How can I be part of the recasting of librarianship in particular, and education in general?
For all my talk of being self-embedded, there are limitations to what I can accomplish as an unattached teacher/librarian. With no students of my own, I must wait to be invited into a classroom. I am an afterthought, an add-on, rather than an integral part of the learning process.
I need to leverage my solitude, increase my productivity - and keep my sense of worth in the unfamiliar and unstructured world of retirement.
Here's my menu of possibilities:
- continue to construct slideshares on topics that interest me, e.g. photography and storytelling
- periodically remind members of my social network that I'm available via Skype for reading to, or chatting with, students
- consider new options: would my friend's home-schooled child like to have a personal librarian or research buddy? Is there some way I could volunteer in our public or community college libraries?
- spend less time chatting at conferences and more time actively participating in sessions, with the intent of investigating new topics for personal exploration
- become more active in my professional organizations
- seek out additional opportunities for writing
In the words of the immortal Barbarella: