Week Thirteen Reading

Here we are at the last week of reading!  For a while, it seemed as though this day would never come, but the semester is finally winding down!  Bit of advice for other SIers: NEVER take 5 graduate classes at once.  It might seem like it's worth it, but it's not.

As for our reading this week, it centered around the topic of providing evidence for the learning that media specialists provide for students in schools.  This is tough stuff.  Very few librarians give tests or grades that are attached specifically to them, so how do you provide enough evidence that proves your role as an important educator?  The authors we heard from this week talked about collecting data about various parts of your program.  Young talked about collecting data regarding accessibility, suitability, and competency.  I didn't really agree that this "evidence" would really prove to a board of administrators that your program effects student learning.  You need to show what they do.  That's why I was much more interested in Mueller's discussion of authentic assessments.  But in a post about assessments I think that this requires the following rant:

I believe in badges.  Have I bothered this class with badge-talk enough yet?  Badges are a concept that is taking hold in informal learning situations to both reveal learning that has taken place and to reward students for work that they have done to accomplish learning goals.  Libraries (specifically School Libraries) need to get on board with this stuff.  In the land of badges there are issuers (like libraries or teen centers or girl scouts) who provide a system for earning a badge, then they create the actual badge (a simple image file) and provide the Open Badge Infrastructure (from Mozilla, who is awesome) with the appropriate metadata that conforms to their API (check me out with all my 502 lingo).  That metadata then gets baked into the image so that it travels with the image everywhere it goes.  One of the coolest features of this is that you can click on a badge and it will show you all that juicy metadata, which includes a reference URL which links back to all the work that particular student did to earn the badge in the first place.  Here, my fellow librarians, is the best kind of evidence: not usage statistics or lesson plans or even grades (which we all know are kind of arbitrary and not standardized to begin with) but actual evidence.  If your students are earning badges from work that they do in your media center, BOOM evidence.  My second piece of advice for the day: get down with badges.

Does this sound like a feasible thing for individual school libraries to utilize?  Or am I a crazed badgevangelist?  Is this the authentic assessment we have been waiting for or is it just a fancy way of doing what we already do?  Discuss.

Week Twelve Class

Last class we had a very lively discussion about the concept of website evaluation as a checklist.  We were able to chat with Debbie Abilock regarding these issues, and the conversation went in a million different (but all very interesting) directions.  We discussed the use of restricting access to sources through search engines like sweet search, the idea of using language to shelter children, and badges even came up a few times.  What I really took away from the conversation is that I think that website evaluation is best managed around a conversation.  That's why I really resonated with the "Who? Why?" evaluation.  I think that it is simple enough to reach students at multiple developmental levels and yet complex enough to really warrant the kind of discussion that can model appropriate cognitive processes/judgments.  I also think that this kind of teaching takes guts on the part of the instructor-- they have to be comfortable with ambiguity and confident enough in their own content knowledge to start open-ended conversations with students.  That is why, I think, checklists are so popular and will continue to be so popular in K-12 education.

It also just struck me that maybe we have to be teaching students to evaluate information the same way that we, as instructors, have to learn how to assess the students themselves.  Maybe that's why it is so hard for us to teach these kinds of processes... because we aren't there yet ourselves in creating authentic assessments.  Am I way off-base, or does this resonate with you guys as well?

Professional Learning

Yucht, Alice. "Professional Development is a Personal Responsibility." School Libraries: What's New, What's Now, What's Yet to Come. 2011.


The author of this article, retired Teacher-Librarian/Blogger, discussed important practices of Professional Learning Networks, which took on the form of the mnemonic SHARE: Seek out gurus, Harness technology, Add and Adapt, Read, Reflect, and Repurpose, and Engage and Encourage.  Information is so abundant that it is almost impossible for a single individual to take it all in, but if school librarians share resources and tips with one another, it lightens the load on everyone else.

Week Twelve Reading

Budgets:
It is ethically important for libraries to have realistic budgets, even if those are not fully funded.  I think that this was my biggest takeaway from this section or reading.  As service providers, we have a responsibility to make our communities aware of what is possible.  I think that it is important to be realistic about the amount of money a community is able to provide, but I think that it is up to the librarian to get creative with those resources.

Budgeting is a skill that, as of right now, I am terrible at.  I have had to write budgets for Peace Corps projects (most of which were rejected), and I have dealt with coworkers who falsify budgets to stuff their own pockets.  Budgets scare me, mostly for the responsibility involved and the pressure to make accurate predictions.  I am one of the thriftiest people around (have you seen the hunk-of-junk I've been typing on this semester?) so I tend to underbudget and expect others to be as ok with dealing with it as I am (although I am learning that I am getting sick of "dealing with everything" as well (it's ok to want nice things)).  I am crossing my fingers that I can get in to grant-writing next semester to help me get over my fear of collecting and spending money.

Intellectual Freedom Bib

Lamb, Annette. "Everyone Does It: Teaching Ethical Use of Social Technology." Knowledge Quest 39.1 (2010): 62-65. Print.

The ethical development of children and teens is traced and discussed within the parameters of social networking online. The author suggests that attempts be made to help students practice decision-making in a safe forum such as through debates, role-playing, or discussion activities.

Storts-Brinks, Karen. "Censorship Online: One School Librarian's Journey to Provide Access to LGBT Resources." Knowledge Quest 31.1 (2010): 22-28. Print.

The story of a school librarian in Knoxville, TN who, alongside the ACLU, took on her local board of education in order to provide online access to LGBT information. Initially school computers were prohibited from visiting pro-LGBT sites which were endorsed by the National Education Association but were not blocked from anti-LGBT sites. The librarian won the lawsuit and the prohibited measures were lifted from the sites.

Week Eleven Reading

This week's reading from Coatney focused on being a leader for intellectual freedom within schools.  Issues were addressed such as self-censorship in selection, challenges to library materials, and educating students and teachers regarding intellectual freedom.

I personally tend to get less jazzed up about intellectual freedoms than many librarians.  I think that there is a level of appropriateness that needs to be maintained within schools and that those boundaries are really fuzzy.  I'd like to think that I would be able to handle challenges to materials gracefully and to work around blocked sites on school computers without complaining.  It's one of the challenges that you accept by working in schools, and I think that the opposite of this challenge could be just as problematic.  Providing internet access to minors without any parameters isn't just dangerous but I also think that it can subject kids to things that they aren't developmentally ready to be exposed to.  That can be really uncomfortable and embarrassing for children and even teens.

At the same time, I really liked Rachel (from Burns Park)'s approach: let kids use a more open search tool, but first teach kids how to respond to content that offends them.  Promote positive coping skills instead of sheltering them completely.  I think that there is a balance between providing appropriate parameters for internet use in schools and also teaching mechanisms for dealing with the inevitable questionable materials.

Week Ten Class

Last week, we visited Burns Park Elementary to observe the school media center and discuss professional development.  During this observation, we were allowed to interact with the students during their lesson, which included image searching on two sites that were new to me:  pics for learning and kid pics.  I was really unimpressed by both search engines.  One of the students I worked with unintentionally searched google images for her first picture of an eye and instantly found a million results that she wanted to use.  However, after her classmates and I reminded her that the assignment called for students to use another search engine, she tried the prescribed sites and could not find anything relevant and unique.  There were even a significant number of questionably appropriate images that were totally unrelated to the search term.  It made me wonder why those search engines were chosen over google.

Overall, it was really nice to visit such a long-standing school media program.  Rachel has obviously developed a program that is important to Burns Park Elementary and also had a lot of advice to share with us as well during our conversations.

Speaking of our conversations, I am really glad that we were able to air out all of our questions and concerns regarding professional development and the state of the profession as a whole.

MAME Conference

This weekend, we had the pleasure to attend the MAME Conference, held here at UofM.  I was really inspired by Barry Fishman's talk on making education a more gameful experience.  I like to think that the badges movement which I've been following and trying to get involved in, could be a step in the right direction towards solving the problem of meaningless quantifiable outcomes for learning.  Grades seem arbitrary, but, while they might be a consistent way to represent student achievement, badges show exactly what the student has accomplished and are able to point back to the work that a student did to achieve it.  I also like the fact that badges can be used to represent learning that occurs beyond a classroom, which finally connects what we have considered two separate spheres of education- formal and informal- and privileges them both alongside each other.  Have I mentioned how much I love badges?

At MAME, I also witnessed, for the first time, the collective sense of impending doom that we have alluded to  throughout this class.  School librarians are a scared, desperate group of people.  I have thought it before, but never really felt it until now.  Are we a dying breed or is a new kind of librarianship just starting to grow?  Thoughts?

Week Ten Reading

It is professional development week in 638!  When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was sort of cast into a position as the teacher trainer for my school district the second that I arrived at my site.  The idea was that I grew up in an educational system that worked, so I must be able to reflect on my own education enough to bring about new ideas in an isolated community.  I had to get really comfortable teaching people who had a significant amount of prior knowledge regarding teaching, were really set in their ways, and had preconceived notions about who I was based on my race and cultural background.  But in the midst of that, I made it work and even loved it-- some of my best experiences in the Philippines were when I was teaching teachers.

This week's reading looked at the role of lesson study in developing professional learning communities in schools.  I shared an office with three teachers with varying degrees of experience and different subject matter to cover.  My counterpart and I taught English, and the other teachers taught Math and Ethics.  We often took our breaks together and bounced ideas off of one another for classes.  It was an really enriching activity that was completely facilitated by our shared personal spaces.  That is something that a lot of teachers don't really have, but I think the library can provide.  I think that it should be the place where teachers want to spend their breaks.  It should be the place where people bump into each other who might seem to have very little in common.

But that is a more implicit way to support PLCs.  I think that librarians can also be more explicit about providing forums for teacher feedback and support.  Another article that we looked at discussed staff development workshops.  One point that really resonated with me was to call on other educators within your community to lead workshops.  It is important to see your school as a community of experts and to tap that wealth of knowledge and experience to support the greater community.  It doesn't always have to be the Librarian's job, and frankly, it probably shouldn't always be our job-- we will never be qualified enough for that.

Week Nine Class

This week's class started with an overview of MAME logistics.  I am really excited for the speakers this year, which include Barry Fishman (an Ed School favorite of SI) and my classmates presenting on using cell phones for education.  I am really excited by these opportunities, because I think that there are a lot of interesting applications in developing countries.  When I was in the Philippines, all of my students had cell phones.  Even if you lived in a grass hut with a dirt floor, you had a cell phone and probably a gold-plated karaoke machine. Some other Peace Corps Volunteers utilized mobile technology to start an underground sex education campaign for Filipino youth.  By texting a certain number, kids could receive a menu of topics that they wanted to learn more about, and depending on the number they texted back, they would get multiple texts about topics ranging from STDs to pregnancy prevention.  This was all information that was not discussed in schools or in homes, so it was an accessible and private format for youth to get the information they needed to make informed decisions about their sexuality.

This week, we also held class in the Brandon Center-- which is the bomb.  Seriously, the color scheme was energizing without being agressive, the layout was flexible, and free drinks!  Who would have thought that free drinks would make such a difference, but I will now have free drinks in my library and that's all there is to it.

It made a difference in that school in Texas that was able to become a place that students embraced because it became the kind of place that students wanted to be in.  It reminded me of the user-centered design that Peg talked about during last class-- completely made to support student learning.

Speaking of supporting learning, Technology and learning was our big discussion topic of the week, and we came to the conclusion that technology must transform teaching and learning processes, or else it is just an expensive substitution which is paid for through job cuts and rising classroom sizes.  We checked out a bunch of examples of digital student work online, and what we saw was completely outrageous.  Multiple glogsters that we saw dumbed down the learning process to the point where absolutely no usable knowledge was being transferred.  The big question that I now have is, how do you approach a learning community that thinks that this is an excellent example of student learning, without sounding patronizing and belittling teachers?

I liked the idea of stripping down the example to its analog elements to prove actual student engagement.  Technology looks flashy, but the flash does not signify learning or actual skills (unless the student has programmed everything themselves).

Lastly, we gawked over Raspberry Pi.  Since class, I've been mulling over the idea of having a DIY Computing Closet that just includes lots of pieces like Raspberry Pi's, SD Cards, Plugs, DVD drives, projectors, etc. and teachers or students would have to pick up all everything they need and piece it together themselves.  I think that even kindergarteners have the spatial intelligence to understand the organization of these things.  This could lead to greater self-confidence and self-sufficiency regarding computers.  One of the reasons that librarians become the go-to techies is because a lot of people just don't feel confident enough to mess around with the plugs or open something up and look at the insides.  Just a thought.  How would you use Raspberry Pi's in you schools?

School Library Elevator Speech

Inspired by the essay "Putting the Teacher in Teacher-Librarian" by Hersey & Zane from School Libraries: What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come

I know that you might think that I'm just a support staff member, but that's only a part of my job.  Since I arrived here, it has been my main goal to directly support student learning as a visible teacher in the school.  My expertise in technology integration and instructional techniques to foster student inquiry alongside my professional skills in library management have increased the value of my role, which many might still see as only a librarian.  I hope that you can see that I am a Teacher-Librarian and that I have a personal stake every aspect of our curriculum here-- transforming education to become more individualized, more interest-focused, and more interactive than teachers can accomplish on their own.

Week Nine Reading

I am becoming an EdTech nerd.  I can't go to a bar without showing people pictures of Raspberry Pi on my phone or trying to start a debate about the 4th R.  FreeTech4Teachers is a goldmine of resources to satisfy my latest obsession, although I agree that the blog format might not be the best for the content.  EdSurge, a weekly newsletter targeted at EdTech entrepreneurs (but awesome for school librarians), just came out with a beta version of their attempt at a similar idea: help teachers get their hands on good ways to apply technology to enhance their instruction.  I love reading through my EdSurge newsletter every week, so I am sure that their site will be full of great resources in an easy-to-search format, but I wonder what will be lost from the FreeTech4Teachers spirit without having a teacher run it by himself with no proprietary agenda.

