Posted on by hildaweisburg

Reduce Your Stress

Sometimes it feels as though I’m writing about stress every other week, but I am reminded daily of how many challenges we are all facing personally and professionally (come to the School Librarian’s Workshop Facebook page if you need support from those who understand!). And the short- and long-term effects of this stress are detrimental to our mental and physical health. The joy you felt at the beginning of your career feels like a fond memory. You may even be considering retiring.

But what we do is too important to allow ourselves to succumb to a hostile environment on top of our usual heavy workload. Unfortunately, when we lose pleasure in what we do, we cannot bring our best to our students and fellow teachers.

While humans can handle stress, they cannot function well when stress is constant, so once again, I want to offer some tools. Steve Keating in his article, Lowering Stress in Turbulent Times suggests these nine steps to help you deal with the continuous anxiety that has become a permanent part of our days:

  1. Control What You Can, Let Go of What You Can’t – Easy to say, hard to do. If you can’t control it, you can’t deal with it. What are the things you can control? Stop talking about the turmoil and focus on the things you need to do. Not simple, but keep reminding yourself of this. Consider a mantra: I will control what I can and let go of what I can’t. (Serenity prayer, anyone?)
  2. Set Boundaries with News and Social Media –You don’t need to read every post detailing the latest upheaval. Scan contents every so often but don’t read deeply. If you get a daily newspaper, read the headlines and perhaps the editorial page. Personally, I stopped listening to the news on the radio while driving. I listen to music instead. I arrive places in a much better mood.
  3. Maintain Healthy Routines – Stress can lead to unhealthy eating and affects your sleep. Keating says to, “Keep a daily schedule to create structure and stability. Maintaining control over your calendar has a surprisingly calming, stress-reducing effect on your life.”
  4. Stay Connected to Supportive People – Whenever possible avoid toxic people who drain you. You hopefully have a personal and professional network of those who support you – and need you to support them. Being with more positive people will lower your stress. Set up lunch or dinner dates. Schedule weekly calls. (And here’s a second plug for our Facebook group!)
  5. Use Physical Movement to Reset Your Mind –According to Keaton, “Physical movement helps regulate emotions; this is well known and proven. When you feel the stress building up, get moving.” I have mentioned in my blogs how important walking is for me. I need to get outside and move.
  6. Reframe Challenges as Opportunities – Let a challenge be an opportunity for you to look at things from a new perspective. It can give you a better way to do something or find a new and interesting path, collaborate with a new partner. I call these “chopportunities,” a term I learned at a conference workshop.
  7. Practice Gratitude –As many others have, Keating recommends looking for the good in our lives. No matter how small, nothing is insignificant when it comes to this focus. Before my workday begins, I journal three things for which I am grateful. It has shown me how fortunate I am.  I then get to my tasks with a positive mindset. I relate to people more positively and usually get that in return.
  8. Take Breaks and Breathe – Any athletic coach knows the value of a time-out. Turn off the negativity going through your head. Change your space, go into another room. Use a breathing technique such as square breathing or whatever you prefer. When we are tense, we shallow breathe. Take in some more oxygen and clear your brain.
  9. Seek Guidance if Needed – By now we know that there is no shame in seeking help. Unfortunately, even though we say this to others, we often don’t apply it to ourselves. We are supposed to be strong, capable, able to handle anything thrown at us. Very true – most of time. But personal and professional stress can pile up. Find a mentor or a professional but get the help and support you need. (Here it is – plug three)

Leaders are human. When we take care of ourselves, we give others the right to do the same – which is another way we can lead by example. So many people count on us. Allow yourself to do what is necessary to lower the stress in your life. Find ways to count on and care for yourself. You and those around you will benefit from it.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

From Adversity to Success

Life is tough, and nothing suggests that it’s going to be getting easier in the immediate future. Between personal and professional fears, being able to slog through the days is a real challenge. But you don’t want to drag your way through them. You want to shine and make your program seen for the value it brings to the entire school community.

