School librarians are life long learners who have advanced degrees. We are K-12, ESL, and G/T certified, and we are busy, busy people. We start before the first bell rings, often working screening for kids entering school in the mornings. Other morning duties might include keeping an eye on kids who arrive early. This can be done in the gymnasium or in the cafeteria. By 8:15, we start classes. These classes can be virtual, face to face or a combination of the the two. In those classes, the assistant and the librarian are busy checking books in and instructing students on how to carefully select new books. Then, we assist students who need to check out new books. The amount of time this takes depends upon the ages of the students. Often, we also support class room teachers and the curriculum by planning engaging lessons or even co teaching. Recently, at Shugart, we have been holding Kahoot competitions related to dictionary skills such that our students will be prepared to use this resource on standardized tests.
During the day, we are also continuously shelving books, putting books in quarantine, taking books out of quarantine, delivering books to teachers, and sanitizing tables chairs and other materials. Many librarians also open the space for cool down corners, offering safe spaces to students (or teachers) who may just need a calming space. Many librarians also serve as the school webmasters so we spend many hours keeping the school's website engaging and up to date. We are also community partners. We reach out to the community for support for our students. For example, next week, here at Shugart, we will have a guest reader every day. Librarians also tutor and serve as intersession and summer school teachers. Librarians are also grant writers. Check the Garland Education Foundation's page, and you are sure to find that many GEF recipients are librarians.
Additionally, we host special events such as book fairs. During times like this, one of us will teach while the other helps students write book wish lists, count change, help students select books, and keep the shelves and tables nice and neat. This all occurs after set up, and take down will follow. Librarians also host literacy events and are very instrumental in helping with annual math and science nights. We assist during parent conference nights, ARD meetings, class coverage and many other duties.
Librarians and their assistants keep the collection of books and resources up to date; we do inventories; we set up engaging displays, and in general, serve, whenever and wherever we are needed. And last, and of course, school librarians promote reading and sites like Epic, MyOn and more, and along the way, we read some amazing books to and with kids.