No Really, Being a Teacher Librarian is Like Selling Tupperware!

It’s like selling Tupperware!

Seriously. 

I sold Tupperware in Virginia and North Carolina. And if I say it myself, I was good. I mean, national numbers good. I mean free vehicles and Alaskan cruise good. To this day I’ll praise understanding the ‘game’ and having an amazing product. I understood that it wasn’t about selling a ton of plastic product, it was about helping my host to bring as many people to the party as possible.  I realized that teaching people about why Tupperware was created and why it was so superior to other products would interest and engage guests. I saw that generosity and good humor, educating and always utilizing exemplary customer service, brought and kept me, clients, earned me referrals, and created a client base that would almost literally do anything for me. 

💙💙💙

The environment was far beyond the product - although nothing would have worked with a poor item to sell.

When people tell me I’m a good salesperson, I disagree.  A good salesperson can sell people things they don’t want or need. I can’t do that.  What I was good at was determining a need and helping the clients to find a way to get what they wanted. 

It really isn’t that different from what I do now.  

My number one goal is to get kids in the door (bring them to the party). Once they are there, we build relationships, host fun activities, listen to their needs, help them to get the experience they want … and then they come back. 

📚📚📚

Take my non-reader who wanted our missing Pelé book.  It was all he wanted. But it was lost. So I bought a copy on Amazon, sent a message to his teacher, and when he came bursting in, full of excitement, we celebrated together

He’s a frequent flyer now 🎉🎉🎉 

Which reminds me, I must get more books about soccer ⚽️

I have a great product - books.  Books of every variety. So, I find out the needs, make the match, and they come back for more.  

When I sold Tupperware, I had great success with a product called Modular Mates.  Modular storage to custom fit to your cabinet. Keeps all dry good fresh and looks good too!  I offered free customizations, special sets, “BOGO” and anything else to get people started with it.  Because, believe me - once you have your food in Modular Mates, nothing else would do.

Great product, personalized to your needs - how can you not want more?  

Books or Tupperware.  Party or MLC.  The goals, the message, and the eventual wins are all coming from the same desire. To help people have fun and to make their lives better with a great product. 

Selling reading. Selling Tupperware. Selling books. Selling a way to keep food fresh. 

Selling joy

 🤩  🤩  🤩 

2023 Here I Come!

Today has been a day full of reflection - and I was just thinking about how stoked I am for the rest of 2023! It's started well, and we are well on the way to so many wonderful moments.

First of all, there is the personal...

Mum will be finally allowed in the US in soon. Sure, lots of tough paperwork, International tax rules & money exchange, and healthcare horrors ahead, but all that really matters is that she will be here. Her medical has been completed (with the odd scare and additional X-Ray to stop us from feeling too relaxed about anything). Her Embassy interview is done. Lots of prayers were being said, and it was with oodles of relief to hear that the U.S. government sees fit to allow this 90-year-old to be with her daughter!  Heck, she’ll be 91 by the time she can move 🎂. She will be on her way as soon as the stamped passport arrives and flight is booked!  

It will be so much easier to look after her and control things with her here. And poor Aunt Shirley - her 87-year-old sister - is really too old to be trying to cope with this now. 

We have our Goodison trip planned for and paid for in early April 💙. Ben (my 27-year-old son) has his first Everton Football Club home game to see, and we get to do all sorts of amazing things with the team and other North American Toffees - and we can’t wait!  It’s going to be so cool staying in a hotel in my city and just being there for that one focus - not family, just my football family. And a few friends too. Now the team itself is imploding, and it’s one bad news report after another … but hey!  That’s Everton for you.

Then in the summer, AUSTRALIA beckons!  Finally, some time with our daughter - Covid scuppered my last trip, and that means I don’t even want to think about how long it’s been since I saw my kid! I miss my girl every day, and this will be a balm to my heart to be with her again. Having to be reimbursed for those tickets was awful, and for a while there, I thought it would never happen. But here we are, planning our Perth-Rottnest-Margaret River adventures! 🦘🍷

And then there is work...

