Visibility, core standards, and the power of the story: Creating a visible future for school libraries

Todd, R. J. (2012). Visibility, core standards, and the power of the story: Creating a visible future for school libraries. Teacher Librarian, 40 (1), 8-14, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1115270137?accountid=10043

Summary:

Using stories as a data collection tool, this article examines narratives from effective school library programs to explore how teacher librarians can overcome “occupational invisibility”. Dr. Todd sees Common Core implementation as a vehicle for increasing the visibility of the school librarian with its focus on developing deep knowledge and inquiry-based learning. Examples of effective school libraries are given demonstrating how they support and contribute to student learning through integrated instruction that provides information literacy skills as well as curriculum content through engagement with appropriate resources.

Dr. Todd’s vision includes the  “...the school library as a pedagogical center; the school librarian primarily working as a coteacher; the focus on curriculum knowledge and meeting syllabus standards; and the implementation of an inquiry-based pedagogy.” He suggests this will improve the visibility of the importance of teacher librarians to student achievement and describes the library as the center of a school; integral to the implementation of all curriculum.

Evaluation:

I appreciate this article’s focus on the school librarian as having teaching as the core of their responsibilities. I also thought the idea that 21st century skills are not just about navigating and using information but actually using those skills to build knowledge was well stated. Some administrators and other teachers tend to focus on the information part of the technology without following through to explore how students will use the technology and information to increase their content knowledge.

A critical eye on the teaching infographic

Dr. Loertscher just sent out this link to an infographic about what makes a great teacher.

I read over it and it has some great ideas. The information about the number of teachers increasing was noteworthy, and the the strategies running along the right-hand side are important to think about:
-adjust teaching strategies and lesson plans to cater to their student's needs
-identify ambitious goals to improve the effectiveness of their teaching
-encourage family participation in their programs and advocate learning opportunities outside of school
-focus on student learning & increasing the value of class time
-treat standardized tests as a target for students, not as a metric for lesson plan development

Yep, these are some of the very important qualities that make up a good teacher. Some others are missing:
-the ability to collaborate with colleagues to increase student achievement
-respecting and embracing the many types of diversity found in our classrooms
-choosing to engage with professional development to continuously improve our practice

There are so many others, and obviously this is just a small infographic (although a very wordy one--I don't think it's very good).

There are also some very problematic ideas on here. I am not comfortable with these actions being promoted as qualities of a great teacher--in fact, the national teacher of the year. These type of expectations set up teachers for burning out and leaving the profession. In parentheses I wrote what I have personally seen as the impact of some of these actions.
-giving up lunch periods to help students (not having a break at work and ending up stressed and hungry)
-ensuring that every student has a ride (allowing students to depend on you, rather than helping them find a sustainable way to get to and from school)
-doing her students' laundry when their clothes have been dirty for some time (I've only seen this go on at the gym...but how do you get a kid to give you their dirty clothes?)
-working more than 20 hours per week outside the classroom (not having decompression time, putting a family and friends on hold)
-spending $2,000 to $3,000 on students (giving up potential retirement savings and stressing about money)

I was under pressure from my school and other organizations to sacrifice extraordinary amounts of time, money, and energy for my students. I did it for four years, but then I recognized that it was not sustainable for me. I'm grateful to still be in education as a teacher librarian, and to have time to spend with my family and relaxing. I feel very strongly that we should not be encouraging new teachers to continue working in this type of way. I would rather see someone develop more slowly as a teacher, but make a commitment to it as a career. The things that Ms. Mielwocki does are exactly what leaves classrooms with new teachers year after year after year.

I've chosen to support new teachers in the past and this year I am training to be a new teacher mentor with the Beginning Teacher Support and Advise (BTSA) program. I won't sit by and watch wonderful teachers burn out year after year.

What do you think?

____________________________________________________________

Posted by Allyson Bogie

Retrieved from http://www.topteachingcolleges.net/great-teachers/

Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries - 12 differences

1.  Posted by Gonzales, Charlotte

2.  APA Citation: Johnson, D. (2010, March 02). Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries - 12 differences [weblog post]. Retrieved from http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/3/2/yesterdays-libraries-tomorrows-libraries-12-differences.html.

Link:  Yesterday's libraries, tomorrow's libraries

3.  Summary:  Contrasting libraries of the past to libraries of the future.  

4.  I thought this blog post was a short and sweet way to show where libraries will be going in the future and what roles librarians will have to ensure libraries meet these goals.

Discussion - Librarian/Library/Learning Commons Role in the 21st Century School

Marc Crompton

I hope that I'm not stepping on toes to be the first to chime in here, but one of our course readings has prompted a string of questions in my head that I would love to get some feedback on.  The reading that I'm talking about is:

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Empowering learners : Guidelines for school library media programs. Chicago, Ill.: American Association of School Librarians. 

I've written two blog posts on Empowering Learners so I won't go into too much detail.  Please feel free to visit my blog to follow through more fully.  I will say that I found the book to be a great relief in that it lends much greater clarity to my current role heading up a 8-12 library in a private school in Vancouver.  The job description that I inherited was very vague.  Given the history of the particular job in the school, the circumstances of my hire and the rapidly changing role of school librarians in general, this is not overly surprising.  The detail that Empowering Learners goes into helped me to clarify what I am doing right and where my weaknesses might be.  This I truly appreciate.

The big questions that came up in my mind are addressed in my blog but I would love to address here as well.  The first question(s) revolve around the degree with which school librarians and schools in general adhere to the AASL guidelines.  I am probably safe in saying that I may be the only person in my school that has read the document.  I certainly am not held accountable to it in any way.  Are there schools, districts or states that have elevated the guidelines to policy?  I know that we don't have a parallel document in Canada (nor a parallel organization any more) so I am unaware of it being used as policy anywhere.

My second, and more interesting question is more about the role of the Library/Learning Commons in general.  Empowering Learners often speaks of the Librarian being on a school administrative level.  This makes me wonder where the line between the role of librarian and school administrator lies.  This relates the building itself.  I have been involved in a school building master plan committee that is working with an amazing education building design firm.  Many of their example buildings tend to focus around commons areas.  My question to them was where the library function fits when the entire school is based around commons spaces.  One of the concepts that we discussed was that the library becomes ubiquitous in the same that information is ubiquitous.  The concise version of the question becomes where are, or are there, walls in a Learning Commons/21st Century School Library?  While walls restrict, they also help to define.  The more a school librarian's role is everywhere in the school, the harder it becomes to define the role.  I'm very curious to hear other thoughts.