I had my onewordx12 chosen for October.
I had it picked. I was ready.
Then I listened to Season 4 Episode 3 of Rolland Chidiac's and Chris Cluff's DeCodEd podcast.
So many good gems. So much #thoughtfuel.
My original plan was to have my one word for October be impact as a follow up to
September's one word which was connection. The return to school has been so different than any other year and I knew that having the library space closed to the students and
educators would require an extra effort to build and maintain relationships.
I have tried over the course of the first few weeks of the school year to reach out to all the educators, both in face-to-face and online school, at my school to find ways to support them and their learners.
I wanted to keep moving forward with this idea and focus on how the programming from the library might be able to impact the learning of others and their journey. It's such a different experience being alone in the library all day compared the last three years where we have worked to create space that is open and available to all learners during the day.
At the start of October I had a few days of feeling a little sorry for myself.
I miss seeing kids and working with them on their learning on a regular basis.
I love being able to do read alouds with classes and chatting about the books but it's not the same.
I know there are other educators feeling the same way that are in much tougher positions than me.
I am very privileged to be in my library role and to have to opportunity to be a support for the educators and learners in my school. I know I don't have to deal with the ups and downs of tech issues, reaching students who aren't engaged in this "new normal" of school. I know I don't need to worry about being in a cramped classroom without adequate distancing and trying to reimagine learning when so much of what educators are being asked to do goes against their knowledge of best practices and good pedagogy. I know I am fortunate that I was not reallocated from my library role. I know I am fortunate that I didn't have to wait to find out my assignment for the year and then still only have a few days in which to plan.
But I sometimes wonder if I should have volunteered to teach an online class and
spend my day exploring and learning with a group of children.
All of this was swirling through my brain as September ended and October began.
I could see how impact would be a good focus for the month.
How might I use my role in the library to
impact the learning of others?
How might I be able to support educators and learners
as they reimagined their own learning spaces
and began to explore inquiries in this school year?
How might I begin to curate a rich collection of texts,
both physically and virtually, to have an impact
on the learning of our school community?
And then I listened to Rolland and Chris' podcast over the course of two days as I drove to work.
Perhaps a focus on moments would better serve me this month?
How can we seek out those moments of impact in our day to celebrate the
connections we are making with learners?
How might we dive deep into those moments of doubt and create lasting impact from our learning?
What can I learn from my moments of sadness and loss? Because there is a lot of loss still to be processed about this school year and the end of the school year in the spring. How might that help be to become a better educator for my students and community?
And so I am choosing two words-
Impact.
Moments.
At this time, I see myself keeping these words through November and checking in with myself.
What impact do I see my role in the library having on the education of those
working and learning in my school community?
What moments will I embrace and use to drive learning forward?
How might I use these reflections to create more moments of impact?