The MLC 📚has become a love affair, and I can’t wait to be back there in January helping kids find books and joy in our space 🥰. How magical can I make it 🪄?  So many ideas and goals - and ways to listen to and work with kids. 

2023, I’m ready.

Is it any wonder that my #oneword for 2023 is #celebrate ?!

New Year ~ New Set Up

Celebrating our First Semester as the MLC

Celebrating! 

It was a semester filled with goals and excitement - now it's time to roll on to the next set of ideas and goals!

We started with the teacher hub and ended with the World Cup - and there was so much fun in between! 

Now, it's time to relax over the holidays and celebrate what we've achieved...as I plan for January and beyond!

Second Semester Student Goals

• Earn brag tags after reading and sharing your thinking!

• Collect stamps in your reading passport and be celebrated!

• Be on the BBC!  Join Mrs. Bryson on video and share thinking about your book.

• Have lunch with Mrs. B.

MLC Plans

• Time to genrefy the nonfiction area
• Moving books around so that they are easier to find - and more engagingly displayed - think Barnes & Noble in the library!
• TEACHING and sharing. 
• Book in a Day
• Holocaust and WWII
• Mystery genre
• 6th grade Science Fair Research Paper
• and so much more!

Roll on January! I'm READY For You!

No More Gatekeeping!

When I heard that there were students who were scared of visiting the Media Center...nervous about lost books...worried about how to self-checkout or how to find a book ...

I won't lie, it broke my heart 💔

I see my job as that of a salesperson.  In fact, it brings back my Tupperware days (yes, I was a Tupperware lady - a very successful one, thank you very much. GMC Yukon XL, a cruise to Alaska, et al). It wasn't about selling the product, it was about bringing people to the party. That meant enticing and encouraging. It meant making sure that your reputation proceeded you. It meant being willing to 'give' in order to 'get'. Then you had to know your stuff and be respected. You had to provide great customer service. Having a fantastic product helped. I guess I will pontificate more on that another time - a future blog topic!

So, how do I bring them to the party?

Step 1. Stop this ridiculous 2-book limit. I read my first Manga in half of an evening - and that was after spending some time figuring out just HOW to read it 😜  How on earth were we expecting our readers to be satisfied with only 2 books over a weekend?  Never mind holidays, long weekends, etc.  Then there are the books they are reading for class - why should that count towards their numbers?  So we expanded to 5. One of my favorite moments this year was watching a student doing a LITERAL happy dance as she found out that she did NOT have to choose between books. 

Step 2. No more fines. End the fear of losing a book that meant a student never came back. Stop charging them for being honest when a book was damaged.  With middle school kids, teaching them that lying is the best way to go is not to be recommended. Well, with any kid. And fear teaches them to lie. Now we have a chat. We talk about how to take care of books. We thank them for caring and being honest. And some choose to replace the book.  Which is awesome. Most books show up anyway 🤷

Step 3. Make the MLC the hub. The place to be. The World Cup fell into my lap allowing for watch parties and soccer lunches. I got to create relationships with students who rarely visit. We did drawings for anyone wearing a soccer shirt - and they came every day to see me. The final games during the week have been played, but they are still coming. They stop me in the hallway.  It's wonderful!

Step 4. Outreach. We are advertising. Communicating. I visit the cafe at lunch and wander and chat.  My goal is that every kid knows me!  The first thing we did this year - before school even started - was to create the Teacher Hub with coffee and snacks - that allows me to talk to teachers continuously, allows them to see classes in the MLC, lets them see me teaching other classes, and brings them in. 

When I teach the kids, that helps to create the relationships too - win-win!

Step 5. Second Semester rewards. Now that I have built a base for the MLC, it's time to truly reward our readers.  Brag Tags, reading passports, an opportunity to be on the BBC (Bryson Book Chats), and even just having lunch with me. The sneak peek has been well received - and I can't wait for January! 

The details

Tome Literacy Society - wonderful books chosen each year that help to make our job easier!

