Library Ties

Last weekend I was one of the more 300,000 fans that attended the Indianapolis 500. Growing up literally right across the street in Speedway, Indiana from the most famous 2.5 mile oval track in motor sports, it is no surprise that I’ve been going to the race for the past 18 years. My elementary school was less than six blocks from the track. In May all the windows were open (no air conditioning) and you heard the cars make those laps around the track. It wasn’t distracting because we didn’t know any different. This year was a wonderful race day! The weather was perfect. The race was a great battle for speed. There were several wrecks, but no one got hurt. Drama in the pits with the fire in A.J.’s car and watching Danika storm down the pits to take on Briscoe.

As I was thinking this week, I realized that the Indy 500 is a great analogy to the race for library media specialist working collaboratively with teachers. Sometimes we wish that collaboration was a quick endeavor like qualifications and everyone wants to get in the big dance, but unfortunately it takes time and persistent and going the full distance in the race to get teachers to work with us.

Sometimes there are many factors like the weather that are out of our control. Things like schedules, budgets, and time are often obstacles that we can’t control. Just like on race day, the weather is never a sure bet. But, we have to look for that window in the the weather when we can make it possible. Sometimes it might be a comment a teacher makes in the lunch room, or it might be a request for books that we can use to spark a conversations about what teachers are doing in their classrooms.

As we work collaboratively with teachers, sometimes we have to take pit stops to evaluate what is working right and what alternations can we make along the way to make the lesson/project more successful for students. Do we need more resources (more fuel)? Do we need to change resources (new tires)? Maybe we need to take a minute to reteach (realign the wing)? The great thing is just like in a pit crew, by working together the LMS and teacher have two people that can work to make the project more successful.

Sometimes our best projects hit the wall with a loud crash. Hitting the wall often ends the race for that project, but it shouldn’t end our attempts to collaborate. We need to take the car back to the garage, repair the machine, and try again at the next race. We need to take time to reflect on what caused the wreck. Was it our resources? Was is the project? Was it the rubric? Was it the timing? Was it our lack of teaching students the skills they needed? Did we not have students interested?

The Indianapolis 500 is called the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and we should strive that our collaborative projects provide the interest and motivation for students to want to be involved in the project. We should hopefully pass along our excitement that we have when we watch those car in the battle for the lead. As LMSs and teachers we hope we can help guide our students down towards those checker flagged. We can’t drive the car for them, but we can help provide the resources, support, training, and skills to help them get there.

As we win races with teachers, other teams of teachers will want to join on the bandwagon. 500 miles is a long gruely race, but the rewards at the end make it worth all the effort. Collaboration is much the same way. It is a lot of work for teachers, LMSs, but the rewards and opportunities it provides for students is well worth it.

Tags:   collaboration · Indy 500 · school library media programsNo Comments