Another Week: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Let's work in reverse order for this post. I love sharing my week with you and all my adventures in the Media Center but not all of them are good and I am a firm believer in transparency.

Let's start with the ugly first:

In the past two weeks I've been told that...

• I make people feel inadequate
• that I'm too much
• that I'm just high energy
• No one reads as much as me

I kid you not. This is real. These statements came from people I would call Literacy Leaders (Media Specialists, Literacy Coaches, Literacy teachers). All these things were either said to my face, or about me to someone else, and all said with a laugh. Like it is funny to tear someone down. 

Don't get me wrong, I've also had SO VERY MANY people encourage me, tell me they believe in me, lift me up, HELP me carry my load in the last two weeks. I'm not telling you these things because I want a pity party or need a pat on the back. I share this because it bothers me that people think it is okay to say these things about anyone, not just me.  

It's true that I'm "extra" but why is that bad? I would never classify myself as high energy because I'm highly exhausted every day when I get in my car. I would classify myself as highly motivated to give my best to these kids and our staff. It's true I read a lot but IT'S MY JOB TO READ A LOT! If you are in a position that involves developing a love of literacy and you don't read often and regularly then you, my friend, are not doing your job. You cannot build a love of reading if you have no idea what books to give to kids. I read in pockets of time. Bathroom break? Read a few pages. Computer work or a car ride by myself? Audio book. Bedtime? Read until I fall asleep at least three times before I put the book down. Today I read at my daughter's volleyball game while her team was warming up and we were waiting for the previous game to end. Then I put it down and cheered her and her team on. 

I work really, really hard. I give and give and give and I do it for several reasons. I do it for these kids because we claim we are serving them with excellence and that is what I want to give each and every one of them--excellence. I give them my best as many days of the week as I can because they deserve it and many of them don't have anyone else doing that for them. I also do this because I am a woman of deep faith and Colossians 3:23 says to work as if I am working for the Lord and not for man. I firmly believe God uniquely gifted me with the talents I have exactly for this position and I work hard because I believe I was created for this job, for these kids, for this staff. The third reason I work so hard is because that is exactly who my parents raised me to be. Both of my parents gave and gave and gave. They worked hard all day and then they worked hard at home. They gave my sister and I their very best, always. I've had so many conversations with each of them about what it means to do our best and why that is important. The last reason I work so very hard is because the Media Specialist position is always on the chopping block, especially when budget cuts are coming. Many School Board employees and administrators think that what we do is simply check out books all day. I work hard to make myself a valuable member of the staff and to make sure my admin team knows exactly how valuable my position is for our school. I work to make myself hard to replace because I want to keep my job.  

Also, there is literally nothing I do that is done by myself. I have a team of incredible teachers who are willing to go above and beyond the scope of their duties for all my insane ideas and I have an admin team that will let me shoot for the stars. WE do it all together. THEY are the rockstars. I'm just the one that signs my name to everything. 

There are other Media Specialists that I hold myself to their standard because they are freaking amazing! Ana Woodbrey is a Media Specialist at another middle school in my district and she is nothing short of incredible. Instead of seeing her as someone who makes me look bad, I see her as someone to work with and learn from. We email weekly, collaborate, bounce ideas off of each other, share resources, and plan things together. There are other Media Specialists and Literacy Leaders that I follow on social media to see all the great things I can keep working towards. 

So please hear me on this. It has never, ever been my intention to make someone feel like they are less than, like they can't measure up. It has always been my goal to share where I came from, the things I try (never knowing if they will work or not), and to encourage other people who are champions for the love of learning. I see a lot of people who have better ideas than me, are more qualified than me, and have more experience than me working hard every day. Instead of feeling defeated, I learn from them. I borrow their ideas (with permission) and make it my own for my kids. One of the biggest problems in education is educators tearing each other down. We don't have to step on each other to rise. There is plenty of room for all of us to be great and honestly, that's what these kids and families deserve. They do not deserve people who sit at their desks and make excuses for all the reasons why they can't do something. 

