Tales from a Loud Librarian

I have spent the last 30 years working in public schools in Louisiana. I have to say, except when I taught in a classroom that was federally funded, that I never had the funding that I needed to run my program. When I became a librarian in 1991, I knew immediately that the budget from the district and the state would not be enough to maintain and improve the collection. There were some block grants and some school money that helped in the early years, but I knew from the first time that I stepped into a library that I would have to hold fundraisers if I wanted to provide my students with a vibrant program. You can't run a library on nothing though I wish that you could.  When I arrived at PFTSTA eight years ago, the district gave me a budget to match our student body of 175 students. I was starting a library from scratch at a new school. I needed funding. The principal, at the time, had received grant monies to outfit the school, and luckily, she was generous with the libr...

Bordelon, Kahn, Simpson and Valence visit Boston Museum of Fine Arts before the conference begins In April, we found out that our team of five won a Fund for Teachers grant that would send us to November Learning's Building Learning Communities Conference in Boston in July. Well, I am just back from the conference. I attended this conference three years ago with one teacher from PFTSTA, but it was even more exciting to attend with a team of teachers and the principal, Jaime Zapico. Only the teachers were able to apply for the grant but having our principal with us meant that we could make some solid plans for the 2014-15 school year.  Each day began with a continental breakfast where we could network with other educators attending the conference. I would find a table with empty chairs that had several people in an active discussion. I really found it to be an invigorating way to start the day. One of the teachers I met at breakfast was an English teacher who explained tha...

Read about our program on the Fund for Teachers website It all started way back in the fall when Lisa Valence and I read about a grant that would pay for teacher's professional development in the JPPSS district newsletter. We thought it would be a good way to get a group of us teachers to one of the summer conferences like ISTE or BLC . The application was due in late January. With the move to the new facility in late July, I was backed up and never got a chance to work on the grant. Until..... We were going to have two days off for bad winter weather---sleet and snowy conditions--in southern Louisiana!!! I went around to four teachers, each from a different department, and asked if they would be available on our snow day to work on a grant. We input the info with the rubric on a Google Doc and divided up the sections. Each person wrote a section. Then Lisa and I did some editing to make sure it sounded cohesive. Our English teacher, Cheryl Bordelon, read it for clarity and sm...

The PFTSTA Library needs your help to win the Follett Challenge and $60,000 in resources for our library. You can help by casting your vote everyday until March 15th. Don't worry, I will remind you again if you forget. We are moving to a new building, and we need the resources to complete our new space. Click here to open the link to vote .

Laura Bush visited the New Orleans area today to give the last twelve grants for the Gulf Coast School Recovery Initiative . All 116 schools that received awards since 2006 were invited to participate in this event and representatives from 77 of those schools were there. I attended along with my principal, Jaime Zapico. It was held at Chalmette High School in St. Bernard Parish because that is where Mrs. Bush presented the first round of awards in 2006.  It was a beautiful affair. When we arrived, we got to visit with all the librarians and eat muffins and drink coffee. Since I have worked in both Orleans Parish and now Jefferson Parish schools, I knew a lot of the librarians attending the event. There was a wonderful student jazz band playing. After about an hour, we went into this amazing auditorium. A facility that we at Patrick Taylor only dream about. The chorus sang, and we heard more music from the band. Then a video was shown with librarians, students, and princip...