LAUSD Teacher of the Year 2021

Written by Kimberly Balala, ILTSS, Specialist

Blair has always been eager to support all students of LA Unified, not only the students at the school she serves, Robert A Millikan Affiliated Charter and Performing Arts Middle School.

During the initial months of the pandemic, Blair worked tirelessly to make that transition from the physical school library to a virtual school library. She created video tutorials on how to access various portals in an easy to follow, student-friendly way. When asked if ILTSS could post a link to the video on their webpage to share, she was more than happy to say yes.

Recently, Blair was invited to collaborate with the Parent Community Student Services Branch on a campaign to create awareness for our various digital library apps and databases, focusing on our e-book platforms, Sora and myON. The first call Blair shared the successes she has had with the annual Robert A Millikan Affiliated Charter and Performing Arts Middle School Family Literacy Night. She shared with the group, the success of the family literacy night and family participation.

This past Spring, Blair is co-facilitating with Dr. Susan David from Personalized Learning Systems in several professional developments sessions focused on those same digital library apps and databases to create awareness for the K-12 teachers. These PD sessions will inevitably support all students, not just Millikan students which is at the heart of all that Blair does. It’s about all students achieving, all students reading, all students becoming lifelong learners.

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Well done, Blair! We are so proud of you and how much work you have put into advocating for the Teacher Librarian Profession.