No Parking Here

When I think of the pace of the folks serving on the actual Caldecott Medal Committee one word comes to mind "relentless.What we are doing in our Mock Committee is a drop in the bucket.

We have finished week three. This is the week it became real to many of our group. The week they stopped saying "We just started", "I'll catch up" or "The first few will take more time." and launched into the common refrain "How will I ever catch up?" All of us are trying to fit in our book evaluations between other things - the classes we teach, breakfast, lunch and after school appointments. This is the week I started hearing people wondering if they would finish...if they could.

While I think the number of weeks into the process would probably be different for those serving on The Committee, I'm sure the same thing happens at some point. We started in September with a limited number to finish each week. I supply, store and manage the books. I imagine that the committee members have an unlimited number of books coming, no clear number of how many they will need to look at so no ability to know if they are on task or not and they need to find a storage solution on their own. Finding room for the books is a challenge in itself.

I have a crew who come in before school each day. Another group who arrive at lunch and some who come long after I've headed to the public library o exchange the books. I know at least one of our participants is enjoying ordering them through interlibrary loan so that she can look at them at her own pace.

The message this week is clear - No Parking Here. If you don't keep up, it will be hard to catch up.