The bad from this week:

This past week was Banned Books Week which is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I started out so excited because I read this amazing novel about a school that took banning books too far and I was pumped up to share it with the kids. I've had plans for WEEKS for these cool activities I was going to do during Banned Book Week. 

Guess what? 

I didn't do any of it. Seriously. 

I realized that when I scheduled classes for this week, I didn't schedule classes to do book visits. I scheduled classes for computer usage and technology lessons. 

I also couldn't find my caution tape ANYWHERE to set up our display and then when I went to pull our books that have been on the Banned or Challenged list almost all of them were checked out. 

So I just didn't do it. 

I sent out a cool infographic to our staff and put some things on the announcements and then talked to kids as they came in about books that people are trying to ban like The Hate You Give or All American Boys.  So it was something, but definitely not what I wanted it to be. 

The good from this week: 

There was SO MUCH GOOD. 

First of all, our students are so excited about Kwame Alexander coming to visit this coming week. They have been logging books like crazy to try and earn a seat in the Media Center for his visit. Which means that I've been scoring responses like crazy to see who earned a seat in the Media Center. Almost 400 of our 840 students have logged books in our 20 Book Challenge and many of them have logged more than one. That's AMAZING!!!! It's only the end of September and already almost half the school is reading. I'm so proud!

Wednesday was See You at the Pole which is a day across the nation where students and community members join around the flagpole at schools and pray. Our SYATP was amazing! We had tons of students and staff members join our FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) club that I sponsor. I was moved to tears. 

The other really great thing that happened this week is that our Girls PE teacher, Mrs. Casey asked me if we could partner up this year and do some projects. Our first one was a character education project. I did a lesson with the girls on positive character traits, showed them how to use Destiny Collections , and then tasked them with choosing a woman who has had a positive impact on the world displaying one or more of those traits. They loved it and it was fun trying this out. Destiny Collections is kind of like curating an academic digital bulletin board that can be shared with others. The girls researched these role models and then saved articles, videos, images, etc. that they found where this person was demonstrating that character trait to their Collection. I've built several collections myself but I'd never tried letting kids do it. It was interesting to watch them do it. There were a few minor issues that I'm planning on working with our Follett rep to see why those things happened but they were minor. 

I found out that I won a $250 grant from Publix Charities to go towards our 20 Book Challenge and reading promotion! I was thrilled because that is $250 more than I had before I read that email!

Project Lit for this month was small, but mighty! I didn't do as great a job as I should have on promoting it, making sure kids had the Google Class code for Project Lit, and planning our meeting but the kids rocked as usual and Lara Watkins was a super hero and totally picked up my slack.

Last but not least, I've been working with our self-contained ESE classes to make sure they get to join in on the fun we have in the Media Center. This year they are going to read the Florida SSYRA 3-5 books and we will have a celebration with them with Maker Space activities tied to the novel when they have finished the book. The first book they read was The Magnificent Maya Tibbs and The Spirit Week Showdown. I wore boots and my cowgirl shirt. We watched a Maya Tibbs Fibbs video, listened to "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes" and did several stations. Friendship bracelet making, beading crafts, drawing with Osmo, building activities. It was a blast! 

It was an excellent week in the Media Center. I exhausted myself but there was a lot of learning and excitement going on in our school. This coming week will be another big one with Newberry Award-Winning Kwame Alexander kicking off his Swing tour at our school. I'm so excited!!!!

Chorus and Coding

Last week was filled with students logging books for our author visit, us scoring their responses, book check-outs, and then I got to spend TWO days with our Chorus students and their amazing teacher, Ms. Nuetzel.

Why was Chorus in the Library? Why not?

We did one activity with most of her classes and then a completely different activity with Show Choir. We had a blast!

