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Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Student privacy: respect it

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on student privacy.

As a unique educator in that the 2,500 students that attend the public high school that I work at are all “mine” since I work in the library means that any given program, activity, class project, or visitation could mean meeting a student I have never met before or that has never come to the library before. It also means that at the beginning of the school year I haven’t sent home a photo release form from our school to post or not post images of my one class or multiple classes that I have direct contact with if I was a classroom teacher. With that in mind, as I do for my own elementary-aged children, I do not want my own kids’ images plastered on social media for the sake of capturing an exciting educational moment unless it protects their privacy or I have given permission. That’s where creative camera work comes into play.

Many of my favorite memorable moments from programming in the library have been avoiding students’ faces and focusing on the atmosphere or activity. Now, I’m not saying I’m Dorothea Lange, but I know my way around my iPhone camera to capture the moment without student faces. Yes, I have them, but they’re not the ones that get shared. This is important. It’s also why I teach Googling your name and do so often with my and my family’s name to see what is out there. This is an element of digital citizenship that people must get out in front of, even if it’s simply to know what’s out there. We must be aware of what it out there attached to our identity or others that have similar or the same name. It can take the form of a picture or simply your name or your affiliated institution.

Ultimately though, it is as much our responsibility as educators as students and their parents to be sure that they can control what and where they can. So, here are some examples from our own social media postings where we avoid showing student faces. For us, it’s about angles, light, or putting teachers in the foreground.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 22, 2017 in edublogsclub, Events, Miscellaneous

Six sensational new releases

18 Feb

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on creating an listicle.

I spend most of my free time reading. Both because it’s my favorite hobby and it’s also my job. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a six sensational list, so let’s get back into it since my #edublogsclub challenge this week is to create a listicle (if you don’t know what that is, look it up!) Here are six sensational new releases in order of their publication date.

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
- Not for the faint of heart, Arnold packs a punch. Nina’s relationship with her mother, who does not believe in unconditional love shapes Nina’s relationship with Seth. It’s dark and vividly portrayed and oh, so necessary.
Ronit & Jamil by Pamela Laskin
- This is Romeo and Juliet where Ronit is an Israeli girl and Jamil is a Palestinian boy and what happens when they fall in love… in verse. Breathtaking!
Crazy Messy Beautiful by Carrie Arcos
- If you’re named after the poet Pablo Neruda, you must use his poetry to woo the ladies. And Neruda is a hopeless romantic and an artist, but it’s the friendship he forms with Callie, a girl in class that allows him to work through his own feelings about friendships and relationships, especially when one closest to him is fractured and he’s caught in the middle.
The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
- Remember those early video games? Know how popular virtual reality is now? Well mix the two and you’re back in 1987 with Bill and Mary, the main characters of the story where Bill’s friends want to see Vanna White naked and Mary is a girl coder working on her family’s computer in their store. It’s about their relationship to coding, to each other, and darker secrets that will be uncovered.
The Careful Undressing of Love by Corey Ann Haydu
- I’m a fan of offbeat stories and this one is an homage to one of my favorite adult novels, Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides. In this story, the girls of Devonairre Street cannot fall in love because the men always die. They’re a curiosity that is now attracting tourists to this quaint street. It’s the story of their pain and what kind of future they can have with this awful power.
Florence Nightingale: The Courageous Life of the Legendary Nurse by Catherine Reef
- A powerful look at a woman who is known as a legendary nurse yet wielded significant power as a manager with adeptness at numbers and charts. Her style made some cry and her work essentially drove her sister mad since she felt that Nightingale overshadowed her.

As always, these are just a few of the many I’ve read and a snapshot of some of the newer titles that will be released soon (or were released in the recent past) worth reading if you are a fan of young adult literature.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 18, 2017 in Authors, edublogsclub, Fiction, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Nonfiction, Upcoming Releases, Verse, Young Adult

Challenges

09 Feb

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on a challenging situation.

As I titled my post, I realized that in libraryland that actually has two meanings. Yes, there are challenges working with students, teachers, budgets, and purchasing decisions, but there’s also the literal challenge that librarians (and teachers) face when stocking their shelves or picking a class read. I’m choosing to focus on the former, but wanted to recognize that the latter is just as important to discuss.

