Tamiko Brown, 2017 School Librarian of the Year
Ed White E-STEM Magnet School, El Lago, TXJan Wilson, 2017 Hero of Collaboration
Gwinnett County (GA) Public SchoolsThe Explore Book Mobile
I have been promoted to a new position: Instructional Coach! This is a county position that allows me to collaborate and work with all the media specialists in our county. We have added a second Book Mobile to our fleet and named it Explore. It has a completely different design and will be traveling in a different area of Gwinnett County, GA, this summer, so we will have two buses in action. Our Book Mobile serves a different purpose during the school year—schools can reserve the bus for a nominal fee. When the bus visits the school, students can select a book to keep. This school year, over 12,000 books have been given away to students in our county. Some schools use this as a reading incentive and others use it as an event to promote reading and encourage students to begin a personal library. I will be presenting at the Georgia Library Media Association's Summer Institute in June. My presentation is titled "From A to V: Advocacy and Visibility.”Todd Burleson, 2016 School Librarian of the Year
Hubbard Woods School, Winnetka, ILAnita Cellucci, 2016 Finalist
Westborough (MA) High School I was just awarded a grant through the Shine Initiative to create a Student Wellness Advisory Team (SWAT) that will bring more mental health programming to my school communit including yoga, bibiliotherapy, mindfulness, and educational programming. Grant planning begins this month, and it will be implemented next school year. I was an AASL Social Media Superstars finalist in the category of Social Justice Defender. I am also candidate in the 2018 AASL election for Region 1 Director. I started a Facebook page and a connected group called The Empathetic Librarian. The group is open to educators and librarians to share wisdom about Social Emotional Learning—lessons, moments, issues, etc. I am currently a teaching lecturer for an online graduate course, Advanced Children’s and Young Adult Literature, in the School Library Program at Plymouth State University, NH. I am also working with local organizations to acquire grants for programming related to drug-free schools and to offer self-care courses and programming to those recovering from addiction and their families. Along with a few other teachers at my school, I’m working with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which is conducting research on empathy. Massachusetts teachers implement lessons at their schools and give feedback. I am in the Amplifier Educators cohort to discuss implementing social justice curriculum in schools. The cohort explored these ideas with discussion, art, and webinars.Laura Gardner, 2016 Finalist
Dartmouth (MA) Middle School I received a Service Award from the Massachusetts State Library Association for demonstrating leadership of school librarians within the state or nationally. I have also been reading up a storm and reviewing all my reads on Instagram and Goodreads (@LibrarianMsG). I have been fortunate to review for Kid Lit Exchange and am on the leadership team, reaching out to publishers to get more ARCs for our group. I have been encouraging more teachers in my school to read and share their reading with students. There are signs outside classroom doors with their current and recent reads. I also started a monthly teacher book club with eight dedicated members, as well as a #30booksummer initiative to encourage club participants to each read 30 middle grade/YA books over the summer and share them on social media using our hashtag. We will also meet up in the summer to chat about our books and share a meal.Kristina Holzweiss, 2015 School Librarian of the Year
Bay Shore (NY) Middle SchoolWe are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing