Teaching: My "Chapter 2" Career

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Two things influenced my decision to pursue teaching as a Chapter 2 career. First I realized what I enjoyed most during my many years in marketing was the fun and excitement of sharing something new with a client or colleague, teaching someone how to use a new tool or method, and seeing the delight of discovery in that person’s face. Second I thoroughly enjoyed my time working in my children’s elementary school library as a PTO volunteer and realized the library is where I belong.

I believe education in the U.S. is at a critical juncture and a strong school library and technology program offers so many resources to tackle our education obstacles. Teacher/Librarians have a unique vantage point in education: in a sense we are department heads of the “information and inquiry” department. We see all the students in a school and preside over materials that cover every possible subject area. Teacher/Librarians' specialties include enhancing reading instruction and championing literacy; teaching research skills and information literacy; teaching and reinforcing critical thinking skills; modeling and teaching technology proficiency. For these reasons and more, I want to be in the library, where the action is.

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Scott Campbell author visit
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ESL class Library Olympics
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4th graders in a Literacy Listening Station
MY EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY:
I believe all instruction should be continually evaluated to ensure it is addressing and imparting these three key life goals in equal measure:

  1. Critical thinking skills, needed to reason and problem solve throughout life,
  2. 21st century workforce skills; needs of the present and forecasts for the future, 
  3. Quality of life skills, such as civics knowledge required to be an informed, involved, self-advocating citizen; the math, reading and information literacy skills needed to function independently and succeed in the modern world regardless of career path.
I believe as instructors we need to continually ask ourselves these questions:
  • What are the socio-economic, culture and ethnicities of our population? What adjustments need to be made to serve their needs and reflect their reality? Are we customizing instruction to the different ways people learn?
  • What ideas and methods are we still practicing, not because they work best, but because that’s the way we’ve always done things? What needs to be changed and how do we do that?
  • Are we using assessments that are authentically measuring and demonstrating mastery of key skills?
  • Is the balance correct between what we’re emphasizing (our stated priorities), what we’re investing in, and the time we’re allotting to learn (our demonstrated priorities)?
  • What can we do to make our instruction as useful and as interesting as possible for students?