I’d like to focus on student interactions and challenges I’ve faced over the last ten years in the high school library. Part of it also comes from the immensity of our district and therefore high school. While we have two additional campuses that focus on vocations and one as an alternate setting, our campus still receives 2,500 students daily. And while we see approximately 40-70 students per period, we still don’t interact regularly with all of the student body. Yes, there are the heavy users that we do know well, but there are others where we may only meet them once while instructing a class or on their own when they need a printer, a textbook, or a book for class.

I constantly remind myself of Doug Johnson’s quote that the goal of the library is to get back the reader, not the book. This is valuable advice when you don’t know the student’s history personally and academically. So each interaction must be caring but firm, helpful but educational. We have procedures to make coming and going uniform and for some first-time students this may be frustrating, but it is necessary. Likewise, we’re in the business of helping, but we’re also there to teach. This also can be frustrating when students want it done for them.

So the challenge is to provide the best customer service which includes a positive attitude. I am occasionally guilty of letting negativity get in the way, but I always want to remember what the ultimate goal is. I’m one librarian who represents the dozens they might meet over a lifetime or be the first one they’ve met in the hopes that they’ll return to our library and their own college and public library, so that focus should always be on winning back the user and gaining their trust.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 9, 2017 in Miscellaneous

These are the days

04 Feb

2016-09-07-12-29-42 In a few months, I will celebrate ten years working as a high school librarian. Excitingly, I’ve spent them all in the same high school library. Whoever I speak to, whether it’s my colleague daily or a community member, it’s readily apparent from my excitability and speed-talking that my favorite part of librarianship is readers advisory. The days I leave the library feeling most accomplished are the ones where I’ve spent the most time connecting students with books, talking about books, or reading (yes, we have created READ days where the only job of the visitor is to sit and read. We provide the hot chocolate and the modeling, so in between filling the urns, we’re reading too).

This past Friday I spent the day at our alternative learning center, a smaller environment for students in transition or that need something different than a large school of 2,500 students. Invited by the English teacher, she was embarking on an independent reading project and needed some expertise. I packed up three large boxes of fiction and nonfiction in all kinds of formats and including all types, some in multiples knowing that they’d be a hit. And I spent the entire day connecting with the class and then individually with each student. They “tasted” the books in a particular genre or format and maybe even one that I slipped in for good measure outside of their usual box. And what I left with was an amazing sense of pride in what I do and why I do it and a few new library lovers based on our positive interaction and the care I took in listening to what they liked and sharing passionately what I liked.

Days like those are why I go to work all day and why I read voraciously outside of work. But it’s not enough to just have the knowledge, it’s necessary to have passion behind it. Because that passion translates to trust. I’ve had students where I would check out a book I knew they would love and casually walk by them slipping it into their bag without another word. I’ve had students who brought other students in who would have never come on their own because “she knows books”. And all of the students in between, including the group of seniors I wrote about in June of last year. They are why I love my job and do what I do.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 4, 2017 in Miscellaneous

Free tools

04 Feb

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on a free online tool.

The #edublogsclub post for this week made me think. Yes, there are a lot of web tools and apps that are absolutely free and continue to be. I am thankful for the ones that remain free because as an educator there’s nothing more halting than to find the tool you’ve been using has gone “pro” (read: paid).

The tool and app that I am most appreciative of as a librarian and avid reader is Goodreads. Here’s why: When I became aware that my passion was going to become my career, I wanted to have a way to remember everything that I read. Cue multiple black binders where I would create a one-page Word document with the cover, title, and author of my recently read book. I would then add my review and a summary along with some subject headings and my rating. The binders would then be organized by my rating. Then I needed them to last longer so I became laminating them.

Then, Goodreads happened and my mind was blown. What better way to keep up with what I was reading and connecting socially with other avid readers than to be a part of Goodreads. The organizational side of the books is amazing. I can sort from the date I read it, to the date it was published, to even the general rating a book is given. I can look at all of the books I labeled as “dark” or I can add books that I want to read to a separate list. I get automated messages when the authors I read have new materials coming out or if there’s a giveaway I can enter. I run book groups professionally through their community features and regularly get requests to review materials from authors who see my read number (2,341 and counting as a member since 2008). I plan to celebrate our 10th anniversary together with some champagne because it is just that important of a tool to me personally and professionally.

