schools – Peaceful Reader

New Beginnings

{Kaylee and Greg}

I’ve learned to love the phrase “When one door closes another will open” even though it has taken on new meaning for me as I’ve grown older. I used to think the door was closed on you and I now see it that sometimes you can be the one to close the door.

We’ve had a few recent and exciting changes in our family. My stepdaughter Kaylee recently graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio and we made the trek across three states to attend this monumental event. My in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law with their young daughter, Sophie made the trip as well. They came from the opposite direction to meet us. We not only celebrated Kaylee’s graduation all weekend but also honored Allen, my father-in-law with a family dinner, a craft-beer tasting and many unique cards for his 80th birthday.

As Kaylee closes the door on her last four years of school she is open to new possibilities of where ever her talents will take her. She is spending the summer in Bar Harbor, MA, working at a local brewery with a group of young people. Over the graduation weekend I watched her explain her choices and stand by her idea that she was seeking adventures that would lead to writing opportunities and not just taking a post-college job. She is an excellent writer and my husband and I feel her stories are strong enough that she will sooner rather than later be paid to write creatively. I look forward to watching her develop even more as a writer as she immerses herself in unique experiences.

And I need to find a way to get to Bar Harbor for a visit. I’ve never been to Maine and I’ve heard it is absolutely one of our prettiest states.

As for myself I’ve recently been hired by a new school district to take the place of their retiring teacher-librarian. I’m very excited about this new opportunity but also scared and thinking “what was I thinking…” Even interviewing was a challenge for me but I made it through. It will be frightening to get to know a new staff. I’m comfortable with the staff at Highland and know the expectations of students, staff, and administration. Getting to know a new place of work, student’s names, reading ranges, and likes will be a big hurdle. I did want to push myself professionally though and to do that I had to close the door on the known.

{Groovy Girl and friends after talent show performance success}

Groovy Girl faces her own doors as she graduated out of her beloved elementary school and is now a 7th grade student at one of our local junior high schools. She is excited for the adventure right now but I know once we hit August her anxiety will build until she walks through those new doors and finds she is capable. Luckily my new elementary is just across the parking lot from her school so we’ll be able to give each other strength as we open the doors on that first morning and the second and the third.

Lots happening in this neck of the woods…
How about you? What new challenges are you tackling over the next few months?

28 Days of Things I Love; #8

(photo credit)

I love what I do every day. I love to help students find the perfect book choice. I love to ask students if they finished the chapter book they are turning in only to be treated to a childish glare that says “of course, I did-I loved it, where’s the next one in the series.” I love to have my kid’s book clubs make remarkable discoveries as they read something like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever, 1793. I had one group this week put together a slide show about yellow fever and the book. It was impressive stuff and secretly it felt good to know that their tech skills came from a library lesson. I love connecting a teacher to a book for a literacy lesson and hearing later that it went great.

As the roles of librarians emerge and change we have a wide array of duties that fit in our hats. We feel, at times, out of place. We can learn a lot from teacher’s collaborative meetings but rarely get the opportunity to go. As our district buys into reading plans we don’t feel needed in a meeting about reading. Our role is ever more crucial to guide students into independent thinking, decision-making, and to nurture life-long readers. It is a struggle to get administrators at the highest level to understand it is much greater and as simple as picking a book. Long live librarians!

School is Out; the Good and the Bad.

(photo courtesy of Mark Lilly’s travel blog)

Our fifth grade students are now 6th graders and won’t be back next year. (Sob) Over the summer they will grow by leaps and bounds, ready to enter middle school and they will search for book clubs! Hurrah. Most of our other students will be back in the Fall, ready to learn more, ready to check-out more books. I worry about many of them over the summer. A few live in households where they will take a vacation, go to the pool, have play dates with friends and have good old summertime fun. Those are not the kids I worry about. Many of our kids have parents who are less-than-involved who will park their kids in front of a television set and go about their business, not caring exactly what parked child is watching or playing.

While I haven’t been to their homes I do listen when they talk and they tell me about movies (starring Freddy and other gruesome things that slash in the night) that I’ve never watched or dream of letting my own kids watch and the same with video games. I worry that these unwatched kids will not get enough food to eat or anyone to greet them in the morning, giving them the kind affirmations that many of our teachers do everyday. Many don’t have bicycles to tool around on or shorts and t-shirts that fit. It all makes me weary. I know many of them won’t have learning opportunities over the summer like my own children will and I wish I could bring many of them home. They don’t have library cards, (sob) which means they won’t know the joy of weekly visits to the library just to show off how many books they read all week!

When we played with sidewalk chalk at school I was amazed at how many kids don’t have this creative and inexpensive tool at home. I wanted to package some up and give it away. I didn’t get it done but I did give away a lot of books to students. I hope they have healthy food to eat over the summer but my second hope is that someone will take the time to read to them sometime during the week.

Thanks for listening to my rambles as I begin my summer, happy, but pensive about the grumpy faces I see everyday who rely on a teacher to cheer them up.