At the end of this week, I’ll be heading to ALA and hope to be sharing some of the interesting stuff I find in sessions and meetings on the blog! Check out the AASL blog which is just one of the places where other school librarians will be sharing about the conference!
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In The Sloppy Copy Slipup, Brian is sure he is in trouble for one again not getting his rough draft done over the weekend. Over the course of the day, he shares the entire story with the teacher and finds out that while he thinks he has nothing to write about, he quickly figures out that the eventful story of his weekend was more than enough for an interesting and compelling story. This book screams to be read to students who think they have nothing to write about. I can see a lot of my teachers clamoring over a chance to get to it first this next year. Brian’s amazing well to tell a story can easily be a pattern for teachers to use with students — storytelling is a great way to help students become great writers, too!
Tags: Sloppy Copy Slipup · YHBANo Comments.
Jacobson’s book was a wonderful short novel that helps kids figure out what they are best at doing. Sometimes it isn’t the most obvious thing or something that we work hard at, but everyone has something the do that makes them the best — for Winnie she hopes it is drawing. But, as the story progresses we figure out that while she is a great artist, she is a better friend! A great story for talking about friendship and doing your best, Winnie at Her Best is a great book to share with students of all ages.
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Every summer I read the 20 books nominated for the Young Hoosier Book Award in both ther Intermediate and Picture Book level. It gives me a chance to be ready to discuss these books with our students, plan our Read N Feed incentives, and this next year we’re planning to set-up a Moodle between my building and another in the district where the students can talk to each other about the various books! So far it looks like the 08-09 list looks to be very promising for some great reads! As I read them, I’ll try to post a little blurb up here on the blog. Below is the first book I finished on the list.
Rules by Cynthia Lord was a Newbery Honor Medal winner as well as a Scheider Family Book Award winner. This amazing story tells of a young girl, Catherine, trying to deal with her brother’s autism. Throughout the book she learns that sometimes you can’t protect people, it is ok to be willing to be different, and that the best things in life are making friends and taking a leap to do something new. I started this book late one night and couldn’t put it down. As we help our students adjust and be aware of the autistic students in our building, I’m sure my teachers will be able to use this novel as a way to talk with kids about autism.
Tags: autism · Rules · YHBANo Comments.
I just read the April/May 2008 issue of AASL’s Knowledge Quest and really related to the article by Gail Dickinson titled The Questions….When Should I Move Up to the National Level?. Gail does a wonderful job of explaining options, choices, and reasons why you may or may not opt to move into being involved at the national level and the ramifications about when in your careers. I got the bug early and have never regretted it. Sure, attending national conferences isn’t the cheapest addiction, but I am so blessed with the friends and colleagues I’ve met over the years. The opportunity to learn and be involved in shaping our professional organization have brought many a return on the dollars I’ve invested in traveling to conference. The conversations and connections have helped make me a better library media specialist for my students and staff. So, if I were answering the question, “When should I move up to the national level?” I would say as soon as you possibly can. You certainly won’t regret it.
Tags: AASL · Gail Dickinson · Knowledge QuestNo Comments.
Today I’ve been at a wonderful workshop put on by Annette Lamb. AIME (Association for Indiana Media Educators) does a summer workshop focused on a single topic. This year Annette is sharing Web 2.0 and practical applications. All of the resources from the workshop can be found on the Eduscapes website that she and her husband Larry Johnson maintain at http://www.eduscapes.com/sessions/slms2. My head is spinning with ideas for the fall. This last year we branched out and had a few classes that tried wikis, so I’m anxious to expand our use of these tools next year.
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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.
Do you ever wonder where your free time goes? When I started the blog, I had hoped to post once a week or so and I was doing fairly well. Then, a variety of things the last couple of weeks seem to keep jumping ahead of blogging on my to do list.
Sometimes it is all about priorities. Family and fun come ahead of blogging and school libraries - as they should. After this last week of school, summer will be here and I’ve got lots of things on my “to do” list that I hope to accomplish, but right at the top is “Have fun with family and friends!” What’s on the top of your to do list for the summer?
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Today while it is gloomy and rainy here in Indiana, I’ve been thinking about school administrators. Principals hold a lot of the cards that can make or break a library media program. Helping administrators to see what the library media program can do to impact student achievement is critical to a successful program. I’ve work for a variety of principals over the last 10 years and each has been a positive experience. I’m lucky because I know that doesn’t happen for everyone. But, how can we ensure that more library media specialists and library media programs have that kind of support that allows a successful and indispensable program to grow and thrive. If you had the opportunity to interview a principal who was supportive of library media programs, what kind of questions would you ask? What kind of answers would help us figure out how to educate administrators on the library media programs impact can have on students? Over the next few months, I’m going to get some time to explore this further, so I would love to hear some of your ideas.
Tags: administrators · principals · school library media programsNo Comments.
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?
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.
Tags: advocacy · parents · PTONo Comments.