Activity 1: Soundtrack of My Life

The students had to choose a song to represent their past, one for their present, and one for their future. The students were required to find a video for their song, write 5-8 sentences explaining why that song fits that time of their life, and include an image. The project itself was Ms. Nuetzel's idea. I worked with the kids on the technology aspect and they used Google Slides for their project. I helped them set it up, showed them how to embed videos and images (and how to properly use them!), and showed them how to add fonts, change their backgrounds, add animations, etc. They worked on this for two class days and started presenting them today. They had some really great projects and it really allowed them to open up and share how music impacts their lives.

Activity 2: Show Choir

For the students in Show Choir, we wanted to do something different with them so I pulled out the Ozobots and showed them the basics of using Blockly (many had used it before) and this class of young ladies had two days to learn to code their Ozobot and program it to dance. Then, we had them join forces with another group and code both Ozobots to do the same dance. They worked on choreography through coding and even added in formations. It was SO much fun! We had some really great results too.

I love working with Margi. She's so wonderful with her students and so very knowledgeable. She also isn't afraid to try something new and loves to collaborate. While she was with me, we planned out a Coffee House night that Chorus is hosting and they are going to have it in the Media Center since they've outgrown the Chorus room.

Nearpod, Maker Space, 6 Word Summaries, and More!

My intent with this blog was to post weekly but life happens and so here we are with two weeks having passed since I last posted. I'll hit the high notes of the last two weeks because we were able to do some REALLY cool things in the Media Center in the last two weeks. Please notice I said we. I can't do any of this stuff on my own. I deeply value the partnerships I have with our teachers because without them, there are no classes coming for me to teach and no one to bounce ideas off of.

At our school we have the only ASD (Autism) unit in our District. Ms. Irwin, their teacher, came to me and asked if I could do a Digital Citizenship lesson with her kiddos. Of course, I jumped at the chance and I had just been to a training on Nearpod so I asked her if I could try it out with them. They came in and we used one of the pre-done lessons from Common Sense Media . I adjusted it a little bit for what they needed and we jumped right in. Nearpod is really cool because it works like a presentation but you build in interactive activities and videos and the students really love it. This class really poured themselves into the activity where it asked them to begin drawing and completing a chart. It was the highlight of the week!

This week we had several really awesome things that happened.

Monday I had the pleasure of attending each of our lunches to announce some really BIG news! Kwame Alexander, the most read author of our school, is coming for an author visit on October 2, the day his new book Swing  launches. The first 200 students that log one of his books successfully into our 20 Book Challenge will have the opportunity to be in the Media Center during the visit. Our students freaked out! They were so excited and there has been a buzz all over school since Monday. Student are logging books like crazy.

Friday morning before school I offered a session to our teachers on Grant Writing Basics. I was unsure of it any teachers would show up as it was completely voluntary but they did! We had about 15 teachers show up. I went through a presentation on the basics of it and gave them copies of some grants I had written and they all left with smiles, so I believe it went well.

Right after that I had Mrs. Watkins's classes come in. Her first class of the day is an all ESOL class and they've been reading The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya  which is a great read for them because it has so much Spanish in it and so much Hispanic culture that helps them feel more comfortable and at home. They've really loved it! We pulled out some of our maker space materials and had them build a replica of the restaurant from the story. They could work alone or in a group. They had a blast!

Her other classes have been reading Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and had just finished it. We did a great activity with them that I got from Jarred Amato , the founder of Project Lit Community. The students had to create a 6 word summary of the story that would make people want to read the book but wouldn't spoil the story. They did a really incredible job!

Finally, Saturday, I was able to host our FAME Regional Meeting at Southwest. We gathered together with over 60 other Media Specialists all over the state for a 3 hour professional training. It was so wonderful! WE covered topics like Collection Development, Florida Power Library, the new AASL Standards, and so much more! It was a wonderful way to connect with others on a Saturday.

Overall, we've had an awesome two weeks in the Media Center and I'm really excited to start this week because I have some cool projects coming up that I can't wait to share with you! Stay tuned!