I don't know a single teacher-librarian who doesn't have a story like this...
So... a _______ [teacher/parent/principal/student/someoneelse] walks into the library and says, "why do you need a Master's Degree to _________ [read/checkout/shelve] books all day?"
Excellent question!
And, of course, the answer is that we don't need a Master's Degree to do those things. But we DO need to be certified, highly skilled professionals if we're going to live up to the demands of being a true Teacher Librarian.
I've been thinking about this all too common story for some time now. To me it raises a lot of questions about what people think we value. And what about our practice makes them think that.
Then, a month or so ago, this image started making the rounds online. It's a fun info-graphic mapping out a teacher's brain - the idea being that a teacher has a lot to worry about. So... I decided to create my own image: one that throws into focus the things that today's Teacher Librarians REALLY think about.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but our work provides another kind of window into what we value and what's most important to us. And while this effort is, obviously, imperfect (our jobs encompass lots more than what I could include here), it's important to note that no image, info-graphic or poster will change what people think of us or stop them from wondering if what we do has meaning. The only way to make certain the people we work with and serve know what we're about, is to show them.
This image, along with all the work I post here, is licensed as Creative Commons and is free for you to use and share. Similarly, this image, like so many other images I pose here, was created using both the app Art Studio for iPad and the program Comic Life.