Save the Whales

I envision people standing...rioting...signs with catchy slogans.  They're passionate about saving the whales.  It's not that the passersby don't care about the whales.  It's just that they're overwhelmed with terrorism, world hunger, global warming..."real issues."

I feel like one of those whale people.  I've spent the past month talking to my students about making their mark on the world...being kind, helpful, thinking of others...the library has been overflowing with dots.  Thanks to Peter Reynolds and Terry Shay and everyone else inspired to create Dot Day -- a special day to celebrate courage, creativity, and collaboration. 

I love everything that Dot Day stands for.  Still, when teachers come into the library and see us painting, coloring, stuffing and "sewing," and designing, I feel a tinge of guilt.  They have to be concerned with "real issues."  Testing, objectives, standards...I know it's overwhelming.  The dots all over the school are like my slogan signs and at times I feel like people hate them. 

Nobody has said any such thing to me.  In fact, people have been incredibly encouraging and enthusiastic about what's been going on in the library.  It's my own mentality that causes me to suffer.  "Why are 3D Dots Important?"  That was going to be the title of my blog.  My blog was going to be all about defending my decision to spend so much time creating and collaborating.

But it doesn't have to be!!!

This year is an experiment.  Can we have FUN and still address the important objectives in the Library Curriculum?  I don't know at what point I became afraid of fun.   I realized I was afraid, though, last year when I had a bright-eyed college student observing me.  I told her I envied the classroom teachers because they get to have Fun Fridays in their classrooms and do special fun things and I can't.  "Why not?" she asked.

Good question.  And it has turned into a great adventure.

I'm learning that I don't have to put away my "Save the Whales" signs to be addressing the "real issues" of curriculum, standards, and tests.  I get to be creative in how I weave all of this together.  It will be messy at times.  I will probably feel in over my head most of the time.  But this I know for sure:  if my students don't remember anything else from this year they will remember building forts in the library and reading just for the fun of it.  

I think that's a pretty good thing to take away from library class.