You've heard me say it before. Being a librarian is the best job in the building. One reason why is that librarians are in a unique position to impact instruction because we are the only teachers in the building who have the opportunity to teach every student across every content area and every academic level. This means that at various points in the year we co-teach math. This can be challenging for librarians because we don't always think of the math team as natural library collaborators. However, at Kilmer our math department includes some of our most open and willing partners with whom we have worked on a number of fun instructional activities. Check out some of the ways we have supported our math curriculum.

This week our Take5 has a bit of a library focus (surprise: I'm a librarian!), but There are take-aways for classroom teachers as well. Strong school library Instagram accounts and great read-alouds, meaningful makerspaces, a fun inquiry activity, and creating a menu of lessons -- check it out and share what's been sparking your interest!

Strong, instructionally-focused school library programs are not shush-y places. They are loud, vibrant, and dynamic. Their librarians barely sit down during the course of a day -- juggling a whole range of classes, tasks, meetings, and responsibilities. And still, the perception persists that libraries are quiet and still. How do we break this stereotype? How do we provide evidence of the work we do each and every day? One answer is #LibraryHourbyHour.

I strongly believe that these three big ideas can help all school librarians improve their teaching practice and in doing so, help improve the lives of the learners and teachers who visit their libraries to learn, read, dream, inquire, collaborate and create. I hope that if you missed the conference that this reflection post can help bring you up to speed. If you were able to attend the conference, I'd love to hear about your major take-aways.

Our school (and in fact, our whole district) has had a strong focus on literacy over the past two years. Our literacy team's goal is to highlight the literacy instruction that occurs across the curriculum, not simply in our English and Social Studies classes, but also in Science, Math, and our electives. We work to bring easy-to-use literacy strategies and tools to our teachers that they will be able to immediately implement in their classrooms. One of the building blocks of our literacy plan is providing accessible text for our students in all disciplines. This is often a challenge -- we want to make sure that ALL of our students have access to a rigorous curriculum. So, what are some "go-to" sources for supporting readers across levels?