A leap of faith...

art by Steve cc

       To launch a blog in these days of declining blog participation is a leap of faith.  It's a bit like falling backwards into the digital void, naked and terrified. My only companions...hope and a promise.  Hope that engagement with the wider community will help to achieve insight in a frenetic world;  a promise to persevere against the pressures weighing down progress and change.
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      Alvin Toffler said,
          " You've got to think about the big things while you're doing the small things,
            so that the small things go in the right direction."
      
      Over the last 2 years I have immersed myself in big picture thinking (and thinkers) about the future of education and the future of libraries. Conferences, webinars, research, visionary reports and conversations have compelled me into a wider dialogue.  ALA, AASL, ISTE, MACUL, MAME, 21st Century Fluencies, etc. have all opened doors and windows, allowing me to breathe through the tough times in education so much more easily than I was capable of even a year ago.  I find the big ideas compelling.  My enthusiasm for the challenge of inventing change is renewed.

      My intention here is to come out of my solitary rumination and directly engage in the wider dialogue with as many of you as I can.  I've spent days and hours both conducting and participating in professional dialogue about what skills students actually need beyond school; about a world where we cannot conceive with any reliability what "employment," "career,"  "work" will look like even next year.  Again, Alvin Toffler, "The illiterate of the future will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and re-learn." 

      In this space, I will share what I read, who I follow, which ideas seem to resonate with our students' reality.  I will share process and resources.  I will share your comments to further the conversation.  I will highlight the most innovative ideas that I discover out there. I will invite futurist thinkers to address us with cutting-edge visions.

      At the same time, I will continue to innovate in the high school library where I serve and steadily transfer ownership of the space and the program to our iCommons Student Advisory Council.  I will continue to lead our 34 school librarians to form a new and innovative vision of what school libraries should be to meet the unpredictable needs of our students. I will lead them to action to promote and serve the agenda for district-wide change as led by our innovative superintendent.

​      I hope you will join me on this journey.  I promise that I will fill these pages with the most innovative thinking that I find.  Let us fall into the void together with the certainty that our collective experience will enhance our understanding and keep our spirits afloat. Now is the time to invent the future.