Podcast - Buffy Hamilton
As a learner who needs to see the words I thought it would be very, very difficult to just listen to this and then comment on it. However, I have two pages of notes, so I think I will only be able to pick out the points I think are most valuable to expound upon in the interest of space. I am a huge fan of the idea that kids are not stupid or useless (a common perception I’ve discovered when talking to people about what I do for a living as well as, sadly, other teachers). I love that Hamilton makes the kids feel that what they have to say and offer the world is important despite their age. When reviewing the kid’s comments on the project she mentioned that one said it felt wonderful to have a blog because it felt as though they were being heard. I think this also ties to the idea that kids must take an equal, if not greater, role in learning than the teacher. I have always taught the children who were products of the No Child Left Behind Act, so they have always been very complacent. The kids sit and nod and take notes. Even their misbehaving is complacent. They quietly lay their heads down (usually) and take a nap when they want to snub authority. However, last year we were evaluated as a High School that Works school and the evaluated said he had never seen such well-behaved children who still weren’t doing anything. Their politeness masked their lack of work. The evaluator said that the teacher should never have to work harder than the kids in school. I agree that it is important to have them take control of their education. Otherwise, we are simply sending out polite people into the world who haven’t learned the most important role of responsibility and ownership. My kids must work in class. They lead the conversation and I guide them to the more important parts of the articles we are discussing. At first, they always say they simply don’t know what to say since they’ve never been asked their opinion, and bear in mind that these kids are advanced seniors who are only 9 short months away from college. By the end of the year they say that mine was one of their favorite classes even if they hate English, the content, the book, even me because they got to contribute. I do find it very interesting that the kids had little understanding of how blogs and Twitter work. I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that this was simply something that was engrained in their generation. I would be interested in trying this with my class. Of course, the benefit to me is not only more engaged students but better job security in a dangerous time. However, schools are, in the end, really big public relations machines, and, as our superintendant reminded us only a few months ago, we are in a business and when people stop going to that business it will fail. Raymore-Peculiar is one of the best schools in the state so we had a huge growth in the past 5-7 years. We are also one of the few places only 10 minutes from the city (both Lee’s Summit and Grandview) where you are still in the country. However, with the economic downturn we lost an amazing amount of money from people moving out again. The superintendant urged us to do whatever necessary to make our schools more attractive since the schools are the main reason people move to Raymore-Peculiar. I think this program would do just that. It highlights a schools technology and progressive teaching styles. I do wonder how well this would work logistically though. It’s a struggle to meet the college required four essays a semester now. This would push the deadline back considerably.
LM_NET
Shonda Brisco posted “free internet safety booklets” on 8/16/2010. This seems to be more of an informative post than anything else that gives a link for librarians to go to get free pamphlets on “online safety, cell phone safety, photo sharing online, social networks, texting, cyber-bullying, and offers definitions and suggestions to parents, teachers, and other adults in ways to help guide students in the best ways in which to use these new technologies--without scare tactics.” It’s nice that that LM_Net offers these types of posts since there’s so much information out there that it would be easy to miss this sort of thing. Of course, internet safety is a huge part of being a librarian and I think that this sort of thing, if distributed to classes and then talked about as a group, would be an essential part of my job. Though it would be hard to get the classroom time away from teachers, a gentle reminder that they don’t want to be the teacher who has a problem and chose not to cover this material might nudge them in the right direction.
On 8/16/2010 Cheryl Quinn posted the thread “Follow up about cell phones” on LM_NET. Though I don’t see the original post, she did sum it up for readers. She was looking for a project that would incorporate cell phones into the classroom. Someone suggested that she use a website where the teacher posted a question and the kids texted in their answers. The teacher could then check the site later in the day to grade the answers. I think that it is a nice idea to incorporate cell phones into classes since it is a way of life now. There is no escaping cell phones and to deny them in school really just hurts kids now that they are so “plugged-in”. It would up interest in class and allow flexibility for those who are in high school and work. However, there are many problems with this idea. I can see that kids not having cell phones would be an issue as well as other teachers having trouble with them being used for non-class related material. The claim that the texting was for a school homework assignment would become an issue. However, this might work for a library if it allowed kids to text in questions to the librarian when they were at home thinking about them. However, even then I see that the kids could just email the question. Overall, while I think it’s a good idea to allow kids access to technology throughout the day, I see that this may create more problems than it solves in the high school setting. Additionally, even those with cell phones cannot always afford to pay the high bill for unlimited texting and many students do not have texting at all – their parents only pay for basic service.
