Tuesday Slice: Things I don't miss

The schools in our district are on day two (of two) of parent conference/ staff development days.  Yesterday, freed from an anticipated task on campus, I had a day to catalog books, answer emails, complete my benefits open enrollment, work on library finances a bit, chat with colleagues, and finagle last-minute author visit details, including a major snafu involving the author's books we ordered.  I am coordinating that visit for four campuses, and the book problem affected us all.

The last of those items had my blood pressure boiling as I left work.  I know this to be true because I checked my blood pressure on the machine at the grocery store pharmacy while I waited to get my flu shot.  I haven't seen it that high since I was delivering my son twenty-some-odd years ago.

While I was venting over my morning's change of plans (I could have been at another library event) and dealing with the book orders, my teacher colleagues were cycling through one conference after another.  The upper grades were running student-led, two-part conferences.

I don't miss parent conferences, the frustration of no-shows and confrontations.  I don't miss grading (mostly done at home), or writing and updating IEPs, or detailed lesson planning for the multi-levels of learning in my previous resource room.    

I do miss my former students.  But I have over twelve hundred students now, each deserving of my attention in the library.  It's a joy to teach information literacy and connect kids with books and stories that light up their imaginations and hearts.  I get to support my colleagues in ways I couldn't as a teacher.

Despite the blood-boiling events of yesterday, I don't miss the old days.  They just made me better at being the teacher-librarian  I am today.