Category: Classrooms

Erin Emser, MLIS, is a Content Specialist I at OverDrive Education. When Erin was a child, she frequently delivered reading lessons to her makeshift classroom of stuffed animals, so it was no surprise when she received her Bachelor’s in Secondary Education from Bowling Green State University. She spent the next five years teaching high school English to animate teenage humans in a rural school district surrounded by corn and completed her Master’s in Library and Information Sciences at Kent State University with a specialization and licensure in K-12 School Library Media. Erin enjoys helping librarians in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana build and maintain their digital collections in an effort to spread the love of education and reading to all.

Katherine Assink, MLIS, is a Content Specialist at OverDrive Education. Katherine’s love of libraries started in her middle school book club when her school librarian made them an ice cream waffle breakfast for their discussion of the book “Everything on a Waffle.” She started working for her public library as a page when she was 16 and worked there while she earned her AYA English Education degree from Baldwin Wallace University. After that she moved to Toledo, where she worked as a children’s librarian, and earned her MLIS with K-12 Licensure from Kent State University. Most recently, she worked as a youth services librarian in Cleveland Heights. With OverDrive, she works with schools in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Morgan McCullough, MLIS, is a Content Specialist I at OverDrive Education. Morgan has worked with children, students, and books for most of her career. She got her bachelor’s degree at Ohio University and pursued her MLIS at University of Washington. She has worked in bookstores, libraries, and even a special archive. Prior to OverDrive, Morgan was the Children’s Department Manager at Loganberry Books.

Sara Douglas, MLIS, is a Content Specialist at OverDrive Education. Sara knew she wanted to be a librarian since the age of 13. She received her teaching license and degree in Middle Childhood Education from Bowling Green State University and then went on to receive her Masters in Library and Information Science from Kent State University. Sara built a school library from the ground up (figuratively; not literally) in Las Vegas and then later moved on to spending a decade as the Director of Libraries at an independent school in Mississippi. Sara now enjoys helping students and librarians all across New England with her work at OverDrive.

Sheila Henline, MLIS, is aContent Specialist II at OverDrive Education. Sheila has been with OverDrive for over 5 years. Equipped with a MLIS and SLMS, she is currently serving schools in New York in building and maintaining their digital library collections.

Most school districts promote the idea of educator collaboration, but how often does it actually happen? We have learned that successful collaboration occurs best when partners are intentional about working together—by choosing to invest their time in the process—and are flexible with their collaborative approach. By creating purposeful bridges between libraries, curriculum development, and classroom teachers, we can foster an environment of inquiry, develop critical thinking skills, and grow student passion for lifelong learning.

This session will support you as you brainstorm future collaborative opportunities in social studies, in your own setting and across grade levels, and also highlight how you can apply these ideas across the disciplines. Session participants will have the opportunity to learn about our approaches to collaboration and examine five types of partnerships we have undertaken. We will discuss why this work is valuable and explore models of collaboration, including possible ways to overcome obstacles that inherently exist when we try to put our brains together for the good of our students. A discussion and question period follows the session content.

Kesha S. Valentine, EdS, is an educational specialist for secondary libraries in Fairfax County Public Schools. She received her education specialist degree from the University of West Georgia. She is currently working on doctoral studies in career and technical education at Old Dominion University. Her research interests are career literacy as a way to remove equity barriers and secondary librarians as literacy leaders. Her ORCID id is 0000-0002-7844-8863. You can connect with Kesha on Twitter @quest4inquiry or via email at kesha.s.valentine@gmail.com.

In addition to writing, Kesha enjoys traveling with family and friends, trying her hand at crafting, and playing logic games.

Craig Perrier is the High School Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, VA. Previously, he taught at American Schools in Brazil for six years and for six years in public schools in Massachusetts. After leaving the classroom, Craig was the Coordinator for Curriculum and Instruction for Social Studies and History at Virtual High School and then the PK-12 Social Studies Coordinator for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. He has consulted with World Savvy, IIE, iEARN, IREX, The Global Campaign for Education, Knovva Academy, and the U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian and is a member of the advisory board for Teachers Without Borders. You can follow him on twitter @CraigPerrier.