Projects and Progress

The part of school librarianship that’s been the hardest for me so far is managing multiple short and long term projects. As a middle school librarian, I have a flex schedule, which means classes come into the library as a result of planned collaboration, not on a regular rotation like in elementary school. This creates a “feast or famine” effect: I either have all day to manage the collection and work on long term prpjects, or I’m trying to squeeze that work in while teaching 5 classes a day.

Right now I’m in the middle of a four-week collaboration with the 7th grade English department, helping students create book trailers in Canva. I absolutely love this project and the opportunities it brings to collaborate with the English teachers and build relationships with students. However, teaching five out of seven periods a day has left little time for long-term projects (differentiating social studies resources for our multilingual learners, creating a scope and sequence for research skills across our school, learning more about AI to help other librarians create district policies).

I’ve been feeling a frazzled, like I’m not doing what people need in a timely manner, like I’m not doing a good job at anything because I’m spread thin. But I received two pieces of encouragement this week that shifted my perspective. A social studies teacher asked me to help him find resources on colonial women at a lower reading level, and although I didn’t *think* I did that much, he shared with a team member (who shared with me) that the resources made a huge difference for the students that needed them.

Later in the week, I came in to work to find a little burlap bag on my keyboard. One of the English teachers left a bar of homemade soap and a little card to thank me for troubleshooting so many tech issues during her book trailer project. During those troubleshooting moments, I’d felt embarrassed, thinking “I should have seen this coming! I probably look like I don’t know what I’m doing!” But she didn’t see ineptitude- she saw perseverance.

I still feel frazzled and am looking forward to the weeks where I’ll have more time to focus on long-term projects, but I now feel more sure of myself and my expertise.

All this is to say, if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed or down on yourself, you are your own worst critic. Where you see a lack, others see abundance.

And if you see someone who’s spinning a lot of plates, tell them they’re doing a great job, even if it seems like they have it all together. Your encouragement means the world. 🧡