Posted on by hildaweisburg

Stop Getting In Your Way

How many times have you felt overworked, overwhelmed and unsuccessful? For many of us this happens often. We have so much to do and there’s so much left undone. But what if… we were part of the problem? We know that our thoughts are powerful, but if they’re sabotaging you, then they need to change.

In her article for SmartBrief, Amber Johnson write about , “The 10 mental traps that sabotage your success.” After working with business leaders she discovered how we get in our own way, and sabotage our success. She writes, “We’re seeing obstacles when an overpass has already been created. Often, it’s our thinking that is actively creating the obstacles.” Her ten traps (and my suggestions) are:

  1. Avoidance – The talk with the teacher who keeps “forgetting” to show when their class is scheduled is not going to be easy, so you put it off. It keeps happening, making you more frustrated. Planning the PD for teachers you promised your principal will take lot of work. You put it off, and as the date approaches your stress level increases. These become missed opportunities and bigger problems. Do the hard one first.
  2.  Making everything about us – Johnson refers to taking “other people’s moods, decisions or feedback personally when it often has nothing to do with us at all.” Just because teachers are having a gripe session, doesn’t mean they are complaining about you and/or the library specifically.
  3. Perfectionism paralysis – Between Avoidance and Making Everything About You, this is an easy trap to fall into. Johnson recommends asking yourself: “What am I not starting because I’m waiting for the perfect moment? What do I keep tweaking instead of seeking feedback?” The good plan you do today beats the perfect plan you’ll never start.
  4. Catastrophic thinking – A never ending loop of thinking of all the possible problems and ways things can go wrong can stop us as much as perfectionism. We are so afraid of what might happen, we do nothing. Instead, try to end the loop by thinking of a positive possible result and the importance of getting there.
  5. Comparison trap – Are you measuring yourself based on what another librarian is doing? Or what your predecessor did? How about the perfect video you saw online. This is another thought process that will keep you from seeing what you’re doing well. Gauge your success by your learning and growth, not by looking at others.  Besides, you are probably doing somethings better than that other librarian.
  6. All-or-nothing mindset – This one is pulls in parts of  #3 and #4, it results in #1. If we can’t do it completely, we don’t do it all. Johnson suggests looking at what can happen no matter what. She suggests you ask, “What partial solutions would still be beneficial? What’s worth trying because we’ll learn along the way?”
  7. Ruminating on past mistakes –You made a bad mistake in the past. It was embarrassing. But you learned from it. Remember “FAIL” can stand for First Attempt in Learning.” Don’t let it keep you for trying it again or trying new things.
  8. Assuming we know what others think – The body language you think is about you could be about something else entirely. (See #2). Your hesitancy in talking or working with this person adds to your stress, self-sabotaging thoughts, and keeps you from being the leader you need to be,
  9. Staying in our comfort zone – This is one I talk about often. If you stay in your comfort zone you aren’t growing. And if you aren’t growing, you are dying. You and your program must be seen as a dynamic force that is integral to your school community’s needs and wants.
  10. “The way we’ve always done it” thinking– Back to #9. Yes, it’s easier to go with the tried and true. If our industry had done that, we would still have card catalogs and use only Dewey for cataloging. We need to lead the way. Keep up with what’s happening in our field – and what is happening in teachers’ and administrators’ fields. Know what the kids are interested in and you’ll find new ways to grow and lead.

Being a school librarian can and often is exhausting. But its also exhilarating. We touch so many lives over the years. When we look at where our thoughts stop us —even lie to us—we can push past the self-sabotage and be the Leader they need.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Slow and Mindful is More Powerful Than You’d Think

You know it’s important that your school community sees your contribution as invaluable. To continue to bring value to your school, are you always looking for what you can develop next?. Maybe you heard about some great programs other school librarians have developed. What about maker spaces, gentrification. There are a lot of choices. But where are you going to find time to add the research and development necessary in your jam-packed day?

Good news. You don’t need to get overwhelmed by a large-scale project. You can take a much easier approach, and Julie Winkle Giulioni tells you how. The title of her blog article, Water Always Finds a Way – And So Do Good Leaders gives away the secret. It’s not about working hard to move big obstacles out of our path. Forward motion followed by consistency will make the impact you want/

The All-Or-Nothing Trap – We have all read about these leaders who came on the scene, scrapped whatever was in place, and rebuilt this incredible business from the ground up. Giuliani says that way lies paralysis. You figure you can’t do that, so you do nothing. Slow isn’t the opposite of bold. Methodical steps get you where you want to go, usually with less stress and frequently with more connections and support made along way.

