The Courage to Brand: The Courage to Connect

Allow me to paint a picture. 5 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning. I’m wide awake…and have been since three. I’ve checked in with every socially-type medium I have available—Twitter, Google+, graduate course message boards, text (apologies to those of you who sleep with your ringer on), email—I’d extinguished my outlets. So I start thinking about this amazing group of people I met yesterday and some of the things I took from them and decided that no time like the present; I might as well go for an early morning walk...the first in over a year. And then I think, “Why stop there?” After downloading a couch25K jogging app and my latest audiobookcheckout from the FortWorth Public Library, I hop out of bed, eagerly shove myself into my latest Under Armor, attach my armband phone holder (complete with phone and earbuds), and fling open my front door….

Rain. Downpour. Not kidding.

As I’m making a numberless lap around my cul-de-sac somewhere along my third cycle of jog-60-seconds-walk-90-seconds—rain-soaked and huffing—the irony of the morning struck me as a perfect metaphor for my recent, two-year personal/professional (whatever) development journey. Isn’t that like most hard things? We eagerly dress the part, prepare as best we can, greet it head on…and then there’s a moment…when it all looks really big and really scary and really daunting…and we think, “Wouldn’t it just be best to go back to bed?”

Last week, I participated in a Digital-Age Learning training with the instructional and technology coaches and fellow librarians in my district. What was designed as a two-day training was packed into a few hours, my favorite of which was devoted to professional branding. Call it dumb luck or Divine Intervention, but in this hour, I happened to pick this TedTalk to watch, summarize, and present to my fellow trainees. What was meant to be a talk about branding for me translated into connection, which is what it’s all about for me.

In the spirit of professionalism and building an audience, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the idea of maintaining multiple online presences, but there’s a part of me—a rather large part actually—that feels like that’s just not authentic. For me, whether its personal or professional (teacher-librarian-counselor-editor-writer), it’s all about connection. For a long time, I’ve not been willing to put that out there professionally. As Brene Brown says in Daring Greatly, the more relatable we are the less credentialed people think we are—but why?

Connection and relationship are what the business of education is all about. (Don’t believe me; try teaching Shakespeare to 25 teenagers without a relationship and see how far you get.) It doesn’t matter how good we look on paper if we’re not teaching students how to connect with the best version of themselves they can possibly be, thereby generating the best possible relationships with others they can possibly have. And if we’re not modeling authentic connection and relationship with others on our campus (students, teachers, admin), how can we hope to meaningfully impact students?    

Connection is hard, especially in the beginning. It’s the rain on an Easter morning when the hope of a new runner emerges. But we.can.do.hard.things. Go on. Measure the benefits. Dare Greatly. Connect… 

Fun Projects in The Cube Today!

The Cube was busy this morning with Mr. Ivey's AP World History students comparing CHS across the decades.  It was fun to see them completely engaged in meaningful group discussion, working on how Castleberry High School has changed and stayed the same since the 1950s.

Mrs. Stansbury's students found the auditorium distracting this morning as it served as the holding room for students whose teachers were benchmarking testing.  They happily found a comfortable place in The Cube and enjoyed the rest of their class period.

I had a great time helping Mrs. Hancock's senior English classes this morning with their fun fairy tale mashup blog assignment. Students were uploading PowerPoint presentations into Emaze and then linking their Emaze presentation to their blog. Students who chose to present their stories in MS Word learned how to access their Gaggle digital locker and import their finished project into their Gaggle blog.

The Cube: Full Throttle

Wow...it's 7th period...passing period actually...and a brief reprieve...a calm before the inevitable storm. We've hosted 13 classes today...THIRTEEN classes!!! Not to mention the 200+ kids who enjoyed lunch here, worked on independent projects, checked out weekend reads, or simply just came to be for awhile. It's been fun...amazing really. One SMARTboard and the conference room TVs have all been utilized as projectors, teaching aides, and make-shift news screens. The MakerSpace supplies constructed 18th century civilizations and drew BabyMamas and Daddys. (I'm not sure what all that's about, so don't bother asking). The FlexLab was a revolving door of students finishing Flowers for Algernon projects and working on math models. A few teachers found a quiet landing space in the Castlebucks Cafe during conference periods, and many have enjoyed the bounty of the Cafe's coffee supply.

