Librarians as a Teacher and a Learner

Does the school library media specialist ever stop teaching and learning?  I am beginning to think that the role of the SLMS is a 24/7 job.  Because if they aren’t keeping up with Common Core, new technology, or applications to use from the internet, then they are teaching all of these plus a whole lot more.

“Teaching for Learning” in Empowering Learners discusses that the SLMS is a “teacher, instructional partner, and information specialist.” (19)  It is their job to be aware of what the curriculum is that is taught to the students and the different teaching and learning styles that happen in the classrooms.  The library takes on the feel of a circus big top.  It is a three ring circus in which with a first look it appears to be chaos, but upon further inspection teaching and learning is happening in each ring.  Here you will see an entire class working on a project, a group of students come to the library to study for a test, or maybe just a student is working on their English presentation on the computer.  

There are several ways that the SLMS is helping to teach for learning.  The SLMS promotes collaboration with the teachers and students and continually push for leaners to lean on and build upon their own understanding.  Teaching for Learning also states that the SLMS “promotes reading as a foundational skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment.” (19)  This is the first common belief in the Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner.  The SLMS teaches reading strategies and provides fun and quality reading material in print or other formats.  They expose teachers and learners to multiple literacies.  Information, media, visual, and technology literacies are constantly changing and require the SLMS is to make sure that learners are knowledgeable about how to use the information that they find.  Students benefit from the collaboration of the teacher and the SLMS to show them that instead of “learning from a right or wrong answer to the process of learning and investigation” will help to create independent life-long learners. (AASL, 25)  One of the best ways for the SLMS to learn to be a more effective support system for the school is to regularly evaluate their program and if it is meeting the needs of the school population.  In the collaboration process, the SLMS and the teacher will provide opportunities by student self-assessments, the student is observed in how he/she works in the classroom with the teacher/SLMS and their progress during the unit of study, by the teacher and SLMS to make adjustments to improve the unit of study, and by the SLMS to make improvements in their own program.  The SLMS is constantly working to improve their SLMP to provide the best services for the school.

Not only does the school library want to be a welcome space for users, but it must also supply the needs of the users.  According to Empowering Learners, “open access to the school library media center’s information resources is essential to student learning.”   The best way for the user’s needs to be met is to provide flexible scheduling for teachers and students.  By creating a flexible schedule, the SLMS has a created more opportunity to be available for the needs of the majority.  I know that at our high school, it seems that there are many times that we must close up shop for large group testing.  This seems to always be at the worst time of the year when students need to access computers to finish projects, or just need to come to a place to study.  Luckily this doesn’t happen too often, but I know that our librarian hates closing the library for this necessary evil.  Another way to provide library access is through the virtual library, otherwise known as the school library Website.  Here students have access to 24/7 library access.  Teachers can have their unit activity pathfinders added to the site, as well as all the sites that the SLMS has linked to the library Website.  Students utilize all the tools that the SLMS provides for such things as: card catalog, citation engines, Website evaluations, databases, classroom pathfinders (as previously mentioned), public library links, and many more things that allow them to get the job done.

How can the school library media program provide the needs of the learners if the SLMS does not provide a strong collection of various media types for the learners?  “Building the Learning Environment” in Empowering Learners states that the “collection and information access in the school library media center support teaching and learning by providing diverse sources of information that match curricular needs … and are high interest to students.” (39)  The SLMS does not do this alone, nor does he/she not do her homework when making their selections.  It is important to have input from teachers and students.  Understanding the curriculum needs of teachers and of the school’s focus is also important.  Keeping a current collection by not only purchasing new materials, but weeding material that is no longer up-to-date is equally necessary.  The SLMS is constantly reviewing the collection to make sure that the SLMP is meeting the needs of all library patrons.

Chapter 8, “On the Job: Managing Access to Information” in The School Library Media Manager by Wools takes a look at how the SLMS controls the information that the library takes in and the information the students use in the library.  The SLMS must always protect the privacy and rights of the library user.  The SLMS has to battle web filters and the technology team to provide learners access to information.  It is frustrating to have so many options on the internet and have them blocked.  Also, another frustrating aspect is having sites filtered because they may contain language that are target words.  I understand that some stuff on the internet is not good at all, but these filters don’t register content but only words.  Understanding copyright laws is important to teach, as students pull so much material off the internet and use in their projects.  Not only do you need to understand copyright, but also fair use, creative commons, and royalty free.  Copyright has become muddied for the user to understand.  Technology is another part of information access that the SLMS must choose wisely to provide the best system for all library users.  A very large part of information access is the print and non-print materials that students and teachers will use.  The SLMS encourages input from teachers and students about what they would like and/or need in the library, which makes building and maintaining a library collection an ongoing process.  The SLMS must also have a selection policy in place for both print and non-print materials.  This would include books, databases, music, eBooks, magazines, and audiobooks.  Adding to the collection also requires books to be weeded.  The internet is not a collection, but students need to be able to choose credible sites that will enhance the books and databases that are available for the students.  How do you acquire your materials and equipment?  Many prefer to use a  jobber, such as Follett.  They provide the books, the cataloguing, binding, and an upload of all books to your card catalog.  Woolls also suggests that “creating rapport with the business manager is as important as making friends with the administrators in the building and with the custodial staff.” (139)  This will make your job and their job easier when placing the order.  Lastly, being able to access the information in a logical and marketable manner takes thought and openness to change.  This includes the physical and virtual library.

