Open Worlds: Lane shares love of a good book

Sara Harp Minter Elementary media specialist Amanda Lane helps students open all new worlds with a good book. 

She lives for the opportunity to help a student find a new favorite story or genre. 

“Seeing their eyes light up and them coming back and talking to you, you know that you’ve done your job,” she said. “It’s the best feeling ever. It’s why I do this job.” 

Lane’s 3rd grade teacher, Nancy Nelms. helped her find a love of reading. Her parents always worked with her at home, but it just wasn’t clicking at school. Nelms was the first person who was able to break it down for her and help her comprehension blossom. That was the year she discovered the love of reading she will keep with her forever. 

“She just kind of unlocked the world for me,” said Lane. “From then on, it was like I was always stuck in a book.” 

Lane taught 3rd grade for 7 years at Fayetteville Intermediate School before she changed paths. She was planning to go back to school to earn a master’s degree with a continued focus on the classroom, but the school’s librarian, who was a family friend, suggested something different. 

“She said it’s the best job in the school. If reading is what you love, then you get to focus on every kid and not just your little pocket of kids,” Lane remembered. 

Lane considers herself a librarian-teacher because doing her job well means more than just checking out books. She teaches students all kinds of tricks with technology, research, and just being a savvy investigator of knowledge. 

With so much content available in a student’s hands in a smart phone, she wants them to be able to consider important questions. 

“Just because you can read it doesn’t mean it’s true and how can you tell what is true and what might be biased or dishonest,” she said. “There’s so much more to it.” 

At the suggestion of the library paraprofessional, they added a seed library last year. It allows kids to take seeds home and see what they can grow. They also have been cultivating a garden in the courtyard. 

At the start of this school year, a student came to Lane to show her a tomato he had grown with the help of the seed library. He loved it so much that his family bought other varieties of seeds to see what else he can grow. That exchange meant everything to Lane. 

“Sometimes you want to change the world, but what you have to realize is that to change the world you have to change one person. Even if I just got that one little person to grow a tomato then we changed the world,” she said. “We planted a seed.”

It still all comes back to books. Lane believes in their ability to open worlds for people and teach them they can transport them somewhere magical. 

“My why is that hopefully I can touch someone that was like me, someone that has not had the joy of reading unlocked yet. Hopefully I can expose them to books and to the power of books,” she said. “I want that for kids. I don’t want them to be stuck on a phone and for someone else to tell their story. I want them to tell their own stories and find their own likes and make their own way.” 

“The Honor Role,” an official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.

Episodes are available on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and promoted on the social media channels of Fayette County Public Schools.

Episodes will also be available here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2200811.