My head is spinning...quite literally.

Four times today teachers said to me, "Wow! You really have a full house in here!" as they looked around in wonder.

Kids love it. Teachers love it. I love it.

I'm verklempt actually...sincerely. I've blinked back tears.

This...THIS...is what I dreamed about when I became a school librarian--a revolving door of teachers, students, administrators, and visitors just coming to check it all out. It's fun! It's overwhelming! It's exhausting! It's absolutely amazing!!

Here's a taste...albeit small...of today's happenings in The Cube...

 

Experience New

We just launched our first display in our new space:

Experience New: Walk a Mile in Others’ Shoes!

I thought with the new year and being in a new space and all that theme of new was apropos––be it though somewhat cliché. We’re focusing on memoir and narrative biography—storytelling at its best…storytelling that elicits a “NO WAY!!!” response …but then “yes way…” because it’s totally true...and it's unbelievable!

It seemed like a no-brainer at the time, but now that it’s up--surrounded by generously donated faculty shoes that have obviously walked a mile or two--I think it profound. It is a cliché…think you have it bad? Just walk a mile or two in their shoes…something we as teachers, parents, friends have said to attempt to cheer someone up, pull them out of the pity pit, offer a pat on the back…but the hidden message here is:

E*M*P*A*T*H*Y

Surface-level fun, it’s a weighty display. Filled with struggles for basic human rights; searches to find oneself among a world of imposters; battles with illnesses, families, societies…

It’s a display that calls the reader to enter the struggle, join the search, take up the cause.

It’s a display that, truly embraced, can teach more than what’s contained within the curriculum or tested at the end of the year.

EMPATHY.

We’re all attracted to it; few offer it.

Schedule some empathic practice time. Come to The Cube. Pick some new shoes. And get to walkin’.

empathy.

Walk the road less traveled. In this RSA Short (less than 3 minutes), Dr. Brene Brown offers insight on the differences between empathy and sympathy.

Checking for Understanding

I listened in last week’s faculty meeting to strategies for checking understanding—thumbs up, thumbs down, and thumbs out to the side; green cup, red cup, yellow cup; etc. I listened…actively and intently.

Meanwhile, the vision playing out in my head was of my second-grade classroom where my classmates and I were all excited at the prospect of a rousing game of Thumbs Up, 7-Up. There we sat, heads down and thumbs up…desperately trying to keep our eyes closed to avoid any assumption of cheating...or perhaps we were desperately trying to cheat while avoiding any suspicions…nonetheless…there we sat, and there we played. Thanks to the mention of Solo cups, this memory was serenaded by the melodic sounds of Toby Keith in the backdrop.

Such is life in my head….

During the Solo/Thumbs conversation, it was also mentioned that teachers should be checking for understanding every 8-10 minutes and covering each student—not just accepting the loudest student’s feedback as a representation of the entire group—hence the Solo/Thumbs suggestion. 

Imagining my own classroom, I’m fairly certain I was guilty of letting my top students speak for the entire group when I asked if everyone was ok with the subject matter. Moreover, I didn’t check for understanding every ten minutes, and I certainly didn’t play Thumb Cups. I wish I would have.  

A few hours after first hearing this information, I sat in front of a computer in a graduate statistics course; it might as well have been a foreign language class. Since none of these students (myself included) are mathematicians, instruction was slow and methodical, and the professor checked for understanding after each step. Unfortunately, like the classroom teacher version of me, she’d never been introduced to Solo/Thumbs. “Is everyone ok,” she would say every time. And every time, the same girl in the fourth row answered, “We’re good.” Had I had a Solo cup, I might have thrown it at her head.

