Opening Doors

I knew returning to work this week would be a little crazy, but it started in a way that had the potential to derail my excitement about all that is happening in our library and school district. This summer a new HVAC system was being installed at our school. The beauty of this was the fact that we would have our own separate system from the rest of the school. This is exciting simply because we tend to run over 85 degrees or so cold you can hardly move. Needless to say a comfortable temperature has been hard to find. Now why is this important? Well, due to a really large return being added some of our shelves had to be moved.

And, yes, it is as big as a window. Not really liking how it looks but for a comfortable temperature I will adapt. This I could deal with. What I had a difficult time dealing with was the shelf movement and the fact that the books from those shelves were stacked in no particular order on tables. A large part of my first day was spent shifting through those in order to put the books back on the shelf. Yes, there was a large amount of cussing and throwing weeding of books as I went. On top of that the work is not finished, and we have had no air. All of this made for pleasant work conditions for sixth grade orientation and faculty meetings (please note the sarcasm). Let me also add that we have no windows, so it is a really stifling environment. Now that you have read my rant you are probably asking if there is a point to all of this. Don't worry I am getting there. 

This summer I had the opportunity to be involved with staff development across the state. While being involved with this, I had time to ask questions of media and technology professionals in order to prepare for the professional development I would be offering our district media coordinators. One particular conversation with Jackie Pierson, Director of Media Services with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, encouraged me to start with a theme. What I developed was Opening Doors to the Future. You Are the Key.

After dealing with all the drama of HVAC, heat, disorganized books, etc. there was the potential for my frustration and negativity to derail the positive environment I hoped to create for the media coordinator professional development. Yet, after taking a closer look at what was important during this first week of school I was able to refocus. What happened was a great day of collaboration and conversation. You might have already read about QR Code Meet and Greet that started the day. This lead to great discussions and set the tone for the day. I am not going to give all the details of our day but based on the evaluations I feel that everyone left inspired and ready to tackle the year. This is especially important to our teachers who are undergoing so much change with new standards. To me the beauty of this change is that there are so many doors open to us and all we have to do is turn the key. Be the key in your school as the year progresses. Don't let those little things that don't really matter take away from what you have to offer. Students are our priority and we need to be leaders in our schools in order to help open those doors.