On 8/16/2010 Tara Herbert posted the thread “bulletin board responses” on LM_NET. This was an enlightening post since I have no experience with bulletin boards. I teach senior English so I put one up that lasts for most the year. It’s not really a frilly, decorated room. Io have been wondering about this issue as a librarian though as I know that they are supposed to be decorated and engaging for kids. There were some excellent ideas in this post. I can see that this will be a challenging part of my job as a librarian but an important part as well. Kids need to be engaged in reading and often all it takes is the mention of something. This would be particularly effective if kids see something bright and catchy. In all honesty, I can see myself returning to this post or posting my own, very similar, post later in life when I become a librarian.
Blogs
Library advocate posted “PA Passes Historic Resolution to Study School Libraries” on 10/14. This article details the new decision of the PA House of Representatives to study school libraries, to see how many do not have a certified librarian, and how that affects student education. I think this is very serendipitous since just last week the video “All Students Deserve an Equitable Education” stated that 75% of schools in Philadelphia do not have certified librarians. I expect the findings will not be surprising. However, what I find wonderful about this post is the possibility of other states soon following in PA’s footsteps. As is usually the case, once one state does something, others follow and I think it’s very heartening to think that this could be the “end in sight” moment for the troubles that libraries have had.
Swiss Army Librarian posted “Reference Question of the Week” on 10/10/10. The post detailed the long process the librarian had to go through to help a patron identify an old Roman coin he had. The process sounded rather like a treasure hunt, which would be quite amazing if I had time to do it in my profession. I assume this blogger is a public librarian from the nature of his posts. As a school librarian, I can’t imagine being able to go into such detail for any question without neglecting a ton of students. It’s disheartening to think (ah, this must be balance from the last upbeat post!) that to really help one person others need to be neglected. Perhaps I’m simply being pessimistic based on my day today, which was in no way bad, but it was a student workday so every class period I had at least three different people needing me all at once. To come home and read this post where one man had this much time to give one person undivided attention rather made me jealous.
ALA TechSource posted on 10/18/2010 “Deleted Does Not Mean Gone Forever.” This post had many good points. It started by referencing an experiment that a man named Cheng did in 2009 to see how long a deleted photo can be accessed after it is removed from a site. The result was unpleasant. So long as a person bookmarked the URL while the photo was up, it was still available two years later since it was saved in the cache. MySpace and Facebook are working on fixing this issue now that it has had national attention. The author of the post brought up the important fact that since what goes up on the internet has a tendency to stay up, schools need to be super careful about what goes up. At my school we have a huge packet of forms that go home every year and one of those is an agreement to have student photos placed on the website. There are a sizable number of parents who say that their kid’s photos are not allowed online. I think this is going to be a big challenge for me to meet since the best way to promote support for the library is to keep photos of good stuff happening on the webpage.
Woolls Chapter 8
This was such a coincidence!!! We have been spending that last month of school talking about the Patriot Act in my classroom, so I was glad to have this reading this week. There were several parts of the first half of this reading I found interesting, but less so of the second half. I am particularly interested in the ALA’s “strongly recommended” policy on page 126 that states, “Resist the issuance or enforcement of any such process, order, or subpoena until such time as a proper showing of good cause has been made in a court of competent jurisdiction.” I wonder how possible this is since reporter Josh Wolf was arrested in 2006 for refusing to give up his tapes of a demonstration against the war under court order. He was imprisoned for six months and then set free. I wonder at what point that becomes an issue. As a school librarian will I, by refusing to give up my patron’s info until a good case has been made in court, will experience the same situation. Of course it isn’t likely, but I have to wonder at what point it becomes likely. Surely Wolf thought the same thing, and did say so in an interview with Naomi Wolf (yes, they have the same last name so it isn’t a typo). How long can one stall in a country that now allows the President the power to say anyone is obstructing the war on terror and is therefore a traitor to be thrown in jail? I am particularly fond of the order Woolls gives on 127 to destroy records of student use as soon as is feasibly possible, and am even more drawn to it due to the fact that she presents it as a must rather than an option.
I had further issue with the claim on page 127 that states, “The library community recognizes that children and youth have the same rights to privacy as adults.” Since this isn’t even a policy that the school recognizes, I wonder how well that would go over if I ever had to use it as a reason for my not just handing over info to the government.
