You Gotta Have Library Friends

This school year was my third year as a Library Media Specialist within my district. I first fell into the position as the former librarian suddenly was taken ill and quickly decided to retire the last three weeks of school. The principal called a faculty meeting because he was having a difficult time finding qualified applicants for the position. He asked for those who were interested in the position to raise a hand. Having just finished yearly SOL testing, feeling burned out, and in need of a change I made a split second decision and raised my hand. I was the only one to raise a hand and the position became mine. August rolls around and I am given the keys to the library and zero direction with what to do other than begin your classes and get certified. As the classroom teachers were having their yearly county wide grade level meetings the librarians had none. As a former classroom teacher I had been part of the fourth-grade team and the lead Virginia Studies teacher. I no longer had my pacing guide and SOLs to follow or the daily chats over lunch and in the hallways after school for guidance. Our district is a small Central Virginia district with only one librarian per school therefore I was utterly alone. I was not prepared for the isolation of the first few months on the job. I managed to make it through the first semester and began my Longwood classes in January. I quickly learned to ask for the guidance of other librarians in my district seeking help through email and arranging to meet them after school for help. As I progressed through my Longwood classes I made contacts with other librarians, wonderful professors, and found the value of belonging to the state and national professional organizations. I cannot express loudly enough how important it is to belong to your professional organizations and attend the district and state conferences each year. I have made numerous contacts and gained knowledge I would have not been able to find as easily on my own. For example, this past Spring Regional Conference I attended all three sessions and was able to return to my school and implement two of the session topics as collaborative lessons within the next two weeks. I have now belonged to Virginia Educational Media Association for two years and attended two yearly conferences. I regularly visit the VEMA Professional Tools Page for lessons and and find the VEMA Listserv a wonderful resource for seeking and receiving answers and ideas. In addition I have joined both American Association of School Librarians and the Young Adult Library Services Association both have numerous online links and webinars that I also use often to guide my instruction in my library. While belonging to these organizations do come with a cost it is a price I am willing to pay in order to find the wonderful professional guidance and resources that are perks of membership. Finally, I must mention another excellent link I use regularly to guide my lessons. My district sadly continues to not have a district wide library curriculum nor do I feel they understand the value of librarians (thoughts for another post). Due to this I have found the following site immensely helpful when planning and teaching information literacy lessons. Resources for School Librarians has many, many links and wonderful resources. I plan to continue to belong to my professional organizations and network with other librarians. I greatly value my many library friends and hope as you embark upon your careers as school librarians you will keep in mind you can never have enough library friends.

Inventory

I just finished inventorying my small elementary library (over 8,000 books). I scanned everything except paperback books and some sets of encyclopedias (They didn't have a bar code). I scanned filmstrip/book kits that are stored in the library. No one uses them, but I scanned them. This website, http://www.ehow.com/how_2085124_conduct-school-library-inventory.html , said that I should weed my collection, but this is my first year in the library and I do not have licensure in library media. My principal informed me that anything I planned to weed would have to be approved by her so I didn't get rid of anything except the damaged books. At the beginning of the year I had to inventory all the TV's, DVD players, and other equipment. The IT specialist had to convince her to let me get rid of two reel to reel film projectors. Brenda

Differentiated Instruction in the Library

With differentiated learning, those students identified as having low level skills, the ESL students, the ones with limited background knowledge and even the gifted learners can receive instruction that is geared towards their needs. The teacher first sets standards for student achievement and then designs many paths of instruction so that all learners can be successful. There can be differentiation in the design elements of:

content - providing materials that are accessible and meaningful to a range of abilities

process - effectiveness doubles with collaboration!

product - providing choice of outputs (libraries add technology, multimedia to that choice)

environment - multiple spaces, virtual spaces

The following is a great journal article on this:

Koechlin, C. & Zwaan, S. (June 2008). Everyone wins: Differentiation in the school library. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 8-13.

A website that is helpful to gather information and help if you give a presentation on this is:

Top Ten Reasons to Use the Library Media Center for Differentiated Instruction at

http://www.vema.gen.va.us/conference.07handouts/Handout2007/woods.pdf

I found this fun and informative blog site:

Differentiated Instruction? Libraries Invented It at

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2011/3/22/differentiated-instruction-libraries-invented-it.html

Paws with a Cause!

