Here's to the future!

I am currently a high school Spanish teacher. As an undergraduate, I always knew I wanted to go into education, and finally settled on Spanish. I viewed it more as a stepping stone because I thought I would eventually go on to get a graduate degree in something like school counseling.  After teaching for a few years, I fell in love with the library program because I see how important the library can be to the academic, informational, social, and technological life of the school. I have a passion for reading and its many benefits.  I have a heart for service, and the library serves everyone in the school and even some in the community at large. I enrolled in the Library Science program here at A&M –Commerce a few years ago. It has been a slow process of gaining my master’s degree while teaching full time and raising a family, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel and only have 3 classes to go. Upon graduation I will seek a librarian position for the next school year. 

Although I am mainly looking for a school librarian position, I think that I would be happy in other types of librarianship as well.  As a school librarian, I look forward to supporting teachers and learners. I would like to be responsible for helping teachers to integrate both print and digital library resources into the curriculum. This will include collaboration and designing lessons with teachers as the subject area experts, and I will serve as the information/media/ technology/resource specialist. I truly believe that the integration of library resources can have a powerful impact on a student’s education in the way of meaning making, lesson enhancement, and helping them to become life-long learners.

As I mentioned, I am now only 3 courses away from my degree, and I have gained many skills related to the library program and technology integration throughout the school.  Before starting this program, I never would have imagined how much effort and skill it really takes to be a good librarian. Many people are still shocked that you have to have a master’s degree! For those people I have an elevator speech prepared. J   I feel that I am already well prepared to begin my profession as a librarian, but I can think of two areas in which I would like to increase my knowledge and skills. I’ve never been the most “techy” of people. I feel that I still have a lot to learn about technology, and due to the rapid rate of change and advancements in technology, I will always seek additional professional development to keep up to date in this area of my career.  Also, because I will be working with teachers of all different subject areas throughout my school, increased understanding of the curriculum and specific state objectives will allow me to offer more to my partnerships with teachers and to the profession of instructional design.

I am a member of a Texas librarian email listserv. This is a great support system for librarians. We are able to ask questions, receive answers, and it is also a great way to get new ideas on what others are doing and what can be done in the library program. I am not yet a member of a professional organization, but would soon like to be. I will most likely seek membership to TLA- Texas Library Association.  Because it is a local group, as opposed to ALA, I feel that the membership will be more relevant to issues that Texas librarians are facing. American Association of School Librarians would also be a great group to join because it is specific to school librarianship. I am currently working on a research project over teen reading habits and would like to eventually submit a proposal to present my paper at a library association conference.

 Here’s to the future!