One of the best techniques for improving all our relationships is to acknowledge others.  Saying “thank you” is a natural courtesy, and most of us do it without thinking.  And that’s the problem.  A thank you is a nice gesture, but it doesn’t foster relationship.  Be specific in your thanks.  “I really appreciated your willingness to wait while I finished helping a student,” is much more impactful than “Thanks for waiting.” “It was so thoughtful of you to bring me a copy of the handouts in that session you attended,” means much more than, “Thanks for giving me this.”

Acknowledging others goes beyond thanks. Sometimes it’s as simple as noticing an item of clothing or a new haircut.  Other times it is focused on academic activity such as being noticing when someone does something particularly well and making a comment indicating why you found it noteworthy.

Handwritten messages are an excellent way to acknowledge someone.  We are all so busy, and making time to find a note card, write the message, and put it in a teacher’s mailbox shows caring. The recipient, who is equally busy, will recognize you went the extra mile and remember what you did.

We are all quick to say “good job” when a student does something well, but that too is offhand. Point out what you thought made it such a good job.  Also be aware of those not yet doing “a good job” who feel you only notice those doing well—or those getting into trouble. Saying “I think you are showing such perseverance in using that app.  You are developing a great habit,” shows you are tuned into all students’ “dispositions.”

Focused acknowledgement seems simple, but it requires you to be an active listener and a careful observer. Instead of thinking about what you need to do next, you have to tune into the other person.  In an age where multi-tasking is extolled that centered attention on just one thing is hard.  As with most difficult tasks, practice makes perfect.  Work at acknowledging at least one person every day. In time, you will get so good at it, it will be as natural as a simple thanks.

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Spring also means a break in the school schedule, usually for a week or more. Before you leave, do a bit of spring cleaning of your own.  Your desk is the first place to begin.  It’s amazing how much accumulates over the months school has been in session.  Do the same for the circulation desk.  If at all possible, get as much shelved as possible. Although the custodians will be working for at least some of the time, do what you can to put your library in order.  You will appreciate it when you return.

This is also a good time to clear out old ideas and bring in some fresh ones.  Just as we stop seeing our library the way first-time visitors see it, we tend to become too accustomed to what we teach and the resources we use. Without realizing it, we are failing to refresh approach to teaching and learning.

We know we live in a rapidly changing environment, but are so busy with the day-to-day we don’t realize when a frequently-taught lesson or a tried-and-true resource is no longer get the same level of response from students. A learning experience will not resonate as well with them when you have delivered it so often in the same way, you no longer focus on the outcomes you are trying to achieve.

Nothing ages faster than technology.  It’s easy to keep using a web resource or app you have become familiar with, but there are many others out there that do the same thing.  Is there something better than the one you are using?  Are your students tired of the one they have been using over and over?

Revisit those units. Are the Essential Questions tied to it still the best ones?  Have you fully defined the Learner Outcomes?  Are any (all) part of Common Core Standards?  If not, can you tweak them?

When was the last time you fully explored another way for students to share or present their research?  What can you use that gives them an opportunity to possibly connect globally with others?  Check Twitter and Google+ groups for ideas.  Use some of your vacation time to explore them.  When you return you will have more than a clean desk, you will have a clean perspective on where you want to take students for the rest of the school year.

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 I have no problem with recognizing that habits of mind such as persistence, initiative, and self-direction need to begin early.  I can agree with many aspects of Common Core such as deeper reading, critical thinking, and doing research on focused questions (hopefully Essential Questions promoting inquiry-based learning).  I don’t believe the tests promote those objectives, and I think good teachers have been doing this all along.  Teachers –and librarians—have been blamed for poor student performance when poverty, unsafe schools, and limited access to a print rich environment play a far more significant role.

 Having first graders think about college is not a bad thing in itself.  Just as they know middle and high school will follow elementary school, they should be aware that college is an important next step—although not necessarily a path they all must follow.  What concerns me is the College Readiness mantra permeating all of education.  Our children are becoming automatons programmed in a single direction.  Anything non-academic is being stripped away.

 A kindergarten teacher with twenty-five years’ experience once told me her students know much more than those she had ten years ago—except how to play. We have reverted back to the days when children took on adult work as soon as they were able.  We are eliminating childhood and the cost may be great.

