Ameelia Ghareeb is a middle school Librarian in Long Beach, California, and has been teaching since 2001. She is credentialed in English/Language Arts and School Librarianship, and holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Education.
Before Ms. Ghareeb discovered the school Library, she taught Language Arts in a very “inner-city” school and was introduced to a fundamental truth of being a successful teacher: no matter where they come from, how big the attitude, or how oddly they may speak and dress: kids are kids. They all have a basic set of needs: they need appropriate structure, they need some room to make mistakes, and they need to know that the grown ups around them actually like them.
Ms. Ghareeb has been working as full-time school librarian since 2006. She has taken a dusty, musty old library and created an academic center with the second highest circulation in the district. Ms. Ghareeb believes in Universal Design and constantly works to make her library a place for every single student that comes in the door. The Library has a thriving relationship with the Parent Teacher Association, who sponsors many of the library’s popular enrichment activities and programs.