9-13 Collaboration
Wools chapter 10 & Empowering Learners chapter 2
The part of both these chapters that I found most important to me was the idea that curriculum must be cross-curricular. Wools states that curriculum units must “go across grade levels and across subject areas” (163) whereas chapter two in Empowering Learners states that learners must, “integrate their understandings with what they already know” (22). I ardently agree that this is one of the most basic, fundamental, important parts of education. So often I hear students complain that what they do has no connection to anything else or their life. I strive to make sure that this is not the case in my class. Part of this is due to the nature of the dual credit English class I teach that is offered through UMKC. Our text is really a current events text that focuses on various aspects of our life (I choose to focus on gender roles and sexuality, patriotism and terrorism, and racism). I have never heard a kid say that they didn’t see the value of what we discussed in class. And it is so lovely to watch them critically think about the world around them. Section three in chapter two in Empowering Learners states that “the number of information sources and the variety of format available can leave many information seekers struggling to identify accurate, reliable sources of information” (23). The first battle I have to fight every year is that my students (from an upper/middles class, white area) just blindly accept what appears authoritative once someone else writes it. The book I use is intentionally controversial and liberal. This not because (as I was once accused by a parent of trying to “make” their child gay by suggesting that maybe acceptance is better than hate)it is correct, but because it is meant to make them think, question, and argue. It takes a few articles for them to really understand that they aren’t supposed to agree with what it says.
This leads into my next point that I found interesting because of what was left unsaid. Empowering Learners states that high-quality reading materials must be available in the library. I argue that high-quality does not necessarily mean age appropriate or school appropriate. Though it is nice to think that our teens are innocent, we all know that they are not. I have heard more stories of what people have done from the child themselves that are so horrifying I can’t even count them all. They are, in many ways, more grown up than I am. They have certainly experienced many more things. The very nature of our society pushes adulthood on them so early that pretending they are innocent will only hurt them. We speak candidly in class about everything from STDs to hate crimes to birth control. They are more mature than most people expect and when word gets out about what we discuss it is inevitable that other teachers ask me how I handle it. The answer is that I don’t have to. They are so grateful to have an adult to discuss it with them without hiding anything that I never have maturity issues. With all this in mind, I think the library should reflect the mature nature of our juniors and seniors. After all, if the student feels uncomfortable with a subject, they can just not check out a book. There have been many times that I needed books or videos for my class that our librarian would not purchase due to content. I couldn’t even get a copy of the Lawrence Fishbourne Othello because of the cover! I ardently think that the library should contain all knowledge and be run by someone who is willing to speak candidly and openly about those subjects with kids who are curious.
Another point I would like to comment on is the persistent issue I keep reading about the high-stakes testing in schools. True, it is negative that so much rides on a test that can in no way truly evaluate learning; however, I disagree with Woolls when she states that, “rote memorization will replace critical thinking unless media specialists can help them understand the value of assignments...” (164). Perhaps Woolls has not ever seen the new EOC tests, but they are the exact opposite of rote memorization. In fact, they can only be passed if kids can critically think and apply basic skills rather than simply regurgitating them. We do not even test over what was taught, but concepts in our school. The tests are all cold-reads (like the ACT, so it’s a double benefit) where they have to apply what they learned (for example, identifying character motivation and development) rather than simply defining.
LM_NET
Honor Zalewski posted to LM_NET on 8/24 a request for help in terms of teaching students about plagiarism and citations to high school students. This post was actually a follow up from her own earlier post asking for ideas from others. I found it interesting that she said she did not get as many suggestions as she had hoped for and only mentioned one suggestion as a good one. She then proceeded to post a long list of citation websites that students can put info into and the site will generate a citation for them that they can just copy/paste into their works cited page. As a senior English teacher, I face the issue of citations and plagiarism all the time. I certainly understand that not many people posted back to Zalewski’s original post for help. People do not spend much time on plagiarism and even then it’s the boring, icky part of English. I myself am tempted to allow students to use the citation generators and it certainly is a better than nothing approach depending on the group of kids you have. Generally, if you have a class where none of the kids are going to college (we actually have a class designed for non-college-bound kids at my school) then it does seem like a waste of valuable time to spend hours on correct citations when the main point is that they credit their source. However, I teach the upper-level kids who often are resourceful enough to use the citation generators without my ever telling them. I still insist that college-bound kids must do the citations from scratch by using a (GASP!) book citation guide. I have found that with the way MLA changes and errors in websites that generate citations the safest bet for a perfect citation is for the kids to look it up and plug in the info themselves. At the risk of sounding like an ogre, it also can’t be too bad for kids to practice their looking-up skills. As a librarian, I expect it would be impossible to tell the college track kid from the non-college track kid so I think that making a handout with a few of the more common citations would be helpful, but we really should continue teaching the old way of doing the citations from scratch.