Brag Tags

Link to our Reading Passport

When offered the opportunity to take over the Media Center, the given task was clear - "Bring them in.  Make it lively. Be the hub of the school."  Everything I do is with that goal in mind. Because when they want to be with me and in our space, I have plenty of time to live the teacher librarian focus on encouraging reading and helping to find books.  And now the kids are helping me to share books with outs (BBC videos and student reviews). And now I get to reward them with brag tags and the Wall of Fame!

My goodness, this is FUN!

It's All Positive Here...

When I see so much negativity about teaching and the profession on social media, it makes me so sad. Especially since my experience this year has been so positive. Of course, I say that after moving out of the classroom and into the Media Center.

So what’s different?

I’m fully immersed with kids from the second I step into the building. 100%. Even when I have work to do and I attempt to hide in my office, they know my policy and will be standing at my desk with something to say at multiple random moments.

I have an office. And a bathroom.

I get to be creative and do what’s right for the moment. Whenever I want.

I have a budget. 

I’m able to have the students create and work the plan. There’s no competition for attention. There’s no set format.

Other teachers love that the kids are involved, that I’m doing my thing, that I’m trying new things, and that it’s working.

There is no resentment about success, only encouragement when things get tricky.

I have 100% administrative support. The entire team is wonderful, and I can’t stress that enough.

I work harder than I’ve ever worked during the day, and try as I can … I can’t plan or organize my time because there is no rhythm to the day. But when I come home …

When I come home, I can work if I choose to. I learn from others, reflect, play with my Blog/website (I just revamped and started again), get creative, and brainstorm … if I choose to. But I no longer have essays to pour over, parent emails/conversations, or student messages to answer.

OK. I have student messages, but that’s because they are excited and have come to me with great ideas or questions, or thoughts about our programs or events. And who wouldn’t love that?

I no longer give up a minimum of a day each weekend. I can hike. I can garden. I can read. And boy! Am I reading?! Book after book as I create a new book list and now move into reading the books we have so that I can help our kids with choices.

Also, I can watch The World Cup. So there’s that! I can watch the World Cup, connecting with kids who rarely brighten our doors - books scare them - but now we’re chatting, laughing, bantering, and even sharing soccer books and playing The World Game.

So, I’m not sure what the lesson is, but I will tell you, I’m happier than I’ve ever been - I’ve gone from loving my job, but being exhausted and stressed, to simply loving my job without the baggage. Just being where I’m supposed to be - and I think that I’m where the school needs me to be.

I feel guilty at times that while others struggle, I’ve found this perfect role. But on the other hand, that also makes me strive harder to find ways to support our teachers and find ways to truly make their lives easier. Because I can. The Media Center should be the hub of the school for all. Not just books. Not just kids. Teachers should get the benefits too. The vision is endless. There is so much exciting stuff to be done.

💙📚💙📚💙

This Week's Takeaway...

Want to be a hero? Let kids know that the 2-book limit is a thing of a pass.  Now they can borrow 5. 

No gatekeepers here!

World Cup Changes the Space

 When I was asked about taking over the Media Center, I was given one specific instruction, "Bring them in." We weren't even focused on books or reading - just get them in through the door!

And that's been my focus.

• Students running it all - from committee to volunteers
• Contests and events
• Book Fair focus with the World Famous Lollipop Board
• Friendlier and fairer - no fines, increasing books allowances
• Bringing in the books they want

But it's football (soccer) that's given me the impetus I needed to get them all in.

I love my footie.  It's the World Cup. The most important sporting event in the world - held during school because FIFA.  You only get 3-4 World Cups in your childhood, and this generation was having it taken away from them.

Not on my watch.

My kids and I had talked about a bulletin board. The Morning Activities team had created the World Cup of Trivia. I had planned to do Secret Soccer Sightings - drawing opportunities for anyone spotted in a soccer shirt.  So, we had stuff.  It just didn't feel like enough. So, I wondered if they'd let me show the games.  I mean, I could watch it on my laptop in my office, but that seems selfish. So I emailed the principal, "Would it be OK if I showed the World Cup games in the MLC?"

"Yes please!"

Well, OK then.

