Collaboration and School Goals

One of the goals of our school district is to "provide curriculum that is pertinent to students' needs." I feel that I have been able to do that along with the collaboration of a 6th grade science teacher. We have discussed the things that I might teach during library time that would help the 6th grade students be more successful with their science fair projects and research. (AASL 4.3) I have taught or am in the process of teaching all six, sixth-grade classes three lessons that tie in with their science fair research. When I teach them, I am showing how these lessons fit in with their research and I am also tying it in with the social studies research they are completing. Also, while I am teaching, I am asking the science teacher if she has anything to add or if this is the same way she is expecting her students to take notes, etc.



The three lessons I have taught were finding project ideas and how to use Science Online from Infohio; broadening and narrowing topic searches, and plagiarism and how to take notes using phrases and keywords. (AASL 1.1)



I am proud that I have developed these lessons, with a little help from the teacher and TRAILS, and have made these lessons relevant to what they are doing in school currently. I have also incorporated practice on laptops and computers. (AASL 2.2 & 2.3)



Our library has been doing a very good job lately of using both our 20 computers and the mobile lab which houses 30 laptops. When classes want the mobile lab for just one class period, we fit them into our library. We actually have three sections in our library that can be used for three different classes at a time. (AASL 1.3 & 1.4) We have been reserving the mobile lab for times of my instruction when I want the students to be in front of me with laptops, but there are also days when no one has signed up to use the lab and we plug it in and use it for student overflow when 20 computers is not enough. Can I also say that I am proud that I was the one to start teaching in the library and including the students with laptops at the same time. When I first did this, my librarian didn't like the idea of dragging the laptops out and them recharging them between classes. (The laptops are used and only hold a 2 hr. or less charge this year). Now, my librarian wants to keep the mobile lab and use it all the time which requires us to unplug and replug the laptops into their cart throughout the day. It is funny how we can be opposed to new ideas at first until we see how it is benefiting everyone. I like teaching with the students right in front of me, following along on the laptops. I also like feeling like I have made a positive change and impact on their learning by teaching this way and having them practice the lesson along with me or after I teach.

Reading Promotion

This was a short week for us. Because of the holiday and two snow days, we attended school for two days and one of them was a 2-hour delay. Even though it was short, it sure was busy. We have had a couple of very busy weeks in the library.

This week our sixth grade started their science fair projects. They were scheduled to come to the library to get ideas. They came two classes at a time, which we were not totally prepared for, but we were able to use our mobile lab along with the 20 computers we aleady have to meet their needs Unfortunatley, the ninth grade students had to stick with books for their research. I only say, unfortunately, because they had already been using books for a few days and I wanted them to use some of the internet sources I had shown them before they forgot where to go. I would have not been able to give my 10:00 lesson to the class that I was planning to because of the unexpected crowd. We always try to accomodate as many classes as possible while still maintaining a learning environment. (AASL 1.3) Because of this, we try to plan ahead who will fit best in the back of the library and what class gets to use computers, etc. (AASL 1.4) We actually saw 16 classes in the library on Wednesday and I emailed our principals and superintendant of that fact. I also mentioned that it was possible because of having two people in the library. I feel that a little advocacy for the library can't hurt these days.

I also had great success with a lesson I planned this week for the sixth grade. I had decided to teach three lessons in a row that would support the activities they would be doing for their science fair projects. (AASL 2.1) This week I taught the students how to narrow and broaden their topic searches. I also talked about using synonyms or other words that might help their searches. I was able to teach this to four sixth grade classes even though we only had school on two days. I actually had two people tell me it was a well-made lesson. I used three questions from the TRAILS review section on developing topic. I really felt good about this lesson. The students filled out a worksheet as we went through the lesson. I felt like they had learned something when we were finished and their worksheets appeared that way as well.

Since this was a short week I thought I would discuss some of the ways I have promoted reading in the school library this year. Recently, we created a Holocaust display because a seventh grade special needs teacher had decided to read Boy in the Strpied Pajamas to his students. I felt that his and other students might be interested in seeing some of the other titles on that subject. We even had two graphic novels on the Holocaust. (AASL 1.2) Also recently, I have made a large sign that designates where we chose to place our High School Fiction. The section had been pointed out to students that visited as a class, but now anyone can see it when they walk in (I hope). After much consideration I decided that this might be the best place for this section afterall. I really didn't want it behind the desk, but we moved a bookshelf that was partially blocking it and I believe students can access it. I have told many students to help themselves and a number of them have. I just can't think of any other place to keep these books without a middle school student being tempted to take one. (AASL 1.2)

Another way we promote reading near the beginning of the year is by using the Scholastic website to show authors talking about their books. We show these videos to the seventh grade students to give them ideas for things to read. I also showed some book trailors created by other students that I got from the web. Then I have the copies that we own laying out for students to borrow. (AASL 1.2)

Maybe yet this year, I will get a group of students to make their own book trailors.

Educational Leader

This past week was a busy week with a number of classes using the library and lessons to be taught to the 6th and 9th grades. On Wednesday, we had the ninth grade English classes beginning their research on countries. I was to teach them what sources would be helpful for their research. We also had two other classes scheduled to use our computers and our mobile lab, all at the same time. Our technology specialist was aware of the amount of technology happening in the library all at once so she invited our superintendent to stop in and see what we were doing. I had created some Power Point review slides so the students could use our CPS system (hand-held clickers). We wanted our superintendent to see those in action as well. Unfortunately, he could not come. Anyhow, the students were engaged and were able to begin their research. Also, unfortunately, when we focus on the English classes the other classes miss out on possible lessons, like web evaluation. There was a science class that was in the library during the time the English class was beginning their research. The science teacher made a point to tell me that she had talked to the students about credible websites. This was because I had been talking to her earlier about this being my soapbox this year. I was glad to hear that she at least brought up the subject of credible websites to her class. Many science and social studies classes don't hear this from their teachers I fear. My point is the more that you talk to others (teachers or students) about what you feel is important, the more they may believe it and pass it on to others. (AASL 1.1)
I also want to mention that I have been talking to our technology specialist a lot about how the library needs to stay abreast of technology, use it, understand it, and teach it. Yes, we have our technology teachers and they are doing a good job. But I stressed to our specialist that this is the library of the future. (AASL 3.3) She has been very proud that I am using the CPS the most in our school right now. This is why she invited the superintendent. She likes the idea that some teachers are seeing me use it and they are wanting to use it too. Our Dean of Students saw me using it this past week and he is so proud of himself for thinking to offer it to our Career Based Intervention teacher who takes students to the Knowledge Bowl. He thinks it would be a good tool for practice.

The Dean of Students and I have been talking a lot about technology, mainly in the form of what is going to replace books. He likes to tell me books are going to be obsolete some day. Anyhow, it makes for good conversation about the future of the library. We talk about Nooks and how we need to find a grant to fund the purchase of some. He has been taking classes in administration and had to do a paper on cutting-edge technology. I was able to direct him to a professional journal that helped him decide on his topic. (AASL 3.3) I was also able to talk to the high school principal this week about Nooks. It is not often that I can stick my head in his office and just have an informal chat. We were also able to discuss the future of the library and how it may be focused a lot more on e-books. During this discussion the Dean of Students stuck his head in the office and mentioned what we had going on in the library with technology this week. The principal said I was on the right track.

I may be on the right track but definitely not satisfied. I am glad I can give a glimpse of how the library can continue to be important. I am trying to show that right now by creating lessons that support teacher's standards and classroom lessons. Money is tight and I don't know how we can improve technology right now but that doesn't mean I am not going to try. We are not on the cutting edge, but I have a vision of the library being a place filled almost continually with classes working on projects of some kind. It is nice to have 20 computers for them to use. When the mobile lab is not elsewhere, we have 30 more. I have been able to have students on those laptops in front of my projector screen working with me. There is much more to do.........student book trailers, technology grants, the list goes on.

Teacher Librarian

I was able to teach a web evaluation lesson this week. I had put a lot of time and effort into this lesson. I read many sources on the topic and created an outline, then made a power point presentation for three 9th grade English classes. I looked at so many lessons on this topic that I began to get confused about which way to teach it. There are tons of sources on web evaluation. I stuck with a book titled, Cyber Literacy, by Susan R. Gregson. I also was able to use part of a lesson plan created by a fellow student for our School Library Media III class. She had gotten some of her information from Joyce Valenza's page. Kathy Schrock's website has some good resources on this topic as well. One of the most challenging parts of the lesson was finding a bogus website to use to show the students. Most of them were blocked at our school. Joyce Valenza's website is blocked too. I actually did get one unblocked by the time I had to teach the second class.

My lesson consisted of going through the power point and asking questions of the students along the way. Two questions were what does it mean to be literate? and what does critical mean? We discussed cyber literacy, the amount of information on the web, why we have to be careful, and why people put false or misleading information on the web. At the end of the power point we went over web evaluations tools that would help them critically evaluate a web page. Then I split the classes into groups (with the advanced help of the teacher), giving each pair a laptop from the mobile lab. They looked at two different websites and evaluated them, writing down their strengths and weaknesses. After that, we discussed each websites' strengths and weaknesses.

