Category: Uncategorized

  • A Reading Life: Making Our Literacy Traditions Explicit to the Children We Teach by Dorothy Suskind

    A Reading Life: Making Our Literacy Traditions Explicit to the Children We Teach by Dorothy Suskind

    Originally posted on Nerdy Book Club: ? Children do not become readers because we tell them to read, but because we immerse them inside of our own reading lives and invite them to create their own. These immersions charge us, as teachers and readers, to tell the story of our roads to reading, detail our…

  • Rule 1: Compassion

    When I graduated in May 2014, I adjusted my tagline to “Reports from the intersection of library & information science, education, and lifelong learning.” I thought that change would help me focus my writing. What it actually did was trip me up and stop me from writing about things that were important to me. I am…

  • Booked!

    I have a rare, quiet moment this afternoon–not long enough to dive into anything deep and philosophical, but long enough to share a little bit about how we celebrated the freedom to read in our school in September. Inspired by Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, we caught the attention of our students and teachers by setting the…

  • Hitting the Ground Running

    I’m taking a quick breath after my first few weeks as a High School Media Specialist to reflect, and I know one thing for sure–I need more comfortable shoes. We hit the ground running before school started, and we aren’t slowing down any time soon. I begin my commute home each day feeling like a wrung-out sponge, but by the time I arrive at my…

  • Investigating Art & Society

    My MoMA MOOC, Take 2 I loved the Art & Inquiry course offered by MoMA on Coursera so much that I signed up for another MoMA MOOC. I recently finished Art & Activity, and found it just as inspiring and engaging. This time around, I focused on working with secondary students in my projects to…

  • Things To Do in Library School

    I originally posted the heart of these observations in a Facebook conversation in 2013–I’ve reworked and edited them to share here because they are based on what I have seen and experienced as Best Practices. Earning an MSLIS requires a considerable investment of time, effort, and expense. It only makes sense to get the most out…

  • What makes your heart sing?

    I had an NPR Parking Lot Moment this morning. I was listening to a talk show guest describe the way he coached his clients to connect with audiences by communicating authentically, briefly, and with passion. He spoke about preparing people he worked with to become more effective speakers by asking them questions inspired by Steve…

  • This is a Library

    Originally posted on Dog-eared & Overdue:    What’s a library? This is about the Carthage Free Library. I’d love to hear about your public, academic, or special library. My library is located in a charming building on Budd Street, but its services are at the Farmer’s Market, the school gym, and anywhere the community gathers. My…

  • Advocate, Don’t Whine

    Dear School Librarians and Fellow Future School Librarians, We are better than this. We are educators and information specialists, and we need to stop comparing ourselves to Internet search engines. I agree with everything this constantly circulated graphic says about what librarians do. However, I hate that the focus of the message shifts in one…

  • TURI KUMWE: We are Together

    This summer, I took a Youth Services in Library Environments course that included a one-week residency at Syracuse University. In the class were the usual mix I’ve come to expect in my library & information science classes at the iSchool–a wonderful mix of students from around the country who represent a wide variety ages, backgrounds,…