Component A: Leadership

Professional Development Presentations

February 13, 2026: Library Staff Professional Development

Full agenda

Secondary Databases 

August 26, 2025: Librarian Kickoff Event

Full agenda

Pitching for Pages: Advocating for Your Library Budget 

April 26, 2024: Secondary Library Staff Professional Development, Virtual

Full agenda

You: A Digital Resource Rockstar! Using Your Digital Resources Successfully

Recording of Presentation

Leadership Opportunities

Instructional Leadership Team, ILT

Toward the end of the 2024-2025 school year, I was asked if I wanted to be a part of our campus Instructional Leadership Team, ILT for the following year. This is a group of campus leaders chosen to represent each content area and grade level and focus on what we can do to truly make an impact in our instruction in order to make the biggest impact in our students' success. Our main focus for this school year was to implement Professional Learning Communities the right way and to have a leader on each team to lead the process. The ILT attended a three day conference in the summer by Solution Tree. We also met as a campus team for two days following the conference to begin putting the framework together for the staff when they arrived back. We built Collective Commitments as well as a strategic plan and expectations for our Professional Learning Teams, PLTs. 

ILT Campus Retreat Slide Deck

ILT Meeting Agendas

The work we have done on ILT has been incredibly beneficial to help us achieve our school mission statement: everyone belongs, everyone learns, everyone succeeds. Our students are making big gains and the data shows that the targeted work of the PLTs is working well. However, during this school year, it has become clear that our campus would benefit from continuing the work of ILT but also create another leadership group: Building Leadership Team. As I am not a classroom teacher and I am not a member of a formal Professional Learning Team, I have been as helpful as I can be on the ILT, especially during the planning process, but I have been told that my service on our BLT next year would be even more beneficial, so I will finish the year as a member of ILT, but will transition to our new leadership team for the 2025-2026 school year.

NJHS

At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, I was approached by a colleague who was one of the sponsors of our chapter of National Junior Honor Society. Her cosponsor was retiring and she was looking for a partner to help with the group. I was eager to be a part and accepted the job for the following school year. 

Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, I became a cosponsor. Our club is by invitation and is based on grades and teacher recommendation. Our invitations go out in the Spring of students' 7th grade year. We hold an induction ceremony in May and beginning monthly meetings with our 8th graders that following September. We have on campus service events as well as off campus activities. Students are also required to complete four hours of service on their own. This program is a terrific way to highlight students who work hard for their good grades and appreciate service to others. We host close to thirty students at each meeting and have different activities each month.

Our events so far this school year have included: Halloween candy drive for a homeless shelter, Toys for Tots collection, coat drive/turkey collection with Interact club, cookie decorating, making Valentine cards for an assisted living facility, gratitude cards mailed out into the community. We also host activities for the students based on the tenets of NJHS: character, scholarship, citizenship, leadership, and service.

Monthly meeting Slide Deck

2025-2026 planning agenda

Book Club

I started to notice a need for a student book club at the end of my first year at Mountain Ridge, so I decided to offer it as an option to students during the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year. I had about ten students join me each week and it was so much for me and for them. We talked books and took book personality quizzes, students helped me with displays they wanted to see in their space, and we read one book together. At the end of that semester I asked them to review the club and the feedback I received helped me know that I needed to continue offering the club. Students' feedback can be found HERE.

Book Club was offered again during first semester of the 2025-2026 school year. Even though the students asked for a year-long book club, my schedule allowed for only one semester as I host Battle of the Books during the second semester. This second year of book club was made up of ten students. Once again, we read a book together, did some writing activities, talked books, and even bedazzled book covers! 

Student book covers decorated with gems and rhinestones, Book Club 2025

At the start of the school year, all the clubs set up a display in our cafteteria and students visit the tables to see what club opportunities they have available to them. I have two displays: first semester Book Club and second semester Battle of the Books. 

Battle of the Books

During second semester of the 2024-2025 school year, I focused on building a Battle of the Book team to compete with the other middle schools in Douglas County. The district middle school librarians choose ten books for the book battle list and those who wish to host a team, spend second semester working with their students, taking them through the ten books on the list. The club is a free offering and for the last couple years, my principal has been generous enough to use campus funds to purchase multiple copies of the books so families do not have to take on that financial burden and any student can participate. The librarians with participating teams write the questions for all of the books and bring their teams together in the Spring for one district battle. During the first year, I had over thirty students interested in being on the Battle of the Books team! It was overwhelming and exciting. We had to have a campus battle to narrow down the teams as each middle school is only allowed to bring two teams to the final event.