The lesson went very well. I was excited to get the chance to present these principles to the students. No one that I know of has addressed web evaluation in depth. A lot of the time teachers tell their students what websites they can use, therefore they don't use ones they need to evaluate. Even though this lesson was a lot of preparation, I want to use it again with some fine tuning. I would like to offer it to the 10th grade English students. I also got to use an easier set of evaluation tools along with this power point for a last minute session with two 7th grade classes this week.

One of my goals for this Practicum was to create a web evaluation lesson for both the high school students and the middle school students. After thirty minutes of fine tuning, I think I will have both of them in a place where I will be able to use them on short notice. I am very excited to have nearly reached this goal. The effort I put in was worth it and I feel like the students learned something.

The five lessons that I taught on web evaluation this week cover all of AASL standard 2. I am very pleased that I have teachers who are willing to let me present this information because they feel it is important. The 9th grade English teacher decided to use some of this lesson in the research the students will be starting next week. She wants them to use the websites we are going to show them next week and if they need to use another website they will need to show three or four evaluation tools that they used to determine if the website was credible.

I also got critiqued by my librarian on this lesson. I was very appreciative of her input. She was able to make a few suggestions and showed me where something I had said was incorrect. I am glad that she had the time to listen to most of my lesson. During one of the periods, we had a class behind the screen that I was teaching from, and one off to the side using computers. We like to offer our libary to be open to as many teaching and learning areas as possible. Carol and their teachers were able to keep them quietly working while the Freshman worked on my lesson. It worked so smoothly, but I know that part of this was because of having two adults working together to coordinate the use of the library in a quiet manner. (AASL standard 1.2 & 1.3)

It was a very productive week.. I could write more. We actually had school everyday with only one two-hour delay.

Resources and Financial Management

We had one day of school this week. The roads in our district have been pretty rough. Our school district is the largest in area compared to other districts in our county or surrounding counties.

On Monday, I helped my librarian to make a final decision on sending four books back to the vendor. After viewing these books carefully, we didn't think they would get much use and they cost $25 a piece. (AASL 4.1) The hardest part about this decision was determining whether or not the $100 was worth the hassle of packaging, mailing, and dealing with the purchase order. I convinced my librarian that we could really use the money for four or more other books from the same company and made the call to our board office to determine how to handle the purchase order. (AASL 4.2) We will have a credit with the company that I will use when the credit gets issued. We asked the treasurer's assistant to keep the P.O. open so we could reorder soon. I felt good about this decision because I really don't think those books would have gotten any looks from our students based on the types of books they normally use for research. Also it wasn't that much of the hassle. The hardest part was the two of us coming to a decision about the matter.

My librarian has been allowing me to follow the purchase order process closely when we have placed two book orders. It is good for me to see the way she keeps her p.o.s organized and how she makes notes as to what has been received and what has been "okd to pay". (AASL 4.2) I make copies of everything, include the proper secretary since we have two different schools, and send originals to the board office. I think I will make more use of spreadsheets when I become a librarian. I am comfortable with Excel and think this will help me follow my budget and allocated amounts for certain expenses. I really appreciate the time my librarian has given to explain these procedures and how her budget and requisitions work. There are a lot of things that you need to be careful of. If you overspend on a purchase order, you end up paying yourself. And if you have a book fair, you have to put in a requistion for that at the beginning of the year or whenever the deadline is. (AASL 4.2)

These are the kind of details that most people don't even consider when thinking about the position of a teacher librarian. The people who don't give it a lot of thought just believe that the books are there, none are added, none are taken away; and all you do is check them out, check them in, and put them away. Sounds pretty easy to me. But in reality the job is so much more. I tried to explain why I am going to school for this position to a student last week and I couldn't even think of all the jobs a librarian does; meaning that I told her a few and thought of the rest later. She was impressed with the few that I told her which mainly involved collection development and staying abreast of changes that affect teaching in the library.

So................during my snow days at home, I worked on a lesson for teaching Freshman how to evaluate websites. I believe I am teaching it in three days. I will go into detail when I actually have finished teaching the lesson.

Reading promotion

Many people believe the school library's main function is to promote and support reading. I agree that this is one of our goals but I do try to remind people that it is certainly not the only thing we do. There is much more a school library can do to support learning and the curriculum.



