APS Librarian is 2017 National Teacher of the Year

Albuquerque is home to the 2017 National Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Gonzales.  Gonzales zipped onto the education scene after a two year stint as a substitute teacher with Albuquerque Public Schools (APS).  Gonzales earned this national honor for her dedicated work with the elementary children of Osuna Elementary and the school’s community.  Gonzales was hired into APS as Librarian of the school.  How does a librarian win a national award meant for teachers?  That was a question that was easily answered.  Gonzales said, “The classroom teachers have a tremendous task to follow a curriculum and follow standards.  The library has standards too and I’ve used them to enrich the work being done at each grade level.”  Gonzales has continued favorite school reading and literacy programs like Battle of the Books and the Flat Stanley Project.  That work has strengthened a reading program that also promotes reading comprehension, literacy, and exposure to many literary genres.

4^th grade teacher, Rene Denham, says “I believe the work Kim does with the children has directly effected the student’s reading ability.  She encourages every student to find their passion in a book.  She makes an impact on the students and provides a role model for each one inside and outside the classroom.”  Gonzales does have a charisma with the students at the school.  She began a fifth grade Library Friends club which welcomes 5^th graders to come into the Library during their recesses and lunch to help with younger students, shelve books, and read.  One 5^th grader told us that “Mrs. Gonzales made me feel like I mattered.  She believed that I could help other kids at the school.  I had a hard time making friends, but Mrs. Gonzales treated me like I was a great person.  It made me feel good about something for the first time in a while.”

 “I see myself as a stable adult that can provide an example of character to my students.  I provide a place in each of their lives where they can be safe.  They are safe from physical harm, but also safe to share ideas, who they are, what they dream, what they fear.  We share it all here.”   Susan Oppel, the lead teacher for the special education department at Osuna told us, “The students respond to Kim.  She needs to be where she is right now.  She has a gift for teaching the students.  She knows how to meet them where they are and cover material in a way that makes it fun to learn.”

I couldn’t do this much without the support of the parents in our community.  Parents reinforcing what the students learn every day is critical.  We have adults there for the students in every way imaginable.  We get them involved wherever we can, during the school day, at evening open house events, even helping with weekend book drives.  When students see their parents investing in their school and caring about their education, the students emulate that attitude.

Gonzales says that she had originally thought that her philosophy was that school should be a fun place, somewhere they can look forward to going each day.  She says that now, she still believes that school should be fun, but also needs to be somewhere that the teachers provide as many opportunities to introduce new ideas as possible so that children can experience and try new things on an age appropriate platform.

Another plus to have Mrs. Gonzales on board at Osuna Elementary is her introduction of new technology into the library.  Lagging in funding, with an aging collection of books, Gonzales used savvy when building both a solid collection of books for the children while introducing eBooks to her school, creating a Library blog for her community to use, and making technology available to the community with regular open house nights when students, family, and neighbors can come into the library for book fairs, open house technology nights, and evening seminars for the school and neighborhood. She is even the sponsor teacher for the school’s newspaper, Tiger Tales, which is now written and produced by a student newspaper club.

Gonzales had an amazing mentor, Mrs. Ruby Donegan.  As a matter of fact, Osuna’s Library was named after Mrs. Donegan and she still volunteers and participates in library programs on a regular basis.  “She was the librarian when my children were at Osuna.  I volunteered in her library.  When she retired, I had the opportunity to substitute for the next teacher who only stayed in the position for one school year.  Mrs. D taught me many things about being a librarian.  Loving the students and instilling the love of reading in them was the best thing she passed on to me.”

“Thank you for the honor of this award, but truth be told, it’s the students who make what I do possible.”