After reading the NETS for Students and Teachers (you know, just another batch of standards we need to keep our eyes on) and the other readings that really helped illuminate the NETS, I was struck by a few things:
1) For the most part, I love the ranked order that the student standards are in.  It shows where our educational values come from.  Innovation is first, followed by collaboration.  I would put critical thinking/problem solving next, and I would put digital citizenship last.  Those would be my only changes, because
2) I believe that critical thinking is necessary for "information fluency" and
3) because digital citizenship is still a rather undefined concept.  I also have trouble understanding how we don't really talk about ethics in the real world in schools, but it's totally fine to talk about ethics in a pseudo-world that still isn't fully formed.  I think my main problem with this is that ethics has to be a part of the greater educative process, not just noted in terms of technology.
4) In terms of the teacher standards, I think the aspect that I would have the most trouble with at this point in my career preparation is the modeling of digital age work.  I still have a lot to learn about new web tools.  I want so badly to code elegantly in python (never in my life did I think I would type those words).  I should probably get real software and own a real computer one of these days.  In other words, I have a long way to go.

Professional Book Review Project

I read Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms by Michael Klentschy.  It was a great, quick read that I would highly recommend for anyone looking to better understand how to support your school's science program.  Check it out here!

Week Eight Class

During this class, we were able to video conference with Peg regarding physical library spaces.  We discussed the importance of user-centered design instead of librarian-centered design, and all of the important considerations one must take in to account when planning out a library space.

One of my favorite parts from this class was sharing our dream libraries with each other.  I think that this exercise was very telling of the way that my classmates view the function of libraries and their function within libraries, and that was really neat to see.  So many people came up with ideas that I never would have thought about, so this was like pure inspiration for me!

In other news, Raspberry Pi has just been released: the $25 computer that's the size of a credit card.  Check it out!  I am interested to hear thoughts from you guys about how computers like this would change your library design.  Would you include a hub of monitors for kids to plug themselves into?  Would you have classroom sets of Raspberry Pi's?  Would you check out keyboards and mouses?  Would you ignore it completely?

Week Seven Class

This week's field trip to East Middle School gave me a more thorough understanding of how a librarian can prove their worth to their educational community.  When we first started walking through the collection, I was pretty shocked with how out-dated the materials were, but it was soon obvious that this library was not a collection of books-- this library was a librarian.  I loved that neglected students felt safe and important in the library.  I loved that teachers were constantly walking in and out.  I loved that Rachel could go on and on about everything she was involved in.  I don't know how she does it, but I am amazed at the number of opportunities that she has found to serve her school.  You can tell that her motivation isn't to prove that she should have a job; she is seriously concerned with making her school a better place to learn.

Week Seven Reading

This batch of articles was difficult for me to wade through.  Collaborative Teaching in an Age of Accountability basically reviewed everything that we have discussed thus far with regards to issues in School Libraries: standards-based education movement, NCLB, replacement by paraprofessionals, collaboration, etc.  I don't think that I learned anything new from this.

From Todd's article, basically what I got was: people say they are collaborating, but they're not so just do it already.  And again, I'm not sure that these ideas will revolutionize my idea of professional practice.  All the librarians that I have met throughout the year speak in hushed tones when asked of collaboration.  They're like "Welllllll, kind of," but everything else tells us that we should.  How frustrating is this?  Maybe we need to look at the issue from a different angle.  I guess I find it more helpful to think of the problem as one of adult alienation in schools.  Like maybe we just have to be the social butterflies that connect everyone to everyone else, not just be collaborating all the time to feel like what we do is worthwhile.

I think that the Motown Method article did a good job of discussing the different roles in a co-teaching environment.  I had to co-teach while I was in the Philippines, so I have a lot of experience with all of these models.  All I have to say from that experience is that everyone is different and sometimes, it is really difficult for two people to teach together.  I think that collaboration is a great opportunity but it can also seem like a tremendous burden.

Week Six Class

This week in class, we reviewed the current EdTech standards for Ann Arbor Public Schools alongside two staff members from AAPS.  I found the 2007 standards to be very telling of the times in which they were created: pre-recession, pre-tablet, using the internet for alternatives to regular schooling, technology for technology's sake.  It has only been five years and already it seemed so outdated.

A few things that we talked about really stood out to me:
1. The lofty goals of IEPs.  I think that the way that they were imagined to work in 2007 would not make sense in the current educational climate of overworked teachers, but I think that there are definitely ways to create a system that could work in the favor of both teachers and students.  Learning management systems are getting better at student tracking and I like the idea that was brought up about re-imagining this idea as a network instead of a plan.  I like the idea of student contribution and upkeep.  I think that it could provide an adequate educational counterpoint to social networking and would create an environment to discuss issues surrounding digital reputation.
2.  The idea that 1:1 computing is inevitable.  I do not believe that schools will have to provide and iPad for every student.  I think that it is unrealistic and completely irresponsible and it kind of makes me mad when people make these kinds of assumptions about the way education has to be in the 21st century.  If/when 1:1 is implemented, I am interested to see how options like Raspberry Pi will compete with the iPad.
3.  The adoption of technology can't just be a replacement for something analog or human; it has to serve a greater purpose and elevate what is possible in a learning environment.  I keep looking back at that chart that Ann sent us.  It's great.

