My life as a mathematician

Prior to morphing into a school librarian, I taught high school math for 18 years. Math is near and dear to my heart and I continue to explore ways to incorporate math into my life.  While purists differentiate between mathematics and statistics.  My true love is statistics and how they can be used to manipulate ideas, perceptions and reality.  I use statistics to justify my library program.  Data collection is at the heart of education today.  News articles, blog posts, tv reports all use statistics to describe schools in positive and negative ways.  There's been much discussion in education circles on "value added" evaluations.  This is nothing more than manipulating statistics to add a numeric value to the evaluation process.  Of course, how does this translate for school librarians who certainly ADD VALUE to a school but don't have students that are tested in a subject area? It will be interesting to watch how this discussion and process proceeds especially when it comes to secondary teachers.  There are only four subject areas tested--Math, English, Social Science and Science.  How do you  evaluate "value added" the physical education, foreign language and art teachers? Ah yes, another mathematical conundrum perhaps?

What did you want to be?

Students often ask about how I ended up a teacher librarian. While my journey to this position is my own, one thing I could tell them is that I wanted to be a librarian when I was a child I just didn't know it then. Looking back at my elementary school years, I spent endless hours with books, and even wrote numbers on the spines to locate my weekly reader subscription books on the book shelf. I loved "playing school".

When I went to college I was planning on medical school. Did I like blood or dissections or have a fascination with the way the body worked when I was a kid, nope...

What did you want to be when you grew up? How close did you come?

My life as a reader

I read about this fall blogging challenge on the Dangerously Irrelevant Blog
This weeks post (October 4-10)
What is your life as a reader like? Do you read for work, pleasure, instructions or emails? What is your favorite author and/or genre? What is your favorite reading spot? What did you like to read when you were the age of your students?

So this is the perfect post for a librarian. My life as a reader has many parts. I usually am reading at least three books going at any given time.

There is the book I read on my lunch break at work and during our SSR time. It comes from my library collection and it is chosen to give me something to book talk. Sometimes they are new books. Sometimes they are books that the students have been reading so much that I try to grab it when it's returned on a Friday, so I can start it over the weekend. Currently, my on campus read is The Calculus Diaries.

Then there is the going-to-sleep book. These are my romance novels that I read for 15-30 minutes before I turn out the light at night. I've been reading these books since I was a teenager. I've tried to give up this habit, but somehow they are the brain candy* I need to drift off to sleep.

The third book is usually something weightier, heavier that requires more thinking. This is the book I read on the exercise bike or when I have time on a weekend afternoon to sit and read for an extended period.

I don't really have a favorite reading spot. Curled up on the couch, feet up on the recliner, on the porch on the glider. My favorite author dating back to those teenage years, remains Danielle Steel.


*brain candy is a term another teacher told me about her need to read pocket book mysteries. They have no substance but they satisfy my need to read.

I miss notes being passed

When I first began teaching there were no such things as cell phones. Notes being passed were the mode of sly communication for the teenager. I don't find notes on the floor or intercept them anymore like the old days. I've often said that if I'd kept all of the notes I picked up and intercepted during my early days they would've made an interesting book--Tales from the Classroom Floor.

This week a note was left on the floor in the library...typical of teenage love at its purest:

To my dearest (name withheld)
I got a poem for you (:

roses are red, violets are blue
every minute I'd be thinking of you
leaves turn green, bananas turn brown
whenever I'm with you, I never frown
you make me laugh, you never make me cry
you give me a reason to live, you give me a reason to die
you've lent me a shoulder to lean on and a helping hand and now I ask you
will you be my girlfriend?

In the midst of tragic news over teenage bullying and bad decision-making leading to suicides. This reminds me, we have to remember these are young adults trying to navigate the world of relationships and figuring out how to love and be loved. Regardless of who it is they choose to love.

I don't know who wrote this or who received it or what the answer is, but to me it's a poignant reminder of the innocence of youth.