Back to the Beginning

I decided to disconnect my IFTTT from this blog for a number of reasons.  IFTTT is incredible for automation, but it removes the human element; the personal touch.  It also, frankly, makes rather ugly blog posts which clashed with my design sensibilities.
When I started writing this blog, it was under professional duress.  I was in grad school at the time and made to feel like I "should" blog.  It was a job-hunting gimick that I was happy to employ, in the hopes that someone would then employ me.  Well, whether or not the blog had anything to do with it, I did eventually get a job and - with that goal then realized - the blog dissolved in to obscurity.  In other words, the blog did its job in getting me a job, so I had no additional reason to continue contributing to it.

But good librarians are supposed to have blogs, right?  You can't be a Joyce Valenza or a Buffy Hamilton without one.  Or at least that's what "they" told me.

I approached the blog again a few months ago with trepidation and a touch of sorrow.  Trepidation because I realized that dedicating myself to it again was going to be a lot of work.  Sorrow because it was such an outdated and abandoned little thing.  Barely more than a dozen people were reading it, so it didn't feel like there was much of a point.

But I realized that I do have things to say.  I was just too scared to say them.

I've always been a very outspoken person with "cutting edge" ideas.  But sometimes those ideas can cut both ways...ways that could be dangerous for a non-tenured teacher.  I spoke my ideas, but I tailored them for very specific audiences at appropriate times in controlled situations as I felt out the political climate of my school and professional community.

Now that I have a solid hold on my third year as a library media specialist, I've grown more confident in what I have to say and my personal philosophies regarding education and librarianship as an evolving field. Especially since I ended up in such an innovative and supportive school district.   I'm ready to return to the original concept of this blog:  the record of my journey as a fledgling media specialist.

There are tons of blogs out there from veterans, so I intend to supply the voice of a pioneer just starting out.  I'll talk about what has worked, what totally doesn't, and anything else that I feel might be of interest to the greater educational media community.  Here's to going back to the beginning!