Thanks for taking a look. My name is Richard Wurtz. I’ve been teaching for Washington County Public Schools for 19 years. I started out teaching middle school English Language Arts. Over the course of 13 years, I grew disillusioned with my job as teaching English became less about teaching kids to love reading and literature and more about teaching kids to pass a big test. Then, at one point, my classroom was located in an open area at the end of the library, and I became friends with our school librarian. Watching what she did all day, I told her what a cool job I thought she had.
Her response was simple: “So why don’t you get your master’s degree in school library media?”
Good question. So good, in fact, that three years later, I had my Master’s degree in School Library & Information Technologies from Mansfield University.
At the end of that school year, I looked for a library media position in our school system. Both elementary and middle school positions were available. I didn’t know where I’d fit best. I decided, hesitantly, to apply for an elementary position. Now I’ve been an elementary LMS for six years and I’ve just accepted a middle school position for the 2013-2014 school year.
Why the change? Well, I’m ready. I think that’s all there is to it. I think when I started as an LMS, I was better suited to the needs of elementary kids. Now that I’ve been doing this a while, I have some different ideas about what I want to do with it, where I want it to go. I’ve gotten help, encouragement, and inspiration from some really amazing people in the field. I’ve seen people do things with kids and technology that I never would have imagined. (I even managed to do a couple of those things myself.) And as cool as I thought that media specialist’s job was 8 or 9 years ago, I’ve been shown that it’s actually way cooler than that, if I would just jump in and make it happen.
Her response was simple: “So why don’t you get your master’s degree in school library media?”
Good question. So good, in fact, that three years later, I had my Master’s degree in School Library & Information Technologies from Mansfield University.
At the end of that school year, I looked for a library media position in our school system. Both elementary and middle school positions were available. I didn’t know where I’d fit best. I decided, hesitantly, to apply for an elementary position. Now I’ve been an elementary LMS for six years and I’ve just accepted a middle school position for the 2013-2014 school year.
Why the change? Well, I’m ready. I think that’s all there is to it. I think when I started as an LMS, I was better suited to the needs of elementary kids. Now that I’ve been doing this a while, I have some different ideas about what I want to do with it, where I want it to go. I’ve gotten help, encouragement, and inspiration from some really amazing people in the field. I’ve seen people do things with kids and technology that I never would have imagined. (I even managed to do a couple of those things myself.) And as cool as I thought that media specialist’s job was 8 or 9 years ago, I’ve been shown that it’s actually way cooler than that, if I would just jump in and make it happen.