New Year's Ketchup- What remains to be done?

What a question!
The most strategic thing to be done in the coming months is to build up and establish a group of adult volunteers. A brochure and some personal initiative and follow-up on my part is necessary to make this happen, as well as some honest prayer for help!
There are many opportunities coming up: the big one is the Scholastic Book Fair at the end of February. I'd like to have a re-dedication of our SLIC at that time, so there are some clean up and cosmetic tasks that should still be done. For example, some signage, some posters and bulletin boards, some adjustment of the computer furniture, and (maybe) some new fabric in brighter colours here and there to spruce the place up. I think a sign at the door would also be appropriate.
So many ideas, so little time...

New Year's Ketchup- What has gone well?

First, I must thank my colleague LB for her role in getting the schedule straight. She shared the vision of having equal time in the SLIC for all middle school classes. The middle schoolers have generally accepted the idea of coming to the library on a regular basis.

The booktalk/podcasts have been really cool, especially to see that some kids really shine in this type of media work. We have an entire webpage to show for it: http://vmbruins.com/podcasts.htm .
I have also enjoyed working with the primary kids. This too has gone "well" which means that I am learning lots of new things about this age group and how to relate to them!

The ongoing weeding and cleanup has gone well. I can see positive results in the look of the room. Giving the dicarded books away has been a great way to connect with some of our parents, and kids too.

We have been given funds to buy at least 2 more workstations for the SLIC, which is awesome! I sense the support of the parents groups at our school through these commitments.

A new parent volunteer has come along and has been a huge help.
The kids library helpers, especially the juniors, have been immensely helpful and they enjoy being able to help out. Such enthusiasm!

New Year's Ketchup

After 4 months in the library-teaching business it's time to reflect.

• What has gone well?
• What has not gone well?
  
• What remains to be done?
  
• What do I enjoy?
  
• What do I struggle to enjoy?
  
• What evidence do I see of enriched student learning?
  
• What evidence do I have that I'm on the right track?

Over the next few entries I'll capture these questions and their answers.

Overall vision for the Library Resource Centre

Written Sept. 2006

It is my purpose here to gather the various "library" items into four categories: technology, program and collection and setup. Technology is computer equipment; program is the activities that teachers and students will undertake towards learning; collection refers to the hard-copy assets of the library such as the books, CDs, pictures and whatever else is deemed necessary; setup is the arrangement of the room including furniture, shelving, decor and taking into consideration its user-friendliness.

Technology

The goal is to have 8 computer workstations, internet capable, 1 catalogue computer and 1 circulation computer. Our network upgrade will provide the capacity to do this. We already have the computers, because four workstations were moved from the computer lab, leaving the number there at 30. A listening centre should be established to support books on tape, CD books and music listening. A projection unit is already in our possession. However, as other teachers make more use of this unit, we will need a second one which would mostly remain in the library.

Program

Teacher Involvement and support-

One of the ways that our schedule will support teachers is by creating regular library support periods for each middle school class, and by having regular visits by the primary-junior classes. The middle school teachers will be teaming up with me to decide which part of their program I will deliver. The library can be a great place for literature circles to meet, for students to learn multi-media creation and presentation skills, and to do research.

Teachers will also be encouraged to be involved in promoting reading and literature in new ways, using book talks and perhaps even by using a weblog to publish student book reviews. This use of technology would be a significant area of growth for our staff and would bring the benefit of creating on-line material that parents and relatives can enjoy, increasing our home and school contact.

Adult Volunteers-

Two adult volunteers should be invited to work about a half-day per week. These volunteers could help out with many ongoing tasks pertaining to the library collection, and they may also help out in story time with the younger classes. Some adults may enjoy doing book talks as well.

Students-

A regular schedule of library helpers will be created. I'd like to have students from some junior classes and most middle school grades on this schedule. Two circulation helpers will also be chosen from each class to do checkout and checkin for their class when visiting the library.

Reworking the schedule, etc.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Here are my thoughts on reworking the timetable. I'm guided by two basic ideas: First, the primary/ junior kids really only need the library as a regular source of interesting, good quality reading material. They need to get into the "library habit." On the other hand, middle school kids need the library as a place to tackle project-based learning where they have a chance to interact with ideas, solve problems, discuss things under the guidance of a tutor or facilitator. And of course, they need good literature as well.

So, guided by the above, here are my recommendations:

1.) Having each primary and junior class cycle through the library 3 times over 10 days is excessive. Once a week for a 30 minute book exchange would be sufficient. Perhaps the primary teachers could receive their release time in another way...

2.) The fact that I have a grade 5 class scheduled six times over 10 days is also less than ideal. Consider the fact that during those 5 periods no other students can use the library, because it is full and I am basically unavailable to supervise a second group during that time. The grade 5's program is fragmented, and time is also lost during travel time and settling time. This particular group of grade 5s needs resourcing in small groups and I believe my time would be better suited to working in some sort of literacy support role, rather than being locked into all of that prep coverage for their teacher.

3.) The same argument could be made for the extra library periods that were given to class 73, 62 and 82, totalling 4 periods. This resultant patchwork of library time is not equitable, and really doesn't open up the library to any other kids. As it stands now, the resource centre (which has received hundreds of new books waiting to be shelved) is NOT actually available to any middle school classes outside of those few hole-plugging ones.

4.) What is needed is a fairly open timetable that allows for partial class groups to be sent with specific tasks that I can support, facilitate and teach. Research shows the benefits of this type of work. For example, the media component of a language arts classes can be met by working with specific groups on various projects on a pull-out basis that might, say, last for a couple of weeks for each group. In this manner, a class of 30 students could work in four groups over a term. Other tasks could be handled by splitting the class into two larger groups of 10 to 15 at a time. Thinking this way, the library schedule would be derived by purposefully pairing up the library with each language class on an equitable basis.

The Decorating Guru

My expert designer (my beautiful wife) was in today for a consult. Looks like the best use of the curved "bench" area by the windows will become a display shelf instead of a bench. Problem: when kids sit on the top they are right in front of the glass windows, and there's nothing to lean on. So, we'll put plants there instead, and I'm thinking of making an alphabet / book tree. And, in front of the upper plastic windows I'm going to make some stained glass tissue paper designs.

Next week is a big week. The weeders will do their thing.

I got some cool atlases from our head librarian. Thanks!

Getting the Blend Just Right

Part of the job of coordinating learning activities with other teachers is being sensitive to what they are expecting. I SO MUCH appreciate the people I'm working with. They are flexible and easygoing for the most part.
I can put some activities together for the grade 7s and work them all on the same program. No one is laying stuff on me heavy, which is OK by me. "Responses to reading is what they need. Putting ideas on paper at a higher level of thinking is what they need."

Feeding Frenzy

I've learned that teachers love to get their hooks into learning materials, especially if they're FREE. Watching my fellow teachers go through the file cabinets and taking picture files, unit folders and other bits and pieces was really rewarding for me. I also enjoy making the room suitable for staff meetings. Today we held a luncheon so I put the tables together nicely, put on some tunes, etc. Some of these little touches make a nice difference.

I can't wait to see what the room will be like with the extra space coming available!

Getting New Ideas

Today our head librarian for the system came in to have a look around and offer some advice on how to rearrange the library. I got some good ideas about how to set up a different circ. desk, and also how to revamp the reference section.

One good idea was to move many of the reference books onto the general circulation shelves, and keep only a few reference books, such as a good dictionary and a good atlas and not much else.

I pulled three set of encyclopedias off the shelves and consolidated what was left into one area. Finally, the picture filing cabinets are empty, and out they will go to give us more space.

The windows are pathetic. I showed the principal how flimsy they are, and he sent a request to the plant department to have an inspection made on the basis of how poor the security would be if they remained. The fact the the windows are at ground level and are PLASTIC is incredible!

Grade 7s Love to Read Out Loud!

I can see the value of reading buddies. My grade 7 class jumped at the chance to read some of the new picture books. When I had one of the boys read a book to me, I told him I would pretend to be the little kid, and he should read to me. What a great experience.

Then, for the rest of the class, the students took turns reading to me, the "little kid" and I would tell them if they're qualified to be a reading buddy.

The amount of expression and interest each one put forward was surprizing. The next step was to have them practice on each other to be good reading buddies.

This is definitely something I want to set up.

Ping!

We read Ping the other day. Me and the grade 1s. Ping is a baby duck, who once was pointing the "wrong way up" in the river when his master called them back onto the boat on the Yangtze River. Good cross-cultural thing going on here in this book.

So Ping got left behind... he didn't want to be the last duck up the ramp, 'cause he would get a SMACK! Long story short... Ping ends up on another boat and almost gets cooked for dinner, until a little boy decides he would rather his newfound friend go free...

The kids liked making the "smack!" sound when he finally returned home.

Then, we made little slide viewers so the kids could take it home and re-tell the story to their parents.

Media studies and grade fours

Wow. These kids just eat up the media role of the "news guy." When I proposed that each of them pick a wild weather story from an old weather calendar, and then go in front of the camera to read the news, the energy in the room just went through the roof.

I've never seen kids write so enthusiastically. Several had their script down within 5 minutes and were set to go.

Fun, fun. Can't wait to finish these!

Wow! Book Giveway is a success!

I'm sure we managed to give away about 300 books today at our giveaway table. These were easy picture books, mostly hardcover, that had been weeded. Most were at least 25 years old. Well worn. Looking for a new home.

Thanks to the four eager student helpers who earned their hamburgers and worked hard at making the signs and setting up the tables.

We spent all of today's lunch hour ripping off bar codes from the backs of books. Fun, fun, fun...