From the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario

 Children learn through play.  You need only to observe the animal world to see the truth of that statement. In play they test themselves, without getting a grade. In play they discover what they enjoy, without pressure.  They follow their interests.  They learn because they want to find out more, not because it is needed for the high stakes test.  Play helps develop a sense of wonder, a vital “skill” every creative person needs.  And creativity is what keeps a society moving forward.  Replicating the past leads to stagnation, not innovation.

 John Dewey, probably the most progressive educator, said early in the last century “There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract. The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts and truths possess educational value in and of themselves is the reason why traditional education reduced the material of education so largely to a diet of predigested materials.” (Experience and Education).  We are still giving students predigested materials and blaming them and the teachers when they are bored and disinterested.

It’s time to give our students back their childhood so we benefit from their adulthood.

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Much as we enjoy the excitement of the season, it’s good to have time to relax, refresh, and rejuvenate. (I seem to be finding a lot of “r” words.) This is the “between time.”  This the quiet period as we celebrate the New Year and get back to our normal daily routines.  Fallow periods are necessary to promote growth.

Take a tip from the ancient Romans who pictured Janus, their god of gates and doors for whom January is named, as having two faces. One looking forward and the other backward.  Before you completely close the gate on 2014, make time to reflect back on the year that ended. Remember the good things that occurred.  Think of the students you helped.  The ones who thanked you, and those who did so without words.  What we do is too important not to acknowledge.  And if we don’t recognize our contribution, how can we expect anyone else to do so.

Even if you keep your acknowledgements to yourself, it will make change the way you interact with teachers and students.  Remember, most communication is non-verbal.  Without being aware of it, our thoughts and attitudes influence how we stand, hold our arms, and walk.  Others pick up on these non-verbal clues. Whether we hold ourselves in high self-esteem or feel downtrodden, we send a message.  Which one do you want to send?

Many people make New Year’s resolutions (another “r” word), and for some this works.  On the whole, good intentions seem to evaporate sometime before January is over. When it happens, the tendency is just to give up—and that is true failure. Rather than resolutions, “re-focus.” Don’t wait until New Year’s Day.  By then you are likely to be bemoaning that winter vacation passed so quickly.  You didn’t do everything you hoped to accomplish, and now you are scrambling to get ready to get back to work.

Make some time and sit down with a pad or tablet, and contemplate what is coming up in the months from January until the end of the school year. What units do your teachers do?  How can you make them a better learning opportunity for students? How can you share that information with teachers?  Are there apps and websites you want to explore to refresh the ways you capture student interest?  Can you find out from your students which ones are exciting them? Now that  school has started back up, you will be busy, but do what you can to make time at the beginning – or the end – of each of your days to check in with your goals and to-do’s.  Each time you do, you’ll reconnect (!) with your passion and continue to be energized and raring to go.

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However, our giving needs to go beyond this.  One of my life lessons is that first and foremost we need to always be mindful to give back to those who are closest to us—our primary partners, our children no matter their age, and the friends who enrich our lives. So many of us are workaholics. Staff cuts and increased job responsibilities, not to mention the demands of Common Core and its testing, are adding stress and often overwork.  Staying very late to complete tasks may be necessary one or two days a week, but not every day. Our jobs are not our lives.  Coming home frazzled, frustrated, and our-of-sorts inevitably means we are not fun to be around and are not “giving” to the relationships that count most. To give back to our family and friends, we need to use the commute home to clear our minds and put the job in a mental compartment not to be opened until tomorrow.

Giving back should also go beyond family.  How are you giving back to your communities?  We are entering the gift-giving season and the shopping it entails is a further drag on our time and energy, but it’s important not to forget we belong to several communities.  Serving on state and national library associations is an important way you give back to those who were there for you when you started out. It’s not enough to just pay your dues.  Even on the national level, the greatest part of the work is done by those librarians who give up their time (and often their money to get to conferences), helping all librarians be recognized for the work they do and giving them tools to do it even better.

You can give the gift of your time in other ways.  Those who serve in soup kitchens and pantries perform a vital service.  Doing free tutoring in the public library being a literacy volunteer uses your expertise to give those in need a chance at a better life.

Supporting favorite charities also gives back.  Money is tight for many of you, but the donation need not be large.  It’s just how you acknowledge there are always others in greater need.  I always find it amazing that those in the direst straights will reach out more quickly to those hit by a disaster than people who have so much more.

