My Day

I read two hours in The Knowledge Gap. In these chapters,Wexler reviews the up and down trends, beliefs, science, and mess that education has made of learning to read. It has been a lumpy road. Her mantra is that content learning has been the under-estimated, neglected and, and necessary tissue needed to bridge the gap between  the skills we teach and the comprehension we seek. I'm learning alot.

I formatted my pilot video for a possible Poetry Month initiative: illustrating favorite poems with what is at hand while sheltered-in-place:


Also spent some time this morning finally watching some of the Opals Mediaflex tutorials that I never made time for at ACS. Got up to speed on Location Authorities, Establishing Barcode Ranges, and Batch Deletes.

Spoke with the principal on a check-in call in the morning.

Had my first Zoom meeting in the afternoon organized by our SLS Director. Good opportunity to compare notes on how colleagues are sharing information, respecting the learning-curve as students adjust to online challenges, and suggesting training needs for upcoming sessions. I was heartened to learn that several elemntary librarians have already recorded read-alouds to share with their kids!

Not exactly Bell and Watson, but a first foray making contact (multiple) with Zoom.

And ...I wrote this follow-up poem.

Stopping in My Woods of a Snowy Afternoon

I could never match
Frost’s quatrain scheme,
but neither could he
remake the depth and rhythm
of these dark trunks and ghosting tops
as they step away
into snowfall’s sifted distance.

I watch and I listen
as the flakes change over
to peppering taps
on beech leaf snares;
their curled brown selves
desperate but stubborn
to hold out for Spring.