The Approach I Thought Was “All Wet” – Giulioni recalls a manager she thought didn’t have enough drive. Instead, the manager “spent time engaging in conversations, building relationships, [and]shifting perspectives.” Sound familiar? We’re in a relationship business. Consider how those activities fit in our inserting the library into the daily needs of our teachers and administrators.

Reflecting on the manager’s actions, Giulioni realized the success achieved was much like what she had observed on a trip to the Costa Rican rainforest. Although it was the giant waterfall that captured attention, it was the rivulets that carved the terrain. It did so “over millions of years. working around barriers, exploiting soft spots and carving deeper wherever it found opportunity. Persistent. Patient. Purposeful. And, as a result, powerful.”

To be powerful, take these three lessons from water:

  • Bypass the boulder – Boulders don’t move easily, but “there’s almost always a crevice nearby to start working your way through.” Is your principal ever going to listen to your goals for the library? Maybe not But working with teachers who are enthusiastic about what you are doing, and what the kids are learning will bring it to their attention, particularly when they hear about it from others then come in to observe a lesson. Is it a teacher who feels their class is too important to “waste it” on library time? Move around that teacher and work with those who are enthusiastic the benefits.
  • Start small – It only needs to be one teacher with whom you start. It won’t overwhelm you, will lower the stakes on success as well as give you the early success that will keep you inspired to continue. If you can, within this project, find something the principal is interested in and send any brief articles that would capture their attention. Aim for once a week but not on a schedule.
  • Measure momentum, not magnitude – The water keeps flowing, and you need to do the same. Slowly, but continually keep going. Little by little your “flowing water” will create the changes you are working for. As Giulioni says, “Consistent, purposeful action compounds over time in ways that single bold gestures rarely do.”

I know it’s hard to keep going between the demands of the job and the outside forces adding stress. But we can’t afford to do nothing. That way leads to librarians being removed from their positions and too much is at stake to our communities. You can be a bold leader without making constant giant changes. Just be like water: Persistent. Patient Purposeful.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Lower the Stakes for Greater Success

The title sounds like an oxymoron. All the science tells us that positive thoughts and big, clear goals are what we need for success. But what if some of the things we’re striving for are a little too much? Then we “fail” and starting again or moving forward becomes harder. Especially if teachers or our administrator knew what we were trying to achieve. Always reaching high not only creates stress but long term it can lead to burn out, neither of which is helpful when we need and want to keep going.  We need to be careful not to doom our future by overreaching our capabilities.

In her article “How to Win by Lowering the Stakes” for Psychology Today, Chitra Ragavan illustrates why and how lower stakes can allow us to reach bigger goals. She contrasts the mindset and results of Olympic Figure Skaters Ilia Malinin and Alysa Liu to make her points. For our uses, I will build some examples that align with our community’s needs.

Defensive Pessimism vs. Strategic Optimism – Ragavan explains, Defensive Pessimism is a psychological technique that has you lowering expectations to reduce pressure on achieving the desired outcome. This is what Liu did and it lead to her gold medal. By contrast, Strategic Optimism is when you set the bar on high and reject all negative thoughts which is part of doomed Malinin in his long program. When you launch a big project, such as school-wide reading club focusing on multiple genres to engage the entire student body, a Defensive Pessimist expects only one or two teachers to buy in. When three sign up – you’ve beaten the goal! On the other hand, a Strategic Optimist might create a presentation and flyers for a faculty meeting with a sign-up sheet ready to hand out and be disappointed and frustrated when only three teachers buy in.

Lowering the Stakes – To put lowering the stakes into action for your reading club project, you might start by seeking out teachers who love reading and already make good use of you and the library. Then, use the first year as a pilot project. Any participation is a win. Have a celebration at completion to build support and excitement for the next year.  It could take several years and need changes, but you would get there with less pressure and more pride. And others would see the growth over time. Ragavan says, “You can be physically and technically at your peak. But in the end, self-confidence and the ability to psychologically lower the table stakes in high-stress environments are the real advantages.” This approach takes the best aspects of both ends and makes your goals less stressful, yet still achievable.

