Monday, July 21, 2014

A Heartfelt Thank You

Ok....so I said I wasn't going to write again until I had students, but...well...I lied!

A year ago, I found out that I was going to be moving into the library at my school.  My position would be a one year "pilot".  Prior to this, our librarian had been a paraprofessional. She was retiring, and my district was willing to look at making it a teacher-librarian position.  I had one year to prove myself...and the importance of the position.

Now, I had the position, and all I could think was..."Oh my goodness!  What in the world do I do?".

My colleague Karen (@KarenAupperlee) suggested that I go on Twitter.  Like John Schu has said, I, too, thought that Twitter was a place where people posted pictures of their food and outlined every detail of their day-to-day life.  She assured me that this wasn't the case, and that it would be a great connection for me.  I signed up...and followed a few people, and they eventually followed me.  I had NO idea what I was doing....(or what half of this stuff meant).
 
Soon I started making connections with other librarians and finally got the guts to start asking some questions.  WOW!  I never expected the outpouring of advice and support that I received.  It was so overwhelming, so unbelievable.  People were SO amazingly kind and helpful.  When I asked "beginner's (what were probably dumb) questions", I got sincere, thoughtful answers.   When I started to panic, I received reassurance. When I said that one of my first tasks was to get some graphic novels in my library, I was sent a box of new graphic novels from another librarian.  I naively asked why she had so many new graphic novels sitting around...and she replied, "They weren't sitting around, I bought them for you!".  Bought them for me?  I haven't even met you??  Really???

That's when I realized...this was something special!  These people were something special!!

Not having a mentor in my district, there is no way that I would have succeeded this year, if it weren't for my new PLN.  Their patience, wisdom. honesty, and expertise helped me turn my "pilot" into a permanent position...and spread it to the other buildings in my district.

I have my dream job...and I couldn't have done it without the help of so many people.

So...John, Margie, Travis, Sherry, Matthew, Julee, Chris, Cynthia (and many others) I sincerely and humbly thank you!,


5 comments:

  1. Thank you Kurt. The first year is so challenging for us all and we all well remember our struggles. I have worked in libraries since the age of 18 and they have evolved so much over a short span of time. We are blessed to be librarians.

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  2. I love your origin story into libraries and greatly admire your tenacity in securing the position! You are an asset to your school and to our PLN.

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  3. I am so happy for you Kurt. Your enthusiasm for your position is evident in everything you do. I wish you continued success. I sincerely thank you for the mention.

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  4. Kurt, I am so thankful to have you as a friend and colleague in this vast TL world. You are an asset to your school and to your students, but you are also a great asset to us! Thank you for asking those questions and for being a voice for many, many others who were too afraid to ask. You will do great things, Kurt Stroh! I'm just thankful to be along for the ride.

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  5. You're doing great thinks, Kurt - it's been great getting to know you and learning from you

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