I like these badges, and want them for my school. First, we absolutely need better gun laws and need to change the gun culture in the United States. But even the school shooter stuff aside, we have 700 elementary kids at my school. Several are prone to seizures. Several are diabetic. MANY have life threatening allergies. Several have disabilities (or poor parenting/lack of resources at home) that leave them prone to outbursts that at a minimum disrupt the classroom and at most endanger the safety of the other students. We do not have enough walkies to give one to every teacher who has a severe need in their classroom. That leaves the option of calling the front office or going to the wall and pushing the call button for the office to respond. Badges like this can help so many stressful situations, and eliminate the excessive amount of chatter on a walkie.
When I say I’m a school librarian, most people can make a connection and have an understanding. And as long as their next comment isn’t some Fox News bullshit (which was real fun at my grandmother’s funeral), I can usually leave it at that.
But the actual day-to-day complexities of what I do isn’t going to be understood. Most days I am checking out over 400 books to students, which means my volunteers, me, and my para (assistant) are checking in and reshelving over 400 books each morning. That’s over 800 books scanned each day. Then, I am also teaching six 45-minute classes every day and I see each student in our school (over 700) twice a week in those classes. So I am planning and prepping for those classes, teaching those classes, and running the book checkout. Not to mention managing behaviors and helping some of our new students (especially kindergarten) understand the expectations of the library. I am currently planning our book fair happening in a few weeks, getting ready to start my after school club, facilitating a $500 per grade level order for books and supplies, fielding sales phone calls, balancing my ~$10K budget, and being the team lead which involves monthly meetings to attend, twice a month meetings to run, and many additional emails. So yes, I do read to kids and let them take books home, but that’s nowhere near the end of my to-do list.