Martin Luther King’s quote popped up in this week’s Facebook memory and it got my wheels turning about the blog post on which I should have been working the past few weeks. I have had several ideas floating around in my head but have not been able to formulate any of them into coherent thoughts worth sharing so when this quote came up, I knew I just needed to start and see where it would lead. I have no idea where we will be by the end but let’s see if we can enjoy the ride. My career started as a public librarian almost 30 years ago with one of the first tasks being the automating of the library. Jumping in and taking that first step for this young, newly degreed librarian in a community with an older library staff and community population was daunting yet necessary so we took it slow and steady, and accomplished the goal. Once I made the decision to switch to school librarianship, there was a whole new set of standards out there and going back to school was a very different experience from the few Apple IIe models in high school and bulky desktops and labs in the college library. Professors were balancing previous pedagogy with new expectations of making sure we, as new teachers, would become comfortable adding technology to our future classes. We all needed to take the first step and we all came out with updated skills for that time along the technology spectrum. My most recent years once in the schools have been the most transformative. The rapid nature of technology options now is overwhelming. On which bandwagon do we jump? On which do we let roll by? Yet being given these opportunities - to learn and share the newest trends, help determine the direction of the library program, push through fears and struggles, teach students and teachers what is out there and how to incorporate it in their lives - has been incredibly rewarding. Sharing “makerspaces” and using mobile devices and discovering great apps to use on them, while continuing to share the love of reading, keeps the job fresh and exciting regardless of the methods used to get there. Joining this year’s NextGen Cadre was an exercise in both patience and faith for me. Wanting to do it in previous years, yet not feeling ready to take the first step left me back in that unknown spot; not really knowing what I would gain in the experience and imagining how I would utilize the skills we would hopefully be learning. While the first semester has had its share of challenges, I am glad I took the first step. I am not where I want to or hoped to be but I am a work in progress; we are works in progress; our students are works in progress but we all need to be willing to put ourselves out there and find our place in the world – wherever we are on this technology journey. Exploring, testing, supporting, trying, failing, trying again, succeeding. We model and show perseverance. We have no idea what will continue coming at us as teachers or them as students in regards to advancing technologies and while schools often struggle to keep up, we need to push forward. If you have been a reluctant follower, challenge yourself to step into a small leadership role even if it scares the daylights out of you! Start small but take the first step – have faith! The top of the staircase is waiting for you – and the view is breathtaking! Today's thoughts come to us from Ms. Rochelle Rogan. Rochelle has been the Dennis Intermediate School Librarian since August of 2015 after stints as the Youth/Technical Services Public Librarian & System Administrator and a School Librarian in southeast Wisconsin. She was proud and humbled to be named the Dennis School Teacher of the Year by her colleagues in 2018. Her husband, Mike, is a life-long Richmond-area resident and they have 2 children, a dog, a barn cat and 3 Alpine dairy goats. When not learning new technologies, Rochelle enjoys playing softball and volleyball, riding bicycles and motorcycles, camping, and taking naps.
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