Cindy Jett posted on LM_NET on 8/24 with a concern about the book The Dirty Cowboy that her principal had asked her to remove from the shelf without any explanation as to why. It is a children’s book and it can be assumed from her post that the reason was not that parents had complained since the principal actually asked if she had two books and she only had the one on her shelf. Had it been a parent complaint, the principal would have known it was on her shelf and he wouldn’t’ have asked about one she didn’t have. Her post was really only a few lines that requested the thoughts of others on the book and its appropriateness. I think the bigger issue that this generates is who is really deciding what kids should and shouldn’t read. I don’t think I will be able to be complacent about what goes on and stays off of my shelf. After all, isn’t it a parent’s job to observe what their kid reads and discuss with them what they don’t find appropriate? Furthermore, even if a parent or principal deems a book inappropriate what on earth gives them the right to say others shouldn’t read it? I have come across this in my experience as an English teacher since I have chosen to teach Harry Potter in a relatively rural school district. Here’s the thing, in my opinion, if parents raise their kids with a certain set of beliefs then nothing I have them read (or, in the case of a librarian, simply have available for them to read) is going to change that belief system. Furthermore, kids are smart, smarter than they are often given credit for. By the time they are in high school they can make reasonable decisions and if a book, any book, is going to permanently damage them for the rest of their lives, then perhaps there is another, larger issue going on that should be addressed. Cam books generate bad ideas? Of course. But the whole point of education is making ideas of all kinds available and allowing kids to think about them and make their own analysis of them. Yes, I know that this particular soap box will probably make me unpopular later in life when I’m a librarian; after all, it’s already made me unpopular as an English teacher. Fortunately, I’m not too upset when others think I’m not doing something correctly.
On 8/23 D’Anne Easton posted a question on LM_NET about how to create a map of the library so that when kids walk in they can go straight to the section they need. She claims to be a bad artist and wants a cite to help her and that the small signs get destroyed (I assume that based off that she’s in an elementary). I’m not sure big, hanging signs wouldn’t work since the kids couldn’t’ get to them and they’d have high visibility (I’m thinking the Wal-Mart-type signs). They’d also be cheaper than making lots of copies of a map to hand out to people. I think the overriding issue here is that the kids feel that going to the library is an easy, painless event. Good for D’Anne for trying to make it smooth and simple. I think that often (and I’m quite guilty of this) since we are natural organizers and have been in libraries our whole lives we forget how foreboding the library can be. It is often large depending on the school district (I assume this is her problem) and the sheer volume of books that kids see when they walk in is overwhelming. (Here I will insert my push for as much downloadable content as possible since kids are already comfortable with it). I had never even considered having a map for kids, but I can see that it would help those students who get overwhelmed easily.
Blogs
Library advocate has a post on 8/26/2010 called “Banned Books Week Machinima Contest” that promotes a contest for students to make a Machinima video on the topic of “think for yourself and let others do the same”. According to the post, “Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3-D virtual environment like Second Life.” As a high school librarian, I think that this is just the sort of thing that should be introduced to promote kids’ interest in reading. Nothing gets high schoolers more upset than being told they can’t do something. I used to teach a banned books week unit to my sophomores where they had to read some of the most commonly banned books for elementary kids and then evaluate why the books were banned and turn their thoughts into an advertising poster advocating the book. Almost all of my students got into this project and really enjoyed doing it. It was also interesting to see them get upset about not being able to read. It was a nice change! As a librarian, I think I could try to make this a part of the English curriculum or a part of advisory with a pizza party or something for the winning group. Kids often don’t think about how much they are limited simply by other people deciding what they are and are not capable of handling.
On 8/24/2010 School Library Journal posted a topic called “Teens use Facebook, Twitter to Spot Back-to-School Deals, Trends.” Though the post was mostly informative and focused on how social networking is becoming a mina part of kids lives that is more important than parents’ views (after all, haven’t we known this forever?), the post did end with an interesting thought: “’ TV is potentially a more immersive experience, whereas social media has the capability for greater personalization, hence more emotional engagement with the customer."’ It’s the emotional engagement that I think is key in education. As a librarian, it would be lovely to connect with kids through Facebook and Twitter in order to promote reading and new books and activities at the library. The medium of transmission of the information alone would promote more student reading due to the emotional engagement and personalization provided by Facebook and Twitter. I’m not sure how logical this would, be in light of the issue in Florida now where teachers have been communicating with current students on Facebook. The school board ruled that all teachers had to remove all current students from their Facebook pages since it was “inappropriate” even though the teachers were communicating with kids strictly about the classes they taught. For example, teachers would check their Facebook on Saturday and answer any questions kids had about the homework over the weekend. If possible, this would be a great way to integrate the library into students’ lives.
On 8/26/2010 Brian Herzog posted on Swiss Army Librarian “Ahmadinejad Classification System”. His concern was that that according to the Dewey Decimal system a book on the holocaust was shelved between two books about imaginary places and events. Naturally, this appears to make the holocaust seem trivial given its shelf space. I too have experienced this even before as well. Often the shelving in the Dewey Decimal system does seem odd and without logic. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the system anyway (though I’m sure that will offend some people). It doesn’t seem logical that we shelve non-fiction under a funky number system that is never explained to use after fourth grade and is forgotten by the time we actually need to use it for research essays. Why not shelf the non-fiction as we do the fiction: by author’s last name? Or perhaps the books could be shelved by topic? Either way seems better to me and as librarians are always encouraged to change what they don’t think is working, I think I might give this one a go when I get my own library. If the goal of a high school library is to be a user friendly as possible for teens, then it makes sense to change a fairly antiquated system with something that kids will be able to navigate easier.