And finally, what doesn’t work is Redemption Competition – This would be striving harder, setting the bar even higher to redeem yourself at a future moment or with the next goal. The likelihood that this will increase your stress—and probability of failure—are high and probably not worth it. In addition, the attitude of needing to “prove” yourself, adds to the chances of a public defeat. Instead, use a setback as an opportunity to learn and then set a goal like a Defensive Pessimist,

Lowering the stakes, lowers your stress. We all know it’s more than high enough these days.  You can successfully reach your desired outcome by relying on your ability and self-confidence. You know what you bring to the school community. Far too many schools don’t have school librarians. We can’t afford to lose any of us, either for being unable to show our value or because we are totally burned out. The kids and teachers need us. Look for ways to lower your expectations and hit even bigger goals.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

How to Give Effective Feedback

We give feedback almost constantly in our lives and receive it as well. From complimenting someone on their service to getting honked when we’re driving. At school, we are likely most aware of offering it when we are interacting with students, but we also do it with teachers and administrators as well as our family and friends. What words we choose affects how our feedback is taken in – and whether or not it’s accepted.

In his Edutopia article, “Guiding Students to Receive Feedback as Information to Improve Their Skills,” Michael McDowell describes the two opposing ways the recipient internalizes feedback. He says they either take it “as information to improve their skills, or as a judgment about who they are.” We know what we want them to do with our feedback, but how can we ensure that they take it in a way they can use it?

McDowell presents these three concepts to be mindful of when  giving feedback – and some of these work for everyone, not just students:

  • Describe the Work, Not the Student –  McDowell explains when we say “you,” we have made it personal, a judgement of the person’s worth. When we focus on the work, we have made it  correctable. One example given is to replace “You didn’t explain your reasoning” with “The reasoning is incomplete. The link between evidence and claim is missing.”  The first seems so natural to say and yet it can affect students’ self-worth. Working to discover how often “you” is applied when interacting with others will help make us more aware of that habit. Notice it in those giving you feedback. How do you react to it?
  • Ensure That Every Student Gets Feedback – When you are working with 20+ students, that seems like an impossible task.  McDowell makes is easier by recommending you offer “Blind feedback with success criteria.”  Have students do just an introductory task. When they complete that, then they are given the success criteria and self-assess to see how they did. This is a very productive use of their time and yours. They are not waiting for you to call on them next. You can circulate among them to make specific comments. They already know how they did because they measured their work against the success  criteria. Another strategy is using the “dot protocol.” To do this, McDowell recommends you “[P]lace a small dot on a specific part of a student’s work. The dot isn’t labeled as “good” or “bad.” It simply signals a place to look.” This gives feedback while having students self-assess against the success criteria.
  • Encourage Students to Use Work-Centered Protocols – Consider putting students in groups with members in charge of giving feedback to each other. Left to their own devices, they are not likely to give meaningful feedback, so McDowell prescribes giving them protocols to follow. One method he recommends is to give simpler protocols like sentence stems (“The solution is clear because…” or “One part that could improve is…” When students use this method, they are automatically describing the work rather than the student (back to the first recommendation). An additional benefit of this approach is that it trains students in how to give feedback.

While McDowell’s approach is directed to students, it is a good idea to be mindful of how the feedback you give others as part of your daily interactions should never feel like personal criticism. (And this is not a criticism of what you have done in the past.) Watch for body language as well as verbal responses to tell you how the feedback you’ve offered is being received.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Keep It Short

(Fauzi Muda/Getty Images)

Are you deluged with too many emails and social media posts? I am. How about new initiatives from the administration? Requests from teachers? It’s a lot and wading through all of it saps your concentration. You probably need to go over it several times.  And who has time for everything?

If you dislike receiving all those long messages, you can be sure recipients of your communications feel the same way. In his blog post, “I’ll be brief: the power of just a few words”, Larry Robertson reminds us that it’s not the number of words that matter. It’s the power they contain.  And frequently, shorter is better.

Google’s 12-word road map – You can get a lot done with very few words. When they raised money to found Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin used twelve words to get people on board: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” That’s a Vision Statement. Robertson points to its clarity and brevity. Brevity doesn’t work without clarity.  Choose your words carefully whether you are crafting a Vision or sending an email to your principal. Prepare your opening statements to students when introducing a learning opportunity. Too many words and you lose them. Think about what will most capture their interest?

Look for words that provide clarity and direction – You probably don’t need to give as much detail as you think The usual step-by-step directions often locks students into a pre-conceived approach. Allowing for their creativity while aiming for a goal will get them engaged. In your dealings with the principal, if you highlight what you want to achieve and why, you are telling them you are not locked into one approach. Rather, you are open to a discussion of how best to achieve the results and why it’s important.

Words as guides for success – There are so many synonyms for powerful words, but they don’t mean exactly the same thing. They each convey a slightly different sense and will draw different reactions. I regularly rewrite sentences and my editor take the rewrites further. For example, before settling on “regularly,” I considered “often,” “usually,” and “frequently.” (How did I do?) Robertson says, “The right words can offer guidance to success, for the leader, to be sure, but also for her team, its external partners and even for their marketplace.” He is talking to the business world, but  it’s equally applicable to our interactions with students, teachers, administrators, and the outside communities.

And to show I am following his advice, I am keeping this blog short.  Our time is a precious commodity. We all need to spend it wisely.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Silence is Golden

Librarians have been fighting the stereotype of the “shushing librarian” for years, but silence can be a powerful tool. As one who was called a “chatterbox” as a child and still talks a lot, this is still one I’m learning to use better and more often. Is it one you could use to better incorporate it into your leadership toolbox.

In his blog article, “The Power of Silence: How to Use Pauses Effectively When You Speak,” Gary Genard focuses on public speaking, however it’s more than that. You also want to remember this when leading students through a learning opportunity, when you have a meeting with the principal, or work with teachers as you collaboratively or corporately plan a research project.

When you are involved in any of those activities, you might discover you have a lot to say, but Genard cautions, “you need to provide audiences with an occasional oasis, i.e., a place of refreshment and recuperation. Without these stopping places, your narrative may begin to feel like a long trek across a featureless desert.” As a result, your audience stops listening in part because they don’t feel they have a part to play in the conversation. Genard offers these four reasons to employ the “power of the pause.”

  1. To separate the main segments. – Whatever you are trying to impart has sections that build on each other. Body language is always an important communicator. When you pause, you are saying, “I have completed the first part of what I want you to know. Here comes the next part.” You also invite comments on what you’ve said already.
  2. To let something sink in. – What you are saying is familiar to you, but new to your audience. They need time to absorb and consider it. Even if it’s something they have heard before, you want to be certain they understand how it fits in with what you will say next. This is true whether you are working with a students, teachers, or speaking to the principal. It gives them time to raise questions and make points of their own which lets you know if you’re being understood.
  3. As transitions. – Genard says, “while we know how the elements of our presentations fit together, the audience doesn’t.” In addition to giving your audience time to process what you just said, the pause is a reassurance that you will connect it to your purpose –and theirs.
  4. To help listeners stay tuned. – You don’t want to lose your audience. Every school librarian knows how quickly students can become disengaged. When you take too long, their attention wanders. Pauses bring them back to where you are leading them. You certainly don’t want the principal’s mind to think about non-library issues, nor do you want teachers to feel you aren’t listening to them. A moment of silence actually pulls them into the moment with you.

In his conclusion, Gerard adds Two More Ways Pauses Help You In a Speech – First, the pause turns your “speech” into a conversation. As noted, when talking to teachers and the principal, the pause shows them you seriously consider what they bring to the subject and discussion.  Second, the pause slows you down so you aren’t rushing through what you are saying. It shows your confidence in what you are communicating and makes them open to trusting you.

As a result of your pauses, Gerard says, “Your audience will gain sustenance not only from your content, but from your credibility, confidence, and as the icing on the cake, your leadership.” The word “leadership” is at the heart of this. In all our interactions, we need to be seen as strong leaders.  Our silence can speak to it.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Small Steps to Success

Have you been searching for a big breakthrough idea that will get your school community to recognize how essential you are? At the same time are you wondering where you would find the time to implement it? Big goals take a while before you reach success, and that can make them challenging to start. How do you get going and keep going?

Lisa Broderick in her Smart Brief’s article “Use ‘micro-measurements’ to achieve success” lists six questions you can ask yourself to help see the progress you’re making. Here they are along with my comments explaining how they slowly bring the success you crave and need.

