Blogging Challenge for School Librarians

Check out this blogging challenge for librarians! If you haven't started a blog for your library, this is a great way to get it kicked off nicely! 2014 is the year to come aboard the blogging train.

20-day Blogging Challenge for School Librarians

Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublog are all GREAT platforms for starting a blog. Comment here OR post to our Edmodo group or discussion forum if you want to try this and need help getting started!

Forward thinking in school librarianship...

*This post was written by Meg Brooke, Supervisor of School Librarians for Jefferson County. 

Twenty three years ago I interviewed for a library position in the system where I was moving my family. In preparing for the interview, I got my interview outfit ready (Ok…hate to say it, but this was my first thought!). I knew that I needed to get my mind and interview skills ready, and so I prepped by doing lots of reading on what was new in library theory as well as  in technology, and I talked to several practicing librarian friends. The CD-ROM was just starting to be used, and I memorized what the letters stood for and learned about information that was available on the CD-ROMS. I had a MacIntosh computer that I could use at home, and I felt prepared. But, whoa, Nellie! 

Dr. Robert Mitchell, superintendent of the system at the time, interviewed me, and I was amazed!!! This was 1990, and Dr. Mitchell was envisioning students being able to access our school library from their homes. Wow!  My finite mind could never have dreamed that big…everyone having a computer at home and being able to retrieve information from our school library…. but I’m thankful that others have minds to be able to see what possibilities lie ahead. 

Remember: computers were just appearing in schools around that time, and the library where I was hired to work had no computers….ZERO.  It took a few decades to get there, but his vision did become reality. (a side note…..Dr. Mitchell was a hero to me in several ways, but I’d love to add that he left the system a year after I was there and started the first daycare in the area that had cameras so that parents could log in and see what their children were doing whenever they had a chance to do that. A real forward thinker!)

Dreams of what our libraries will become must move from the ideas that many were taught and have practiced, too, if we are to move toward the vision of the library that our students will need.  In Harland’s The Learning Commons: Seven Simple Steps to Transform Your Library, we are given some questions to ask ourselves as we think about the future of our particular library. 

Ponder these:

• ·         Does your school need a library when most information can be accessed in the classroom using the Internet? (This is a question that we need to be able to answer!!!)
• ·         What is it that your library offers to your users in addition to accessing information?
• ·         Are you doing it well?  Could you do it better?
• ·         How can you increase and improve services?
• ·         Could you make a shift in your service?

We’ve heard the term libraries without walls, and we’re there. Dr. Mitchell got it right!  Our students can access Atriuum, Nettrekker, the AVL, and many ebooks outside of the school library. One leadership session at the upcoming AASL conference and one that was recently presented in a webinar entitled A Library in your Pocket is a reality NOW!  

High schools are without walls, providing online courses for students via ACCESS now. Our buildings are seeing changes as methods of teaching are moving toward more technology, and our library spaces will need to follow suit as well.  No longer are we just protecting what we have…our books, our AV, our equipment, but we are morphing into being the promoters of how to use what we have so that our students and teachers can easily access and use that information. 

This is just a smidgen of food for thought that you’ll find in The Learning Commons by Pamela Harland.  I hope you’ll check it out if you’re interested in moving your library forward into one that will meet your students’ needs.  

Be the “Dr. Mitchell” in the lives around you!

McAdory Jacket Slam!

*Very special thanks to Pam Bullock at McAdory High for this post.

We held our first ever Jacket Slam the last Wednesday in April in honor of Poetry Month. This event began with a student who saw the promo for the Word Up event held in Bham. She decided that we needed to put together our own event and started a sign up sheet to see if there was enough interest from the student body.

Planning began in late February and she and a small committee of students promoted it by making posters. They created a form for students who wanted to participate and share their own original work. We included poems, short stories, rap/song, and skits. In the end we had 10 students perfom their work and each area was represented. We held the event in the library and had it set up like a cafe.

After each person performed the audience snapped their fingers to show their support (much like a beatnik). The library sold snacks to the audience during intermission as a small fundraiser, and the students who performed were able to have snacks after the event was over (for free of course).

I was very pleased with the poems performed and proud of the students who were willing to stand in front of their peers and share their personal work. The senior English teacher and I were the faculty sponsors and she was the MC while I videoed. One of our principals commended us on having the first McAdory Poetry event and has asked that we continue it next year in the fall and spring (hoping that it will empower other students to participate).

I truly loved seeing the students take control and plan and manage everything. We liked the intimacy of the library setting but would love for more students to be able to attend, so we may have to expand to the auditorium in the future.

Not in Kansas anymore...

Ever moved to a new city? If you’ve not been through this, it’s quite an experience. Originally from the coast, moving to this area about ten years ago turned my whole world upside down. The interstates are much more complex here than they are down South, so it was difficult to navigate. Well before GPSs and Google maps, I literally could not even make it to the grocery store without calling for help. I didn’t know the tornado culture of Birmingham at all, and had an all-out panic attack when suddenly one Wednesday morning sirens erupted in our neighborhood. Another aspect that made the move difficult was starting over again on friends. It was hard to know who to trust and who could be counted on. These are things that only time could help.    

