Curator of Wonder

 I was positively chuffed to bits to spend an hour and a half playing and laughing with my old cohort (and some new faces!) at the Stoughton Public Library this past Saturday.  I worked with Cynthia, the Adult/Teen Services extraordinaire in Stoughton, for nine months during my Teen Services internship. She and I keep in touch with library and life news, and when she suggested several months ago that we might do a virtual program together, I eagerly agreed. My time working in Stoughton features some of my very fondest memories, and I miss both the youth and adults that I got to know during my time there. We called it 'Rise & Shine Improv' since 10 am on a Saturday morning isn't a usual teen programming slot, but Cynthia was graciously accomodating for the time difference between Stoughton and the UK.  One of the ongoing programs I ran during my time in Stoughton was a biweekly Improv Club. The sessions focused on building performance skills such as supporting your partn

Finished reading the above book, Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott. A related resource,  Autism in MG Books  is an awesome website that's full of resources for understanding neurodiversity, broken down for educators and parents. Includes recommended books and resources for further learning.  An article worth reading:  Meet the Iowa Architect Documenting Every Slave House Still Standing I often wonder how I didn't learn more about the history of libraries and librarianship as part of library school, and this question comes up whenever I stumble across an important figure in the history of libraries. My library school list was more or less limited to Andrew Carnegie, Ann Carroll Moore, and Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan. I learned about  Eliza Atkins Gleason  for the first time this week, and I look forward to reading about her more.  Currently watching the CCBC Short for February on the 2021 ALA Youth Literature Award Winners to get acquainted with these titles

February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK. A few booklists for recommended titles by/about queer leaders in the LGBTQ+ movements or with LGBTQ+ protagonists: Stonewall UK , Booktrust's LGBT+ list , or on the other side of the pond ALA's Stonewall Awards list  or Lee Wind's long-running YA-focused blog   I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?   And Gay's the Word Bookshop is the UK's oldest LGBT bookshop, aka a place for you to buy some of the great titles on these lists! National Literacy Trust's resources for Children's Mental Health Week , link reading and wellbeing. Wakelet full of digital escape room examples and how tos .  My favorite READ poster of all time is now available on a tshirt , from Out of Print. If anyone reading this is looking for a gift for me, I'm a size small. 

This living booklist that will come in handy in the future  Books for Teens and Tweens - Donor Conceived Offspring Be Internet Awesome with Google - Interland game - practice digital citizenship and safety skills while playing this free online game that is actually as fun as it is educational In case you didnt know, free access to the digitized editions of School Library Journal is still available.  I love puppets. And I love the cardboard puppet theater performances of picture books done by the Little Angel Theatre  based in London. Their super hits of Jon Klassen books are currently unavailable, but the guide to making your own puppets at home is worth a try. Fav Tech Tool My guess is that most educators are already aware of  Loom , but the more I use it the more I like it. It's a quick and easy way to create videos that capture your screen and also your face, which can add a more personable touch to whatever information you are sharing. Educators can get some of the prem

New signage, and new spine labels. One of the projects I did while listening to the podcast listed below. In the spirit of sharing knowledge and lifelong learning, the following are a collection of some of the worthwhile things I read on the internet this week: In addition to the CLPE Reflecting Realities report, this is a worthwhile read:   A National YouthTrends Report on How Young People of Colour are Represented in the UK I've been listening to the backlog of Amy Hermon's podcast School Librarian's United  while I'm working alone in the library. So far, my favorite episodes have been the ones where she shares a list of her own podcast recommendations that help her keep up with happenings in the library/book/education world and Virtual Libraries and Librarians   which shared some great ideas for remote learning in the library. Learn how to talk to kids the way Mr. Rogers did . Or gain a new understanding of how kids understand language. YALSA names 2021 Best Ficti