Despite my apparent distaste of living in a free society where freedom is quickly becoming an illusion to those fortunate enough to not notice what’s happening, I do wonder at what I would do in the situation referenced on page 128. Woolls states, “It is unlikely that school library media specialists would be targeted by FBI agents requesting records unless students were attacked nu other students within the school.” My concern is not from the FBI, but more of what I would do when a student’s disturbing check out pattern became apparent, if it did. If it became clear that a student was truly becoming harmful to either themselves or others, should I go to the counselor? If it was clear they were concerned about abuse from parents, am I mandated first to report to child protective services or is my first duty to privacy? While I ardently believe in the protection of privacy and am whole heartedly against the Patriot Act (having said that I suppose I’ll be on “the list” with one million other Americans now that it’s on the internet!), I think that my concern for and love of my students would win out. And should it? Does my duty as a teacher as a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse take precedent over my duty as a librarian to protect my student’s privacy?
The next interesting point in this chapter was on the filtering of the internet at schools. We have a filter system that filters all cites that contain certain words. My students, who obviously spend a lot of time with delicate subjects, often cannot research at school. This then leads to an even bigger issue for those kids who have no internet or computer access at home. I expect one of my biggest battles will be having the filter removed. Teaching at such a large district, I expect that won’t happen, but I am certainly not going to try having experienced the frustration myself.
Weeding and collection development did bring to mind the conversation I had with our librarian the other day. She said we have 20,000 books in our collection which is WAY more than we need. She said kids only check out maybe 10% of what we have and that that’s mostly fiction. She said she keeps it all around for looks and I wonder if my administration would mind my weeding massively to make room for more technology, reading spaces, fiction, and my awesome charging station I’ve made into a semester-long project.
Empowering Learners
Page 34 of this text only reinforced the idea I had that our library needs to be redesigned as soon as funds become available. Given the description of the physical space, I don’t think our library meets it very well. This ties to the comment on page 40 that states that librarians need to make sure kids with special need have those needs met so they have equal access. I am pretty sure that this is not the case in our library. However, in these economic times, I wonder I this is something I will voluntarily address before I’m forced to address it. In the end, it seems that building a collection or offering resources for the two thousand kids in the district slightly outweighs the eight that have special needs. Not that I won’t try to accommodate, but expensive equipment just can’t be bought for two students at this time.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
10/11/2010 Library as Places
10-11 Libraries as Places
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensible is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Podcasts
Cool Tools 2.0 Live MOcah.com sounds awesome. It is a social networking site with the exclusive function of learning a new language. Aside from being a useful tool for library patrons, as a librarian it is very important to learn a new language so that non-English speaking patrons can still get help. It would further help with understanding patrons with heavy accents. As a social networking site, users get help from native speakers of the language through online chat to help with grammar and pronunciation questions. Online exercises are where the main content is given. Eight languages are covered including Arabic, French, and German. As a high school librarian this is a very important tool to integrate into the library’s cache of online resources in light of the economic situation. Though I certainly don’t advocate the downsizing of foreign language programs, it is happening nonetheless. Livemocah.com will allow students exposure to languages in schools where programs have been cut to the bare bones or cut entirely. In today’s global economy, it is more important now than ever to promote language studies and this is a cheap effective manner in which to do so. Additionally, if nothing else, it would make me look good to the administration as a librarian. After school study groups could be held and this would further highlight the importance of what the library does to prevent downsizing there as well.
Cool Tools Lucid Chart is an online graphic organizer and flow chart creator. As a high school librarian, this would be one of the things that I would promote to students to promote collaboration among them and to help them complete group projects at home. Lucid Chart has premade shapes and connectors (such as arrows and bars) that the students simply have to drag and drop in the order they want them placed. Then they simply type what they want inside them. What makes this tool exceptionally important in today’s education is that a Lucid project can be opened up to other users by the creator. Lucid Chart has a built in chat tool that allows students to communicate about changes that are being made and to help them finish their project easier. To prevent disagreements, Lucid Chart keeps a log of what changes have been made to the project and who has made them. In today’s day and age, it is super important that if educators are going to assign a group project that there also be a tool such as this to go along with it. Kids are busier now more than ever and asking four kids who each work different jobs, play sports, babysit younger siblings, etc to get together at the same time on the same night is nearly impossible. As an added perk, this program is free making it a great tool for both student and the school.
New York times Book Review 8/6/2010
The books that were focused on in this review were Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. Both of these are holocaust novels, but the view they take a drastically different one than most Holocaust novels do.
