Oct 14, 2019
The Librarian Influencer of the Week is Esmeralda Majors. She began her career as a bilingual teacher and then moved into an elementary library position. She serves a rural Title 1 campus where 84% are free and reduced lunch and 50% are bilingual.
You can find her podcast interview on my podcast page, your favorite podcast player, or by visiting this link https://www.laurasheneman.com/post/build-a-collection-that-reflects-your-student-body-with-esmeralda-majors.
In this podcast Esmeralda shares many lessons she’s learned on her journey as a bilingual librarian.
- She teaches in English but uses a lot of movement and illustrations to help support her students.
- Her collection did not initially reflect her bilingual population. It was her task to make her collection reflect her population.
- She chooses to inter-shelve English and Spanish books together.
- She uses spine label stickers to help her students find the best book for them.
- She involves the students in collection development through a reading survey.
Here are a couple of Librarian Influencer strategies Esmeralda shared:
- Use grants to help you meet your goals and serve your educators as an instructional partner.
- She plans to mentor new librarians.
These are some resources Esmeralda uses to stay sharp as a librarian:
- Get involved at the state and national library associations.
- Listserv participation (Find a list of state and national listservs here: https://www.laurasheneman.com/post/library-listservs-a-way-to-grow-your-pln)
My chat with Esmeralda was very inspiring and filled with words of wisdom from a veteran school librarian who is still seeking and learning to improve herself every day because she knows that has a positive impact on her services on the campus.
You can follow Librarian Influencer Esmeralda Majors at:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CreightonCISD @CreightonCISD
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Thank you and visit www.laurasheneman.com to learn more about becoming a Librarian Influencer!