Jane Castings, Orange Elementary

Position: Media Specialist

Years Teaching: 16 years, the last 8 in the library.

Hobbies/Interests: Spending time with my family doing anything outside! I also love reading, traveling, gardening.

What do you enjoy most about teaching? Lots of things, but I have to say my favorite thing is when I see students "book talking" books to another student the way I do. Definitely the best way to see the excitement for reading and books spreading!

What do you find the most challenging about teaching? For me as a librarian who teaches classes all day it is finding time to reshelf all those books! I love that hundreds of books are getting checked out each day though!

Best tip for new teachers: Find a teacher buddy that you can brainstorm ideas with! For me I am lucky that I have my sister Kat who is also an librarian, we are constantly sharing ideas and lessons, I don't know what I would do without her!

Best tip for career teachers: Keep your sense of humor and your why for first becoming a teacher and have fun with your students each day.

Favorite piece of advice for students: When I was a classroom teacher our class motto was "Good, better, best. I'm never gonna let it rest until my good is better than my best" and over the years I would have so many students tell me how much they loved that motto and how it made them always go back and try a little harder whether it was school work, sports, or something else.

What being a Gold Star Teacher means to you: I'm not one who likes the attention on me, but I do love my job and work hard to make the library an engaging, happy, book filled place for my students, and it means a lot to me to be a Gold Star teacher because a family or student saw that and nominated me.