Comedy in a Minor Key focuses on a Dutch couple who take in a Jewish man that needs a place to hide. Unlike other Holocaust fiction, these people do not really want to take him in and only do so because they are told it is their patriotic duty and because the wife wants glory after the war is over. Furthermore, they live in the country so unlike other holocaust fiction there is not the imminent danger of them being caught and taken to a concentration camp. Another main difference between this and other holocaust fiction is that the Jew who was saved, though aware that his life was saved and appreciative for it, shows jealousy of his saviors. They have been able to keep everything while he has lost everything for a ridiculous reason. As he looks at their things he feels anger at them rather than the blind devotion showed by other who were saved in other holocaust fiction. Furthermore, the Jew dies of natural causes rather than being caught or set free at the end of the novel and the couple who were hiding him then have to decide what to do with a dead body that they shouldn’t have.
Death of the Adversary is told from the perspective a Jew early on in the war. He witnesses nearly all his friends turn to Nazis and gives first-hand accounts of acts of violence against Jews that are often given less attention, like grave desecration. This novel differs from other Holocaust fiction in the sense that the narrator gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be told he is worthless everyday to the point where he begins to believe it.
I think that there is a definite need for “new” Holocaust fiction in libraries. For so long we have read Anne Frank and Night that other points of view, more human points of view, get lost. Additionally, the young generations have lost touch with WWII in many ways. Yes, they all read Night and Anne Frank, but that is part of what caused them to lose touch, I think. A new perspective is needed to bring the issue back to the forefront of thought as a reminder to not allow it again.
Another portion of this podcast focused on teen fiction and the sudden push towards it for adults. I agree ardently with the contributor to this piece, Pamela Paul that teen fiction is in many ways better than adult fiction. Paul claims that the characters are better developed and the problems more important than in adult fiction where character development and plot are often left behind in the search for high literary status. Since teen fiction has been given a bad name for so long (Rowling herself was told that if she intended to write teen fiction she had better keep a day job since no one made money at it), that the authors put more into their work. Additionally, childhood is disappearing quicker now than ever and teen fiction shows that. In this sense, teen fiction is in a way becoming adult fiction. many of the problems faced are not so dissimilar from what adults face: lack of money, homelessness, loneliness, etc. as a public librarian, I would, at the very least, move the teen fiction section away from the children's section and attempt to integrate it more fully into the adult portion of the library in order to encourage more adults to read it rather than be embarrassed by it.
eBooks were another topic this podcast considered. This week (8/6/2010) Barnes and Nobel went up for sale. This podcast’s conjecture was that it did so as it was having a hard time staying afloat in the new digital book age. However, the environment of the café is what kept Barnes and Noble alive so long. I think that both points can be taken to heart at the library. Now more than ever people want to find free things to do and the library fits that description. It would be amazingly helpful if the library could adopt a café-type feel. I know when I go to my public library I still feel that I am at a government institution rather than being at a relaxing place to hang out and browse books.
LM_Net
Dennis LeLoup posted on LM_NET on 8/21/2010 in response to another post about how to manage a library with a split schedule called “Fixed Schedule Question for Elementary Media”. His post states that he in a district that, due to layoffs, has resulted in an assistant being at the library when he is not. Since he has top travel between buildings, he is only at each building every other day and the assistant has to take over when he is gone. I can see that until things get better for schools financially this may be a recurring situation. However, it is one I never even considered. After all, no matter how bad things get for schools, I won’t ever teach my kids only every other day. I have to be with them every day. This is a concerning issue in terms of library administration. At the very least, you would seriously have to trust the assistant that was hired. In the worst case scenario, students would suffer from an assistant that could possibly not have any experience with databases and teen/children’s fiction being the only person there every other day. I can see that this could be a serious problem for the long haul of the library, but I hope that this sort of situation is short lived. I hope that isn’t too optimistic. I expect the idea that a librarian is option will only be further promoted that appearance of empty shelves with the incorporation of downloadable content.
Carol Peterson posted “Dewey Shelving Lessons” on 8/21/2010. Her concern was that she had given her 7-8 grade library aids verbal instructions and shown them how to shelve in the Dewey Decimal System but the kids were still shelving incorrectly after getting over her frustration at their perceived laziness, she discovered that no matter how she explained it the kids just didn’t understand. Here is yet another thing that did not occur to me as a teacher who will later be a librarian. Our school library has no library aids, so I asked the librarian why not. Her answer ran along the same line as Peterson’s issue: that the kids didn’t do it right and it was more baby-sitting than anything else. The result seems that it is far easier to just shelve the material correctly so that the librarian doesn’t have to spend hours hunting down a missing book. I think this is an interesting conundrum. Mis-shelved items were a huge problem at the school I worked at before because kids were putting them back incorrectly. Right before I left the librarian had to reorganize the whole library since it was unusable after years and years of neglect. I wonder of the librarian at my current school doesn’t have the right idea. Perhaps it would be far better to simply absorb and extra bit of work in the short run that would save a ton of time in the long run.