  • “Did I listen today?” – Active listening requires you to focus on what the speaker is saying whether it’s a teacher, a student, or the principal. When you actively listen, you are able to hear undercurrents. You might notice the speaker is confused, stressed, or imparting important information. As a result, you are able to reply to the underlying message as well as its content. When the person feels heard, they are more likely to accept your answer. In the process you build trust and improve your relationship. You may also have a chance to hear how what is happening in your library is making a positive impact.
  • “Did I make eye contact during meetings?” – Not just at department meetings or post-observation meetings. In all your meetings whether in the hall or a question from a student, you move closer to success when you make eye contact. It shows your interest in the speaker as a person. In a world that lives on text messages and email, eye contact stands out as a human-to-human contact.  As with listening, it builds the trust that leads to future connections which can lead to feedback that helps you move forward.
  • “Did I appreciate someone?”  – Sending a “good job” message is nice, but it’s not really appreciating someone. Be specific.  What did they do that made a contribution? The more specific you are, the more the person will value and appreciate what you said. If you have the time, a handwritten note is even better.  They are so rare, their impact is enlarged. We tend to like and want to be with people who like us. Again, this will start a relationship which is key to your success as a librarian.
  • “Did I take care of myself?” – Why is this here? Because in order to do any one of these questions (or take the ongoing time needed to achieve big goals) you need to be in a good place mentally. When you are overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed out, you are not likely to do any of this. What do you do to relax? (Do you remember how to do it?) Some of you are crafters. Make time to do some work on that unfinished project. I have friends who love to cook. If you are like me, you need to take a walk. These activities are not time wasters. They are success builders. Think of how you feel after you have spent time doing things you love.  Note: taking a nap can be taking care of yourself.
  • “Did I reach out to a former colleague?” – Doing so build success in several ways. Renewing good memories is soothing (and is taking care of yourself). It’s also helpful because the former colleague can be just the person to give you deeper insight and encouragement on that great idea you have been looking for and how to manage it.  Your PLN is a powerful source of information, inspiration, and connection to others.
  • “Did I take a small step toward my next big opportunity?” – Success frequently comes by your willingness to step out of your comfort zone. I left a job and tenure to take on a new position almost an hour away from my home. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. That new big goal – what’s one step you can take today? These will add up. You can also consider volunteering in your state school library association. It will expand your knowledge and your PLN. Submit a proposal to lead a presentation at your next library conference.  Even if it’s turned down, you will have learned from the experience and will do better next time.

Brodericks’s closing suggestion is to “try it for one week. Pick one question. Write it down. Score yourself 1–10 each night.”  Hopefully you’ll start to see the incremental changes. Small steps that lead to big changes and results.

Look at all you have learned and accomplished since you became a librarian. Add a small step. This is how you get closer to your Vision.  You don’t have to get there today or even tomorrow. Just keep moving in the right direction.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

They Goofed – Now What?

The fifth-grade class you are teaching begins working on the project and a student knocks over the display you had set up. The sound seems deafening. Was it an accident or intentional? What do you say? What do you do?

Can you put yourself in the student’s shoes? Think of how you respond when you make a foolish error. First, your brain begins its usual negative self-talk. Then you might try to cover it up or explain it away. The same thing is happening for the student. Your objective is to avoid losing the focus of the other students while getting the kid who acted out back on track and holding them responsible for their action.

Oh, and you only have a minute or two to respond.

Billy Dunn in his blog post, “The Day My 8-Year-Old Made Me a Better Leader,” offers a script to help you through moments like these. He recounts a time when his daughter played badly in her soccer game. How he handled it can guide you as you deal when students (and others) make mistakes. Here are his five steps along with my usual comments:

  1. A high form of leadership is restraint – His brain is telling him he is in big trouble and he’s wondering things like whether you will be informing his parents. Instead of launching a tirade into his behavior and extending the show for the rest of the class, keep your tone light-hearted. Say something like, “Well, that was loud. Now let’s get it fixed.” Remind the rest of the class to get back to work and have the student who knocked the display down help as you restore it. Dunn notes, “Correction delivered at the wrong time creates distance instead of trust.” You don’t want to escalate his actions. Working on putting the display back in order can calm him down and provide the quiet space for the others to resume what they were doing.
  2. Psychological safety precedes improvement – The student is anticipating your angry response, triggering the well-known freeze-flight-fight reaction. Dunn says, “Psychological safety…fuels innovation, trust, and growth.” It’s imperative that students feel safe in the library. You certainly don’t want them planning to “get even” for a punishment reaction from you or creating a situation that leads to more shame and guilt from his peers or teachers.
  3. Don’t be content with making a point. Make a difference – Dunn cautions not to “apply the right principles at the wrong moment.” By not lashing out at the student and creating a safe space as you put the display back together, you have an opportunity to talk the incident through. Can you learn what motivated the student? Gently ask if he has been having a bad day. Get the student to open up and recognize how he let an earlier situation cause him to act badly.
  4. The relationship is the gateway to greater performance – You now have begun the framework for building a relationship with this student, and building relationships is one of our primary focuses. Trust grows and develops over time. Because of how you handled the situation, the student’s behavior is likely to be different next time. Even better, instead of disastrous class period, you are creating a future library user. And you might have even watered some seeds of trusts with the students who witnessed how you handled the situation.
  5. Invest in your Emotional Intelligence – This situation affected not only the student involved but how the rest of the class saw you and the library. It required you to employ a high level of emotional intelligence. Dunn reminds us that emotional intelligence is not simply about recognizing emotions in others, it’s about our response to them. He concludes, “emotional intelligence is the discipline of putting relationship before reaction and people before impulse so that growth can follow.”

Because of the experience that inspired it, the five steps Dunn shares are focused on children, but the same is true for adults. Teachers can and will goof too. You may have set up a lesson for a class but the teacher never came. It would be easy to point out to the teacher how much time and effort you invested, but that will get you the opposite results of what you want. Instead, recognize it was not likely the teacher’s intention to forget to bring their class. Something must have happened to cause it. Don’t just accept the teacher’s apology, use these steps: Restraint. Make Psychologically Safe to go beyond the apology. Make a Difference with how you connect and remember the importance of relationships to create Greater Performance and Emotional Intelligence so you can discover what really happened and grow for the future.

Building relationships is not only about what you do. It’s often about how and when you do it. In the midst of a mistake, it can be extremely powerful.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Spreading Joy

It’s National Library Week and the theme is FIND YOUR JOY embodied so wonderfully by “The Internet Librarian” and children’s book author Mychal Threets (and expressed in his book I’m So Happy You’re Here – A Celebration of Library Joy.). In recognition of his joyful advocacy and dedication to library life, Mychal has been honored with numerous awards: the 2024 I Love My Librarian Award from the American Library Association, inclusion in School Library Journal’s 2024 Movers and Shakers, TIME Magazine’s 2024 Next Generation Leaders, a 2024 Webby Award for Social Impact, and a spot on TIME’s inaugural 2025 list of 100 Creators.

Joy isn’t a topic we hear about much these days. But it should be and it can be, no matter how challenging it feels for us and the people we serve. Can you think of at least a few of those moments now?  A student getting excited about a book you showed them or finding just what they needed for a research project. A teacher realizing that your collaboration lead to a greater success than they anticipated. Maybe your principal being grateful for information you gave them that they were able to use at a school committee meeting.

Unfortunately, most days joy is far from what you are feeling and hard to connect to. But joy can be a powerful tool and finding ways to tap into it can turn difficult situations around. In her SmartBrief article “The joy gap: What’s missing in the modern workplace, Amy Leneker takes up the challenge of changing our environment. She offers these insights on joy.

The Myth that Widens the Joy Gap – Leneker begins with myth that, “Stress is the price we pay for success.” Even before politics became a more common part of our library lives, we experienced stressed. We serve students, teachers, and the administration. Ours is a high pressure career, but if we lose our joy in what we do, we lose our “Why” for becoming a librarian, and are less successful in what we do. Leneker points to neuroscience studies showing that when the brain is stressed it has “less capacity for creativity, learning, connection and strategic thinking.” Each of these abilities is critical to being successful and serving your library community. Its time find our way back to looking forward to coming to work each day, or as many days as possible.

