In the upper school, you may have noticed that we have a new, but familiar face in the library. This former physics teacher, who’s been in education for 17 years, has a clear passion for teaching. Except this year he has taken on a new role as the Upper School Librarian. The Gauntlet interviewed Mr. Carlson to get some insight into his new role and what changes he plans on making in the future.
When we asked Mr. Carlson about any changes he wanted to make, he said that although he’s currently still learning the “ins and outs of the job,” his end goal would be to expand the presence of the library throughout the school.
Being in a completely separate building, many students in the middle school barely use the library. Although the Sunshine Library is in the upper school, Mr. Carlson wants these students to know that it is a resource freely available to them. Connecting more with Middle School teachers, incorporating the library into lesson plans, would help middle schoolers understand how to use the library effectively even before entering the upper school.
Another way Carlson will be expanding the library’s influence is through what he called, “passive programs.” Passive programs are interactive activities that libraries can use to engage with students, examples being polls, surveys, or other ways to get a view of how students think. Passive programs are beneficial to librarians because they are a cost effective way to connect with the student body. Along with this, programs give students who may not normally read an incentive to engage with the library.
As the new librarian, Mr. Carlson has been tasked with many new jobs. Which include maintaining the library’s collection, working with teachers, and helping students with research projects. Carlson’s role also entails teaching students media literacy skills such as recognizing good information vs. unreliable information and understanding whether data is trying to sway you towards a particular view.
In our current age, where almost all information is conveyed through a screen, it is important to know when statistics are misleading, so Mr. Carlson will teach students how to filter their information successfully.
With Carlson making the move to the library, the job of being the physics teacher has been transferred to someone new, Mr. Trampleasure.
Yet although he won’t be teaching conceptual physics, Mr. Carlson has decided to continue teaching an AP physics class. When I asked him about what he enjoyed most about being a teacher,
“The different ways that people approach things or the different things that get people interested, it’s always fun to see the personalities that come out from that,” Carlson said.
Watching his students’ unique ways of learning grow and develop over the school year is what matters most to Mr. Carlson. With his mindset about teaching transferring over to the library, it seems as though its future is on track to be very bright.
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