Transitioning to a new school this year has been very similar to a geographic move. Having spent the past five or so years at a quaint little elementary school (and the five or so years before that at another heftier elementary school), middle school has been a new adventure for me in more ways than one!

The first order of business has been figuring out the people. Who works here and where are their classrooms? The school website has been a great resource for determining who is in which department and which grade level. Using this information, I created email groups in my contact lists to ease communication with them. This has helped me begin to memorize who teaches what and in what grade levels they belong.

I believe that one of the single most powerful indicators of becoming successful in a new environment is learning the culture. The “hidden curriculum,” so to speak. When I’ve been accustomed to working with one administrator and now there are three, who do I go to about what? How does the copier work and what are the rules? Where is the faculty restroom? When do I have bus duty and what are the procedures? How does the financial secretary prefer me to submit paperwork and book fair money? I’ve never had to submit grades or attendance before, so how do I log in to iNow, set up my grade book, and post grades and attendance? What is a department meeting and in which department do I belong? These are only a few from the eternal list of questions that have flown around my brain this year.

Next, because I know that understanding what the teachers teach is the springboard to collaboration, I began reading and reviewing the curriculum for each grade level. I miss being able to know exactly when the 4^th grade teachers are going to cover certain objectives in their social studies curriculum, and exactly when the 2^nd grade teachers cover the life cycle of a butterfly. My first attempt to fix that has been to print courses of study from ALEX and organize them into a nice, neat binder. I read and reread those standards every chance I get, in hopes to know it like the back of my hand like I did the K-5 curriculum. It is helping to initiate some dialogue with the faculty about teaching lessons with them.   

Also important has been adjusting to the library facility itself. At first I was frustrated because I could not print (all devices were disabled as we were setting up 21 new desktops) and couldn’t find scissors, paper, pens, tape, etc. An abundance of basic supplies were HERE, I just couldn't find them. It has taken some time to discover and reorganize to suit my own style and preferences. I also have several maps scribbled out as a guide for rearranging the main library space. That will take some time for sure, but I would like to accomplish minor renovations as I settle in and make the place my own.

Other differences for me this year have been learning the quirks of the equipment at this school, how to manage student aides, and dealing with the incredibly destructive nature of middle school students. (Seriously, why do they break everything?!) A few months into my move, everything seems so incredibly difficult that I kept wondering if I had made a mistake. The kids were great, the teachers were great, the administrators were great…it just didn’t feel like home yet.

With all these adjustments, though, over time I have grown to really love my new school. I’m still learning and trying to figure things out, and hopefully will continue to do so for years to come. But…it is beginning to feel like I just might belong here after all. 

My National Board Process

*This post was written by Jennifer Anders, school librarian at West Jefferson Elementary School. 

Over the past two years, the feeder pattern that my school is part of has been participating in a three year research study conducted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the Southeastern Regional Education Board. The researchers are trying to find out if marketing Take One! as a school transformation model is viable. Take One! is a process where a candidate can elect to do one National Board entry and bank the score, but also get a feel for the process before completing the full boards. This has been an intense, often frustrating, but for the most part, worthwhile project for me and my colleagues.

The first year of Take One! ( 2010-2011), I'll admit that I was not on board with the project. I was frustrated and because I'm the school librarian, became responsible for helping everyone edit and burn their videos. We were walking around confused and I was resentful that I was being "forced" to participate although I had an underlying belief that at some point I would want to become certified. I turned in a poor entry that I completed in about a week's time, and was rewarded with a score of 1.75. Compare that to a 1.75 on the ARMT. Red box! Year two would be different.

Over the summer of 2011, the researchers, organizers and school administrators met to re-organize and better meet the needs of the teachers for year two. They offered more support that was specific to certification field, bought us all kinds of cool DVD burning equipment and video cameras, but most importantly organized us into PLC's according to certification and gave us four, four-hour sessions to collaborate during school hours. I was named the teacher facilitator for the librarians. ( Yes, me, with the 1.75.) They also offered to pay for any candidate who wanted to pursue full certification. I talked with my husband, and we agreed that there may not be a better offer for me to certify, so I decided to complete the full National Board process.

I know several librarians who have certified with National Boards, and I have heard them talk about how difficult it was. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but no one could have explained to me what the process would be like. One friend compared it to having a baby, and that may be the closest description for it. There were times during the process when I was glowing because I was creating great lessons, working with teachers and librarians and my students were engaged and learning. There were times when I had terrible nausea and headaches. They type of writing required was so alien and difficult. The page lengths, standards, and questions swirled around in my brain like the tornado scene in the Wizard of Oz and the time, time, time! Towards the end, I felt bloated and fat and tired, but not able to sleep. (This may have been a direct result of the stress M&M's.)