Lastly, could I be more obsessed with this library design?  I don't think so.

School Library of My Dreams Project

Here is the floor plan for the library of my dreams.

Here are a few collages on Polyvore!

Define "School Librarian"

Here's a special post with my own graphic representation of the definition of School Librarian-- admittedly gaudy and created on my laptop with paint.  I decided to try and imagine how I might spend my time as a Librarian and how to represent what those actions might mean for the rest of my school (which is why you can see the majority of time is spent doing something which accomplishes multiple goals).  With a little more time and maybe some help from virtual sites, I should probably try to pretty this guy up, but for now I hope it is still able to convey its meaning.

Week Six Reading

The week of interior design!  I must admit, I love this stuff-- aside from library/edtech blogs, shelter blogs are what I follow in my spare time.  But I wonder, to what extent does the librarian have a say over these design choices?  Do furniture and organizational materials get factored into budgets, or do you just have to make the best with whatever is provided by the administration?

During last semester in SI 647, we had to give presentations regarding issues of innovative services and an entire group of my peers chose to explore issues of space and place within libraries.  Many students looked at libraries as this necessary "third place"-- not quite work, not quite home-- and I think that this concept can apply to the role of a library in a school.  It has been mentioned during discussions that the library is often a place where administrators and other teachers go to escape within the school.  I think it's the same for many students.  It's not quite the locker/hallway but not quite the classroom, and I think that this also has to play an important role in how we set up our spaces.

For the most part, I think that the Baule article did a good job of highlighting the ways in which school librarians can design their way to being seen as a more important physical presence in the school.  However, I really disagree that one should make sure a space is flexible but not flexible enough to ever be commandeered as a classroom.  I think that we should create the best spaces that will suit the needs of our students.  If the school needs a special ed classroom, seriously fork over the space and make sure what's left of your library is worth keeping around.  This is a critique that I have of a lot of library literature out there-- we seem cautious/reactionary as opposed to adaptable, and it is frankly unbecoming of our profession.

Flexibility was an important point in every reading this week.  Times are changing, and the space has to change for all the different teaching strategies and technologies that are developing as well.  In the 90s, library spaces had to change due to the addition of computers.  How will spaces have to change to anticipate handheld technology or remote classroom environments?  Another 647 presentation last semester asked if a library would still be a library if there weren't any books at all.  Is it?

I see we have a polyvore/pinterest project for this week. Both are awesome sites to find inspiration, but as a future tip for my fellow classmates, floorplanner.com is one of my favorite sites for planning design projects.  Sign up for a free account and you can create basic floorplans to help you decide how to move around furniture or how a new piece will fit into a pre-existing setup.  It's been a major time-saver for me (or maybe not seeing as how I can play around with this site for hours).

Lastly and on an unrelated note, that Holmes quote from Ross Todd's article totally rocked my world: "The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live"

Week Five Class

This week, our class went on a field trip just down the street to St. Francis, a private Preschool-Grade 8 school.  It was SO adorable, like a little treasure tucked away in a pocket of the school.  The collection was small, yet engaging, and it was obvious that the librarian (our gracious host for the afternoon) and her predecessor were able to do a lot with the little resources available to a small, private school.

Through our discussions, we were able to get a sense of the particular climate of the school, and it made me realize that of course every librarian's job is going to look different, because no two schools are the same.  It made me wonder just how prepared we can ever be to begin a career in education.  I remember my first year teaching in the Philippines, I felt so unprepared-- like someone had told me to make sure I gave reading assessments and used techniques for differentiation and then just dropped me off in a war zone.  One of the biggest challenges to beginning teachers, I believe, is readjusting/socializing yourself to the flip side of the educational atmosphere.  We learn a lot of strategies for working with kids but very few for working alongside other adults in an atmosphere of autonomy and somewhat extreme peer isolation.

Aside from this field trip, I also went on one of my own this week to Forsythe Middle School for my collection development project.  This media center was a lot more like what I grew up with: a spacious, recognizable layout and a very full, comprehensive collection.  Every time I visit a school library, it really confirms my sense of vocation.  I walk into the room and can immediately see myself in this environment everyday.  How exciting.