So, it started slow.  We had it on the TV outside, and the students would stop to check the score.  I updated scores on the whiteboard outside. I put games on the big screens inside and allowed those who asked to eat lunch while watching games.  

It grew. It got chaotic. It was messy. It was fun. Our space is full.

Not only is it full - it's full of kids I rarely see.  Kids who used to stay well away now run to me to show me their shirts and check that I am playing the games. I'm teaching them chants. We are looking up countries on maps. We are playing games and goofing off together. And the MLC is THE fun place to be. Teachers are allowing kids to visit and most are on board.

It's once every four years. In some cultures it's everything.

One student told me, "I'm coming to school because of you."

Now to keep them coming once the glorious chaos of the World Cup ends. That's the next challenge!

It Was the Right Choice

When I first talked about leaving the classroom, people warned me that I would miss the relationships. After all, that is what I always focused my teaching on. Relationships, constant communication with parents, and continually putting myself forward as an advocate and supporter for my students. But the reality is, my relationship with students is stronger than ever. In fact, I would say, that is the best thing about my job right now.

Last year was, and continues to be, somewhat of a blur. Focused on my mother, problems back in England, and dealing with the onset of Alzheimer’s in my beloved parent. Then I took leave and spent the summer getting things sorted out. It was a relief to have my future decided before I left, and to have the opportunity to become the media specialist. To be honest, at first, I hesitated. After all, I thought I wanted to be a coach. But that opportunity wasn’t available, and the thought of going back into five periods of ELA a day was exhausting. You truly don’t realize how much you do as a teacher until you leave that role.  As I sit here, writing on a Saturday morning, I think about the fact that I woke up at eight this morning, read for an hour, and now I’m writing. Last semester, I would’ve currently been marking essays, working on student work, contacting parents… I didn’t really have time for myself, I just didn’t see it. I loved what I did, but I was tired.

So tired.

After the decision had been made, I met with kids, formed committees, created brainstorming sheets, read a lot, talked to teachers, made some basic plans, and left for the UK to sort out my Mum.

Before I return, the opportunity to become an instructional coach again raised its head. I thought about it for about 30 seconds. I contemplated the wonderful conversations I had with teachers, who had unanimously shared their excitement about what perhaps I could achieve in the media center. I considered the time I had spent with the students already focused on being a part of a student committee and their ideas that have been flowing like an Alpine stream. Clear, constant, and wonderful.  No. The people who had said I would miss the classroom were thinking about me as a coach. And they would have been right. The media center, however, felt like the right decision.

And it was. 

Let’s consider the week that has just passed. I attended a fantastic training, that gave clarity to some of the tools I have at my fingertips as a media specialist. I spent an entire day teaching eighth graders some tips and tricks for better research that would help them with more credible sources, speed up the writing process, and even cite correctly!  I supported students as they built their reading record websites that I had helped them to create last week. I discussed book choices with multiple children. I spent two or three hours before and after school on various days working with my volunteers - from the student committee – as we created future plans, and design the bulletin board. I worked on the upcoming book fair, creating flyers, and teacher incentives - thinking about how I can make it successful. I checked in books, I checked out books, I shelved books. I set up the space for a meeting, and then for a class. I created another lesson for future students in a different grade. I brainstormed with a teacher about how she could have the students reflect upon the work they had done comparing democracy with autocracy, through a wonderful book. Her ideas were brilliant & student work will fill the MLC. I’m sure there was more, but those were the highlights.

My week is basically spent building relationships and communicating, with both students and teachers. And that fills my cup daily.

There are more goals ahead, and the student ideas keep me on my toes. I’ve worked with science and ELA and reading, and have a social studies class up ahead.

The best part of teaching for me was always the time spent with students out of class. The extras, the creativity they showed went away from their class work, and the fun we had being together. 

Now that’s my job.

The best part of coaching was helping teachers to create new things. To come up with ideas they haven’t had before. Now I get to do that every day, whether sitting down with a teacher to brainstorm, chatting over a cup of coffee, or literally teaching the class.

I always knew that there was something more than I wanted. It’s only October, but it appears that I have found my place.

It was the right choice