Thanks, Goodreads! I ❤ you!

heartgoodreads

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on February 4, 2017 in edublogsclub, Miscellaneous

Worth a thousand words

26 Jan

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on an image.

I’d like to focus on pictures and images in presentations. After realizing that I’d like to do more presentations to library colleagues, non-library educators, and others, I wanted to learn as much as possible about the science and skill of good presenting. I amassed videos, Slideshare presentations (like this one), and articles about the topic and settled on one non-negotiable for all of my presentations: they will be visually stimulating. The slide will be beautiful as a standalone and picture-worthy itself.

With that, I investigated the best locations for finding images that could be incorporated into my presentations through creative commons with Pixabay being my absolute favorite. And in developing the presentation itself, it makes me think deeper about the message I want to send. Luckily as a librarian, I’m good at search terms!

If I can leave one nugget, it’s that presentations can go south quickly. It’s painful to be at presentations that are unappealing with the age-old complaints about text-heavy, unreadable slides and presentation tools with too much movement making the best of us seasick. So be aware that just like the way you dress, the presentation is an extension of you.

The final slide of a recent presentation.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on January 26, 2017 in edublogsclub, Miscellaneous

Collecting as I go

22 Jan

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on leadership.

quincyadams

Boy do I wish I knew then what I know now. When you’re fifteen and starting your first job, it’s hard to have the wherewithal to understand the criticism and compliments that a boss doles out. But certainly once you get it, however long that takes, this recognition is a vital step in your own development as a boss. I’m appreciative to have recognized this fairly early and as a high school student actually submitted an article to our local newspaper recognizing my fantastic first boss.

So, over the years I’ve been collecting and reflecting on the qualities in leaders that I’ve worked with and under as well as successes I’ve had as a leader.

Be someone who listens: Now this is a quality I am working on because I get so excited about a topic that I ramble… fast and I’m not actively hearing the other person.Slow down and be in the moment.
Be someone who makes a decision: I have had and still do have bosses that cannot make a decision. Rather, they want others to do it for them. One of the most respected administrators I’ve worked with took it one step further. Regardless of what her decision was, you knew that she had listened first and then made the best decision she knew how to make. And you felt fine with whatever it was because you knew that she heard you. And she took the responsibility for making the decision.
Be someone who is personable, but still keeps some distance: Being personable is necessary. Knowing about family, friends, interests, skills, and hobbies is important, but as a leader or talking with a leader also does not mean that we need to meet for drinks after work or that I need to hear about your recent family crisis in detail.
Be someone who inspires: Like the John Quincy Adams quote, I want to feel empowered. I want to be better because and for them. Educators talk about this regarding students: “it’s not filling a the bucket, but lighting a fire.” Educators should remember this around our colleagues too. I need all ten fingers and toes, plus some to count my colleagues who inspire me.
- Additionally, be someone who compliments: Tell them that they inspire you. I am a firm believer in compliments. I like getting them and I love giving them. I try to compliment a colleague, mentor, or boss as often as possible.
Be someone who believes: I will never forget 2010 when I walked in to my administrator’s office to tell her about an opportunity that another librarian had presented about hosting an author visit (it would be a first for me and the building). Plus I was a big fan of this author’s work and so were our students. I didn’t say more than a few words and her response was “yes, whatever it is, yes.” She saw my passion and excitement and knew that I would see it through. It started by believing in someone or something.
Be someone who dresses the part: This doesn’t mean spending two hours getting ready in the morning nor does it mean having thousand-dollar suits, it means dressing how you want to be addressed.

Leadership is a work in progress, but if every experience is an opportunity to learn, then we are all better for it. It’s multi-faceted. It’s never perfect. But it’s a start.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on January 22, 2017 in Blogging, edublogsclub, Miscellaneous

Folders, folders everywhere

14 Jan

2016-07-20-11-48-00 As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education, this week’s topic focuses on discussing my classroom or place of work.

