Blessed to Teach and Read

I took a full school year off from this blog, because it finally happened - I was taken out of the full-day, fixed specials schedule last year and scaled back to just 5th grade specials, every other day, every other 6 weeks!  My media specialist dreams came true! 😍  The joy of actually collaborating with teachers to provide lessons that were authentic, engaging, and timely for our students was phenomenal!  I was able to implement ideas as I discovered them, like How to Catch STEAM Week  for 1st and 4th grade classes and Very Hungry Caterpillar Day for kindergarten!   I had time to start reorganizing our picture book section to make it more user-friendly for students and to promote different series.  I was able to see all of our K-2 students  every week   for a read aloud, book checkout and activities!  Our library could accommodate teachers who wanted to use the space to read to their students or have class in a room that wasn't the...

It's not abnormal for me to only post twice a year, but this school year, I purposefully took a hiatus from this blog.  I took a step back from trying to maintain this piece of my library program along with my monthly, library newsletter, because I wasn't going to keep putting work before my family.  I took self-care seriously as we rolled into the 2021-2022 school year, and set some boundaries that I hope to maintain, should we ever get out of this pandemic.   First semester, I do have to share that I had the students make the most beautiful Dot Day display that we have ever made!  I bought and gave each student a small, round, paper plate.  The only instructions I gave were to choose a color family and be creative.  Thanks to the help of a couple of substitutes and several 5th grade helpers (Castle Apprentices), I was able to get the whole thing taped to the walls.  Several teachers begged me to leave the display up for after fall break, so I di...