This week our two local public librarians were able to come and present booktalks for our sixth grade classes. Two of our classes did not get to hear them yet because we continually deal with bad weather on Tuesdays. It was kind of the librarians to come and share their time with the students. The booktalks they gave were much longer than any I have given. They like to read one or two pages out of a book to the students. This is one of the ways that we promote reading to our students (AASL 1.2) All of the copies we had of their four titles were checked out and we have a very long waiting list for one of the titles. We also like keeping a good relationship with the public libraries and we tell the students that their local public library is a good place to get materials that we don't own. We also allow the public librarians to come in at the end of the year and promote their summer reading program.

Last week I was able to do some quick book talks with the juniors and seniors in three English classes. (AASL 1.2) While I was doing this, I also showed two book trailers on the big screen. I knew that the visual book trailors would catch their interest. I did not have a lot of time to prepare for this but found a couple of trailers that were at the high school level on school tube. I also brought out all of the books that we own that are appropriate for high school students, not middle school students. I wanted to get these books out to be seen and touched because they are not highly visible where we keep them now. The students were attentive for the most part and a number of our high school appropriate books were checked out.

Another thing that we have done this year is to move a book shelf near the front of our library for new arrivals (AASL 1.2). We put it right where the students walk in the door. I love to see a student stop, take a second look, and say "this looks good", then pick it up and check out the book.

Since I have been staying in the AASL 1.2 vein, it makes me think of a conversation I had with one of my new library volunteers. We were able to sit and talk about what she has read lately and what I have read lately. I like to hear about what the students enjoy reading. I like sharing that I enjoy reading too. It is rewarding to hear students share about books they like and you can see they share your passion for reading. We actually had a student helper this year who was known for getting into trouble in class. He needed to work in the library to fill a block of time and we said we would try him out but he had to prove to us he was willing to work. What a pleasant surprise to see his willingness and his respect for us. One of the neatest things occured when he had to read a book for English class. He disliked reading but we got him hooked on Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and somehow we felt we were responsible for turning him into a reader. He loved the books and devoured the whole trilogy.

I also thought I might share about Teen Read Week that I promoted in October. My librarian does not like to spend too much time on things like these that appear to her as extra curricular activites. I feel that it promotes the library and it is good marketing to show students that we are there and that we actually give things away. It is a time for me/us to be giving, which is the way we should be all the time. A couple of years ago I was able to write an entire paper on how we could change the climate of the library in which I worked so that students would view us differently. I don't really mean we need to more permissive, even though we might, be we need to show the students that we care about them personally and we are there to help them. Anyhow, Teen Read Week did not involve reading as much as it involved getting students to practice their library skills by filling out a drawing slip that contained the name of a good book they have read, its author, and why they liked it. If they turned one of these slips in, they got a free pencil. There was also another drawing slip they could fill out that required pairing the a fiction book with a nonfiction with a matching topic. They had to use our catalog to find the books and the authors. We then drew thirty or so names for prizes. The teachers had helped us out by contributing some homework passes and bonus points for prizes as well. It did take some time to complete this week and the passing out of prizes but I felt that it was worth it to promote the library.

Third week: Collaboration and Cataloging

This was another week of delays and one snow day. I replied to Dr. Berg's comment from week two about how I used a discarded lesson because our Public Librarians cancelled. The lesson was an introduction to World Book on Infohio. (AASL 1.3 & 2.3) I was encouraged to have participation from the teachers during these lessons. Three teachers wanted to interject and I believe they felt that I was making the lesson relevant to their classroom content.

I have been thinking alot about teacher collaboration. I studied David Loertscher's taxonomy for the Praxis and took some time to decide where our library fit into his idea for school libraries. Libraries at the bottome level have no involvement and the ones a step above that are a "self-help warehouse". I feel that the library I work in falls somewhere between spontaneous, cursory, and planned gathering depending on the occasion. Near the top of Loertscher's taxonomy is instruction and instructional design which means formal planning occurs and the LMS is involoved in every step and the entire teaching unit may depend on the LMC program. Sometimes I feel that my library is very close to these two, but it only happens with one or two teachers. I wonder to myself, "How do I get teachers to understand our role and allow us to be included in their units?". When I have suggested to an English teacher that I could teach a lesson based on the Trails results we created earlier this year, she acted like it was her responsibility to teach these things, not mine. Most teachers seem to convey the idea that they are in complete charge or control of what is taught with their students. This is frustrating to me even though I understand why teachers feel this responsibility. I guess they just don't realize that there can be opportunities to co-teach with the librarian.
I find myself wondering when a social studies teacher uses the library, "how could I have collaborated with him on this unit? What do we have to offer here that he didn't think of using?" I usually don't have an answer. They have a set amount of time to get the paper or the research done and they don't want to spend too much time doing it. So how do we add lessons to there schedule?
Time seems to be another issue that I don't need to discuss right now.

