped their hands and all stated this would be "soooo much better" than the current arrangement. "Ok," I thought to myself, "I better do this thing!". But the thing that got me even more motivated was when I explained to the students some of the issues this might bring up (would we shelve zombie books in sci-fi or horror?).  The debates that ensued were a librarian's dream. I've even had some students ask when and how could they help! So, here goes nothing, or rather something quite big. During the last month of the school year, an extremely busy time in the library (there's never really a slow time), I will be re-cataloging, labeling and re-shelving close to 8,000 books. This should be interesting; I'll keep you updated!

Conference musings part 2

There are no "boy" books, or "girl" books, or "gay" books.  There are books - period.

I attended a fabulous panel featuring women whose books at one time or other had been selected to the Texas Lone Star List.   The discussion came around to the fact that some books written by female authors are promoted to girls, and only girls.  While I am guilty of saying things like, "this will be a book most girls will enjoy", I never really considered that in doing so, I may have unconsciously sent the message that these female authors weren't important voices to my male students.  I DO promote authors like Marie Lu, Maggie Stiefvater,  Maureen Johnson and many others to my male students, but I've never done so to promote a female voice -  I did it because they have written some AMAZING books.  Should I make more of a point that they are female authors?  Not really sure.  I haven't seen my male students stay away from a book because it was written by a female author. 

This discussion stayed with me when I moderated a panel featuring authors David Levithan, Alex London, Aaron Hartzler, and Bill Konigsburg who have written YA books featuring gay characters.  Their books are amazing and meeting them was truly one of the highlights of my week.  The stories they shared made such an impact on me and I thought the books these men have written shouldn't be shared with just those students who are gay or questioning their sexuality, they should be shared with all students.  They provide a window into the world of their characters and the hurt and pain they feel when faced with ignorance and hate.  The characters in these books face new adventures, the unknown, the fear of rejection, the breathlessness of a first crush, the heartache of love lost, the joy of discovering new friends, and the pain of lost friendships just as teen characters in every other book I've read.  In preparing for this panel I read these authors' books and immediately started recommending them to my adult friends and the grade level appropriate ones to my students.  The authors of these four books did an outstanding job of writing stories to which I could relate and to which I think teens could relate, not because those students are gay, but because they are teens and will recognize the emotions of the characters.  It is in the pages of books like these that my students can learn that the differences don't define their friends, and the books may help them empathize with those who are dealing with ignorance and hate.  This in turn may help this young generation eliminate the ugliness of ignorance and hate. I look forward to promoting these authors as well as other authors who write books for middle school students featuring gay characters. I look forward to promoting these books using labels such as friendship, romance, action/adventure, family - labels that fit everyone.

Thoughts on a conference (part 1)

This past week, I attended the amazing Texas Library Association conference. For me this week was like Christmas, my birthday, and Summer all rolled into one incredible week. It's my chance to meet and learn from inspiration library leaders, snatch some great ideas and put my twist on them for my library, and geek-out when I get to meet some of my long-admired literary heroes as well as some new voices that should definitely be promoted to my students. It was exhausting and inspiring all at once. I thought I'd share some of the things I learned:

If you're not at the table, you're on the menu

This was a quote, I believe from Doug Johnson, that was used by Jennifer LaGarde, better known as The Library Girl and I can't get it out of my head. I see my role as the librarian on my campus encompass so much more than "keeper of the books". My role involves knowing the curriculum of all content areas so I can suggest materials that would be helpful. It involves advocating for proper research instruction so my students enter high school completely prepared to independently conduct a meaningful research assignment and not just a "fact-finding" paper. It involves staying abreast of recent technology issues so I can gently encourage and teach those colleagues who feel skittish about tech while fully supporting those colleagues who are exploring new and impressive tech destinations with their students. It involves promoting the explosive number of books and authors via book talks, social media and any other way I can think of , so maybe, just maybe I can reach that student who has lost his or her way with reading and bring back that spark. I certainly don't want to be on the menu, but that table sure seems like it's as long as the tables in the dining hall of Hogwarts. It's easy to get discouraged and fear that my voice is drowned out by all the others voices at the table, but I can't bear the thought of staying quiet and just letting things "be". It's not who I am, and exhausted or not, irritable or not, I'll be at that table and become a bullhorn for the all the positive contributions the library program makes in the lives of my students.


More thoughts in the next post :-)