If you can’t shake off the weight of stress, continuing the way you are will only lead to overwhelm and burnout. You need a plan. Dr. Christian Marcolli has one. In his article “Setting the Gold Standard: What CEOs Can Learn from an Olympic Champion” he outlines five steps to get you back on track for success. We need to “adapt to adversity” because we cannot avoid or outrun it. To do this, Marcolli recommends we:

  1. Rigorously manage your energy to build up a strong foundation for sustained high performance – You are not the energizer bunny. You can’t keep going at full speed. You need to develop your resiliency. Part of this can be done by setting and managing priorities. Be honest with yourself. What must be done? What must be done now?  Identify what can be dropped, deferred, or shared with someone.
  2.  Think through a robust strategy that will lead to success – Keep your goals front and center. Review your Mission and Vision. Develop a strategic plan complete with action steps, timeline, and assessments as you go along and at the completion. With a plan in motion your energy will be focused rather than diffused.
  3. Work on creating a winning mindset – Find ways to nurture your desire to live your Mission statement. This will allow you to tap into a positive mindset that will give you the boost you need, even when the results aren’t (yet) what you want. When things feel hard, remind yourself of past successes.
  4. Be ready to adapt to changes and setbacks – Fighting change, expected and unexpected, is a waste of energy. It happens. Know how you best bounce back. Leaders recognize setbacks happen but know how to create the path for going forward. Look to your strategic plan to take the next best step forward.
  5. Visualize success – This is a common technique for athletes. It’s not something we think to do. Think about the end result. Imagine yourself getting there – what will it look like? What will it feel like? Hold on to that feeling and do what it takes to live into it. If you’re a visual person, consider creating vision board. Or, if you prefer, make a list of the feelings you are hoping to have, the results you are looking forward to seeing. As an extra benefit, the process of constructing these and envisioning the end will lift you up and improve your mindset.

This quote from Barbara De Angelis serves as a good reminder, “We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” Leaders always need courage. The path forward is continually filled with obstacles to overcome.

Tough times require tough leaders. With a clear plan and vision, no matter what else changes, you will get to your goal and enjoy a well-earned success.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Get Your Messages Read

TL;DR – To have your message received, it must be read. These six tips will make sure that your messages are heard by recipients.

Text, email, and posts on social media are how we send and receive most of our messages today. We scan and read quickly. Do we take it all in? Mostly, but not always. When we receive lengthy emails, we read the opening paragraph and once we see how long the message is, we tend to scroll through to pick up the highlights (and now many servers offer AI summaries). The same is true with our social media posts.

We don’t always think about the messages we send in the same way, but the receivers do. Our communications with administrators and teachers are very important to us and too often we pack too much into them. The challenge is to be more succinct but also improve the look of the messages so they get read, and we get the desired results.

John Millen shows you how to achieve that goal in TL;DR: Be More Clear and Concise. (For those like me who are unaware of the abbreviation, TL;DR means “too long, didn’t read.) His guidance will ensure that your messages are not tagged that way.

Here are his 6 tips:

  1. Start with the purpose up front – You want to grab the reader’s interest. Clearly share the purpose and focus of your message is at the beginning. It’s something I strive to do in these  blogs.
  2. Use structure to your advantage – Bullet points, bolds, and italics along with number lists and short paragraphs draw a reader’s eye and help hold their interest. Long blocks of texts make people scroll faster, especially on smaller devices. Here I always have ways for you to see the important points quickly and keep most paragraphs to no more than three sentences.
  3. Prioritize the most important information – Whatever is most important, put it first. Millen says to think about the main idea or required reaction, why it’s important now, and what the reader needs to do next. By guiding the receiver through the key points they move through the contents and retain it. And if they rush to the end – the didn’t miss the most important parts.
  4. Anticipate reader questions – Millen observes that “great communication isn’t just about telling; it’s about answering.” Until seeing this blog, you might not have thought that your message structure was why you weren’t getting responses. The opening paragraphs hopefully answered that question for you.
  5.  Edit relentlessly – Consider your sentence length. Is the sequence logical? Could I use a better word? Have you slipped into jargon or are you using acronyms the reader might not know? Don’t give them a reason to stop reading. Keep them engaged.
  6. End with a call to action or key takeaway – Don’t leave your reader wondering what they should do next. Be clear: respond, call, set up a meeting? Is there a final point you want to drive home? Reiterate it at the end to make a strong lasting impression.

