Library Ties » advocacy

Data Week

Carl Harvey — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:03:44 +0000

It’s Data Week at my school this week. One of three or four times a year that we rearrange our daily schedule to provide teacher with a block of time to look at the data we’ve collected on each student. Each day a different grade level has a 2 hour block of time to look at their data. Special education teacher, our literacy coach, and the principal all attend. They look at each and every student who is not on benchmark (determined by a variety of data points) and determine what interventions they need to move them forward. We also use a database to track all the interventions so that we can keep track of what we’ve tried, what didn’t work, and what did work. In a few weeks, we’ll put our building wide data team together to look at the data to see if their are curriculum or programmatic changes we need to make as an entire school.

So, what does this have to do with the library and me? Several things:

1.) First of all, I attend all the data meetings. I’m part of the conversations in seeing what our kids need and helping coming up with solutions. I can recommend resources we have available in the library that might be helpful part of the interventions. This keeps me aware of the issues for our kids, in our various grade levels, and provides me the change to be more helpful as we plan curriculum and instruction each week.

2.) Our database where we track student data was something we borrowed from another school and that I modified. We are constantly revising our FileMaker Pro database. I am by no means an expert with the program, but I continue to work and refine our database. As we talk in the meetings, we’re constantly seeing need to add additional fields for data, sort data by certain fields, etc. This is another role that I play.

3.) As we have become more efficient with our data meetings, we’ve found that sometimes they don’t take the entire 2 hours. Rather than let anytime goes to waste, this is often a place that we provide additional professional development support. For example, this week I’m working with each grade level on using our new online tool myOn Reader. I love training in these small groups because I can customize how they might use the tool for their specific level. It can be hard when offering training to show how a product works for both Kindergarteners and 4th graders when you have all the teachers in a large group. These small group settings allow me to really focus in on how the tool will work best for each grade level.

So, for two hours every day this week, I’ll be working with a different grade level. Each morning will be time well spent. I’ll be learning and sharing with my colleagues all week long. I’m certain there will be multiple opportunities for me to make connections and demonstrate the role our library program plays in the school.

AASL Advocacy Tips

Carl Harvey — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:50:04 +0000

AASL has started sending out a daily advocacy tips. From the simple idea of making sure there was a link to the library homepage from the main school page to setting up an advisory committee. Each day there is a little gems. Sometimes they are great reminders of things I keep meaning to do, but maybe haven’t quite the time. Sometimes they are ideas I hadn’t even thought of, and I start to wonder how that might work in my school. Every once in a while there is one that I know I’m doing! It gives me that feeling of “I’m on the right track!”

If you are a member of AASL you can get these little tips emailed directly to your inbox – once a day, once a week, or once a month depending on your preference. You also have the option to get them as an email or text. AASL also has been posting them on their Twitter. So, lots of ways to get access to these wonderful ideas! If you have ideas that you think make great tips, make sure to share those with the AASL office. You might see them as a future tip down the road.

PTO/PTA Meetings

Carl Harvey — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:36:03 +0000

I’m home a little later than normal because of our monthly PTO meeting. It was the typical end of the year meeting with announcing officers for next year, thank those who had served this year, a state of the school presentation by the principal. I try to go to the PTO meeting each month. Why?

I’m part of the PTO Finance Committee that determines the budget and funding for special projects. (which contributes several line items to the library programming!)
The PTO support with volunteers for planning and running the book fairs which the profits are used to support the library media program.
Our PTO is very supportive of the library media program and the opportunity to share with them through the teacher report what is happening in the library is a great way to build library advocates.
Sometimes I get questions about what their child are reading or what resources are available in our parent collection. These are opportunities that might have been missed if not at an evening event.
The visible presence of being in attendance shows the library media program thinks the work our PTO does is important and is there to help where it can!

Sure going home early would have been maybe a bit more appealing, but these parents are a key success factor in our library media program, so attending the PTO meetings is just another way to communicate with parents.