Carolina Cuello posted “Calvin and Hobbes strip about librarians” on 8/20/2010. Though her post is short an only describes the comic with a request for anyone who has it to send it her since it’s funny, there are rather big issues within the management of the library that are brought up by the strip. The comic itself has Calvin being afraid to go to the library because his book is late and he’s afraid of the librarian. Sure this is a common comic trope, but how did it even get that far? What does this say about libraries? At first, I thought that if people borrow books then they need to return them or pay the price. It also seems like an easy way to generate extra money for the library. However, I then read in Woolls that this was a terrible idea since it makes reading punitive. Then I began to think. When I lived in Warrensburg, MO (for less than a year) I used the public library all the time for books on CD. Since I could return the book and lose my spot if I didn’t drive enough in time to finish it, I kept my first book a few days late to get it dome. I went in to pay my fine and the librarian looked at me as though I were weird and said they didn’t fine at all unless a book was lost or damaged. I probably got more books then I would normally have my home library (still the one I use) because I was never afraid of running out of time and having to pay a fine. It does seem to me that reading should be fun. If anything, we should be giving rewards to kids for wanting to read and using the library. Though there is always the issue of what to do when someone won’t bring the book back, I think that the library really needs to be a place in school where there is no punishment (though kids should still not be climbing the walls). All day kids are told what they can’t do or that they need to work faster to keep up with the class. It seems like a good idea to let kids have at least one place where they can go at their own pace. If it takes 8 months to read one book, then at least they’ve read one book.
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensable is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Blogs
School Library Journal posted “LJ's First Virtual Ebook Summit Is a Big Hit” on 9/30/2010. Many good ideas were mentioned in this posting. This was an overview of the major points from the conference focusing on eBooks. The assumption is that eReaders will become like cell phones in the next few years. Therefore, libraries are now spending a sizable portion of their budget on them. However, as one panelist mentioned, that unlike cell phones, eReaders will result in a digital divide. Unlike a cell phone, which can be justified as a life saving apparatus in addition to the sheer convenience of a parent not having to wait outside the mall for an hour while their teen wanders around inside, an eReaders is just not high on the list for some people. The unintentional side effect of libraries switching steadily over to electronic content is that those kids who are left without an eReader will be left behind with books that are outdated. Though I don’t think that libraries will go all electronic, I am gathering that the movement is gaining momentum quickly. I do have some concern over what will happen to those kids whose parents don’t value reading and who can’t afford an eReader. Another good point was the Kindle, which is not as popular among librarians as a Nook since Amazon deletes content at will. Though as I looked into this I found that, and this is to my understanding only from the Amazon site) that a book can be put on the same Kindle up to six times before it has to be rebought. Though the concern in the SLS post was that each kid would have a Kindle, I’m certain that that won’t be the case for a long, long time. In the meantime, the library can own one Kindle and share its books with the students who have Kindles – or a Kindle app.
On 9/30/2010 Swiss Army Librarian posts “Historical Photo Collection Survey Results.” Though this was straight information concerning what printing selections libraries offer, I think there was an interesting point that was implied here. The fact that 42% of libraries do not offer high quality copies and that and that 75% of libraries surveyed offer only limited or no access to historical photos online seems to say something about what’s happening in society today. Though I am an advocate for the eBooks, history seems to be getting lost in the library nowadays. Based off this posting, historical photos are not convenient to get or satisfying once coped from the public library. But where else can the people go? It seems that the options are limited and the result means that those who are interested may lose interest soon.
On 7/6/2010 posted “Fines, Daycares, and eBooks.” The author of this post was concerned with the idea that libraries charge fines for overdue CDs and movies but not books. Historically, she says, this made sense since CDs and DVDs used to cost so much but now she sees it as a way of telling patrons that those things are more important that the books in the library. She has a good point about that. It does seem to be sending the wrong message to people. Then she launches into an explanation of what fines really do. She gives a study that a daycare did where they started fining parents who were late to pick up their kids in the hopes that they would be on time, much like we do with library books. Then the daycare discovered that late pickups skyrocketed because it was worth it for the people to be late. The author of the post comes to the conclusion that people are more likely to do what’s right (return library books on time) when they aren’t being punished. As we all know in education, praise works better than punishment. Though the average patron won’t care at all if we say good job, self-rewards still seem to motivate more than punishing. So really, if they really want to keep Twilight for another month while they finish it, why can’t they?
