10/25/2010 Access to Info

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.