Podcasts
This week I listened to my first Library 2.0 podcast. This one was aired on 5/16/2010 and focused on a program called RFID which seems to be a program that libraries can use to create self checkout and check in as well as a serve as a book tracking system. One of the clear advantages of RFID is that it allows for the reduction of clerical staff. Though cutting jobs is not really a positive thing, it does allow for the library to continue offering other programs, such as subscriptions to databases, after school programs, etc. since the services the library offers are really the focus, cutting clerical staff while allowing the services to continue or even be enhanced seems like a sensible decision. From personal experience, I certainly see the push to self-checkout as a main concern for libraries. The branch of the mid-continent library that I frequent the most does not offer self-checkout and this has often resulted in an aggravating, tedious waste of my time when all I want to do is check out a book and the person in front of me has some long drawn out issue that takes 15-20 minutes to resolve when I am quite capable of scanning my own book. Perhaps more interesting and functional than just the self-checkout is that RFID is a built in book tracking system. Once books are coded, the librarian can tell where it is exactly in the library which would result in a more effectively managed library. Often a book gets mis-shelved and then disappears forever depending on the size of the library. RFID would prevent this issue as the librarian could always locate the book. Additionally, there are several programs that can be added onto RFID that would be very helpful to patrons. One program that is being developed allows patrons to scan a book they are interested in front of a flat panel screen and then a list of reviews will pop up that will allow the patron to decided if they really want the book or not. Part of the discussion of RFID in this podcast centered on the lack of cohesive development of supplementary programs and really a lack of working out the kinks of the original program. All were in agreement that libraries have really lost sight of what needs to be done in regards to the circulating collection. Program developers aren’t getting solid feedback to work on, so the programs aren’t being adapted as they need to be. This issue seems to stem from the sudden push toward electronic collections. There is a massive push for downloadable content, but it seems to be coming at the price of the circulating collection. Librarians seem to be so focused on the electronic content that they are no longer concerned with how to make the circulating collection more efficient. This strikes me as a sizable problem. Though I am a huge advocate of the electronic content, there are many people out there who are die hard bookies and will not switch to electronic devices. There are even more people out there who haven’t the money or resources to make a Kindle, Nook, or iPad logical or even feasible. Though RFID sounds expensive, from what the podcast alluded to without giving numbers, it seems the benefits outweigh the negatives and, more importantly, a strong case could be made for it in terms of finances.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
8-30 Environment
8-30 Environment
Empowering Learners Chapter 1
Having read chapter one and worked with the standards over the summer, I have to say that they still confuse me. I understand the basic gist of them, and I totally agree with the lifelong reader that they try to create, but they do not seem to be organized in an overly user-friendly way. Somewhere between the standards, strands and common beliefs I get lost. Which are we actually teaching and which do we simply believe in? Perhaps this confusion stems from the fact that I am an English teacher now and the only things we work with are the standards we teach. It appears that librarians have set up a policy of why they teach and that seems somehow redundant and unnecessary, which no doubt leads to my confusion. Of course, I do believe in the principles of the common beliefs, but they really confuse me as to how they fit into what we teach. I suppose I will have to somehow get this way of thinking to click in my head soon though.
Woolls Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4 was a good deal of review of the school situation for me. Fortunately, as I already teach in a high school and will probably take over our librarian’s job when she retires in a few years, much of this did not worry me. I found the start of chapter 4 giving good ideas that aren’t really practical anymore. The chapter is written on the assumption that the applicant will get an actual choice in jobs, which certainly isn’t really the case anymore. She mentions several times that it is best to look for a school that has a coordinator or director of library media programs because it shows that school values the library program. However, I have never heard of a school that had such a position. Honestly, even if there were an option I’m not sure I would accept it. In general, I’m a type A kind of girl and it’s very hard for me to share my roles. I like to do things efficiently and find that often the best way to do so is to work alone. I must say that pages 63-64 may have given me the single worst advice I have ever read in an education book. When offering advice to find out about the administration the author suggests that the librarian hang out and listen to the teacher’s lounge gossip. Being in a school where massive layoffs occurred last year and more will occur this year and our school is sooooooo confusing now since we suddenly have a two building campus (even the teacher’s don’t know when to let kids out of class), I have discovered that the teacher’s lounge is generally the first place to go if you are in a bad mood and want to share it. I made the mistake of going in Friday, something I rarely do, and spent the rest of the day in a bad mood since in 20 minutes all I heard was complaining. The people who have positive things to say generally don’t hang out in the lounge gossiping about them and rumor starters stay there to spread discord.
Chapter 4 also addresses the other jobs a librarian should expect to take on. At my school, the librarian is the technology coordinator, which is a frightening prospect for me, but one I expect I will be able to handle since we do have a solid technology department. Outside of that, I do feel somewhat daunted by all the jobs a librarian does have to take on. Between being the technology coordinator, textbook coordinator, collaborating with teachers, and working with students, I’m not sure where one would find the time in the day.
I do heartily agree with her point about library fines and the idea that just because something has been done a certain way for a long time does not mean that it has to stay that way. I have never been swayed by what other people do, so I don’t expect changing things will be a problem, and I think that when I become a librarian the first thing to go will be the 2 week check out policy. Kids are busy now and I think that limiting them to two weeks isn’t enough time to promote reading. I think a semester unless someone else wants the books is just fine. I also agree that putting fines on late books is punitive and the last thing we should want to do is punish kids for having a book and reading it longer than they should. Of course, I’m not totally sure how to get the books back when I need them, but I expect I’ll come up with something in the next two or three years.
Chapter 5 had some interesting points about how the library is really a business, something I haven’t considered in terms of a high school library. The library advisory committee is a great way to promote the library in the school and to show the administration that it is a valued part of the school, something that needs to be a constant reminder in these economic times I do find hope in the fact that I will still get to teach and look forward to those kids who come in just wandering around looking for something to do on a study hall.
The section calendars and plan books was both enlightening and concerning. I am unsure of how to keep a plan book when so much changes from minute to minute in terms of what I’m doing. The same hold true for a calendar. I do think, though, that keeping a calendar and maybe sending it out in the morning to the teachers would be a great way to let them know if there’s free time and they can bring in a class. I also think it’s a great way to show exactly how much goes on in the library. I feel that librarians often get the image that they have an easy job since they don’t really have grading and they appear to just be hanging out at a desk most of the day. Posting a calendar that shows what I plan on doing that day and the many areas my activities cover will highlight the importance of the librarian rather than create jealousy.
The list that ended chapter 5 was very heartening for me. These suggestions that the author gives for how to increase effectiveness every day made me feel good as I already do at least half the items on the list. I am a huge planner and am big on getting tasks done, prioritizing, and getting to school early so I have a minute to look over my plan for the day. I feel confident that the craziness of my current job (I have 138 dual credit kids who write a 4-6 page essay every month plus I teach part time at the community college) will well prepare me for the craziness of being a librarian.
Podcasts and LM_Net
I listened to several podcasts this week. To satisfy my bookish nature, I listened to two book review podcasts (one from NPR and one from New York Times) and a short podcast called cool tools for Library 2.0. Library 2.0 was exceptionally interesting and I was very sad it was so short. I wanted to know more about shelfari. IT does seem to be a really cool tool that incorporates everything that a reader would want. It can be used to organize your own books, make lists of books you want to read, and doubles as a social networking site to meet people who have similar interests in reading. It also offers links to MySpace and Facebook pages so that you can get to know more about the people in a different, more personal manner. It sounded like a really cool tool that I will look into when I have a bit more free time. I did already go out to find it and add it to my favorites. I think that things like this will be great for kids when I am a librarian. I could do brief little seminars for 15 minutes or so after school and I think the kids may actually show up. Since it’s about technology it would lure in those techie kids and since it’s about books it would lure in all the regular kids. I bet there’s a ton of stuff like this out there that I don’t know anything about (my husband says I’m just catching up to 1999 technology), so I look forward to learning more about it. Until recently, I have ardently opposed adding more technology to my life (I’ve never in my life actually paid for a cell phone and I’m only 28!), but I have recently had a change of heart. It seems that I can’t make the kids untechnological and they certainly prefer technology in school and I have no doubt that it increases learning. Another teacher tried blogging with the kids at school last year, but a kid hacked the system and was really inappropriate so no one has tried it since, but I might give it a go. The other two were book reviews. I can see the value of this to a librarian who has to constantly order books, but, again, I have to see written word to really make things stick so they would start the review with the title of the book and then give a summary. By the time the summary was done and I was interested in reading the book I had forgotten the title. Perhaps that will be something I get better with over time (my husband just bought me an iPod for my birthday last week, so I’ve never had to listen before now). Of course, vampire literature is always big right now so the new True Blood book was covered and I heard three times (yes, three in only two podcasts) about john Grisham’s new legal thriller for kids, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. There was a comparison between this novel and To Kill a Mockingbird which will, I am sure, make the book a huge success. I also enjoyed the commentary on the importance of children’s literature in this podcast. It really is the foundation of our society since children’s books are the first teacher of what is and is not socially acceptable.
One of my LM_NET postings was about the new fad in teen fiction: vampires and werewolves. It never occurred to me that with all the vampire and werewolf craze now that there would be a demand for Native American and African sorties of that nature. It would make sense, however, that these cultures may have the best stories. One librarian was searching for them for her library and I always support stories from different cultures. I think that in terms of effective librarianship this is a great example of diversifying the library holdings and broadening the world view of our students. In recent years (maybe the last 20-50), it seems that Native American and African American culture has been slowly disappearing from our education. History textbooks that used to have a whole chapter dedicated the Trail of Tears now only has two paragraphs. The same is true for African American culture in modern American society. I do see it as a part of our jobs as librarians to keep the history of peoples and pass it down. Finding ways to connect our students to something both amazingly popular and historically important has great value. It would hook kids because it’s yet another vampire book, but it could also serve as a transition into a cultural study.