R.E.A.D

(Reading Education Assistance Dogs)

gives us something to bark about!

Let's face it, reading can be intimidating! 

For some kids, who could possibly be a better reading buddy than man's best friend?  A pup, of course!

With the idea that "fear destroys intelligence" (Williams Ayers), the R.E.A.D program was designed for reluctant readers who are given the oppourtunity, through the program, to read to  a companion that does not judge, laugh or criticize, allows children to proceed at their own pace, and is less intimidating than peers or adults.  Reading with Rover is another tail-wagging program whose mission is to inspire children to discover the joy of reading while developing literacy skills and confidence in a safe environment using Reading With Rover Dogs.

Maybe literacy dogs aren't everyone's cup of tea, but it certainly can put a bark in our ear about ways to approach our reluctant readers! 

Happy reading everyone (and I hope our K-9 friends are having a woof of a good time diving into their favorite books)!

Readers Theater is Fun!!!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Readers theater is fun!

I have found in my over two decades of teaching elementary school that you HAVE to make learning fun or you will lose the students interests. I have always enjoyed acting things out like singing, dancing, or doing whatever silly thing it takes to get a concept across. With that said, I am a HUGE proponent of Readers theater !  I have seen shy, introverted, and reluctant readers come alive when given a chance to be part of something fun other than a mundane worksheet or  the dreaded round robin reading!
I like to collect simple props, hats, masks, etc. to be used during lessons and especially readers theater presentations. Statistics prove that students engaged in readers theater can  improve at least one reading  level step by the end of the school year if done effectively and often in the classroom or school library.
When I am hopefully one day (YEAH!!!) a school librarian, I hope to continue the legacy of readers theater to grades PK-5 with excitement, enthusiasm, and NOT telling them (out loud anyway ) that they are improving their literacy level by leaps and bounds. Here is a good website that explains in simple language about readers theater. http://bms.westport.k12.ct.us/mccormick/rt/RTHOME.htm

A Dynamic Library Media Center

As I was deciding on my topic, I kept coming around to thinking about a lively, dynamic library media center and what I could do to make it that way. In my generation, we grew up (well, probably most of us) in a school that had a library where things were kept quiet and the librarian stayed behind the desk most of the time. Today's school libraries are a totally different model, and one of my main objectives as I transition from being an English teacher to becoming a school librarian is how to make the library a more central hub of the school and an exciting, dynamic place for students and teachers to visit. The library webpage is one of the ways to attract teachers and students and let them know what the library can provide and how the librarian can be an effective tool to achieve SOLs, teach fun and interesting lessons in collaboration with teachers, and suggest current and interesting books for students to read, no matter what their particular interest. I especially admire Buffy Hamilton's webpage and blog: http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com/.

Getting students away from copying and pasting!

When discussing what are the needs of teachers when it comes to the library at my high school most say that they want their students to look up information and relay that info back to the class and have fun doing it. However with ever changing technology it is harder and harder for teachers to keep kids creative and unfortunately keep them honest. It is way to easy for students to just copy and paste the information and for teachers way to difficult to prove it. So many teachers have given up. One of the things that I hope to accomplish, when I get at job, is to keep up on the new and ever changing sites that help students create presentations for class that both teachers and students can be happy with. I have found two sites that I feel can fit this goal. One is Glogster. At www.glogster.com students can create a poster using pictures, sound, links to sites, text and more on the topic of their choice. It forces them to think about the information they want to include and stay on topic. The great thing for teachers is you can create a free account and then it will give you certain number of student id's. It then gives teachers the ability to monitor student work. If you can take a second look at the samples on the site. The other site that I have found that I feel is great for student work is www.animoto.com. This site also gives teachers the ability to set up free accounts for students to use. This lets students essentially make a video about their topics. They add pictures, text, sound and animoto then puts together a video. One of the greatest moments I had teaching was with a student who was very shy and I showed him this site for a project he was working on about Ancient Greek Art. He made one using just the images with text important and using modern music- after it was done the whole class applauded. After class he stayed behind and told me thanks for showing him the site, he said he always dreaded presentations and for the first time ever he finished feeling good. The issues that teachers will still face with the sites is making sure students are keeping with copyright rules with the images and music but if the guidelines are set up early for students they will usually stay in the parameters.