After receiving orders, it was time to let Darby know I would be moving. We all knew it was coming, but that doesn't make leaving these awesome kids and fantastic teachers any easier. Here's what I have been up to since turning in my papers in January:
January 10: Staff Meeting Team Building Activity
Mrs. Woods, our Instructional Technology Teacher, and I created a team-building activity for our January staff meeting. With not much of a heads-up, we decided to have teachers work together to draw winter-themed icons! The only catch- they had to work together to draw their pictures without touching the marker; they could only touch their string!
We enjoyed many laughs at these illustrations, but used this as a chance to remind them that we are here to "team" any lessons they have planned for the second half of the school year! And we promise teaming a project with us will be much easier than this drawing activity!
January 24: New Library Books Donated by Base Library
I am a regular face at the base library, and one of the workers is part of my Hario book club. These connections have paid off; the main base library donated a ton of juvenile chapter books to our school library! Some of my 'regulars' noticed the new books right away! I sent this picture to the main base library to tell them thank you!
February 10: BAT Team Assembly
This year I joined the Behavioral Admin Team (BAT) to help develop a school-wide behavioral plan. After a semester of hard work, we hosted a school-wide assembly in the Hario movie theater to promote proper behavior in different areas of the school.
Feb 24: 5th Grade Ancient Civilizations Presentations
After that January staff meeting, I had several teachers reach out for projects! Our 5th graders conducted research on ancient civilizations. I taught a couple of lessons on research using Pebble Go and Destiny Discover, and then students used all this information to put together brochures advertising their ancient civilization! All our little travel guides did a fantastic job presenting their findings to their peers and parents in the library!
February 27: 4th Grade Wax Museum
Alongside the 5th graders' project, I also taught our 4th graders how to research famous African Americans for their Black History Month project! After weeks of research and preparation, our entire 4th grade hosted a Wax Museum in the library for their parents and other grade levels to visit. During this event, the students dressed as their famous black Americans and shared about "their life!" It was a fantastic event!
March 3: Author Visit
To celebrate Read Across America Week, our PTO co-hosted Mrs. Gill in the library! Mrs. Gill is one of our homeschool parents who self-published her picture book Popoto: The Maui Dolphin!
This was a perfect event for Read Across America Week, as it showcased a fellow military spouse, taught our kiddos about self-publishing a book, and tied in with our school's mascot! A win-win all around!
March 17: St. Patricks Day
Darby is never one to skip out on a day of celebration and St. Patrick's Day was no exception! Mrs. Dee ordered glasses, headbands, and necklaces for the entire staff. I will say this was a great pick-me-up with Bryan being gone for our anniversary the second year in a row! Deployments may suck, but this staff is pretty awesome!
Back Row: Mr. Gaume, Mr. Bell, Mr. Davis, Futoshi san, Mrs. JJ, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Val, Mrs. Selby, Dr. Hecox, Ms. McKean, Mrs. Christie, Dr. Weatherhead, Mr. Barnhill, Ms. Fukui, Ms. Clausing
Middle: Me, Mrs. Woods, Nurse Mary, Mrs. Gina, Mrs. Maxwell, Mrs. Ventura
Front: Mrs. Chaney, Mrs. Bismonte, Mrs. Dee, Mrs. Ybarra
April 4: National School Librarian Day
April 4th is National School Librarian Day and our PTO showered me with a giant card signed by our entire student population and an Amazon Gift Card! I swear, we have the best PTO in the world and my entire week was made with their surprise gift! I also received cards from several classes- nothing warms a librarian's heart like the love I was shown!
April 11: Virtual Author Visit with Jeff Kinney
April was here before we knew it! April is the Month of the Military Child and in celebration, USO sponsored a virtual author visit with THE Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series! I'm not sure who was more stoked about this event, me or the kids!
Jeff was fantastic! He spoke with us Easter evening his time, after spending his day on the front lawn of the White House with President Biden! I loved hearing about his childhood, how he went to college for computer programming and designed the website (now app) Poptropica, before "growing up" into a world-famous author! Jeff Kinney is listed as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world and I can totally see why! All the while, he is a humble, funny guy who loves speaking with kids on the other side of the world!
April 14: Reading Buddies Begins
After meeting Mr. Kinney on Tuesday, that Friday we started a Reading Buddies program at Darby! One of our second-grade classes and volunteers from our 5th grade came to the library to "buddy up" and read with our kindergarten classes! After trying to implement a reading program last year (with no teacher interest) I was beyond excited when I had teachers reach out about starting it up this year!
I have to say, our fifth-grade volunteers blew me away! Giving up part of their Genius Hour time to grow their passion for teaching and reading to younger kids, these kiddos really took this reading time and ran with it! Nothing makes a librarian's heart happier than to see Kindergarteners laughing out loud at the creative voices our 5th graders portrayed! With this day being such a success, the classroom teachers agreed to continue this reading buddies program every Friday for the rest of the school year!
April 17: 4th Grade Readers Theater
We began our week with Mrs. JJ's class performing their Readers Theater productions in the library! These awesome 4th graders memorized their lines, created costumes, and set designs to showcase their talents to other grade levels at Darby! They even had a special showing in the afternoon for their parents. Moments like this remind me that a school library is more than just a room of books- it's a meeting place for the entire school to showcase their learning!
May 5, 2023: ADT Approved: It's Time to Move
Without much of a heads-up, my Advanced Dependant Travel Notification, also known as an ADT, came in stating I was to leave before Bryan's ship went back underway. After receiving this email on Thursday night, I didn't have much time to process it before walking into work Friday morning to tell Dr. Racek that my last day moved up to next Thursday. I was only able to give a week's heads up of this change in my departure, but being DoDEA and used to the military's ways, it was taken in stride and I made the most of it.
That Friday, May 5, was the last day for book checkout and I spent the next four workdays collecting all library books! It was a whirlwind of a last week, but I was sure to leave my mark by throwing together this last-minute bulletin board and having all our students sign it! While I may be leaving, this library is THEIR library!
While we have had some exciting times in Darby's library this last semester, you know some of my favorite days are the ones filled with this:
kids reading and enjoying THEIR library.
It's times like these that I truly appreciate this opportunity of being a librarian abroad. When I moved to Sasebo, I submitted my DoDEA application with very low hopes. I was in the middle of completing the substitute application when I learned of Darby's vacancy and literally cried in my kitchen at the possibility of getting to do what I love! I had never been an elementary librarian before this, and, at least in my mind, I will never live up to Stacy Hersey (the MOST FABULOUS library mentor I could ever have asked for) but I can honestly say I have enjoyed this world of elementary.
I won't lie, I am going to miss these Sasebo sunrises that I witnessed every morning on my walk to work. I don't think I will ever find a job that allows me to walk 5 minutes from my front door to work- nor will I ever enjoy the hollers of "Hello Mrs. Johnson! Can I give you my library books!?" on a Saturday morning as I walk the dogs! Darby Elementary has a special place in my heart.
It's been real, Darby.
--Mrs. Johnson, the International Librarian
Another assignment, another job, always a new opportunity.. Sjince you are already in the DOD system they may just be waiting for you take up a new job. F ollowing in your best buddy footprints, DOD will take care of you and you have so much to give them. I lovey ou.
Darby was so lucky to have you! I sure hope that you get to share your passion and your wonderfulness with a library in Spain. Our profession needs YOU!!!