Week Five Reading

This week, we read a few selections from The Many Faces of School Librarianship. In the section entitled "Librarians as Learning Leaders," I was struck by the emphasis on integrating research and educational theory within the classroom.  The relatively small amount of innovative theory and research within the field of librarianship is something that I find pretty annoying, because I think that this is a really important time for our field to become more alive with thought and discussion (about more than the books vs. e-books debate, please).  I was also excited by the fact that the emphasis on research and theory was balanced with practical applications or "Snapshots" of these ideals in action.  The "Teacher-Librarian as Curriculum Leader" section was a bit more confusing to me.  I don't really understand what makes us think that, because we are the only one of us in a building, that makes us qualified to do administrative tasks such as curriculum planning throughout our schools.  I get that we participate in every grade level and every subject to some extent, but I don't know if I feel like the educational side of my graduate studies are really preparing me for that kind of role in a school.

Aside from that, we read an article by Mary Keeling which looked at Newport News Public Schools adoption of UbD curriculum into elementary school libraries.  Basically, what I took away from this reading is that it takes a LOT of energy and resources to maintain an inquiry-based practice in the classroom-- probably too much for autonomous school librarians to handle all at once.  What I would like to see more of is collaboration across various learning communities or at least more feasible recommendations for future implementation of similar curriculum overhauls.  School reform is beyond necessary, but how do individual schools restructure decades worth of teaching and learning habits?

You shake things up, and Laura Warren-Gross has an interesting plan to do so.  Get the books out of the library and create a limited, core set of books that everyone in the school can read together.  Simple and surprisingly effective.  I think that this is a remarkable story of the success that can be had when school librarians look outside of tradition and listen to research and patron needs.  It's not for every school, but it was for this library, and I salute Warren-Gross for her chutzpah.

I LOVED the Valenza & Johnson article, "What Keeps Us Up At Night".  We are not "migrating our practice" fast enough (to quote a previous reading from... no way!! Valenza again!!) and I found myself nodding in agreement with every statement. yes. yes. and yes.

Week Four Class

During this week's class, we tackled the topic of assessments and tried to create an assessment from a pre-made library lesson plan.  I find these real-world examples of what librarians actually do to be an extremely helpful exercise.  After going over the job description so many times, I'm a bit confused as to what school librarians actually do with their time and how they interact with students.  I can see how people outside the profession might refer to antiquated ideas of librarianship in order to understand what exactly we do, because this stereotype has boundaries.  Glasses, bun, reads stories to kids, and checks out books.  That makes a lot of sense...

Which brings me to the White House Petition for School Libraries which was also discussed in class.  I LOVE that the focus of this petition is finally not devoted to librarians.  Overall, I have the impression that many people in LibraryLand like to talk about how awesomely necessary they are, but in my opinion, that is just not the point.  The White House Petition puts the focus on the students and what they need out of the educational experience provided for them.  It's not about keeping our jobs, it's about making sure that all kids (not just the ones in rich suburbs) are included in systems that provide equitable access for their educational needs.

Anyways, the assessment exercise really highlighted the difficulties in realistically engaging students in using technology while incorporating meaningful learning experiences.  There are pedagogical questions but also complex issues of resource distribution, access, and supervision.  How do you manage 25 first graders all trying to take and upload pictures?  Yikes.

Week Four Reading

Speaking of the boundaries of librarianship, this week's reading focused on various perspectives of our roles within schools.  The article by Ballard featured a thorough job description, which included the responsibilities of librarians within their various roles-- leaders, information partners, information specialists, teachers, and program administrators.  I agree with all of these, but this seems very assertive on the part of librarians to say, "We know that you think that we only check out book to kids, but now we think we are administrators."  When did this change occur within the world of librarianship?  We have been through the history of outside support for libraries, but how has our view of our own profession changed over time?

The article by Zmuda & Harrada was written in a similar vein, except I found this article to be a bit pushier.  There are actions that are lower on my own priority list that I will absolutely have to deal with (Bad Business), but I will still do it.  I want to work with traditionally underserved populations, so I know that, wherever I am, school resources will be tight.  I will not get a paraprofessional to take on any of the Bad Business from this article.  I will end up doing both Good and Bad practices (according to the authors), but I don't think that this will reduce the impact that I can have on my school nor will it disrupt the progress of my profession as a whole.

Speaking of priorities, The Bill of Responsibilities for School Librarians really reflected the priorities of our class from discussion last week.  Ideas highlighted the importance of inquiry-based learning, collaboration, and curiosity.  I think that it did a good job of proclaiming what we are, instead of saying what we are not.  Maybe that's what is so difficult to determine in school librarianship.  Our profession represents too many different situations and too many different personalities to say what we aren't.

Final thought: why are ethics always mentioned last, almost as an afterthought?  It's like, "We do ____, _____, and _____.  Oh yeah, and ethics (whatever that means)."  It sounds really nice to say that we are in charge of teaching information ethics, but what does that really mean in this day and age?  Citing sources, yes.  What about trolling?  Using pirated material?  Philosophy behind open-source material vs. traditionally commercial material?  The responsibility of creation and participation?  Seriously, what do we mean when we say ethics?