And then I was finished, and I knew I had completed something that would transform my teaching practice.

Although I have not been scored yet, or taken the assessments, I know this process was worth the trouble. There is one main idea I have really taken to heart from this, and that is to stop and ask myself, as it relates to my job, "Why am I doing this?" and "What will my students learn?"

 If you are considering National Board Certification, I would recommend that you not travel this path alone. I didn't. I had support from the Candidate Support Person provided by the research group, great friends, and most importantly from the ASLA National Board Mentoring group administered by Tywanna Burton.

     

Labels, Labels, Labels

Do you label your books with Accelerated Reader information? I do. This is common practice in many elementary libraries, and for several good reasons:

• when used with STAR reading ranges, sticker labels help guide students to the books that are "just right" for them
• they provide a clear visual to the amount of books your collection has on each grade level; a quick walk through your shelves will show if you need more books of a certain range
• they help students find books with which they will experience success, and quickly (classroom time is precious indeed, and the more efficient we can make book browsing for students, the better all around)

These are good reasons for labeling books. After all, our goal is to make library use as easy as possible for students. Right? 

Right.  

HOWEVER...

The American Association of School Librarians feels otherwise. Take a look at AASL's policy on labeling books: http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/positionstatements/labeling

Granted, some of AASL's concerns stem from the fact that lots of libraries are not only using labels but are organizing their shelving by labels (not adhering to standards of the profession), and that is most definitely a valid concern. We should be teaching students how libraries work, not just how OUR library works. If they understand that the Fiction books are in ABC order everywhere, then we have given them the key which unlocks every school, public, and eventually academic library they will ever use. This is a pretty big deal. 

Another of AASL's points about labels is that it violates the privacy of our students. Think about that. Do you have a 4th grader reading on a 1st grade level? I do. Whose business is it that he is not reading on grade level? His, his teachers', his parents', and mine. Certainly not other students, but they will be able to see that if he is carrying around books with 1st grade stickers on the spine. 

Ouch. 

Personally, I have never, not once, in 10 years of serving in this profession, ever heard of a student being bullied or made fun of because of his or her reading level. But I also know that there is a lot that goes on behind the social scenes of kids that not even the most perceptive, Eagle Eye teacher can catch. I don't want to contribute to making any child in my school a target. 

My plan is to compromise between AASL's standards and what my teachers want in keeping AR labels (and encouraging students to choose books within their range) but placing them in a more discreet location. This will take some time, but I plan to eventually remove all spine labels and begin to teach students to look inside the cover of their book for AR reading level information. This will take require more browsing time for the students, and it will take away my ability to sweep my eyes across the collection and notice deficiencies, but remember that 4th grade kid on a 1st grade level? 

He's worth it.  

Enduring Values

I met Doug Johnson in 2009, as the coordinator for the Alabama School Library Association's annual summer conference. Doug was our keynote speaker, and one of the most enjoyable, creative, and dynamic speakers we had ever heard. Doug is a very respected thinker in the school library world. He has his feet on the ground in the technology world, but nobody knows better than us how tightly technology and school librarianship go hand in hand.

This post on his Blue Skunk Blog is a good one for us to keep in mind as we keep our feet to the ground working with children every day, but also striving for more in our profession. This post stirs reflection on your current practice as evenly as it is inspiring to achieve deeper and more lasting impact on our sweet babies.

Do school librarians have "enduring values?"

The Kindergarten

*Today's post was written by Jennifer Anders, the school librarian at West Jefferson Elementary. 

I can’t think of a more rewarding job than being the School Librarian. I get as excited as the students when I turn them on to new information or share a really great book with them. I love helping them create digital products and write reports for their classes. I can even enjoy doing a good puppet show every once in a while or even a little Reader’s Theatre. I have taught many students how to look up a book using the OPAC or even simply how to use a computer mouse. I can even drive classes to the public library to get library cards or to a local play. I am not faint hearted. Except when it comes to Kindergarten.

Nothing scares me more than a class of five year olds that can’t tie their shoes, walk in a line or raise their hand to ask a question. I am terrified of looking deep into their mouths to examine the latest loose or missing tooth. I’m afraid they won’t get Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and will laugh in all the wrong places. I am petrified when one wants to go to the bathroom and then they all need to go. Needless to say, they haven’t always gotten my best teaching.

However, the neatest thing happened the last week before the break. We have been studying Jan Brett, and I read them the Gingerbread Baby. I found this incredibly cool site, http://www.highlightskids.com/flash/gingerbread-house, where the kids could create their own gingerbread houses. So I decided to let everyone take turns adding parts to it using the interactive whiteboard. I just knew there would be arguing, pushing and complaining because they had to take turns, or some kind of free for all with the kids that had to wait. I just have to say, I completely underestimated these little guys. They were completely engrossed in the project and attentive to one another. 

Now, I wonder what we can do next?