The other post was about a new novel similar to Number the Stars about a Czech girl who was taken by Nazi’s and then adopted out as a perfect Aryan to a Nazi family. That sort of literature always has a good place in the library as the kids seem really, really drawn to it for some reason. Unlike the slowly diminishing African and Native American cultures in America, the plight of the Jews in WWII seems to always remain at the forefront of education. It slides in and out of the light, but with The Book Thief I think that WWII literature (for the lack of a better phrase) has come back in a big way. Kids need to see the un-sugar coated version of history. As librarians it should be our goal to show things as they are. I really do believe that we can’t forget or gloss over the unpleasant parts of our past or they will occur again. I am glad that more and more WWII literature is published every year and is now modern instead of the old Anne Frank, which is good but for so long was the only type of WWII fiction for kids. I can see that parents may disagree with this (we actually have a national, annual meeting of skinheads in the town I teach in where they descend from all over the country for a week and then leave again), but I don’t think we should be in the business to please, but to teach and remember.
On 8/16/2010 Michelle Bell posted to LM_Net a thread title “First day activities- help please?”. She started at a new school and wanted good first week activities to get her kids excited. A response posted by Michael Bell urged her to begin with the site infotopia. Though this site seems less than helpful for the k-3 librarian’s student body, it does seem super helpful for middle and upper level librarians. The site is a search engine that librarians, administrators, and other teachers can go to and add websites to. Ideally, this would mean that the kids could go to the library, pull up the site, and only see sites that are teacher approved. As a further benefit, this could maybe be a way around the sites that are blocked for kids in high security schools (like mine). Not that I really want to bypass the system, but since only faculty can add sites, they would all be previewed for appropriateness and often my senior students cannot research at school because their essay topics are sensitive. As a librarian, I would play around with this site to see how well it would work for my students and if no other benefit came from it, at least it would be a good starting place for their research for their essays.
Blogs
I read a very interesting post on library fingerprint canners in the UK in schools. Some of this is trickling down to America now as well though no one from the school in Minnesota would comment on it. The concerns raised were, of course, that is was one more step toward big brother and that identities could be stolen with fingerprint scans if the information was compromised. My first and perpetual thought about the big brother claims, no matter what it applies to, is that we are closer than we think anyway. We just don’t know it so we squabble about fingerprint scans to check out books instead of actually learning what’s going on in the country…but that slides into politics. I don’t think people are any more likely to be arrested or followed by the government with fingerprint scans than they are now. Honestly, with the passage of the Patriot Act, the government can already subpoena our library records if we check out enough suspicious books so I can’t imagine that fingerprints would change much. I cou8ld give credit to the idea that kids identities can be stolen though. If the system is cracked then all those fingerprints would be out there. Not that I’m into the whole criminal scene, but I assume that if we head to a more fingerprint based society (for debit cards, identification purposes, etc.) it would be convenient to steal a kids fingerprint and do that who glove thing (if it’s possible outside of action movies)when you replace your fingerprint with someone else’s. I have heard reports of children’s social security numbers being stolen and then when they were 18 they had 17 years of bad credit and it takes years and years to clear up. However, I think fingerprints would certainly be a quick, convenient way for libraries to be run. After all, the kids can’t say they forgot their finger at home so they can’t check out a book!
I also found a great idea of edible book day. Apparently a librarian at Calvin College set it up as an adaptation from something similar in Europe. I think that would be a great way to get kids involved in the library. There could be a prize, or even if not, the kids would surely be very excited about eating and the students in my school are super competitive so they would be clamoring all over each other to make the best representation. The premise is certainty simple. All they have to do is bake some sort of physical, edible representation of a book of their choice. I’m thinking that it could be adapted to be set up before school and kids could vote throughout the day (on lunch, between classes, etc.) up to the last block of the day. Then I could tally the votes and we could eat it all after school. In this manner, it wouldn’t’ even affect the school day really. Perhaps I could convince English teachers to offer some small extra credit for participation in the contest.
From the Library Advocate blog I watched a simultaneously sad and humorous video dramatization of closing a school library. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it was meant to be humorous, but one can only go so far in a dramatization before laughter has to happen. The point was, in fact, very disturbing. It showed the library before being closed and it was full of kids drawing, reading, putting together puzzles, having fun, etc. of course, it was all wholesome fun because there was a librarian. Then the process of closing the library was shown and the final result of empty shelves (which was super sad for me). However, to really drive the point home all those kids that were being wholesome at the beginning of the clip were suddenly making out in the halls, participating in vandalism, and beating up other kids. Though I do think the library is positive and does keep people out of trouble, I can’t imagine that if the library is closed those same kids that were into puzzles, reading, and art will suddenly become juvenile criminals and magically get pregnant. Did I mention that the closing of the library and kids sudden shift to degenerates was accompanied by the theme song to the 70s Psycho?
I think I may have just found my first video on a blog (have I mentioned that this is my first foray into technology?) that was so funny I was crying! It’s a clip of school librarians redoing a Lady Gaga song. They changed all the lyrics to relate to searching for research and they recreated the video with some of the dance moves. There were tons of librarians in it too. Whoever put it together must have traveled to many libraries to get so many people involved. It was hilarious. It’s on the library advocate blog, so you should check it out if you haven’t. I guess it’s on YouTube as well. Though there was absolutely no educational value to it whatsoever, at least it’s solid proof that librarians can, in fact, be very fun and are no longer like the stuffy Madame Pince out of Harry Potter.