Chapter 10, “On the Job: Managing Services” by Woolls states that “services are planned with full knowledge of the curriculum, teaching methods, assignments given by teachers, planned activities in the classrooms that require media center support, and activities in the media center itself” (162)  The SLMS must understand the curriculum that is in the school.  Woolls mentions housing textbooks in the library in order to be more familiar with the curriculum, as well as the curriculum guides.  I think that most schools house these on the school Website for anyone to access.  According to Woolls that not always using the textbook “allows media specialists to plan experiences that will help teachers both expand curriculum experiences across the school and to encourage their use of more individualized and group activities that will meet the needs of students.” (165)  Students become more actively engaged in their own learning.  The SLMS provides services in the library and in the classroom.  In the classroom, the SLMS takes on more of the role of a teacher.  This may not be the ideal situation for the SLMS, but is doable.  Of course the library is the best choice where students can have instant access to all the services that the library has to offer.  There are some services that may be required by the state or district library coordinator, but other services that are offered in the library should meet the needs of the students and teachers.  To make that possible, the SLMS must understand those needs.  Some ways in learning their needs to ask for their input in what they want or need.  This is especially true for teachers.  An important service that the SLMS can provide for the teachers is in-service training.  This can be accomplished by the SLMS or an outside party.  Here the SLMS can introduce teachers to new concepts and Websites that can be useful to their curriculum.  These new concepts must be practical to the teacher’s and the school’s needs.   Woolls suggest that the SLMS could introduce a pilot program before reaching out to all the staff.  The SLMS must be diligent in convincing teachers and students that these concepts and services are good for their classrooms, and as Woolls says, “enticing users into the media center remains a major management task.” (176)

“What is the Future of Teaching?” by Josh Catone addresses online education in the future of learning, and that through a study conducted by the US Department of Education found that “online learning environments actually led to higher tested performance than face-to-face learning environments.”  One thing he made clear was that these results didn’t necessarily show that the classroom was a less effective source of learning.  Catone also talked about three types of education that happen online.  There is expository education, in which the learner can only receive information.  Active education allows the learner to acquire knowledge by using the online tools.  Lastly, interactive education creates learning through collaboration with others.  “It comes down to knowing how to best use these tools at your disposal to maximize the impact of education for students.”  This is the responsibility of the SLMS to guide these learners through the maze of online tools and show them how to make the most of these tools to be effective learners.

“’Library Skills’ = Information Literacy Skills = Common Core Skills” by Sara Kelly Johns is emphatic that the SLMS needs to take this now opportunity in “promoting and marketing our role as absolutely necessary for implementing the Common Core in our schools.”   Johns also states that “school librarians teach Common Core skills.”  Common Core wants students to “conduct…research projects”, gather information, and “draw evidence…to support analysis, reflection, and research.”  These are all skills that we teach students through the library.  We are the teacher’s partner to understanding and using the Common Core skills.  This is what we do.  We are there from planning through evaluation.  It has to be a team effort in order to accomplish the requirements at hand.  It is the job of the SLMS to know the Common Core Standards thoroughly in order to provide for the teachers and students.  Luckily, much of the Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner and the Common Core Standards are similarly worded.  Johns believes that Common Core is here to stay for quite a while and is a great way to prove the need to always have an SLMS to guide the school through these Common Core Standards.

In Joyce Valenza’s blog , “Tell Me, What Do You Teach?” Los Angeles Unified School District has had many battles in the past, and this will not be the last, but to place librarians on “trial” to determine their worth is to say the least an insult.  Why didn’t they just walk into the library to watch and learn?  Wouldn’t  that have been a better  method to find out what they do?   Valenza asks, “how do we get others to understand what we actually do/teach?”  It seems that this is what the SLMS is always striving to accomplish in their job.  She has created a poster that describes all the things that she does in her library.  This is reproducible and could easily be changed to make it what you want. 

Crescent Heights J.H & H.S. YouTube video is a great way to showcase the learning and teaching that happens in the learning commons.  The interviews are testimonies of what truly happens between the students, teachers, and the SLMS.  “I value the Library” and “it isn’t just about the diploma exams and achievement tests, it’s about the excitement of learning that can happen when we’re all working together,” by Rick Lane the principal at CHHS makes such a proud statement about the SLMP at their school and how none of this is possible without their librarians.  Also, how many times do you get to hear a principal make a statement that places learning above state testing?  It seems so often that this is the school focus and not about making learning fun and the priority.  I really could hear all the interaction going on in the background during the interviews and you could tell that the learning commons was filled with activity.  What a different way to approach book talks, by creating “best of the best” books in the library.  In fact it looked like the students got to help with developing the “best of the best” books.   Crescent Heights would be a good learning commons to look into to see how they have put their program together.

We are all teachers and learners in the library, whether you are the teacher, student, or SLMS.  The SLMS works hard to make this a seamless process for the teachers and students.  The SLMS doesn’t do all this for recognition, but unfortunately they have to constantly prove their position, such as the video by Crescent Heights, the large poster created by Joyce Valenza, or even the LAUSD librarians fighting to prove that they do teach and provide more than books to read.

 

1.      Do you see your school librarian constantly battling the need to prove her position?  And what are some of those ways that they use to prove their position?

2.       What are some things that you would add to your own poster, like the one Joyce Valenza created?  Or, what are some things that you wish you were able to add to your own poster?

3.      Has your school begun to discuss and/or implement Common Core into the curriculum and has there been discussion as to how the SLMS fits into the plan?

 

Works Cited:

AASL, Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Chicago: AASL,

     2009. Print.

Catone, Josh. “What Is the Future of Teaching?” Mashable 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

Johns, Sara Kelly. “’Library Skills’=Information Literacy Skills=Common Core Skills.” Make Some  

     Noise. 23 March 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

Librarycommons. "CHHS Learning Commons Part 2." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 04 

     Nov. 2012.

Valenza, Joyce. “Tell Me, What Do You Teach?” NeverEndingSearch. 26 May 2011. Web. 30 Oct.

     2012.

Woolls, Blanche. The School Library Media Manager. Westport: Libraries, 2008. Print.