Kathy Lester: School Library Media Specialist Extraordinaire.

Kathy Lester, Three Fires Middle School

“It’s such a great feeling when a reluctant reader comes back to me with a book I’ve recommended and says ‘I loved it and I want more!’”

Kathy Lester has been the certified school library media specialist at Three Fires Middle School for seven years. She says she loves working with middle school students because of their diverse interests and enthusiasm. She also loves collaborating and working with the staff at Three Fires. “There is no better staff in the district! The teachers truly care about the education and well being of their students.”

Kathy hopes to instill a love of reading in as many students as possible. She collaborates with teachers to teach and encourage reading, informational literacy, and life-long learning. As a librarian, she strives to provide materials and services to implement, enrich, and support the curriculum of Three Fires Middle School and to meet the individual educational, emotional, and recreational needs of students.

Mrs. Lester says the best part about teaching happens when a reluctant reader comes back to her with books that she has recommended and says that he/she loved them and wants to read more. Kathy has helped countless Three Fires students get hooked on reading with lunch time activities during Read Week, offering wonderful Book Fairs, and starting up after school reading groups with novels from around the world. She is an avid reader herself and Mrs. Lester makes sure she’s always available to recommend great books to middle school students.

Interested in education both when on and off the library floor, Kathy is also a certified judge for the Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association, an organization that encourages and showcases secondary students’ public speaking skills. She’s been judging forensics association competitions for about four years.

Mrs. Lester has been married for 28 years and has been a Brighton resident throughout. Her son is a student at Brown University this year and she is truly “Green”-having degrees from Michigan State University (BA-Mathematics), Eastern Michigan University (MS- Mathematics) and Wayne State University (MLIS- Library and Information Science).

Pretty good academic creds. But her private-sector backgrounds are equally impressive: Kathy worked for 15 years as director of operations and as a software engineer for a computer software company in Ann Arbor before coming back to teaching. As a part of her job she got to “fly” the F/A-18 trainer system and was project manager on the company’s portion of the Special Operations Forces Aircrew Training System.

What does a school librarian do when she wants to kick back? Well, toss those fuddy-duddy librarian stereotypes out the window ’cause this one spends much of her free time downhill skiing and scuba diving. She also loves to travel, experiment with new technologies, and, yeah, of course, she also loves to read. (Not all stereotypes are negative ones.)

Kathy has also been the Art Support Organization chairperson at her son’s school for four years and she was involved with many arts activities such as: costuming the fall play, photographing arts activities, coaching forensics students, organizing receptions for concerts, assisting with the annual writing awards reception, decorating for the annual Halloween Concert, feeding cast and crew meals during the Tech Week of productions, chaperoning Improv Club field trips and more.

What do certified school library media specialists contribute to a given school? Based on Kathy Lester’s resume, a lot of everything.

For data supporting the fact that professionally staffed libraries lead to enhanced student achievement, click here.

To watch a short video on 21st century school library media programs in our state click here.