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Sticky Wickets, or things they don't teach you in library school

I"m going into my 29th year as an educator this year---9 in the classroom, and headed into my 20th year as a school librarian. I've worked in elementary, middle, and now high school as a librarian. You might say I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly throughout the years. Through it all--the good times and the bad--I've always firmly believed I have the best gig in the universe.  I love what I do, and I have a true passion for it. I had a brilliant professor in library school named Betty Carter.  She used to talk about how meeting difficult characters or situations in a book before you met them in real life was so helpful to young people because it gave them the chance to think through it and figure out best ways to handle it ahead of time.  I hope that you will read this list in much the same vein.  Especially for all my new-to-the-library friends, this is not a list of mere complaints, but a list of possible scenarios for you to brainstorm about so that ...
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January Gloom

No matter how much I love my work---and believe me, I truly love my work--it can be hard to get motivated to go back into the big wide world after the winter break. Winter gloom is real--even living in Texas, in an area where it isn't often that it is super cold. Winter break gives me a chance to hobbit up in my home. I revert back to my natural sleep rhythms of late-night creativity and slow, cozy mornings, wrapped up in my fluffy robe with coffee in hand.  I get to sit in my favorite chair and take my time to fully wake up. I have time to make yummy food without being stressed, and I have time to read and write without rushing myself into anything. So, for me, much of what I struggle with in going back to work is the pace & timing of things. I don't love leaving my warm, well-lit home when it is still dark outside. I don't love not getting a leisurely start to my day. The alarm goes off and I hit the ground running. I'm sure many of you can relate. This ...
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Teaching: Why I Choose to STAY

Doug Robertson (@TheWeirdTeacher) posted recently on Twitter about his frustration with the quitting martyr teacher posts that always seem to go viral on Facebook about this time of year.  Shared by educators and non-educators alike.  I've seen them, of course. We've all seen them.  I've read them, and I hear their words.  They decide to burn it down when they leave, I suppose, filled with frustration and anger and sadness, too, perhaps. But Doug's Twitter thread really resonated with me, y'all.  And then this morning someone in the thread (@MoniseLSeward) suggested we use the hashtag #WhyIChooseToStay to share our stories. Yeah, I son't know that it was necessarily meant as an actual call to share, but I loved the idea, so here's mine. I just completed year 28 as an educator. I've been a kindergarten teacher, an elementary teacher of grades 2,3,4,5, an elementary school teacher-librarian, an intermediate school teacher-librarian, a middle scho...
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