 Happy Almost New Year! This week we are reposting a timely blog post from last year: Forget the New Year's Resolution; Try a Teaching Intention. I believe that if you are looking to inspire your teaching practice that this is a helpful approach. This year my intention is to teach each and every second with empathy. Life is so complicated; and every interaction with kids and our community counts. I want each child to know that I see them as an individual, with their own story and their own set of circumstances.
So what will be your teaching intention for 2018? Read the post, share, and let us know what your teacher intention is. We'd love to hear from you!
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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.
 Summer's here...or almost here for most of us! That's right, in Northern Virginia school is STILL in session! Just three more days! We've got sunshine, flip-flops, beach books, and of course, professional development on our minds. It's important to take time in the summer to focus on our professional practice so that we can come back to school in August, prepped and ready to engage with our new students.
This week we are thrilled to have our pointers for finding ways to reflect, reach out and re-imagine featured on the ASCD Inservice blog. How will you recharge this summer?  I wish the standardized tests would go away.
I try in my teaching and learning to assume best intentions. I believe (or most days I want to believe) that the government officials who dreamed up standardized tests did so to ensure that teachers were doing their jobs and not turning a blind eye to the needs in front of them. That pains me because the vast majority of teachers I know are professionals who work tirelessly to help all students learn and they don't require a standardized test to push them to do their jobs. But I also know that in many school districts progress isn't being made and that these tests are an attempt to make sure all kids get the education they so rightly deserve.  Branding has come up recently in education, largely due to the April publication of a book written by Eric Sheninger and Trish Rubin called BrandED: Tell Your Story, Build Relationships, and Empower Learning. I have long been fascinated by brands and branding, perhaps driven by the time I spent working as a librarian at an advertising agency and later at a big pharmaceutical and consumer goods company. I love the idea of bringing branding into schools and building a professional brand. And, I find it makes such logical sense as the director of a library program because our goals so closely align with the purpose of branding: We need to share our library story, communicate our messaging, and build relationships.
But I get concerned when I hear that someone wants to be a librarian because they are tired of teaching, because they want a desk job, because it's less work. Because, well, it isn't. Every level is different -- I speak with the voice of a middle school librarian. And I really want you to join this magical field, but I want you to do it for the right reasons.
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