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensible is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Podcasts
Cool Tools 2.0 Live MOcah.com sounds awesome. It is a social networking site with the exclusive function of learning a new language. Aside from being a useful tool for library patrons, as a librarian it is very important to learn a new language so that non-English speaking patrons can still get help. It would further help with understanding patrons with heavy accents. As a social networking site, users get help from native speakers of the language through online chat to help with grammar and pronunciation questions. Online exercises are where the main content is given. Eight languages are covered including Arabic, French, and German. As a high school librarian this is a very important tool to integrate into the library’s cache of online resources in light of the economic situation. Though I certainly don’t advocate the downsizing of foreign language programs, it is happening nonetheless. Livemocah.com will allow students exposure to languages in schools where programs have been cut to the bare bones or cut entirely. In today’s global economy, it is more important now than ever to promote language studies and this is a cheap effective manner in which to do so. Additionally, if nothing else, it would make me look good to the administration as a librarian. After school study groups could be held and this would further highlight the importance of what the library does to prevent downsizing there as well.
Cool Tools Lucid Chart is an online graphic organizer and flow chart creator. As a high school librarian, this would be one of the things that I would promote to students to promote collaboration among them and to help them complete group projects at home. Lucid Chart has premade shapes and connectors (such as arrows and bars) that the students simply have to drag and drop in the order they want them placed. Then they simply type what they want inside them. What makes this tool exceptionally important in today’s education is that a Lucid project can be opened up to other users by the creator. Lucid Chart has a built in chat tool that allows students to communicate about changes that are being made and to help them finish their project easier. To prevent disagreements, Lucid Chart keeps a log of what changes have been made to the project and who has made them. In today’s day and age, it is super important that if educators are going to assign a group project that there also be a tool such as this to go along with it. Kids are busier now more than ever and asking four kids who each work different jobs, play sports, babysit younger siblings, etc to get together at the same time on the same night is nearly impossible. As an added perk, this program is free making it a great tool for both student and the school.
New York times Book Review 8/6/2010
The books that were focused on in this review were Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. Both of these are holocaust novels, but the view they take a drastically different one than most Holocaust novels do.
Comedy in a Minor Key focuses on a Dutch couple who take in a Jewish man that needs a place to hide. Unlike other Holocaust fiction, these people do not really want to take him in and only do so because they are told it is their patriotic duty and because the wife wants glory after the war is over. Furthermore, they live in the country so unlike other holocaust fiction there is not the imminent danger of them being caught and taken to a concentration camp. Another main difference between this and other holocaust fiction is that the Jew who was saved, though aware that his life was saved and appreciative for it, shows jealousy of his saviors. They have been able to keep everything while he has lost everything for a ridiculous reason. As he looks at their things he feels anger at them rather than the blind devotion showed by other who were saved in other holocaust fiction. Furthermore, the Jew dies of natural causes rather than being caught or set free at the end of the novel and the couple who were hiding him then have to decide what to do with a dead body that they shouldn’t have.
Death of the Adversary is told from the perspective a Jew early on in the war. He witnesses nearly all his friends turn to Nazis and gives first-hand accounts of acts of violence against Jews that are often given less attention, like grave desecration. This novel differs from other Holocaust fiction in the sense that the narrator gives the reader a sense of what it is like to be told he is worthless everyday to the point where he begins to believe it.
I think that there is a definite need for “new” Holocaust fiction in libraries. For so long we have read Anne Frank and Night that other points of view, more human points of view, get lost. Additionally, the young generations have lost touch with WWII in many ways. Yes, they all read Night and Anne Frank, but that is part of what caused them to lose touch, I think. A new perspective is needed to bring the issue back to the forefront of thought as a reminder to not allow it again.
Another portion of this podcast focused on teen fiction and the sudden push towards it for adults. I agree ardently with the contributor to this piece, Pamela Paul that teen fiction is in many ways better than adult fiction. Paul claims that the characters are better developed and the problems more important than in adult fiction where character development and plot are often left behind in the search for high literary status. Since teen fiction has been given a bad name for so long (Rowling herself was told that if she intended to write teen fiction she had better keep a day job since no one made money at it), that the authors put more into their work. Additionally, childhood is disappearing quicker now than ever and teen fiction shows that. In this sense, teen fiction is in a way becoming adult fiction. many of the problems faced are not so dissimilar from what adults face: lack of money, homelessness, loneliness, etc. as a public librarian, I would, at the very least, move the teen fiction section away from the children's section and attempt to integrate it more fully into the adult portion of the library in order to encourage more adults to read it rather than be embarrassed by it.
eBooks were another topic this podcast considered. This week (8/6/2010) Barnes and Nobel went up for sale. This podcast’s conjecture was that it did so as it was having a hard time staying afloat in the new digital book age. However, the environment of the café is what kept Barnes and Noble alive so long. I think that both points can be taken to heart at the library. Now more than ever people want to find free things to do and the library fits that description. It would be amazingly helpful if the library could adopt a café-type feel. I know when I go to my public library I still feel that I am at a government institution rather than being at a relaxing place to hang out and browse books.