Here’s an interesting post about copyright law. I public librarian posted her issue that a woman returned a DVD case that was empty. They called and asked her to check her DVD player. When she returned the phone call she said that she had scanned in the art and made a reproduction of it (complete with barcode) and returned the wrong case accidentally. After checking her history they found she had a huge record of checking out DVDs and the librarians assumed that she was copying both the cover art and the DVD for her private collection. The librarians at the branch were unsure what to do since she never said she copied the DVD (only the art). One suggested sending her name and record to the FBI for copyright infringement, another suggested revoking her renting privileges. I can see how sticky this situation is since one of the core beliefs of the ALA is that we should rent without discrimination to all patrons. Another is that we should never, unless under subpoena, give out a patron’s check out record. I am unsure where I fall in the issue. At the least, I think you could revoke her card since she copied the cover art for sure and that too is copyrighted. But then the patron would not be able to check out books, and surely she would not scan in a whole book page by page. If it were my decision, I would ban her from all electronic renting and only allow paper materials to be rented out.
Empowering Learners Chapter 1
Having read chapter one and worked with the standards over the summer, I have to say that they still confuse me. I understand the basic gist of them, and I totally agree with the lifelong reader that they try to create, but they do not seem to be organized in an overly user-friendly way. Somewhere between the standards, strands and common beliefs I get lost. Which are we actually teaching and which do we simply believe in? Perhaps this confusion stems from the fact that I am an English teacher now and the only things we work with are the standards we teach. It appears that librarians have set up a policy of why they teach and that seems somehow redundant and unnecessary, which no doubt leads to my confusion. Of course, I do believe in the principles of the common beliefs, but they really confuse me as to how they fit into what we teach. I suppose I will have to somehow get this way of thinking to click in my head soon though.
Woolls Chapters 4 and 5
Chapter 4 was a good deal of review of the school situation for me. Fortunately, as I already teach in a high school and will probably take over our librarian’s job when she retires in a few years, much of this did not worry me. I found the start of chapter 4 giving good ideas that aren’t really practical anymore. The chapter is written on the assumption that the applicant will get an actual choice in jobs, which certainly isn’t really the case anymore. She mentions several times that it is best to look for a school that has a coordinator or director of library media programs because it shows that school values the library program. However, I have never heard of a school that had such a position. Honestly, even if there were an option I’m not sure I would accept it. In general, I’m a type A kind of girl and it’s very hard for me to share my roles. I like to do things efficiently and find that often the best way to do so is to work alone. I must say that pages 63-64 may have given me the single worst advice I have ever read in an education book. When offering advice to find out about the administration the author suggests that the librarian hang out and listen to the teacher’s lounge gossip. Being in a school where massive layoffs occurred last year and more will occur this year and our school is sooooooo confusing now since we suddenly have a two building campus (even the teacher’s don’t know when to let kids out of class), I have discovered that the teacher’s lounge is generally the first place to go if you are in a bad mood and want to share it. I made the mistake of going in Friday, something I rarely do, and spent the rest of the day in a bad mood since in 20 minutes all I heard was complaining. The people who have positive things to say generally don’t hang out in the lounge gossiping about them and rumor starters stay there to spread discord.
Chapter 4 also addresses the other jobs a librarian should expect to take on. At my school, the librarian is the technology coordinator, which is a frightening prospect for me, but one I expect I will be able to handle since we do have a solid technology department. Outside of that, I do feel somewhat daunted by all the jobs a librarian does have to take on. Between being the technology coordinator, textbook coordinator, collaborating with teachers, and working with students, I’m not sure where one would find the time in the day.
I do heartily agree with her point about library fines and the idea that just because something has been done a certain way for a long time does not mean that it has to stay that way. I have never been swayed by what other people do, so I don’t expect changing things will be a problem, and I think that when I become a librarian the first thing to go will be the 2 week check out policy. Kids are busy now and I think that limiting them to two weeks isn’t enough time to promote reading. I think a semester unless someone else wants the books is just fine. I also agree that putting fines on late books is punitive and the last thing we should want to do is punish kids for having a book and reading it longer than they should. Of course, I’m not totally sure how to get the books back when I need them, but I expect I’ll come up with something in the next two or three years.
Chapter 5 had some interesting points about how the library is really a business, something I haven’t considered in terms of a high school library. The library advisory committee is a great way to promote the library in the school and to show the administration that it is a valued part of the school, something that needs to be a constant reminder in these economic times I do find hope in the fact that I will still get to teach and look forward to those kids who come in just wandering around looking for something to do on a study hall.
The section calendars and plan books was both enlightening and concerning. I am unsure of how to keep a plan book when so much changes from minute to minute in terms of what I’m doing. The same hold true for a calendar. I do think, though, that keeping a calendar and maybe sending it out in the morning to the teachers would be a great way to let them know if there’s free time and they can bring in a class. I also think it’s a great way to show exactly how much goes on in the library. I feel that librarians often get the image that they have an easy job since they don’t really have grading and they appear to just be hanging out at a desk most of the day. Posting a calendar that shows what I plan on doing that day and the many areas my activities cover will highlight the importance of the librarian rather than create jealousy.
