mr. schu | the barefoot librarian

Speaking of life-long learning….I am learning that I am spending WAY more time reading wonderful blogs these days, than I am trying to build my own blog. When I first began blogging in 2006, I had a captive audience (of eighteen!!!) students AND their parents, (wow, we’re up to nearly 60 now) including my principal, oh and my mother of course!

While I’d love my blog to have a wider readership now that I am working with more like 1,000 people a week once you add students, parents, staff and a few of you ‘out there’; I’m starting to realise I don’t have the skills to engender a decent ‘fan-base’… My writing has not been good enough to warrant people coming back for more; I lack regularity and focus, and I don’t express my opinion as much; I deliver information, but I sit on the fence about it.

One of the places I head to first when looking for book ideas is to Mia at Pragmatic Mom as she always has so many excellent lists. There are also of course masters I’ve followed for a long time like Mr. Schu at Watch. Connect. Read and Colby Sharp and the great gang of four, Donalynn Miller, Cindy Minnich, Katherine Sokolowski and Colby Sharp over at Nerdy Book Club. I LOVE reading these blogs and many others, I spend hours a week reading reviews, learning about new books, perusing best book lists and watching great book trailers and author interviews.

So this paragraph should be about my new goals, how I am going to make my ‘Rocky-style’ comeback and start delivering, start fresh, begin again and be better and brighter than I was back in my 2008 blogging hey-day. Nahhhhhhh, just can’t get my head around it right now.

I’m totally nuts over reading the other amazing posts people have to offer, and at some point, the urge will come to become one of them. Until then…

Check out these great photos from the library this month. We’ve been having a ball promoting Newbery and Caldecott like crazy; chatting, sharing, reading and tallying our results…Voting started today and finishes Monday (American Sunday) in time to be calculated and announced after the big reveal on February 2nd.

http://videonew.saschina.org/player/pak_player/pakplayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fvideonew.saschina.org%2Fplayer%2Fpak_player%2Fembed_player.php%3Fvid%3D11549%26json%3Dtrue%26autoplay%3Dno

A conversation was started on Twitter to share the stories of how librarians found their way to being in a library. Our paths are diverse, but we share a common thread.

Here’s why I became a librarian…

With one of the most amazing Elementary School Libraries in the world on my radar, I set my sights on becoming a librarian because I love telling stories, and recognise the joy people of all ages, not just children, experience when they are drawn in to a great book. After teaching middle and high school students for ten years in Australia, and 5th graders for seven years in Shanghai, I was fortunate that I tossed a coin for studying to be a counsellor or a librarian and the librarian coin won. While continuing to teach 5th grade I completed the five courses necessary for a certificate as a K-12 Library Media Specialist and my dream job became available as I started my practicum.

Now with almost two whole wonderfully exciting years under my library belt, I’m inspired on a daily basis by my students’ enthusiasm, the beautiful picture books that just keep coming out, and the slew of amazing librarians around the world who continue to deliver delicious stories to children.