LM_Net
Dennis LeLoup posted on LM_NET on 8/21/2010 in response to another post about how to manage a library with a split schedule called “Fixed Schedule Question for Elementary Media”. His post states that he in a district that, due to layoffs, has resulted in an assistant being at the library when he is not. Since he has top travel between buildings, he is only at each building every other day and the assistant has to take over when he is gone. I can see that until things get better for schools financially this may be a recurring situation. However, it is one I never even considered. After all, no matter how bad things get for schools, I won’t ever teach my kids only every other day. I have to be with them every day. This is a concerning issue in terms of library administration. At the very least, you would seriously have to trust the assistant that was hired. In the worst case scenario, students would suffer from an assistant that could possibly not have any experience with databases and teen/children’s fiction being the only person there every other day. I can see that this could be a serious problem for the long haul of the library, but I hope that this sort of situation is short lived. I hope that isn’t too optimistic. I expect the idea that a librarian is option will only be further promoted that appearance of empty shelves with the incorporation of downloadable content.
Carol Peterson posted “Dewey Shelving Lessons” on 8/21/2010. Her concern was that she had given her 7-8 grade library aids verbal instructions and shown them how to shelve in the Dewey Decimal System but the kids were still shelving incorrectly after getting over her frustration at their perceived laziness, she discovered that no matter how she explained it the kids just didn’t understand. Here is yet another thing that did not occur to me as a teacher who will later be a librarian. Our school library has no library aids, so I asked the librarian why not. Her answer ran along the same line as Peterson’s issue: that the kids didn’t do it right and it was more baby-sitting than anything else. The result seems that it is far easier to just shelve the material correctly so that the librarian doesn’t have to spend hours hunting down a missing book. I think this is an interesting conundrum. Mis-shelved items were a huge problem at the school I worked at before because kids were putting them back incorrectly. Right before I left the librarian had to reorganize the whole library since it was unusable after years and years of neglect. I wonder of the librarian at my current school doesn’t have the right idea. Perhaps it would be far better to simply absorb and extra bit of work in the short run that would save a ton of time in the long run.
Carolina Cuello posted “Calvin and Hobbes strip about librarians” on 8/20/2010. Though her post is short an only describes the comic with a request for anyone who has it to send it her since it’s funny, there are rather big issues within the management of the library that are brought up by the strip. The comic itself has Calvin being afraid to go to the library because his book is late and he’s afraid of the librarian. Sure this is a common comic trope, but how did it even get that far? What does this say about libraries? At first, I thought that if people borrow books then they need to return them or pay the price. It also seems like an easy way to generate extra money for the library. However, I then read in Woolls that this was a terrible idea since it makes reading punitive. Then I began to think. When I lived in Warrensburg, MO (for less than a year) I used the public library all the time for books on CD. Since I could return the book and lose my spot if I didn’t drive enough in time to finish it, I kept my first book a few days late to get it dome. I went in to pay my fine and the librarian looked at me as though I were weird and said they didn’t fine at all unless a book was lost or damaged. I probably got more books then I would normally have my home library (still the one I use) because I was never afraid of running out of time and having to pay a fine. It does seem to me that reading should be fun. If anything, we should be giving rewards to kids for wanting to read and using the library. Though there is always the issue of what to do when someone won’t bring the book back, I think that the library really needs to be a place in school where there is no punishment (though kids should still not be climbing the walls). All day kids are told what they can’t do or that they need to work faster to keep up with the class. It seems like a good idea to let kids have at least one place where they can go at their own pace. If it takes 8 months to read one book, then at least they’ve read one book.
Woolls Chapter 7: Managing Personnel
There are several points in this chapter that I found interesting. Firstly, I must say that I am concerned about the managing of personnel. It wasn’t a task I have ever even considered as a part of the job, but now that I think about it, it does make sense. However, I do not like the idea of having to fire or hire someone. Nor do I like having to evaluate others’ performance, especially when I am with those people all day in an often silent, empty environment. On the other hand, I am a very intimidating person, so my students tell me. This is going to work in my favor since I can manage students, but I am concerned that it will make my assistant unhappy. I would love to have a happy place, but I know that I often come off as domineering without meaning to be.
