Professionalism13

I try to be involved in the life of the school. In addition I'm heavily involved in my profession. The job of a school librarian is constantly evolving and expanding, and it requires time and effort to stay current to keep the program and myself moving forward.

One of the projects that turned into a highlight of my year was the One Book, One School project around //Of Beetles and Angels// by Mawi Asgedom. I took on the role as project manager for the effort, proposing the idea and building a team of interested teachers to create and implement the project. The teachers and administrators who brought the idea to life were fantastic.
 * HIGHLAND INVOLVEMENT**

I thought the project, culminating in a visit by the author, turned out to be an amazing learning experience for students and staff, as well as a great extension of the opening day district talk. We offered five discussion opportunities for the book with over 130 people participating. I'll never forget the feeling of sitting in the gym while Mawi spoke to our students, hearing him ask how many people read his book and seeing nearly every hand in the gym raise in response.

I was involved with the committee who worked on the inaugural [|Hornet Hustle], working on sponsorship and t-shirts. It was a great project to be part of!

Other involvements in the school and district include:
 * Highland representative on the district technology committee
 * Highland recess options committee
 * Represented the Learning Centers as part of the reading language arts committee

I am asked to host student librarians for observation hours and am frequently interviewed by library school students for various projects.
 * MENTORING**

This fall, a former student from one of the classes I taught at Dominican University put together an event about teacher and librarian collaboration for the School of Education and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science called [|The Meeting of the Minds]. I was asked to be a panelist at the event. Linda O'Connell, Carey Fox, and I ended up being the panel and talked about the ways we work together at Highland.

I'm part of ISLMA's (Illinois School Library Media Association) leadership team, serving as Professional Development chair for the organization. We launched a PD blog to share information about professional development opportunities for librarians, held webinars for membership, and had two mini-conferences in various parts of the state.
 * PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS**

This spring I worked with a co-chair to plan and hold two mini-conferences - one at Westfield Middle School and the other at Charleston High School. Participants at the events were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences. The events consisted of breakout sessions, a personal learning network activity, and networking time.

This role with ISLMA led to another role serving on a One for All Committee which is exploring opportunities for various library organizations in the state to work more closely together to plan a conference of professional development for librarians of all types - school, academic, public, and special.

Caren Kimbarovsky & I presented at the ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) Conference in February about how Highland went Google this year. media type="custom" key="22902310"

As a life long learner, I think of myself as a work in progress and strive to continually grow personally and professionally.