The list that ended chapter 5 was very heartening for me. These suggestions that the author gives for how to increase effectiveness every day made me feel good as I already do at least half the items on the list. I am a huge planner and am big on getting tasks done, prioritizing, and getting to school early so I have a minute to look over my plan for the day. I feel confident that the craziness of my current job (I have 138 dual credit kids who write a 4-6 page essay every month plus I teach part time at the community college) will well prepare me for the craziness of being a librarian.
Podcasts and LM_Net
I listened to several podcasts this week. To satisfy my bookish nature, I listened to two book review podcasts (one from NPR and one from New York Times) and a short podcast called cool tools for Library 2.0. Library 2.0 was exceptionally interesting and I was very sad it was so short. I wanted to know more about shelfari. IT does seem to be a really cool tool that incorporates everything that a reader would want. It can be used to organize your own books, make lists of books you want to read, and doubles as a social networking site to meet people who have similar interests in reading. It also offers links to MySpace and Facebook pages so that you can get to know more about the people in a different, more personal manner. It sounded like a really cool tool that I will look into when I have a bit more free time. I did already go out to find it and add it to my favorites. I think that things like this will be great for kids when I am a librarian. I could do brief little seminars for 15 minutes or so after school and I think the kids may actually show up. Since it’s about technology it would lure in those techie kids and since it’s about books it would lure in all the regular kids. I bet there’s a ton of stuff like this out there that I don’t know anything about (my husband says I’m just catching up to 1999 technology), so I look forward to learning more about it. Until recently, I have ardently opposed adding more technology to my life (I’ve never in my life actually paid for a cell phone and I’m only 28!), but I have recently had a change of heart. It seems that I can’t make the kids untechnological and they certainly prefer technology in school and I have no doubt that it increases learning. Another teacher tried blogging with the kids at school last year, but a kid hacked the system and was really inappropriate so no one has tried it since, but I might give it a go. The other two were book reviews. I can see the value of this to a librarian who has to constantly order books, but, again, I have to see written word to really make things stick so they would start the review with the title of the book and then give a summary. By the time the summary was done and I was interested in reading the book I had forgotten the title. Perhaps that will be something I get better with over time (my husband just bought me an iPod for my birthday last week, so I’ve never had to listen before now). Of course, vampire literature is always big right now so the new True Blood book was covered and I heard three times (yes, three in only two podcasts) about john Grisham’s new legal thriller for kids, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. There was a comparison between this novel and To Kill a Mockingbird which will, I am sure, make the book a huge success. I also enjoyed the commentary on the importance of children’s literature in this podcast. It really is the foundation of our society since children’s books are the first teacher of what is and is not socially acceptable.
One of my LM_NET postings was about the new fad in teen fiction: vampires and werewolves. It never occurred to me that with all the vampire and werewolf craze now that there would be a demand for Native American and African sorties of that nature. It would make sense, however, that these cultures may have the best stories. One librarian was searching for them for her library and I always support stories from different cultures. I think that in terms of effective librarianship this is a great example of diversifying the library holdings and broadening the world view of our students. In recent years (maybe the last 20-50), it seems that Native American and African American culture has been slowly disappearing from our education. History textbooks that used to have a whole chapter dedicated the Trail of Tears now only has two paragraphs. The same is true for African American culture in modern American society. I do see it as a part of our jobs as librarians to keep the history of peoples and pass it down. Finding ways to connect our students to something both amazingly popular and historically important has great value. It would hook kids because it’s yet another vampire book, but it could also serve as a transition into a cultural study.
The other post was about a new novel similar to Number the Stars about a Czech girl who was taken by Nazi’s and then adopted out as a perfect Aryan to a Nazi family. That sort of literature always has a good place in the library as the kids seem really, really drawn to it for some reason. Unlike the slowly diminishing African and Native American cultures in America, the plight of the Jews in WWII seems to always remain at the forefront of education. It slides in and out of the light, but with The Book Thief I think that WWII literature (for the lack of a better phrase) has come back in a big way. Kids need to see the un-sugar coated version of history. As librarians it should be our goal to show things as they are. I really do believe that we can’t forget or gloss over the unpleasant parts of our past or they will occur again. I am glad that more and more WWII literature is published every year and is now modern instead of the old Anne Frank, which is good but for so long was the only type of WWII fiction for kids. I can see that parents may disagree with this (we actually have a national, annual meeting of skinheads in the town I teach in where they descend from all over the country for a week and then leave again), but I don’t think we should be in the business to please, but to teach and remember.