The more important point that I took from this chapter was that much of it seems to focus on how to make my job indispensable. It is true that funds everywhere are being cut and that I will have to lobby for my job; however, I found some encouraging points in here. As mentioned before in Skype and other posts, I work in a PD-happy district. The first Monday of every month is dedicated to PD and, up until the starving times of this year, there was also PD at least once a month on plan periods. I think that when things bounce back, as they surely must, PD will again become a part of the school day. In addition to this, we have a full week of PD before every school year starts and two days of PD after school ends. As such, I see that Woolls makes a good point by claiming that the LMS may eventually control PD. Though she says, “as professional periodicals are added to the media center collection, the media specialist may copy pertinent articles, highlighting key passages, and forward them to the principal” (119). She ends this portion with the thought that it would simply make both persons look good. I, however, see it as a way to maintain a job. With so much PD in our district, I can safely say only a fraction of it is good PD. Training staff on new technologies and things the library can offer teachers would be a much better way to do PD and that would make the LMS a central part of the school that could not be done away with.
This ties too with her point on page 114 that libraries are now arguably unnecessary. It’s true that it is possible to have a functioning virtual library and as such the librarian would need to be an integral part of school to maintain a place in it. Aside from PD development, another way to make myself indispensable is to help develop cross-curricular activities. I currently teach an English class that doubles as a current events class. My subjects often fall into things that sociology, current events, and psychology study. As a classroom teacher, I feel lucky to get through my grading in a day. I can’t imagine having the time to develop these units with another teacher. However, the LMS is in a perfect position to do so since she sees what kids’ research year after year. This is also a good way to get involved in the classroom and to make the school look good as everyone knows that cross curricular lessons are all the rage now.
Blogs
School Library Journal posted “LJ's First Virtual Ebook Summit Is a Big Hit” on 9/30/2010. Many good ideas were mentioned in this posting. This was an overview of the major points from the conference focusing on eBooks. The assumption is that eReaders will become like cell phones in the next few years. Therefore, libraries are now spending a sizable portion of their budget on them. However, as one panelist mentioned, that unlike cell phones, eReaders will result in a digital divide. Unlike a cell phone, which can be justified as a life saving apparatus in addition to the sheer convenience of a parent not having to wait outside the mall for an hour while their teen wanders around inside, an eReaders is just not high on the list for some people. The unintentional side effect of libraries switching steadily over to electronic content is that those kids who are left without an eReader will be left behind with books that are outdated. Though I don’t think that libraries will go all electronic, I am gathering that the movement is gaining momentum quickly. I do have some concern over what will happen to those kids whose parents don’t value reading and who can’t afford an eReader. Another good point was the Kindle, which is not as popular among librarians as a Nook since Amazon deletes content at will. Though as I looked into this I found that, and this is to my understanding only from the Amazon site) that a book can be put on the same Kindle up to six times before it has to be rebought. Though the concern in the SLS post was that each kid would have a Kindle, I’m certain that that won’t be the case for a long, long time. In the meantime, the library can own one Kindle and share its books with the students who have Kindles – or a Kindle app.
On 9/30/2010 Swiss Army Librarian posts “Historical Photo Collection Survey Results.” Though this was straight information concerning what printing selections libraries offer, I think there was an interesting point that was implied here. The fact that 42% of libraries do not offer high quality copies and that and that 75% of libraries surveyed offer only limited or no access to historical photos online seems to say something about what’s happening in society today. Though I am an advocate for the eBooks, history seems to be getting lost in the library nowadays. Based off this posting, historical photos are not convenient to get or satisfying once coped from the public library. But where else can the people go? It seems that the options are limited and the result means that those who are interested may lose interest soon.
On 7/6/2010 posted “Fines, Daycares, and eBooks.” The author of this post was concerned with the idea that libraries charge fines for overdue CDs and movies but not books. Historically, she says, this made sense since CDs and DVDs used to cost so much but now she sees it as a way of telling patrons that those things are more important that the books in the library. She has a good point about that. It does seem to be sending the wrong message to people. Then she launches into an explanation of what fines really do. She gives a study that a daycare did where they started fining parents who were late to pick up their kids in the hopes that they would be on time, much like we do with library books. Then the daycare discovered that late pickups skyrocketed because it was worth it for the people to be late. The author of the post comes to the conclusion that people are more likely to do what’s right (return library books on time) when they aren’t being punished. As we all know in education, praise works better than punishment. Though the average patron won’t care at all if we say good job, self-rewards still seem to motivate more than punishing. So really, if they really want to keep Twilight for another month while they finish it, why can’t they?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)