Summer is for reading—not just for students but for teachers and librarians, too! This month, the BACC co-bloggers will be sharing our summer reading—pleasure reading, reading with curriculum connections, and reading for professional development.
To update and hone my knowledge of current publications in the field of education, I have been reading a number of thought leaders’ most recent titles. In his latest book coauthored with Lou Aronica, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education, Sir Ken Robinson continues to advocate for teaching (and modeling) behaviors and dispositions that inspire and support youth in developing their curiosity and exercising their imaginations.
“Every school is a living community of people with unique relationships, biographies, and responsibilities. Each school has its own ‘feel,’ its rituals and routines, its own cast of personalities, its own myths, stories, in-jokes, and codes of behavior, and its many subcultures of friends and factions. Schools are not sanctuaries that are set apart from the turmoil of everyday life. A vibrant school can nourish an entire community by becomes a source of hope and creative energy” (Robinson and Aronica 2015, 63-64).
The theme of schools as communities of learners is a strand throughout Robinson’s work. I had the pleasure of attending his talk at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in 2012. One of his quotes that I have kept in mind since then is this: “Being a creative teacher doesn’t mean you do all the work. It means you recognize we all teach each other.” He meant educators (and experts in the field/parents/and community members) teaching each other as well as students teaching students.
Yesterday at the ALA Annual Conference, the Educators of School Librarians Section (ESLS) and the (School Library) Supervisors Section (SPVS) had a productive joint meeting. We discussed how to identify and mentor future librarians who will possess and/or develop the skills and qualities needed to serve the needs of today’s students and teachers. ESLS’s members on the panel shared what their universities are doing to recruit the best candidates to fill the many vacancies in school libraries in their states. We will continue the conversation about how we can attract the best possible candidates to our profession.
In the context of Robinson’s book, I hope we can attract more and more school librarians who can co-lead the kind of transformation he describes. We need creative, resourceful, flexible educators in libraries and in classrooms who can collaborate with the adults and students in the learning community to transform teaching and learning.
If you haven’t viewed it, I highly recommend Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk: “Do schools kill creativity?” With almost 34 million views, his talk is the most often viewed of all the TED videos to date. (Summer viewing is important, too!)
On Thursday, I will share a bit about Professional Capital, the new book by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan.
Work Cited
Robinson, Ken, and Lou Aronica. Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. New York: Viking, 2015. Print.