I hope you have the chance to spend this holiday with family and friends and take time to think of the ways you do and can give back.

Happy Thanksgiving from me to you.

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It seemed a bit self-indulgent to use this blog to ruminate on procrastinating and feeling lazy, but we all have to deal with days when focusing on tasks seems like very hard work.  How do you turn it around?  What can you do to re-charge yourself?

My first rule is to accept where I am.  Trying to argue myself out of what I am feeling is not going to change anything.  I mentally congratulate me for how much I have accomplished in the past several days.  I earned a bit of a break.  With this mind set, I can enjoy not working for a bit rather than ruin it with self-deprecating thinking.  That only extends the time it takes for me to return to the tasks in hand and makes me unhappy with who I am.

Next rule is to do something I enjoy for a while.  I may take an hour to read or thirty minutes to play solitaire on the computer (a personal addiction) or fool around on my Facebook page.  Do I adhere to the time limit I set?  Not always – particularly if I am playing solitaire.  But after a while the time off feels complete and I am ready to return.

It struck me this has implications for us as librarians on the job.  There are days you are worrying about some personal problems or the commute to work has left you frazzled.  Unless you give yourself a break and acknowledge where you are, you are apt to find the students are acting up and the teachers are being demanding, and basically you feel as though you are always giving and never receiving.

Decide to whatever extent is possible, that at least for a while you will look for the fun.  If you are an elementary librarian, choose a few humorous books for storytime.  With older students try to give a twist to your lessons.  For example, you can point them to this Search Engine List and suggest they try one of the ones they have never used (or heard of) and then compare their results from it with Google. By altering course, you will get back on course more quickly.

And finally, put a smile on your face–even if you don’t feel like smiling.  Others will smile back and it will lift your spirits.

Here’s to putting sunshine back in your life –and mine.

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Librarians talk of informational literacy and digital literacy.  Educators and parents are concerned about financial literacy.  With the emphasis on STEM, there is increased reference to numeric or quantitative literacy.

Another important concerns is Transliteracy. It’s defined as “the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.”  (www.transliteracy.com). In an age of multiple devices and means of connecting with people and sharing information it is certainly a critical skill.

Those dealing with adults also discuss legal literacy and health literacy.  If you have ever tried reading a legal document or dealt with health care policies, the importance of these literacies cannot be denied.  Even college graduates find themselves unable to comprehend all the subtleties of how language is used in those areas.

I recognize the importance of all these literacies and support all that is being done to improve the ability of student and adults to master them.  However, as a member of ALA Committee on Literacy, I am ever mindful of what was once said at a committee meeting, “The house of literacy has many rooms, but the entrance is through text literacy.”

So we return to where we were in the mid-20^th century.  First and foremost, we need to be able to read text.   And the rate of adult illiteracy is shocking.

In the U.S., 14% of adults over 16 read at or below the 5^th grade level, and 29% read at the 8^th grade level. The implications are huge.  Among those with the lowest literacy rate, 49% live below the poverty level. A substantial portion of our prison population is composed of illiterates or low literates. (ProLiteracy)

Although school librarians are highly trained to teach the other literacies mentioned, they also are committed to creating lifelong learners and readers by instilling a love of reading.  The first Common Belief of the AASL Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner is Reading is a window to the world.  It then explains, “Reading is a foundational skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment.”

Students are taught to read in class.  For some, the skill is difficult and they are turned off.  This is the route to illiteracy and low literacy.  In the school library, surrounded by books at all levels, guided by a school librarian, adept at connecting a student with just the right book, students discover that reading can be fun.  We need more, not fewer school librarians.  The wealth of our nation depends on it.

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School librarians continually comment on how overwhelmed they are.  Teachers are saying the same thing.  Common Core and more responsibilities, more students in a class, and unclear new methods evaluation combine to keep you off balance, constantly shifting from one thing to the next.  We aren’t alone. People in many other careers are feeling the same way. Information overload is part of it.  We are connected nearly 24/7 and most of us want the connections.  We Tweet, Post, check apps whenever we have a “free” moment.

Two weeks ago, my blog was on Time Management.  I am skilled at it, but as with everything else in my life, I am not perfect. The past few days have been something of test under fire. I am teaching an online course and we are at capacity for students.  Of course, my schedule had been filled before the course with my normal work.

