Elizabeth Graham's Post 5: Routman's Chapter 12 "You Only Have So Much Time"

As I read Chapter 12, "You Only Have So Much Time", several key points jumped out at me. As a newer teacher librarian, I have fallen for the cute/cool Pinterest lessons and centers that take some time to plan and create. Perhaps I should have read this chapter first, as Routman warns, "Continually ask yourself when planning work for students, How is this activity helping my students become more independent as readers, writers, and thinkers? If it's not, set it aside." Ouch, maybe I did spend too much time on the snowman ABC cards...

Another point that resonated was the mantra to "Keep Work Meaningful" AKA help students create authentic work. In the library, I aspire to share and publish the work that students create for the wider world to enjoy. If a student writes a poem on a piece of paper, then shoves it in their backpack never to be seen again, was the poem really written? How about publishing student work on school websites, class blogs, Twitter, or other social media sites? Students should work hard to create products that they are proud of and want to share with the school community, their parents, and the wider world of the internet. To me, that is authentic.

Finally, I love the section instructing us to, "Make Time for Personal and Professional Reading." No matter how busy my day, I almost always try to end the day with a chapter or two. As Dr. Pridgen reminds our students daily "have a book in your bookbag", we have to make sure that we have reading material - magazines, journal articles, eBooks, novels, blog posts - readily accessible.