Leaders need to be clear communicators in all the ways they look to get their message across. Your messages are too important for them to be regarded as TL:DR. Keep these six tips in mind as your prepare your next one so you get maximum impact.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Be Resilient and Persevere

It is a long-term truism that we live in a rapidly changing world. Keeping up with change is an ongoing component of a school librarian’s toolset. But the current speed of change is outrageous. From one day to the next there are so many changes from so many directions it is nearly impossible to keep up.

The stress level created by this is high and is a true test of your abilities as a leader.  Think of yourself as the captain of a ship dealing with safely navigating a ship in a wind-laced storm. As you weather these constant challenges, you must simultaneously review and sharpen your ability to persevere and draw on your resilience. These two in combination will help you to not only survive but thrive.

Danna Diaz in her article, Resilience and Perseverance: Keys to Effective Leadership in Schools, writes about the process of strengthening your abilities in these two areas by defining them then presenting strategies to do so. As always, I have added my comments to more firmly root them in the daily work life of school librarians.

Definition – According to Diaz, “Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from setbacks, while perseverance is the steadfastness to stay committed despite difficulty.” We are all familiar with the pivoting that has been necessary in the past years. Fluctuating situations require us to be even more nimble in making changes to meet new requirements. Our perseverance is tested as we hold true to our commitments and Mission in the face of the ongoing challenges.

Building resilience in leadership – To build this necessary component, you need to have a growth mindset and a belief that a potential or possible crisis can be turned into an opportunity. A blog post I wrote on May 27, 2019, Crisis? No! It’s a Chopportunity, details the many ways you can use an apparent disaster into a chance to strengthen and grow the library. When presented with a challenge—look to your Mission and Vision to find possibility.

The role of emotional intelligence – Your ability to create a Chopportunity relies on your awareness and understanding of what motivates others (whether positively or negatively). For example, if you have been informed of a drastic cut in your budget, the opportunity you present to your principal needs to be based on how well you know your principal’s needs, wants, and goals and your ability to show them how your work supports what they are trying to do.

Perseverance: The long game of leadership – Diaz says, “While resilience helps leaders recover from setbacks, perseverance ensures they remain committed to their vision.” Your Mission Statement, combined with your knowledge of what a your school or administrator needs, guides you in creating the opportunity or recommendation you present. Your Vision keeps you fighting to see it through. It is why you write a Vision in the present tense. While it isn’t the current reality, it is the aspiration that should inspire you to hang in there and bring it closer to existence.

Strategies for building resilience and perseverance in schools –

  • Foster a culture of collaboration and support – You are a relationship-builder. Use the relationships you have with teachers, students, and administrators to further your plan. They have come to count on you to deliver on your promises.
  • Model self-care and wellness – Never neglect to take care of yourself. Relying on Persistence and Perseverance without including self-care leads to burn-out. In taking care of yourself, you are showing others that much can be accomplished while not losing yourself. It’s another aspect of your leadership.
  • Develop a data-driven mindset – We always need the data, but I’d go one step further and remind you to look for emotional context to bring to the data. Decisions are rooted in emotion substantiated by data and logic. Give them a reason to care about the data you present.
  • Build strong community partnerships – Expand your thinking to find and work with others who can help you in strengthening the library in challenging times. Parents can be a good source. If you have parent volunteers, they know your value. Parent-Teacher associations can also be helpful as can relationships with the public library.