I realized I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.  Recognizing it was great because then I could begin to deal with it.  First, I looked at what had to get done then determined which tasks were an immediate priority and which could be handled later. There was a lot to do, but it was definitely manageable.

I also remembered what for me was a key lesson in Peter Bregman’s 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. It was to step back and take time away from the tasks.  No matter how crowded my day is, I walk.  If I go to the gym in the morning, I take a long walk (40-60 minutes) in the afternoon.  If I don’t go to the gym, I add in a 20 minute walk to replace it.  I already have a plan to be able to get my walks in when the weather gets bad.  It clears my head, allows me to think or let my mind wander.  I return refreshed and am more productive than if I chained myself to the computer without a break.

And always, family and friends take precedence.  I have lunches with friends. I stop what I am doing when family members come over.  I enjoy the gifts I have in my life.  Work will wait.  And as I said two weeks ago, “everything will get done, it always does.”

What do you do to manage your moments (days, weeks, months) of overwhelm?

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The tasks won’t go away, but they, and your time, can be managed better.  Instead of going through life with a fire extinguisher and duct tape – putting out fires as they come up and patching problems – look at your life and tasks as a whole.  Divide your responsibilities and interests into two –family and friends, and your job.  In both cases you need to remind yourself of your priorities.  List the two or three top ones.  More will drive you crazy.

This is what works for me.

Before you go home each day or first thing in the morning—whatever works best for you—create a list of what needs to be done. (For some this is best done on a weekly basis, for me it’s usually for today and tomorrow.) Pen and paper or digital doesn’t matter.  Again, it needs to meet your needs.  Subdivide them by area.  For example, it might be classes (teaching and preparing), communicating (updating website, blogging, reports to administrators), and, hopefully, outreach (group or person you are targeting for collaboration and/or building a relationship leading to advocacy.  Your personal list covers shopping, time with family (homework with kids, dinner out with spouse), and self-care (exercise, TV-watching, or whatever relaxes you – many of you know of my solitaire addiction).

Place an asterisk next to the two most important items on your list.  Then start your day.  Although you might not get to them immediately, knowing they are most important, you will attend to them. You probably won’t get to everything on your list in the time you allotted.  As noted earlier, too much to do, and too little time to do it and new things are always popping up.  You are likely to find that some you didn’t get to become a high priority a bit down the road.  That’s fine. If you need to, note what got in your way—a teacher or student needing immediate help that takes more time than expected or a crisis at home. Life has a way of upsetting our best plans.

Don’t beat yourself up for what didn’t get done. Look at what you did accomplish.  My life is filled with deadlines.  I have accepted the fact that no matter what I do there are only 24 hours in the day.  I do need to sleep and being sleep deprived makes me less efficient.  Some days I am lazier than others, and that’s OK.  I am human.  And the most important lesson I have learned, is “everything important will get done—it always does.”

Do you have a system that works for you?

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The achievement also has me contemplating the importance of milestones in our lives.  The term goes back to the ancient Romans and refers to the stones placed on the roads they built to let travelers know how far they had come.  For me, it brings to mind the Ursula LeGuinn quote, “It’s good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”  Focusing only on a journey’s end means you miss a lot along the way. Celebrating what you have achieved and reached is far more rewarding.

Birthdays and wedding anniversaries, particularly the decade ones, are familiar life milestones.  So are graduations and reaching a number of years on a job you love.  One big milestone in my life was becoming a lifetime member of Weight Watchers nearly ten years ago.  Since then my milestones come every year as I continue to maintain my nearly fifty-pound weight loss.

Which brings me to my next thought about milestones.  We tend to mark the big ones, but let the little ones slip by unnoticed.  It’s important for all of us to take time to celebrate our achievements, big and small. We spend too much time focusing on what we haven’t done.  Looking at our accomplishments is what motivates us to move forward, taking risks when necessary.

Setting small achievable goals, (a Weight Watcher maxim), is a good way to discover what you can do and how good it feels to acknowledge your success.  With the stresses in today’s school environment, it is easy to be overwhelmed and feel you are not accomplishing anything.  Pick one thing that will get you closer to your vision for your program or what you really want it to look like.  Perhaps have an online book club for students. Work with one teacher on a project.  Whatever it is, focus on that small goal.  Then when you achieve it, celebrate it as a milestone on your journey.

So, what milestone have you recently achieved or are remembering?  Any you plan to reach before the end of the year?

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