Anne Sandbo, librarian, Einstein Elementary
Kudos to Anne Sandbo, Lake Washington School District’s “Staff Star” for September 2011.
Anne Sandbo grew up knowing that she wanted to be a librarian. That dream came later in life than the young Anne had thought it would, but it did come true when she became a librarian in the Lake Washington School District.
Anne, now the librarian at Einstein Elementary, went to college and earned a degree in Elementary Education. She taught for one year before she decided to stay home with her six children. As they grew, she worked on her library endorsement. The year her oldest child graduated from Lake Washington High School (1994), she was hired at Alcott as their librarian. Anne earned her Educational Technology masters while at Alcott and then moved to Einstein when it opened in 1998.
Anne loves working at Einstein because she feels that the staff and students are an extension of her family. She enjoys the kids and the diversity of the school. Anne says, “The staff is amazing. Every decision that they make is around the question ‘What is best for the kids?’”
As one of the three specialists in the building (library, physical education and music), Anne feels fortunate because she gets to see every student in the school. Her goal is to make the library a place where all of the kids feel safe, feel like they can take risks and always try their hardest. She says that being a librarian is the “best job” because she truly experiences the growth of each student from year to year.
With 13 glowing nominations from co-workers requesting that Anne be recognized as a “Staff Star,” it was not hard to see that the Einstein staff and students love Anne.
One of Anne’s co-workers says this about her, “Anne is an extraordinary librarian, teacher and person. She always helps wherever she can and makes sacrifices to help others, the school and students when needed.”
“The students love her and she makes reading fun. She makes the library a comfy, cozy place for the students to come,” said another co-worker.
Anne contributes to the mission of “Every Student Future Ready” by ensuring that each student is able to access information. She teaches each student where to find the best information and explains to him or her how to determine if information from the Internet is relevant and accurate. She also prepares students for the future by helping to make them aware of the past. For instance, the fifth grade classes that visited Anne’s class last spring were learning about the Japanese Internment camps. Anne read stories related to that time and showed them photos that she had pulled from online resources to help them understand more about this piece of American history.