Why I became a librarian

The amazing librarian Andy Plemmons started a hashtag #whylib as a way to hear stories about why people became a librarian. I am loving reading all the different stories, and thought I would share mine.

Throughout my life I love history and current events. I loved listening to the stories of our past and trying to figure out why things happened that way. To me a good history teacher is really a good storyteller, and in school I had some outstanding teachers and professors like Dr. Quinn whose World History class was like listening to the most amazing stories every class. I also loved working with students so to me being a Social Studies teacher was a natural transition.

Here is the problem, I was not a great teacher. I loved the student and connected with them but it is very hard to teach all of World History in the span of a year. I believe that students learn better in project based learning but because of constricts with time and curriculum, I ended up lecturing and giving worksheets way to much.

I was not passionate about what I was doing but wanted to stay in the education field. I loved technology and was always interested on ways to incorporate it into the classroom. But over ten years ago the internet was a new thing and computers were not really used much in the classroom. Things were quickly changing and if I became a librarian I knew I could be the technology leader in the school.

Becoming a librarian has allowed me to share my passion for technology and to share the joy of reading with my students. I followed my passion and am so happy I did. I have never looked back and love my job. 

I do have to say that I have learned more in the last few years about being a librarian then in all my other years thanks to my PLN. Social Media like Twitter has allowed me to connect with other librarians from around the world. I has allowed me to learn so much from so many people and grow in my field. I would not be half the person I was today if it was not for my PLN.