Over my district’s winter break, I visited four schools and over twenty classrooms. From the professional development session I led in a middle school in South Carolina, to my friend’s classroom/library in a Catholic middle school, to a nearby district where I shadowed an assistant principal, to the four schools across grade levels in the district I grew up in and serve on the board of education, I spent my entire break learning. I’ll even argue that I spent my entire break visiting more public schools than our nation’s secretary of education may have done in her lifetime. Before I write any more about those experiences, I think it’s important to offer a sincere thank you to every teacher whose room or school I visited . I know how unsettling it can be when someone visits your classroom, and I thank them for the opportunities. I wanted to summarize a few things that I saw over break and have really been thinking about. In South Carolina, teachers are so excited to use classroom librari
Lessons from a novice teaching life