Nationally recognized and award-winning, Teacher Librarian, speaker, and host of the Joyful Learning Podcast, Melissa Thom shares an overview of the brand new Joyful Learning podcast. Topics of this inaugural episode include information about the guests and interviews featured in Season One, and an invitation to take part in the Joyful Learning Pod online community .

* * * *

Link to show notes: http://bit.ly/JLPshownotes

* * * *

Melissa’s Bio and Social Media

Melissa Thom, MA, (she/her) is a teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She earned her bachelor’s in elementary education from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, a master’s in elementary education from Northern Arizona University and a master’s in educational psychology/gifted and talented from the University of Connecticut. She spent 12 years teaching grades four to six as a classroom teacher, and seven years ago she earned her library media specialist certification from the ARCLMS program. She is the President of the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL), a member of the Teacher Advisory Board for Bookelicious, and was a 2019 AASL Social Media Superstar Reader Leader finalist. She has been honored by CASL for the Follett Creativity Award in 2018  and the Carlton W.H. Erickson Award in 2020. She was awarded the 2021 Outstanding Professional Award by the UCONN NEAG Alumni Board, and most recently was named  a library journal mover and shaker. Her publications include an article in the School library journal about Makerspace and NGSS also know as the  (next generation science standards), as well as an article in the October 2019 issue of School Library Connection entitled, Create a Culture of Reading. In addition, she has hosted multiple webinars for School Librarian Connection and EdWeb on topics such as Developing Inclusive Collections, Making the Most of Your Digital Collection, and Building a Culture of Reading.

*Follow Melissa on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MsThomBookitis) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/msthombookitis)*

*Follow Carrie on Twitter (https://twitter.com/lovealibrary)

Book Recommendations

Downs, A. F. (2022). Chase the fun: 100 days to discover fun right where you

      are. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Meinzer, K. (2019). So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling

     Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen. HarperCollins.

Follow the Joyful Learning Podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/joyfullearnpod) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/joyfullearningpod/)