On 8/16/2010 Michelle Bell posted to LM_Net a thread title “First day activities- help please?”. She started at a new school and wanted good first week activities to get her kids excited. A response posted by Michael Bell urged her to begin with the site infotopia. Though this site seems less than helpful for the k-3 librarian’s student body, it does seem super helpful for middle and upper level librarians. The site is a search engine that librarians, administrators, and other teachers can go to and add websites to. Ideally, this would mean that the kids could go to the library, pull up the site, and only see sites that are teacher approved. As a further benefit, this could maybe be a way around the sites that are blocked for kids in high security schools (like mine). Not that I really want to bypass the system, but since only faculty can add sites, they would all be previewed for appropriateness and often my senior students cannot research at school because their essay topics are sensitive. As a librarian, I would play around with this site to see how well it would work for my students and if no other benefit came from it, at least it would be a good starting place for their research for their essays.
Blogs
I read a very interesting post on library fingerprint canners in the UK in schools. Some of this is trickling down to America now as well though no one from the school in Minnesota would comment on it. The concerns raised were, of course, that is was one more step toward big brother and that identities could be stolen with fingerprint scans if the information was compromised. My first and perpetual thought about the big brother claims, no matter what it applies to, is that we are closer than we think anyway. We just don’t know it so we squabble about fingerprint scans to check out books instead of actually learning what’s going on in the country…but that slides into politics. I don’t think people are any more likely to be arrested or followed by the government with fingerprint scans than they are now. Honestly, with the passage of the Patriot Act, the government can already subpoena our library records if we check out enough suspicious books so I can’t imagine that fingerprints would change much. I cou8ld give credit to the idea that kids identities can be stolen though. If the system is cracked then all those fingerprints would be out there. Not that I’m into the whole criminal scene, but I assume that if we head to a more fingerprint based society (for debit cards, identification purposes, etc.) it would be convenient to steal a kids fingerprint and do that who glove thing (if it’s possible outside of action movies)when you replace your fingerprint with someone else’s. I have heard reports of children’s social security numbers being stolen and then when they were 18 they had 17 years of bad credit and it takes years and years to clear up. However, I think fingerprints would certainly be a quick, convenient way for libraries to be run. After all, the kids can’t say they forgot their finger at home so they can’t check out a book!
I also found a great idea of edible book day. Apparently a librarian at Calvin College set it up as an adaptation from something similar in Europe. I think that would be a great way to get kids involved in the library. There could be a prize, or even if not, the kids would surely be very excited about eating and the students in my school are super competitive so they would be clamoring all over each other to make the best representation. The premise is certainty simple. All they have to do is bake some sort of physical, edible representation of a book of their choice. I’m thinking that it could be adapted to be set up before school and kids could vote throughout the day (on lunch, between classes, etc.) up to the last block of the day. Then I could tally the votes and we could eat it all after school. In this manner, it wouldn’t’ even affect the school day really. Perhaps I could convince English teachers to offer some small extra credit for participation in the contest.
From the Library Advocate blog I watched a simultaneously sad and humorous video dramatization of closing a school library. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it was meant to be humorous, but one can only go so far in a dramatization before laughter has to happen. The point was, in fact, very disturbing. It showed the library before being closed and it was full of kids drawing, reading, putting together puzzles, having fun, etc. of course, it was all wholesome fun because there was a librarian. Then the process of closing the library was shown and the final result of empty shelves (which was super sad for me). However, to really drive the point home all those kids that were being wholesome at the beginning of the clip were suddenly making out in the halls, participating in vandalism, and beating up other kids. Though I do think the library is positive and does keep people out of trouble, I can’t imagine that if the library is closed those same kids that were into puzzles, reading, and art will suddenly become juvenile criminals and magically get pregnant. Did I mention that the closing of the library and kids sudden shift to degenerates was accompanied by the theme song to the 70s Psycho?
I think I may have just found my first video on a blog (have I mentioned that this is my first foray into technology?) that was so funny I was crying! It’s a clip of school librarians redoing a Lady Gaga song. They changed all the lyrics to relate to searching for research and they recreated the video with some of the dance moves. There were tons of librarians in it too. Whoever put it together must have traveled to many libraries to get so many people involved. It was hilarious. It’s on the library advocate blog, so you should check it out if you haven’t. I guess it’s on YouTube as well. Though there was absolutely no educational value to it whatsoever, at least it’s solid proof that librarians can, in fact, be very fun and are no longer like the stuffy Madame Pince out of Harry Potter.
Here’s an interesting post about copyright law. I public librarian posted her issue that a woman returned a DVD case that was empty. They called and asked her to check her DVD player. When she returned the phone call she said that she had scanned in the art and made a reproduction of it (complete with barcode) and returned the wrong case accidentally. After checking her history they found she had a huge record of checking out DVDs and the librarians assumed that she was copying both the cover art and the DVD for her private collection. The librarians at the branch were unsure what to do since she never said she copied the DVD (only the art). One suggested sending her name and record to the FBI for copyright infringement, another suggested revoking her renting privileges. I can see how sticky this situation is since one of the core beliefs of the ALA is that we should rent without discrimination to all patrons. Another is that we should never, unless under subpoena, give out a patron’s check out record. I am unsure where I fall in the issue. At the least, I think you could revoke her card since she copied the cover art for sure and that too is copyrighted. But then the patron would not be able to check out books, and surely she would not scan in a whole book page by page. If it were my decision, I would ban her from all electronic renting and only allow paper materials to be rented out.
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