The Power Of Connecting Our Voices

"Alone we are strong... together we are stronger."

As an educator, I have learned that it is impossible to be an expert in all areas. We must have resources to help us in our weak areas. It is not a sign of weakness to ask others for help or to reach out to those resources. In addition, we should share what works for us with others. I encourage everyone to share your best programming locally at your own school and also at professional conferences! We all have programs that connect well with our learning communities, and we should share these to inspire others! What if we all connected with great teachers on social media and shared our best ideas?

Here is an example of how these concepts can benefit everyone:

During the summer of 2014 my LHS teacher librarian partner (Mrs. Misti Bell) and I had the privilege of presenting at the High Schools That Work conference in Nashville, Tennessee. We presented our most successful common core library collaborations with a team of our own teachers in two separate sessions. It was a wonderful experience that we will never forget. We were able to make contacts with teachers, teacher librarians, and administrators from all over the country! We shared our contact information and this blog, too!

Fast forward to February 2015. I received an email from Mrs. Mindy Nichols, a teacher librarian at Crockett County High School in Alamo, Tennessee. In the email she proceeded to describe how she had held numerous collaborative events in their library during the 2014-2015 school year. Events such as The Great Gatsby and Ad Day (which were modeled after the very events we had shared at the High Schools That Work conference and also on this blog). She also described new events such as Minimalism Day for both Art & Music classes and 1950s Day for U.S. History Classes. After I read her email, I immediately shared their upcoming Day of The Dead program with one of our Spanish teachers. He is already thinking about how we might have a program like this in the fall! Mindy's innovative programs have already impacted our school because she took the time to share it with us! In addition, she has a great blog you should visit here. She has wonderful photos and descriptions of these library collaborative programs!

This is the power of sharing our best programs and lessons with each other! Everyone has great ideas to bring to the table. We can all help each other be our best, so we can impact students in the most effective ways! We should all share our voice with one another!

I really liked Mindy's quote at the end of her email: "I love it when libraries create a spark in their school and then pass on that ember to others." Let's all create a spark and pass the ember on to each other! 

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