Skip to main content

September 5, 2021


I have three schools in my life this school year! I am the library media and ed tech specialist at Fairfield Center School and the librarian at St. Albans City School. I am finishing up my first week of my second library media specialist class at the University of Vermont and my third week in this split role in elementary education.  Both of these schools vary greatly in size but both serve grades PreK-8. And still I am attending the University of Vermont! 💚💛 This gif is what I feel like my husband, family, friends & the registrar staff at the UVM must be saying about my school career there. 😂  I have been going to UVM since 2002.  19 years.  And I think everyone is still waiting for me to be finished with my learning there.  What maybe they don't realize and most educators do though is that our learning is NEVER done.  

My journey has been formative and truly exciting. For the first 14 years of my career I was a classroom teacher with a heavy focus on literacy, I then became a literacy coach during the pandemic school year.  I also received my ed tech specialist endorsement last year from the VT DOE after completing that series at UVM and am now beginning my path to become a library media specialist.  I do think that all of these experiences are going to be an advantage to my professional learning and support me in becoming a librarian.  I am so excited to begin the journey as it has always been my secret dream job!

Truth is, I love college.  I love learning and I love UVM.  At times though it is hard to believe that I am still balancing classwork, housework, schoolwork, and relationship work on a daily basis.  Sometimes it feels like too much.  But then I remember that learning is power.  That I will be the "heart of the school"in two educational hubs as described on DrMisChannel after completing this new track in obtaining licensure in library media. 

Although I was not technically the librarian this year (neither school had oneUndecided) , I did purchase books for the space and helped students check in/out of the library on top of my literacy coaching responsibilities...to say the least, it was a BUSY school year.   It's also what led me to realize I wanted to switch my focus back to students.   I'm looking forward to learning more about how to manage these learning hubs more effectively, efficiently, and thoughtfully in my current class at UVM.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

One final reflection..

It is hard to believe that this is my final reflection and an end to the coursework to obtain my ed-tech specialist endorsement.  For three years I have been working towards gaining expertise and knowledge and skills and an understanding.  My pedagogy has shifted, my focus too.  When I began this journey, I intended to work towards becoming a STEAM teacher.  I wanted to teach kids about technology.  Now, I will be working mostly with adults as a coach and I have never felt more prepared than I do right now. Not only has a pandemic ravaged our world, but our roles in education have also shifted and changed in an instant.  It is only because of the last three years of graduate courses that I have taken that I have felt solidly prepared for this challenge.   If you had asked me two weeks ago how I was doing, I might have said awful.  This is a very different response for me because typically, I am lighthearted and energetic ...

Connected Learner and Coach (Reflection 1 EDCI 325)

Welcome Back! My professor asked us to indicate our Twitter use very early on in our EDCI 325 course.  I identified as a user, but not exactly a part of my everyday life. At the time, I had limited use and truly only tweeted and engaged on occasions that I wanted to appear connected with technology.  It was more for show and not for learning. I can now say that because of this course, I see how my PLN communities (all thanks to Twitter) will be invaluable resources for my next adventure in the world of education.   It began with the mandatory book study and what was seemingly the least time-consuming assignment that I had been given.  I’ll read a chapter or two a week, give a couple of short responses, and that piece of the course would be an easy thing to check off.  Boy, was I wrong! This assignment created a playground for me in my professional learning and keeps leading me to new and exciting opportunities.  I have been engaging with expe...

EDLI 372 Final Reflection

T he learning that was created for me with this course has been absolutely invaluable.  Through the course projects, our gifted professor and guest speakers, all students enrolled were able to leave with a better understanding of what it takes to lead a school library program. It showed me how collaboration with colleagues across the district can create much needed changes in our policies and procedures and have plans to develop those lacking areas this year.  The text book that we purchase was inspiring and gave me actionable steps to managing the school library including collection developments and developing relationships with staff and patrons.  The discussions and assignments motivated me to implement ideas immediately into our library programming.    Flexibility and understanding by our instructor, Judith Kaplan, were commendable during this course.  For many of us, this was absolutely the toughest year in education.  I have b...