Where Joy Actually Comes From – Quoting Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, Leneker share that fun comes from a connection between playfulness, connection and flow. It is a“lighthearted attitude, creating a special, shared experience with others and committing to being active, engaged and present.” This is something that is very inline with creating a space that is welcoming to all. Bright colors, relevant topics, ways to have fun with what students are there to learn brings joy into the library and people’s days. We can share our successes and wins and encourage others to share theirs. And, instead of watching body language to recognize when someone is depressed or worried look for signs of happiness and joy in others then ask them what has put that smile on their face. Joy reigns when it is shared.

Science-backed practice – New and Good – It’s not surprising that sharing good news “triggers dopamine…improving mood and openness. Hearing others’ good news has a similar effect.” Yet most us of start conversations with what’s going wrong. Leneker suggests setting the tone of a situation by starting with some positivity. Asking, “What’s good today?” Or asking about a hobby, movie or favorite thing of the person you’re talking to will immediately bring more joy to your relationships and connections.

Start with Simple, Low-effort Wins – Small moments the bring joy can have long lasting results. Smiles, appreciation, meaningful compliments even when you are just passing someone in the hall has an impact. Start meetings discussing achievements, congratulate students and teachers at the beginning of a lesson. Leneker says to consider looking at where success and joy might have a place in your Mission Statement of Vision. “Our library is a place of joy where…”

Closing the Joy Gap Is a Leadership Choice – Leneker says, “The joy gap isn’t inevitable. It’s the result of cultural choices.” Instead of trying to work harder, focus on the joy of learning, growing, and living. Spread the message as you go through the day. We tend to avoid people who are stressed and always busy. That won’t strengthen and build our relationship with teachers. How many students have avoided asking you questions because you seemed too busy or serious? Start with joy and see where it takes you.

My tip? Create a Joy Journal. Note when you have a “win.” Keep track when something or someone makes you laugh. Take time to notice something that brought lightness to your day. There is truth in the saying “laughter is the best medicine.” Look for ways to bring and encourage joy and watch what blooms.

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Curiosity Grows Minds

For a lot of people, if they curious about something, they google it. End of curiosity. It’s easy. But there are deeper questions that Google can’t answer. Those are the questions that fuel and grow minds.

Searching for answers to these deeper questions are at the core of the Shared Foundations in AASL’s National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries, Second Edition. As the Framework for Learners states in Inquire. Learners “Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problem.”

In other words, the Learners are growing their minds.

How do you Inspire (the second of the Shared Foundations) students to generate the questions that lead to growing their minds? Tisa Montgomery, in her ASCD/ISTE blog Start with Wonder, provides a route to this deeper thinking.

An experience as a young student inspired Montgomery’s approach. Her seventh grade science teacher held up two freshly fallen green leaves and asked, “What would you want to know if you found these in a forest?” It was wonder rather than content that fueled the lesson. As the article continues, Montgomery quotes a study showing that curiosity is the force that “drives deep learning and meaning-making.” Most importantly it connects to the real world, making the lesson more meaningful and lasting.

Leveraging Curiosity‑Driven Questions – Two examples Montgomery offers are showing an elementary class on the water cycle the condensation forming on a cold soda can and asking, “Where do you think that water came from?” Based on her suggestion, you might ask students to consider how a recent book they read would be different if another character had written it. She points out: “The goal isn’t accuracy; it’s engagement… curiosity reshapes attention and energy in the room.” You also create a situation where there is no wrong answer – only deeper understanding.

Nurturing Student‑Generated Inquiry – The library is the perfect space for some of Montgomery’s suggestions such as posting a Wonder Wall to track evolving questions. Students from different classes can contribute to it making the process collaborative. Another example is to “Classify questions as factual, analytical, or generative.” This will also develop their ability to choose the best AI tool for research. Incorporate reflection, allowing students to refine their original answers as their inquiry grows. An example for middle and high school could be, “What defines a revolution?” Initially, they listed events and leaders. But as their inquiry deepened, they began to ask, “Can revolutions happen without violence?” and “What role does curiosity play in change?” (The last question has me thinking.)

What Leaders Can Do – As leaders we must be models of lifelong learning. Share your curiosity with students, teachers, and administrators. Ask students to identify one way you could have made a lesson more meaningful. Ask teachers where they feel they could use more help. Ask principals how you can give them data in a more meaningful way so they can use clearly and powerfully with their superintendent and Board of Education.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat. It inspired them to choose an alternate approach. Look for where and how you can inspire it and spark the thinking, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation of what you contribute to the success of the school community. And look for the places where your curiosity is sparked.