It's A Good Year

It's a good year.  Yes.  I've already decided - it's a good year in the library.  

Every August for the past three years I have found myself waiting in anticipation for the students to come back.   You see, when last May rolled up I wasn't quite ready to call it done.  There are still so many books to share, stories to explore, authors to celebrate,  projects to tackle, laughs to laugh, .... you get the idea.

This year in the library we will be designing our classes behind an exciting essential understanding (EU) based on this visual quote:  

Believe There is Good in the World.  BE THE GOOD.

I've been working on a display to place outside the entrance of our library that illustrates our library  EU. I'm always looking for things to do with the countless number of book jackets I receive from publishers after purchasing books for the school library.   When the library receives new books, the books arrive already cataloged and labeled with bar codes and spine labels.  Along with the Christmas day joy of unpacking box after box of glorious new books, there's always those one or two boxes of shiny, crisp book jackets.   I don't put these jackets on the books because they will cover the labels, but I can't seem to discard them either.  So they sit, pristine, in multiple boxes behind the fiction section of the library in a storage area I like to call the "cave".

Until last year.

I've started digging through the boxes and pulling out the jackets.  It's amazing to go through some of these jackets.  Some of these have been stored in the library from before I was even the librarian, it's amazing to look at how children's book illustrations styles have changed over the past 20 years!  It seems a shame to leave them boxed.  So I've started pulling them out, comparing colors and pictures and re-purposing them into new displays for the library.  The jackets have found their way onto bulletin boards, window displays, hanging pinwheels, and now this...

I can't wait to get started!

Read Anything "GOOD" lately?

 Each August 10^th for the past 5 years librarians, teachers, and readers the world over have stopped to consider what their top 10 picture books would be #pb10for10.  What a challenge!  With so many books and so many choices – the idea of selecting just 10 good books was difficult. 

Sometimes I felt as I stacked books, looked at my choices and picked my 10 that I was leaving behind my good friends.  But, as I sorted a thought came – what if I considered Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences for the books in my stacks?  What were the books’ strengths?  Just because I didn’t choose one book over another didn’t mean it wasn’t good.  It’s strength was just in a different area.  

As educators we know how important it is to help our students recognize what they consider good about themselves, those special skills and talents that best help students understand new concepts and work through essential understandings.  The books I’ve chosen for #pb10for10 are all titles that I feel are especially good at guiding readers toward developing their self-awareness, that ability to understand your own inner feelings, beliefs and values.  Gardner’s theory calls this Interpersonal intelligence.

This year in the Eubank library we will be working with our students to consider that whole idea behind the word “GOOD”.   What does it mean when we apply that to the stories we read, the words we say, the things we do?  I think these books will lead to some interesting discussions – it’s a good start.

It's Good to be Here

 Looking back it's funny to think about the limits I put on what makes something good. 

 When I was little I liked the idea of keeping a diary.  I'd eye the fancy little books with blank pages, cushioned covers and tiny locks and think that I just had to have one. I just knew earth shattering thoughts and observations would flow from pen to page as I moved throughout my world. Eventually I'd convince my mother to purchase one and I'd rush home to write my deepest thoughts and revelations.    I'd go through each day waiting for something really GOOD to happen so that I could write about it.   Sometimes I get a few pages in - writing in spurts and spots until eventually the diary would be put aside while I waited for the good to arrive.

Fast forward and you'll find  that I'm an educator.  I'm an elementary librarian and have found that this job is not only good - it's amazing.  The idea of what's good comes up often in the library - my students want to know, "Where are the good books?" As educators we sometimes spend a lot of time thinking about what's good.  Is this lesson good enough?  Was it a good day?  Will this activity be good for my students?  We even limit what we believe is good. But, over time I've discovered that sometimes good creeps in quietly without fanfare, sometimes it's something small.   If we wait for the trumpets to announce it's arrival we'll miss the good that's already there.

So, this blog is my attempt to explore this whole idea of good.   It's a place to recognize that Good is out there - it's bigger than we think.  I want to take some time to appreciate the ways that good surrounds us everywhere, every day. 

It's a Good Start.  ♥