Anyhow, there are glimmers of hope and I am just beginning to try and change how teachers may feel about the library and what we can offer. The Freshman English teacher that I spoke of came to me this week and said she would be willing to have her classes take the Trails assessment again. This is a new semester with a new set of students. I excitedly agreed but interjected that I would like to teach one lesson based on the assessment results. She said, "Sure, you can do it right when we start our research project". (AASL 2.2) This is positive and encouraging. Now lets hope I can tie it in with their research or at least make it relavant to them in some way.

One teacher, one class at a time.

It has been a new experience for me to be in charge of scheduling teachers (AASL 1.3) and knowing at the same time that I am responsible for anything that needs to be introduced or taught by the LMS. Before now as I have taken on more duties at the encouragement of our librarian, I would teach a lesson here or there and be responsible for pulling some books on occasions. Trying to keep on top of what is happening next week and what I need to do to prepare is a much larger responsibility. I really don't know how I will handle it if I am a LMS without an aide. But this is very good practice for me. (Let me interject that we typically introduce Infohio or other sources to classes beginning research projects if the teachers will agree. This is really all of the instruction that occurs concerning high school students. We will see if I can get this to change.)

On a final note, I got to do some copy cataloging this week. I thought I would be able to get the pile of books that needed cataloged completed in one day. Not true! I know I will get faster at this, but I don't see how people spend a lot of time on getting the perfect record. I also find it hard to fathom that librarians do this on their own when they don't have an aide to help them out during the day. Yes, we did just order books with their records to save time but these books were purchased by the Parent's Club for one of our elementary schools. It was fun to do something different and I have a new appreciation for how easy it is to make mistakes because of interruptions. (AASL 4.1)

2nd week flexibility

This week I prepared an Infohio World Book lesson for the 6th grade classes. I was tying it in with their upcoming social studies research they would begin next week. (AASL 2.1)It was not intensive because the students would need time to check out books also during their 30 minute class time. On the first day of the lesson our school had decided to dismiss early because of an oncoming snow storm. That meant I would miss one of the classes. The next day was a snow day and I missed two more classes. The following day, there was a movie for the 6th grade in the afternoon and I missed two more classes. My librarian was counting on me to work this out on the first inclement day but it didn't happen. I feel badly that they didn't get their lesson and I can't present it to them next week because the public librarians are scheduled to visit and give book talks. (AASL 3.1) Many times a librarian has to go with the flow and that is what I did. This was finals week for the high school and we had teachers call at the last minute to come and use the computers. It was just one of those weeks that wasn't quite normal.

I may have another opportunity with World Book and I know we are planning to collaborate with the sixth grade science teachers in February for science fair research. (AASL 2.2)I did also approach a 6th grade social studies teacher and ask her if I could come talk about World Book if and when they go to the computer lab for their research next week. She said she had to get back to me.

I also got to attend a teacher's inservice day and hear a presentation on Ohio's revised standards. I felt it was important to keep up with this topic. I want to know what the teachers are required to cover and I want to support it and collaborate with them as a future librarian. (AASL 3.2)

First week of Practicum

I have been working as a Library assistant for 7.5 years. This week I dove right into instruction with twelve sixth and seventh grade classes. We reviewed a quiz over some simple library skills. I used the multimedia projector and screen to show the quiz and type in the correct answers. (AASL 2.1)A sixth grade teacher had suggested the students would be more engaged if they were to write in the correct answers for the questions that they missed. When I teach a lesson like this several times, I am always looking to improve upon the lesson before. Sometimes I belabor a point and realize that next time I must move more quickly. There is a reward when you see learning taking place. I had the students practice with 2 new questions after we discussed the correct answer to the original question. I walked around the room looking at their answers and discovered that most of the students understood and were now answering correctly.

I also placed two orders this week: one for Accelerated Reader tests and the other was a book order from Follett. (AASL 4.1) It is a time consuming thing to spend your budget wisely on materials to be circulated. There is a balance between spending too much time on deciding which books to order and not caring what you end up with. I utilized the "first choice" check box because there were certain titles that I felt were more important than others. I don't think the librarian I work for bothers with this. I think she just takes her chances. Since we were ordering $400 more than our do not exceed amount I felt like it was important to choose some first picks. It is sad to see how quickly the money flows out.

I also requested to be placed on a new committee being formed by our new superintendant. He wants one non-certified member from each building. I don't know if I will get selected but I showed interest anyway. (AASL 3.2)