Adventures of the Lifting Librarian

Personal branding

Early last year, I went on a bit of an adventure in terms of personal branding. I made the decision to change the focus of my professional Instagram account (@krystalgagen) to include not only my #bookstagram photos, but also my lifting and #gymownerlife content. Whilst some would say that doing so has killed my chance…

Click’d – Stone

We recently purchased “Click’d” by Tamara Ireland Stone for the iCentre at Mount Alvernia College, and it has sat in my #tbr (to be read) pile since then. I finally got around to reading it this past week and I really enjoyed it. Synopsis: Allie loves to code. She attended CodeGirls Summer Camp over the…

What I like about me – Guillaume

I had seen this book all over Instagram and I was very intrigued. So many of the captions were saying how much they loved this book and how it made them laugh and cry. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that made me laugh AND cry so I decided to give it…

Star Wars: Episode 1 – 20 years later

Star Wars: the original fandom; the ultimate geekdom; the cross-generational phenomenon. I don’t really know if it needs more of an introduction than that… Either way, it certainly has a continuously growing and fully committed following! When Star Wars: Episode IV hit the screens in the 1970s, it was hailed as bringing in a new…

Using VR in the humanities department

Technology can be either one of two things: An extremely powerful tool that improves or enhances situations or circumstances Something completely scary that can be more of a hinderance than a help. In education, the pressure to include technology in the classroom has become so intense that many different people from all walks of industries…

What are your reasons for strength training?

I was in the gym a little while ago, minding my own business, when a female client asked my husband why he trained. He turned the question back on her and she said that she didn’t know. It seemed to me like she was lost, lacking motivation, and unsure what she was doing. She’d been…

Four Dead Queens – Scholte

I had seen this book all over Instagram and so when my colleague, Marg, handed me our new copy to read I didn’t think twice; I took it home and started it over the holidays. However, when the first queen died I got such a shock. I then thought to myself “hang on a minute,…

Conrad Challenge 2018/2019

In October of 2018, 3 students in year 9 at Mount Alvernia College approached me to ask if I’d be their Coach for the Conrad Challenge, 2018/2019. I had no real idea what was involved but I said yes anyway. Since then we have embarked on a very steep learning curve, and I am so…

The Survival Game – Singer

I picked up The Survival Game by Nicky Singer because the cover and title reminded me of The Hunger Games. As I started reading I realised very quickly that even though this is a dystopian novel about survival, it is very different from The Hunger Games. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in fact, it’s the…

Actually, I’m a high school teacher

Person: “So, what do you do?”Me: “I’m a teacher.”Person: “Which year level?”Me: “Actually, I’m a high school teacher” … Cue comment AND facial expression that clearly shows either sympathy for my predicament, or distress for what I must have to put up with. What really gets to me, is that people seem to have this…