After the Winds of Change

Today I am as happy as a clam; which is appropriate considering I had one of the best hikes this morning down at Keana Point, located on the north shore of Oahu.  My daughters (Kaydence and Addison) and I hit the sea shell and sea glass jackpot.  We figured after Tropical storm Darby the sea shells would be plentiful; and my were they!  Sea glass and sea shells were plentiful and Kaydence was amazed that she found one of the rarest colors of sea glass (red or garnet colored).

In addition to our exciting and vigorous hike, I have officially secured my spot at the University of Syracuse for their Certificate of Advanced Study in School Library Media.  I have been waiting patiently for a couple weeks for my intent to register card to come either in the mail or via email.  Of course, being the scatter brain I can sometimes be, I neglected to look in my spam folder (I must make sure I always check it, so that emails do not get overlooked).

Besides all this exciting news I was asked by Michelle Colte (Head librarian at Daniel K. Inouye Elementary and 2015-2016 School Librarian of the Year Recipient) to present next week August 4th at the Oahu Library Conference.  This is my first time presenting at a conference here on Oahu.  I really enjoy public speaking and I am starting to get pumped up about it.  I will be taking over a presentation that was supposed to be done by another librarian.  I feel kind of bad that the librarian will not be able to speak about the presentation she already created.  However, I feel that I will do a good job with it, and hopefully do her presentation justice.  I may not be as knowledgeable about the program, since last year was first year being exposed to it, but I figure I will give it a go and start trying to get my name out there!  I love that everything is falling into place.  

Why Blog?

Why blog?  It's a simple question, right?  One that many people can answer in a short paragraph. Ha!  Not this lady!  I'll be completely honest.  Blogging has never been appealing to me.  I thought it was a just a fruitless activity that never brought about change.  It was just an activity that highly opinionated or people who loved the sound of their own voice did.

However, upon attending educational conferences and doing some research on my own of various topics, my perception of blogging began to shift from a negative to a positive.  I began to see that a blog could be a great way to create connections with fellow librarians and educators.  So, back to the original question.  Why blog?  What do I plan to accomplish by documenting my shifting perspective through written and visual correspondences?  That's easy and here is how I have broken down.

The Big Question: Why Blog?

1.  The main focus of this blog is to document the ideas and experiences that I hope will take place during my journey from academic librarianship to school librarianship.  Experiences have already taken place.  For instance, I have had the pleasure of working at Daniel K. Inouye Elementary School for the past 10 months.  While working I have been able to meet and work with an amazing school librarian, Michelle Colte, and participate in the school's Makerspace.  Through the Makerspace, our after-school program (Crafternoons), and our student-led activity (Lunch Time Pop-Ups), students at Inouye have been able to make meaningful connections between classroom lesson content and its application through creativity.

2.  The second big reason to start this blog is get my name out in social media so that I can begin networking.  My primary goal for networking is to gain insight into the school librarianship field and to bounce around ideas for library lessons, technology, Makerspaces, Project Based Learning, the design thinking cycle, and resources that could be used either now or in the future.

3.  My third reason for setting up this blog is to transpose ideas and research strategies from the academic level down to school libraries.  I remember when I was in graduate school my classmates and I would always talk about incoming freshmen not being able to preform adequate searches to find the answers they needed to their research questions.  This got me thinking..."Why are we not concentrating on teaching children adequate research strategies that they can carry with them throughout their educational careers?"  

Research is especially important in today's technological climate.  With children constantly be bombarded with new technology and information students need proper research skills in order to be able to properly decipher from fact and opinion. They need the proper skills to be able to ask questions that are not only meaningful, but will eventually lead them to the answer.  This can only be done by school librarians breaking down academic research strategies into step-by-step processes that librarians can either use during research instruction or librarians can teach through professional development to teachers.

This past year has definitely been a turning point in my life and hopefully this blog will help me to fulfill the goals that I've stated above.  Check back soon for my next blog.  Perhaps I will get more into some of the shifting perspectives I've been noticing in my short time in education.  However, I may choose to write about something different.  Either way, having more people experience and provide input during this journey will make it more worthwhile and fun!