ALA Annual - A Reflection

Yikes.  It's been three months since ALA Annual and I'm just now getting around to writing about it.

Some of that time was intentional.  My brain needed some distance from the event to process all of my experiences.  But let's be honest, the start of a new school year came quickly and as any teacher knows, things get pushed to the back burner.

But I'm ready now.  I feel like I have to start by saying that ALA Annual really wasn't anything like what I expected.  I attend our state school library association's conference each year and leave with pages of ideas that I'm ready to implement.  I was expecting workshop after workshop of fabulous ideas.  But that's not really what I found.  Don't get me wrong - there were some good sessions; but ALA as a whole is much more about public libraries than school libraries and there were many times when I just felt lost in the crowd.  And let's be honest, the school library sessions I did attend reinforced that our district's library program is way ahead of the curve.

All that being said, one single event made the entire conference and the four days away from my family totally and completely worth it.  One evening alone has transformed the way I feel about my library's collection and changed the course of my school library forever.  Are you paying attention?

As a thank you to the Emerging Leader team I was a part of, ALSC gifted each of us a ticket to the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Award Banquet.  For those of you who aren't book nerds, this award banquet is like the Oscars of the book world.  Authors and publishers turn out in black tie.  Librarians (known for our cardigans and glasses) break out their ball gowns and for one single evening, children's literature gets the attention and recognition it deserves year round.

It would have been a great evening for the sole fact that I was sitting directly behind Mo Willems, author and illustrator of multiple award-winning picture books.  It would have been memorable just for Jerry Pinkey's Wilder Award acceptance speech that showed how just having one person believe in him changed the entire path of his life.  It would have been a beautiful, meaningful evening had I only heard Sophie Blackall's Caldecott acceptance speech where she talked about the difficulty of the previous year and the joy of feeling successful.

But the acceptance speech that has changed my life and my library program?  I owe all of that to Matt de la Pena.

He began his speech with this quote from Denis Johnson, “I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.”  

And I was hooked.  De la Pena went on to talk about how for his entire life, he's felt caught in the middle between cultures.  Too white to be Mexican.  Too Mexican to be white.  Never finding a book that he could identify with.  Never seeing himself on the shelf.  Always on the outside.

And then he told this story, and I'm pretty sure time stood still for a few minutes.

"A few years later I had a much more troubling exchange. At one of the big national conferences, a librarian approached me outside an event space and excitedly introduced herself. “I want you to know,” she told me, “that I really like your books. I mean, we don’t have those kinds of kids at our school, so we don’t stock many of them, but I want you to know how much I appreciate your work.”

“No, I totally get it, ma’am,” I said. “Out of curiosity, though, how many wizards do you have at your school?” 

Obviously, I wasn't the librarian he was talking to in this conversation, but I might has well have been.  Until de la Pena's acceptance speech, my intention behind choosing diverse books for our library was that I wanted every student to be able to find themselves in our library.  From a broken family?  We have that book.  Parent in jail?  We have that book.  Two moms?  Yep.  We have that book too.  It wasn't that I wasn't buying diverse books.  It's that I was buying them for the wrong reasons.  

Before this moment, I wanted kids to find themselves in a book, which is still a noble, great thing to do.  But after his speech, I want kids to find each other in a book.  I want them to see kids from other cultures, religions, skin colors, and home lives.  I want kids to see that people from other backgrounds have value and worth and meaning.  Their lives are just was important as ours.  

Our world isn't homogenous and our libraries shouldn't be either.  And so I've gone on a rampage.  Never have I read so many blog posts about multicultural literature.  And never before have I bought so many books that represent so many different kinds of people. 

And for that reason alone - ALA Annual has changed my life and the lives of my students forever.

In case you're curious - here's a link to his entire acceptance speech.  It's long, but definitely worth the read.  

The Power of Positivity

I know. I know.  The title is cliche.  We all know being positive changes things.  Sheesh, Carol Dweck has sold millions of copies of her book Growth Mindset, and it's all about the difference it can make in your life when you choose to believe in the ability to grow and improve.  (By the way, it is a fabulous book you should add to your list).

So if we all know that positivity is so powerful, why is it so stinking difficult to be positive?  Why have we created an atmosphere that breeds and feeds on negativity?  It doesn't feel good to be negative.  It doesn't feel good to live in a place where nothing goes well and there's a problem with everything.  But as teachers, it's a place where I see so many people dwelling.

Several times a year, my husband comes up to school and eats lunch with me in the teacher's lounge.  And the one comment he makes every time is about how teachers have to be some of the most negative people in the world.  But that's not true, is it? We wouldn't come to work every day wanting to inspire children and change the world if our hearts were those of negative people.  We would never tell a parent that their child just couldn't improve.  We would never tell a kid to just give up.

So why is that the attitude we show one another?

We've all had those students who think the world is out to get them.
     "That girl's looking at me."
     "He touched my pencil."
     "My paper has a wrinkle."

It's exhausting.  It's exhausting living in a world that's out to get you.  It's exhausting believing that every new initiative is just "one more thing" and that administration "just doesn't get it."

So what if we didn't?  What if we gave each other a little bit of grace and said, "I believe they're doing their best."  "I believe this could help my students."  "I believe we all want what's best for our kids."  

What if we operated from a mindset of growth and possibility?  From a vantage point of unlimited potential and boundless possibilities?  Wouldn't that feel better?

I'm willing to try it.

A Distorted Concept of Time

For as long as I can remember, I have held a distorted view of time.

Why be in one club when I could be in five?  Why just be a participant when I could be a leader?  My first year teaching wasn't challenging enough so I decided to complete my Master's degree at the same time.  When I decided to go back to school again to become a librarian it also seemed like the perfect time to grow our family.  The truth is - I am not a person who settles. Why be good when I could be great?  Being involved in committees, advocacy groups and leadership teams helps me sharpen my own saw.  I like being "in the loop" and I even like (collective gasp!) meetings!  My husband graduated from his MBA program last weekend and I'm already googling to figure out how and when I can get another degree.

That being said, blogging is something I have continually put on the back burner.  I do so much in my "real" life, my "virtual" self has been somewhat ignored.  So - here we go.  I'm consistently challenging others to share themselves in a way that can better the world around them.  It's time to put my money where my mouth is.

I hope to share what's working in my library, areas of potential growth, and connect to the world outside my library space.  Now... if only I can find the time...