Old Filmstrips

These were once the cutting edge. "Yay, a filmstrip!!" we used to say at school. The teacher would put on the record or casette and we'd be in multimedia heaven. I remember feeling so envious of the kids who got to flip the filmstrip from one frame to the next on the beep.

Now, it's dumpsterville for these things. No one wants to use them anymore. OUT YOU GO, you hoggers of shelf space and dust collectors!

Who needs that table anyway?

There we were, it was lunchtime. I'm standing in the library talking to another teacher.

The administrator comes in with some guy; they pick up a table and say, "We need this at another school," and they walk out with one of my tables.

"Take a better one. That one's chipped," I replied, to no answer.

Luckily, I had another similar table holding up a huge pile of junk that I haven't disposed of yet!

Little Boys who can't sit still

I'm gonna have to play hardball with these little pipsqueeks.
Nuff said.

OK, so we need some work

Today was a day of reckoning.

My library is old. I'm just admitting it, okay? There are lots of old, worn out books. All the pages are brown when you look at the tops of the books. Fifty years of dust. The pages feel worn and soft, but many books are not happily worn out like a favourite teddy bear that is always handled by a loving kid, they are just old and hardly used. They look tired.

But there's hope. I'll be making a mess in there for the next few weeks. I can get rid of stuff and free up lots of shelf space. I can get my volunteers on board. And, I can put new material out on the shelves.

There's always hope.

Something's Gotta Give

Okay, so now the school has a half-time librarian: me. At first glance this seems like a major advancement to the school program and for the cause of literacy. But as I have come to discover, this may not be so easy.

First of all, I was surprized to find, when taken on a tour of the room by a librarian from two years previous, dozens of new books that never made it out onto the shelf. Purchased but never catalogued. Hardcover books needing dust covers which were never completed. Cupboards full of obsolete equipment and supplies.

And, as the first few days of classes unfold, I'm learning that just being in the library with kids doesn't guarantee anything. The opportunity to develop meaningful programming will be especially challenging, given the restrictions in the timetable placed before me!

Here's what I'm figuring:

The library is NOT open to all the students half the time. The library is open to one class at a time, three (sometimes four) periods a day. So, 75 kids get to go to the library each day, and the other 400 kids in the school don't.

Second, the library doesn't support the middle school program in any significant way. There are only a couple of middle school classes scheduled for "teacher/library" during the week. But not all MS classes are scheduled.

During the morning when I'm not in the library and teaching music at the other end of the school, teachers can't send groups of kids to use the library. They would have to bring their whole class. (After all, kids can't be in there unsupervised.) And, I wouldn't be there so the teachers would be on their own to circulate materials, etc. which in the past couple of years has meant: Nevermind, we won't bother. This means that the library can be of no use to any of the morning classes for enriching or supporting their program by pulling out groups of kids- e.g. reading groups. I've got a grade six "literacy" stream 6 periods out of 10 days, so even though I'm in the library, I'm preoccupied with this entire class.

Somehow the scheduling ought to be improved. As it stands, I'm locked into providing contractual release time for other teachers, which means I take their whole class. I don't get to have the liberty to receive smaller focus groups. Yet, this is where the EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT of the library kicks in.

Let's admit it. We have a half time- release time provider who is based in the library and who, in his after-school time and with a few volunteers, will do his best to manage and maintain the resource centre. But we do not YET have an available teacher-librarian who can provide enrichment and focused reading and research activities. We're getting there, but something's gotta give.

Falling Over the Furniture

Torn between many duties needing attention:
-buying bulbs for overheads
-buying reeds and music supplies
-learning kids names- I took picture with them holding blank sheets of paper, then I print them up and write their names on the sheet. I can study them at home. I figure I've got about 200 new names to learn in the next month or so.
-cleaning up junk- old supplies that are obsolete, weeding old books, updating library cards, trying to find space for everything

One thing is that there is no open wall space for anything like a white board, or even a bulletin board. And, shelves of books that are on wheels are getting in the way. I think I want to be rid of them. I'll take a picture of these things and put it here.

Ready Set Go

OK, so here goes. I'm putting some new ideas into practice from the ETFO Arts workshop from this summer.

Me and Mr. Mah is the book. The kids are grade six. We are going to do some "Hot Seat" role play and we're going to learn how to ask questions of a story.

wish me luck.

Everything is Gnu to me.

Here's my protege. The Gnu guy in town. Notice he's got his glove out and is trying to catch something. He's in the game. His stance is good. He's ready for whatever comes his way.

I took the job as our school's teacher librarian, with a great deal of anticipation. I've always felt slightly more comfortable managing things and equipment, but out of necessity have had to become very capable at managing people along the way. So, here is a job that requires excellence in both areas. In fact, it brings the managing of things and people perfectly together.

Enabling
Helping
Assisting
Finding
Searching
Organizing
Inspiring
Connecting