Week Three Class

The most telling conversation that we had in class, in my opinion, centered around a project that a fellow classmate had to teach in her concurrent field practicum.  We all tried to come up with ways to make the project more about inquiry and developing knowledge and less about reporting some irrelevant facts.  It was a really difficult task to discern.  There were limitations based on cooperating teachers' future lesson plans, and the specific desired skills that brought about this project in the first place.  To me, it said a lot about the realities that school librarians face-- acting as regular teachers with often more limitations.

Which brings about another point that interests me: when does a librarian stop being a librarian?  What are the boundaries of our profession?  I think that we did a good job of highlighting some serious concerns when we discussed our personal priorities for school librarianship.  We more or less agreed on a core set of practices that were important to our profession and a core set of practices that really don't belong on our job description.  However, we all agreed that the opposite is true for those outside the field of librarianship-- they often see those tasks we "disowned" as being the bulk of our work, so no wonder we are often discounted.

Check out a tagxedo of my personal priorities for librarianship.

Mission Statement

My Hypothetical School Library: Facilitating meaningful experiences with digital and print materials, supporting independent inquiry, and developing habits of lifelong learning.

Week Three Reading

School librarians are busy people.  Really busy people.  The textbook reading this week went over all of the managerial concerns of running a school library-- from budgets to advisory committees to creating complicated flow charts.

On the topic of scheduling: I have always been a fan of sticking it to the man, so the School Library Journal article by Doug Johnson about the positive aspects of fixed scheduling was a great read for me. Which is better: fixed scheduling or flexible scheduling? My answer to this question is yes-- you can create a successful library program with either. AASL has their opinion (which is absolutely in favor of flexible scheduling), but I agree with the author that both have their own pros and cons. I was a bit taken aback by the Johnson's assertion that librarians in fixed scheduling situations use this as an excuse for a lousy library program, and I would like to hear more about this stance and how it has been articulated in the past.  The textbook seemed to imply that a fixed schedule reflects an educational climate that does not take into account the true worth of a school library. However, as we move toward librarians taking on more necessary instructional roles within their learning communities, we need to have a better understanding within our profession of best practices for fixed schedule librarians.

Another article we read was a school librarian's take on the Standards for 21^st Century Learning, and the ways in which they have transformed her practice. Reading the standards myself was interesting, in terms of identifying what has become important for learners of this generation, but it all seemed too hypothetical. This article translated the standards into actual practices. While I usually get all bent out of shape about library literature not being as researchy as I like, I found Kathy Hribar's perspective to be very helpful in shaping my thinking on implementation. This gave a practical account of the process of transforming a traditional practice into inquiry-based study through inquiry-based study! Plus she cited Carol Kuhlthau, and that will always get you points in my book.

Week Two Class

During this week's class, we finished our history lesson on the support of school libraries-- carrying on from the advent of No Child Left Behind to today's Race to the Top.  During these last few years, we see a trend towards viewing the role of school librarianship/media specialization seek to enable a more holistic understanding of our own profession.  We also see a trend toward standards-based education and evaluation which the AASL jumped on to create the Standards for the 21st Century Learner. 

During class, we reorganized the standards in to different categories in order to observe relationships between different standards.  My classmate and I created a chart with two axes-- the perceived level of importance and the measurability of each standard.  We then ranked them all accordingly.  I was most fascinated by the trend in the most measurable and least important category.  Each standard within this sector dealt with reflection after a task.  It seems like a relatively easy standard to meet, however we rarely incorporate self-evaluation and reflection after a work is complete.  We move on to the next without much thought.  This activity, overall, gave me a better sense of how to actively incorporate the standards into my future professional practices. 

Week Two Reading Continued

Another piece of our reading this week involved a pretty sweet e-book featuring contributions from school librarians and other stakeholders on the state of school libraries.  My fave essays are as follows:

• "Game-Based Learning, Literacy, Engagement, and Motivation" by Dan Bowen.  I am really fascinated by the opportunities afforded by digital media in the learning process, and this author did a great job of articulating the specific reasons for integrating what some might consider ridiculous as learning tools.  I look forward to the day when schools and learning environments are more collaborative with tech/video game developers, so that we can use games that are appropriate for our environment to impart the specific skills we would like to engage.
• "I Want to be an App"  by Joyce Kazman Valenza.  The phrase that stuck out to me, and I will probably be using in almost every library conversation I have for the rest of my profession is migrating practice.  "We are not," states the author of this essay, "migrating our practice quickly enough."  We are sticking around in North Dakota, and we are being frozen out.  Last semester, in SI 647, one of my fellow classmates wrote an impressive paper on the inclusion of mobile technology into library services, and as I recall, heralded this as the "biggest, little idea" for libraries.  The ALA guidelines for how future librarians should be trained in technology are vague and completely underwhelming, so not only do most librarians not understand how to use this technology, but they would not know the first step in how to create it.  The issue of creating apps is not just about relevance, the issue is one of scalable or translatable experiences.  I believe that students need real world connections to their online world and online connections to their real lives, and libraries need to have a stake in this process.  I too want to be an app.

