Beginnings

This year marks many new beginnings for me:
- A new husband (my first and only!)
- A new house
- A new job
These are all very exciting things for me, but of course the new job will be the focus for this blog. I have managed to land my dream job and I am so very excited about it. I am the teacher librarian on one of the campuses of a wonderful private school and can only see positives about my role:

- I am on the smallest campus (so much room to grow, and a lovely community feel)
- We have a healthy budget
- The library is looking a tad old and tired (with clear mentions of a major refurbishment on the cards in the near future)
- The teachers and staff are excited to have a teacher librarian on board (hopefully this means there will be some excellent collaboration)
- My position is regarded as a position of leadership, right from the start
- The leading library technician I will be working with is enthusiastic, on the same page as me, and ready to fight for what we believe the library needs
- My role has not been completely defined, giving me the opportunity to have a say in the shape that it takes on

Obviously the space is not perfect, the library has not had the recognition it deserves in the past and has not been able to play its role to its full potential, but to me all of the little things that are not perfect just mean that there is so much we can do to make things improve, and therefore to improve the learning of our students.

I am so excited about what the future holds for me, and for my new home library and its community.

Linking with this theme of beginnings, I would like to share this article which highlights that reading can be engaging and something that everyone can learn to love, and the importance of making this clear to children in their first year of school. It also points to the library as a place to get books for these children to enjoy whilst still working on their reading skills. 

I am hoping to have a whole range of teachers and students turn to the library for support throughout the year, whether they have done so in the past or not. 

Bring it on.

A new semester

It is the beginning of my second semester of my Masters degree. I have made rosy plans to be much more organised this time around, to stay on top of my studies to ensure that I do not get as overwhelmed as I did last semester. I passed my subjects, and am even proud of my results to a degree, but I know I can do better than that and intend to put in more effort this time around and to prioritise more effectively.

The first step has been taken on schedule - I am getting organised and doing the things that are suggested on on the subject schedules, and in the week that they suggest them. This is hopefully a sign of good things to come!

I am looking forward to actually making time to figure out how to make my blog more attractive this time around; I am looking forward to using it as my learning journal, to keep track of what I am learning and to sort out my thoughts when things get complicated.

Best wishes to all the students out there getting ready to knuckle down once again!