I have recently been reflecting on the last few years of being a Teacher-Librarian. They have flown by so quickly, yet I can easily say I have loved every moment. Every day has brought new challenges, unexpected lessons and the invigorating rush of trying new things, making mistakes and learning on the fly.
Quite a few of my experiments (often called initiatives in education-land) have had surprising results – many times the projects which I expected to succeed didn’t quite work out as expected. Similarly, many projects which I expected to get a luke-warm reception or to be ignored entirely were actually amazingly successful. One such project, which made me tear up with watery red-faced pride and break out into my happy-dance was called: "The Anthology Project"
The Anthology Project was born during a meeting with my Assistant Principal on a day when I had a few too many coffees and was yearning for an inspiring challenge. We were discussing author visits – something which used to be a staple at the school but had dropped off the priority list prior to my arrival.
As I sat there, I could feel the beginnings of an idea growing in the space under my ribs and struggled to keep it down. Suddenly, before I had time to process the gravity of what I was saying, the idea had shot out from between my lips and splattered all over the dulled brown top of the meeting table in all of its technicolour, mildly insane yet exciting glory. The conversation went something like this:
And that was that. It was too late to take back the idea or pretend it was a figment of my Assistant Principal's imagination. The idea was huge.. but potentially brilliant.. The Anthology Project would be a semester-long initiative (there’s that word again) integrated into our Year 8 English unit on narrative writing. It offered so many benefits to students: supported the curriculum, inspired a love of reading and writing, provided an avenue for students who might lack technical skills but have great ideas to experience success, allowed some students to experience presenting their own work to a real audience, provided a platform for parents and families to be involved in the school community, etc etc.
If I could just manage to pull it off... And pull it off, I did.
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