Week Two Reading

The reading this week focused on the importance of articulating shared goals throughout an educational community.  The first step is creating a mission statement that accurately depicts what educators want their students to be like and how they want to accomplish it.  Our first reading warned of the ambiguous nature of poorly worded mission statements.  When people don't have a realistic and specific goal to rally around, that leaves too much up to interpretation.

Our second reading heralded the importance of mission statements in facilitating collaboration in schools, particularly in regards to the role that a library can play in making those goals a reality.  In this day and age, librarians are not usually seen as movers and shakers in their schools-- whether due to antiquated practices or due to fear of losing staff support.  However, I agree with Zmuda when she writes that a mission statement can become the point from which school librarians can encourage the implementation of new and exciting techniques.  She writes, "The authority and leadership for this type of collegial coaching does not come from the job title or hierarchy of employees but rather from the systems internal accountability to accomplish the mission of the organization. The good news is that library media centers are increasingly being looked to as an untapped source of potential learning, a place where students can engage in work that is purposeful, powerful, and personalized."  I couldn't agree more!

Week One Class

This week in class, we reviewed the syllabus, class expectations, and calendar and discussed the history of libraries in schools.  This discussion focused on the trends that have supported and deterred the mission of school libraries, beginning in the 1950's post-Sputnik push for greater educational resources to the funding and testing crises that resulted from No Child Left Behind.

One of the most interesting conversations we had focused on the following question: why is it that some school librarians get away with only reading stories to kids?  It is true that getting to read awesome books to kids is part of what makes youth librarianship the sweetest gig on the planet but to think that is the bulk of our profession is completely wrong.  We discussed the lack of education among school administrators and educational professionals about our capabilities, both as instructors for students and resources for teachers, and how those largely effect budget decisions regarding whether or not schools will have a librarian.  We also touched on the idea that the advocacy of our profession needs to happen everyday on the job-- that we will prove our worth by actually being worthwhile in our respective communities.

Week One

In the readings for this week, I was struck by a few things:

1.We have a choice between viewing literacy as a skill or as an experience, and our thoughts on this matter will have a marked impact on the way that librarians/ media specialists are viewed going forward in the information age. Pappas noted that schools are hiring reading coaches to develop students' decoding and comprehension skills and instituting classroom libraries in order for students to be in closer proximity to print materials. Libraries, and the librarians that manage them, operate from a very different perspective. We create quality experiences with media and serve as training grounds for independent, lifelong learning. From our perspective, literacy is much more than a skill that requires drilling; it is a habit of mind and a mode of experiencing the world that leads to meaningful participation in society. What needs to happen in order for the educational paradigm to shift towards a more holistic and contextual perspective?

2. In order to demonstrate the worth of our profession, we have had to justify ourselves within the current standards-based vernacular. However, we are creating standards (and thereby assessments) for inherently subjective processes such as interpretation, understanding, ethical values, responsibility, and one's ability to assess themselves. I agree that these are attitudes and values that we must cultivate with regards to 21^st century literacies, but how viable/measurable are these standards?

3. Ethics seemed to play a large role in the AASL Standards, but I think there needs to be a sincere and thoughtful reevaluation of our informational ethics. We are in the process of creating completely new ways of relating to one another and to our digital objects, and I think that will create new codes of conduct and ideas about we should behave, especially with regards to property, ownership, censorship, and social responsibility.

4. When discussing issues of access, the AASL Standards are remarkably straight-forward: “All children deserve equitable access to books and reading, to information, and to information technology in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning.” This struck me for a number of reasons. First of all, access is a much more subjective issue than just providing resources. Mark Warschauer, in discussing issues regarding the digital divide, provides a poignant insight when he writes, “access to online information has very little to do with the Internet per se, but has everything to do with political, economic, institutional, cultural, and linguistic contexts which shape the meaning of the Internet in people’s lives.” Access has less to do with availability and more to do with students' attitudes and experiences with what is available. Additionally, accessibility also alludes to the quality of information/materials provided, and regrettably there is no way to ensure equitable access in that regard.

As librarians and educators, we do what we do to promote social inclusion and provide meaningful opportunities for lifelong personal growth, not to make sure that taxpayers get their money's worth from our nation's students. This week's reading came as a sobering realization that the future of my profession hinges on our ability to prove this to a world bent on figures and efficiency, but I suppose that's a fight we will just have to keep up.