My life is pretty organized, whether it’s baskets around the house and bathrooms, color-coding spines for my personal bookshelf at home, my career as a librarian where it’s foundation is built from a system of organizing, and of course, my work space. While the office itself is a shared office with my colleague and the larger area is shared with the high school’s resident “tech guy”, my desk is generally a series of folders stacked and labeled. There’s my every day notebook. My agenda. And close to all this, Post-its too.

Every endeavor I undertake is given a folder and when that one wears out another one takes its place. Along the top and side I write the “what” of the endeavor and in goes the material. For many years, this has been my main organizational tool and the notebooks are a necessity. Each conversation that spawns an idea, every question that needs an answer, and every request needing an action is written down and then every handful of pages you’ll see my lists. These are the to-do items that get scratched off or if not completed, moved to the next list a handful of pages after that.

As with my every day tasks, presentations I do start in much the same way. There’s a mental organization and some research then it’s a series of drafts moving toward an outline. And by the fifteenth iteration and the final set of slides, I know the content so well that my notes could be viewed as excessive.

But that’s just me… and Martha Stewart.

So what’s the a lady to do if she’s a list maker? Provide a short list of organizational tips 2017-01-13-18-29-10

Pen and paper, always
Make to-do lists action-oriented
Refine and revise your lists as needed. It’s okay to remove something from the list if it keeps re-appearing but not getting done- likely it wasn’t that important to start with
Set aside time to delete email, pins, documents, and more. Keeping these “spaces” clear keeps you more focused

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on January 14, 2017 in edublogsclub, Miscellaneous, Style

Saying no to reading challenges

08 Jan

This post originally appeared on the Times Union books blog here.

postit Along with the resolutions and changed habits that come with a new year come feeds pushing challenges to read a certain number of books for the upcoming year. And while I enjoy seeing the “year in books” Goodreads sends me as an avid user of the site, I will not be entering their reading challenge. Nor will I print out and complete a Bingo-style reading chart, promise to read a certain amount of classics, or read a book a day. Why? Because I like to have some control over my reading habits, sometimes my brain can’t wrap itself around Charles Dickens, and there are days I might read two books.

Frankly, life happens. And no one should have to feel bad about that. There are weeks where I stare longingly at my neglected books when family obligations override reading. I will even continue to request books knowing that eventually a particularly beautiful summer day (or a snowstorm as is the current situation here in upstate New York) will come along and I can tear through three.

Plus, I am a firm believer in following your interests. I didn’t read nonfiction until seven years ago. Now I can’t get enough. Luckily, book police do not come to your house if you have read fifty-nine self-help books and plan to read a sixtieth. Ultimately, making time to read and feeling content with the time you do dedicate to it is what matters.
A reading challenge could motivate the light- or non-reader to think about their reading choices and keep them honest about trying new books. Likewise, the same challenge might prompt a dedicated reader to have some fun. Me? I ride the wave of recommendations, reviews, bookstore visits, and deliveries to our library in shaping my TBR pile and I’m comfortable with that.

So, if you are a serial book challenge taker, what is your reason? And if you’re not, why not?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on January 8, 2017 in Miscellaneous

Reading alone at night

27 Dec

One of my favorite quotes circulating on Facebook and Pinterest right now being put on coffee mugs and t-shirts is

a day without reading is like… just kidding, I have no idea.

And that essentially sums up my reading life. I tend to read a little bit every day, if not an entire book, then a good chunk of one, with more at the ready. Sometimes it’s a graphic novel at lunch at work and sometimes it is a fast-paced thriller that I have to finish tonight because I need to know how it resolves itself.

But my favorite part of a vacation (obviously as a school librarian) is having the extra time to read. I do my house cleaning, organizing, chores, and errands in the morning when I’m at my most ambitious and then try to spend the rest of the day reading. And that includes my favorite part of the day, staying up later than I normally do during a regular work week now that the kids and husband are in bed.

In the dark. With a cup of tea. Just me and my book.On the couch. Comfortable pajamas and slippers. Maybe a blanket. Yes, me and the book.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 27, 2016 in Miscellaneous