After graduating from college in 2021, Kellie Clinton took on the role of librarian at Westview Elementary in Champaign, and while she sees her role as fostering a love for reading, she also teaches her students to look critically at the information they consume.
Clinton wasted no time adding to the library. She installed a Little Free Library and a Buddy Beach and runs the school’s book club as she helps students by not only answering questions, but giving them the tools to find the answers themselves.
I find my work important because ... I am working with some of our younger learners (K-5) as they begin their media-literacy journey. Media is all around us, from the books we read, to the videos we watch, and the news we consume. I want to help students discover books they can get lost in, but also help them look critically at any and all information they come across. Librarians and libraries are essential in helping to foster curiosity and to empower students with skills and resources to not only ask questions, but seek out the answers themselves.
I became a teacher because ... I loved visiting the library when I was in elementary school; I loved how you could take control of your own learning by picking which books you are going to read, I loved doing research on a topic that interested me, I loved the media projects that I created both by myself and with others. I became a teacher-librarian because I wanted to recreate that space for other students and provide them with similar opportunities.
My favorite or most unique lesson that I teach is ... Super Bowl commercials! In the weeks before the Super Bowl, I spend some time talking about how much money companies spend on commercials for the Super Bowl, and different techniques used by advertising companies in their commercials. We go through examples of older commercials and talk about what these commercials claim will happen to our lives if we buy their product. Once we’re comfortable with the different techniques, we watch commercials from the Super Bowl the year before and talk about which technique is being utilized and what the commercial is trying to convince you to do. It is a great lesson for teaching media literacy — teaching our students about the mechanics of the media they are interacting with on a regular basis and encouraging them to think about advertisements a little differently.
My most fulfilling moments on the job are when ... a student finds me outside of library class to tell me about the book they’re reading! I love when the kids share their love of reading with me, telling me about how they read their entire book in one night or they want something more just like it.
I keep students engaged by ... bringing my own energy and passion into the library and my classes. I genuinely love my job and I’m excited to be there.
Something else I’m passionate about is ... gardening and houseplants! I have a big collection of houseplants that live in my library during the school year.
My favorite teacher and subject to study in school was ... Wendy Cassens, my junior and senior year AP English teacher at Riverside Brookfield High School in the western Chicago suburbs. She was so invested in her students, both academically and personally. She cared about us as people and that experience continues to influence the kind of teacher I want to be.
If I weren’t a teacher, I would be ... working somewhere in the book world (a bookstore or library?) or working at a plant nursery!
I’m spending my summer break ... taking classes through the iSchool at the University of Illinois, spending time with my dogs, and reading lots and lots of books!
— ANTHONY ZILIS