Since no cup of any color was readily available and no one asked to see my thumb, I sat there in dumbed silence, quietly struggling. Truth be told, I probably wasn’t alone in my suffering, but since it didn’t seem like anyone was particularly interested if *I* was ok or if *we* were each ok, we all sat alone, isolated, thinking we were the ONLY one who wasn’t in Camp Good with fourth-row girl.

Bottom line: I’m now a hard-core believer in Green Thumbs or Side Cups or whatever strategy relays the message that I’m not ok…not sort’ve, not remotely, not near. Students of all ages—4, 14, 24, 34—need to know that their teachers care if they’re ok…not just if fourth-row girl is ok. I imagine the learning in that classroom would have been exponentially enhanced had my professor had an accurate reflection of each student's understanding.

Checking for understanding allows students to feel comfortable with not understanding. It creates an environment that says, "Hey! It's ok if you're not really getting it. Let's work on it more together. You'll get there." It's nonthreatening and not intimidating, and it's an essential practice for today's students in today's classrooms.

So let's practice....

HEADS DOWN, EVERYONE!

References

Nguyen, L. (2013, March 8). Thumbs up, seven up. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lnguyen/8540310031/ 

September @ the LLC

Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow: Why Student Library Patrons are Tomorrow's Leaders

ALA Leadership Institute, Winter 2014

I saw a video today of a young child posing the question, “Why would anyone want to go there?” in response to a statement that people went to libraries to first use computers because they weren’t economical to own personally. It was meant to be humorous. Everyone laughed. Even I chuckled. I know the intent, but I admit I felt a sting of sadness.

It’s disheartening that a child so young—traditionally the time in life when libraries are loved most—would question the pleasures afforded her through the library. Why would she love the library? Because nowhere else can she ride on a giant red dog, partake in mischief with a curious monkey, or go to school with a cool cat wearing colored shoes and big groovy buttons—all for free. In a society that largely fails to celebrate childhood, that a child anywhere should miss out on feeling the warm embrace of her librarian’s smile as she opens the door to wonder, imagination, and enchantment is a grave misfortune to me…and one worthy of a moment’s silence…and a call to action.

 At the end of the day—at the end of the sting and the sadness—that little girl’s question left me empowered. Our district rallies around librarians because they know we’re important. I impact student learning because I have the privilege of welcoming every kid—every time. In my library, kids matter because they’re kids—not because they’re elected, not because they perform, not because they’re good at fill-in-the-blank. Rita Pierson said, “No significant learning takes place without a significant relationship.” I have nothing but relationship to offer kids—relationship to others, relationship to resources, relationship to knowledge, and relationship to success.

My kids become tomorrow’s leaders because my kids learn today that they make a difference. Without student patrons, school libraries cease to be important; without tomorrow’s leaders, school libraries become purposeless. My kids become tomorrow’s leaders because they learn today that even if they don’t have the answer, someone somewhere does—an author, a tweeter, a blogger, a journalist—and I teach them how to seek out that information. I teach them to navigate the mangled portals of today’s information highways. My kids become tomorrow’s leaders because in my library they learn today that everybody belongs, everybody makes a difference, everybody has a purpose. In my library, no one’s judging, no one’s grading, no one’s scoring; everyone’s welcome.

According to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) website, “Simply being able to use technology is no longer enough. Today's students need to be able to use technology to analyze, learn and explore. Digital age skills are vital for preparing students to work, live and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities.” ISTE offers six standards for 21st century students: creativity and innovation; communication and collaboration; research and information fluency; critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making; digital citizenship; and technology operations and concepts. My library offers opportunities for students to explore each facet of 21st century learning. So in answer to why would anyone want to go to the library…“To learn today, little girl, to lead tomorrow. Come to the library to learn to lead.”