Conan the Librarian

I retired in June 2019 after 35 years as a teacher, including 31 as a teacher-librarian. I've taught at all grade levels except senior high school, both in the classroom and as a teacher-librarian, partnering with classroom teachers. Canadian teacher-librarians are subject specialists - our subject is information: helping students determine what is needed, how to find it, how to evaluate it (a MUST in the Disinformation Age), how to shape it and how to present it to one's audience, which is why the vast majority of my resources are geared to curriculum topics, rather than the library/learning commons. I have always said, when asked what I taught, "I had the best job in the school!"

Enthusiastic! I was terribly shy as a child, died a thousand deaths when I had to get up for an oral presentation in front of my classmates. But as a teacher, I could get up and talk all the live long day, without notes, because teaching was (and still is) my passion, and kids are amazingly accepting, forgiving and encouraging - I drew energy from them! My curricular interests are inquiry, cross-curricular, project-based learning (PBL) and although I never taught STEM, I think it's an awesome vehicle for learning. You'll see that A LOT of my projects list 'critical thinking' as a keyword; that's because I believe that in these days in which we are living it IS critical for kids to develop this particular thinking skill.

nominated as Teacher of the Year (2012)

I earned my B.Ed.,with an emphasis on social studies and language arts, from the University of Victoria (1978); subject courses for teacher-librarianship (1982, UVic) and earned my M.Ed. in teacher-librarianship from the University of British Columbia (1996).

My store's name comes from a nickname one of my fave gr. 10 students gave me, the one-and-only year I taught in a junior high school. I'm a third-generation Canadian on my dad's side, fourth-generation on my mum's; an avid and wide reader; a diehard cross-stitcher; and a lifelong learner. Visit my Pinterest page @ https://www.pinterest.ca/ConantheLibrarian/ If you need to contact me, please do so at lmlconsu@telus.net.