Jean Darnell: Awaken Librarian!

This about sums it up for me! Happy Summer!

Full of gratitude sums up my feelings at the moment! I'm happy to share that I'm officially a contributing author to the American Library Associations' Coretta Scott King Blog !

Here's a recap of last week in tweets and pics. Please enjoy! Texas Bluebonnet Award Committee newest members, which I did take my place as the new member on the 2017-2020 program committee. TBA's Author's Speed Dating Recap @TBABooks Author Monica Brown discussing how her daughters influence her writings! #txla17 #TBAProgramsROCK pic.twitter.com/G7zBxfuRkM — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) April 19, 2017 General Session began a welcome from San Antonio mayor, Mrs. Ivy Taylor and concluded with the "digital englightenment" revelation from Cory Doctorow . In addition to this tweet, few other "AHA Moments" were these nuggets of insight: 1. Devices should always obey their owners. 2. Security facts should always be legal to disclose. 3. Saying we don't need librarians because we have the internet, is like saying we don't need doctors because we all have the plague. 4. LIBRARIES are the secret clubhouses of the resistance!" ...

Without further adieu, I must inform you that I just had the ABSOLUTE BEST DAY in the library. Yesterday, we broke through the mirage of the "stereotypical" princess. We took the "rescue me" mentality up a notch, removed the prince and added the vitamin of EMPOWERMENT into the mix. Come on this journey with me, as yesterday changed my perspective in the best way possible! "Color Me a Princess Tea" short movie from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo . We had a panel of distinguished guests: Rashika Robinson (biology major, baker/entrepreneur) Miss Katy Teen 2017 Sydney Felton (17 y/o dancer, student and motivational speaker) Tina B. (engineer, poet, musician) Courtnie Penson ( Freed-Montrose Librarian , social worker, doctoral canidate) April Carson and Rhonda James ( YWCA Houston Community Outreach and Director of Programs ) Sybil Moss (educator, pagent organizer, motivational coach) The ultimate goal: Make yourself the heroine in your life wit...

I came across this video on Facebook that demonstrated how to make a Despicable Me-Minion bookmark! I'm going to try it out with my kiddos in the library! Wish me luck! Going to try my BEST to teach my #librarykids how to make this minion corner #bookmark ! Wish me luck! 😂🤓🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/IxAu5kt208 — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) March 8, 2017 Our #corner bookmark characters are a hit! #GLEC2017 pic.twitter.com/fvglRynHv4 — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) March 8, 2017

Today's a fun day in the library! It's Dr. Seuss' birthday and we had a parade, watched my favorite Dr. Seuss story, The Sneetches, we did some finger puppet "make believe" and then played a game of Seuss Charades! Enjoy! OMG...I almost forgot it was #DrSeussDay ! Here's an impromptu concert! 😂 #librarylife #libraryleaders #AwakenLibrarian #savethetrees pic.twitter.com/uXEdbiSsyV — AwakenLibrarian (@awakenlibrarian) March 2, 2017 GLEC #DrSeussDay Celebration! from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo .

Happy Black History Month! I'm so thankful to highlight the contributions of these Americans! It's everyone's history...with a well deserved emphasis on those marginalized over the years! Now that I'm working at the best magnet arts campus in Houston, Gregory-Lincoln Education Center for the Visual and Performance Arts , I can't stop bragging about all the wonderful extra-curricular opportunities here! On Tuesday, February 28, beginning at 5:30 pm, come celebrate BHM with us! We'll even have our own "Barack and Michelle Obama!" PSA for GLEC's Black History play! from AwakenLibrarian on Vimeo . For those of you that didn't know, I've long wanted to be a playwright! So, for our "Black History" program, I wrote one! Because I secretly wanted to be a dancer as a young girl, and when challenged by a student that I couldn't waltz, I had to make him eat a little "humble pie!" Waltz on over to our #BlackHistor...