Diaz concludes by reminding us of the ripple effect of doing this work: We will inspire resilience and perseverance in others. Remember, the job of a leader is not only to have followers, but also to create other leaders. Times are likely to always be tough in one way or another, but so are you.  You have or are building a track record and can thrive. Be Resilient and Persevere. So many will benefit when you do!

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Have You Found BlueSky?

The last day of February was a strange day for me. To fully participate in the Economic Blackout in the United States, I didn’t shop anyplace or go on social media. Depending on what you heard and your own feelings, some people didn’t feel the Blackout included social media. Others shopped only in locally owned locations. But overall, people opposed to what is happening nationally found ways to register their protest.

Although I stayed off all social media, including BlueSky, you should consider it. I have been there for over a year and have seen it evolve into an excellent alternative to X. Eventually, it may even become an alternative to Facebook. According to their own website: Bluesky is a social app that is designed to not be controlled by a single company. We’re creating a version of social media where it’s built by many people, and it still comes together as a cohesive, easy-to-use experience. We’ve done this by building Bluesky on the AT Protocol, an open source toolbox for building social apps that can all talk to each other.

In his Knowledge Quest Blog post, Why BlueSky: or, “So Your Favorite Social Media Site Is Owned By an Oligarch,” Steve Tetreault discusses reasons for leaving X and what BlueSky offers. These are his points along with my comments:

Departing the Troll Palace

Twitter was a great place to communicate and build your vital Professional Learning Network (PLN), but at some point you must accept what has happened over the past few months. We are known by the company we keep. Are you comfortable in being in Musk’s company? Tetreault notes when BlueSky opened to the public in 2024, it was limited in scope and abilities. “New features have been added. And Bluesky has recently seen a massive boom in users. Millions of folks have migrated over.”

You Can’t Take BlueSky from Me

As Tetreault says, “Bluesky is free for all users. And it is decentralized, which means it is incredibly improbable that anyone can come along and buy it to use as their own propaganda machine.” For me, these two are crucial benefits to me. I felt I could no longer be a part of an online community that spewed hatred and was opposed to the underlying principles of democracy. As a school librarian, I am committed to Intellectual Freedom and free speech. BlueSky appears, so far, to agree with this.

A Big Drawback

As noted earlier, BlueSky is still evolving and has some limitations. Unfortunately, as of yet, you can’t set your messages to “Private.” This may change in the future. Some people are concerned about that. Tetreault does point out that it is easy to block people and do so extensively. “It effectively erases any connection between you and the blocked user in the digital space. Once blocked, they won’t see your posts, not even if they quote you. Additionally, Bluesky allows you to remove any mentions of yourself from conversations, as well as your quotes from other users’ posts.” You can see someone’s blocked list, but if I block them, I don’t care if they know.

Moderation

This is one of BlueSky’s strong points. It’s easy to report problem posts and those who harass. Trolls who first went to BlueSky when they learned of people moving to it kept getting “reported, blocked and removed.” Eventually they left.

A Big Draw

The interface feels like the old Twitter. There were many features BlueSky didn’t have at first but in the last few months they’ve added the ability to post images, GIFs, and supports link embedding and video uploads. Most of what was available on Twitter is now at BlueSky. And I completely agree with Tetreault, part of the fun is watching it grow and being an early adopter. The team there is continually making upgrades.

No Algorithms

Love it or hate it, being without can be very freeing. Instead of having the site decide what you say, you make selections such as School Librarians and School Libraries feeds. You can also check your Following and Popular with Friends.

A Growing Community

Tetreault recommends BlueSky’s newest feature, Starter Packs. These help you make and share lists of users who have something in common. Try the ones for School Librarians and soon you’ll be connected to new folks with similar goals and challenges.

If you are as repulsed as I am by Musk and his minions, consider making your move to BlueSky. It’s kind of exciting being part of this growing online community.