Elementary School Observation

I had the opportunity to visit an Elementary School media center this past week. Since my main observation site is a high school, I wanted the opportunity to see what a teacher-librarian’s roles were in these younger grade levels. It was an entirely different atmosphere: I noticed the layout of the media center placed the most emphasis on helping students access the resources the facility had to offer.  There were large signs indicating popular authors on the shelves, the computers were located in a separate, spacious area, and the nonfiction section had signs on each shelf listing the Dewey Decimal numbers and the subjects students could find within each range of numbers.  Students seemed to have no trouble navigating the collection, and I was impressed with the students’ ability to research independently and use the computers for different educational activities.  In some ways, these younger students appeared to have stronger research skills than many of the high school students with whom I’ve interacted this semester.

The librarian, Mrs. Frost, was energetic and enthusiastic about her job.  She explained that she viewed herself not only as a librarian, but a valuable member of the school’s support staff.  Mrs. Frost explained the importance of volunteering for school functions and ensuring the school understood the importance of the media center and its specialist.  Her schedule, to my surprise, was quite flexible for an Elementary School librarian –– she had a flexible schedule for the first half of every day and worked on a fixed schedule the last half of the day.  Every week, this schedule would alternate.  I found it to be confusing, and Mrs. Frost admitted that it could be difficult to get used to. Because of this, she emphasized the importance of planning ahead and always being prepared to adapt to each day’s requirements.

Although the media center was small, I thought it was quite welcoming.  Mrs. Frost explained that they had renovated recently, and the space was much larger than what she had to work with before.  During my observations, I helped check books in and out, learned about budgeting and the demographics of the school and community, and aided Mrs. Frost in planning the school’s upcoming Farm Day event.  I felt as if I was very “hands-on” in this observation, which is something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do in even my main field experience site.  Mrs. Frost was helpful and supportive, and she invited me to come back to volunteer whenever I had the opportunity.  I think I’ll take her up on the offer.

 

School Improvement Plans

 

 

One of the many responsibilities of my supervisor is leading the School Improvement Team, where they create the School Improvement Plan (SIP).  The team meets quite frequently to discuss the school’s vision and mission, and then they create a document, the actual SIP, to present to the rest of the school system by the end of the year.  My supervisor works on the plan quite a bit, so I have had the opportunity to see how the team really works, as well as the results of the SIT’s many meetings.

According to the rough draft of the SIP, the school’s vision for the next year is to incorporate more technology into each classroom, helping students become well-informed 21st Century learners.  The initial plan is to implement the many functions of Google Drive within the school, including Docs, Presentations, Forms, and more.  Using this concept, my supervisor came up with an extremely creative way to present this plan, which I believe will be an effective way to inform the School System of what they plan to do.

First, my supervisor will request that PCs are available for all those attending the presentation event.  Then, the presentation will include the faculty and staff following along through Google Drive, discovering the SIP while learning how to utilize these useful tools.  The idea is that if educators are comfortable using the tools, they will be more likely to include them in class lessons.  Plus, educators will be able to serve the students and teach them about these technological resources more effectively. My supervisor believes this presentation style will not only convey their information effectively, but it will also provide an educational experience for all involved.

 

Update: MLA Instruction

For my goals project, I am conducting a short MLA instruction.  I have designed this lesson to encourage students to research and access information independently, which is something collaborating teachers have told me is a huge area for improvement. Finally, I have been able to meet with the collaborating teacher to place the finishing touches on the Goals Project.

The Junior-level students are required to write a research paper on a career of interest to them. This research paper acts as the first component of their Senior Project, and before now, they have never been instructed on educational research and have only touched on writing in MLA format.  When I met with Mrs. Young, she was highly concerned about these research papers.  The essays she’d assigned previously this semester were written poorly, and she assessed that all three of her classes were behind regarding writing in MLA.  In the process of planning my goals project, I knew I would be teaching MLA, basic research skills, and information access, but meeting with Mrs. Young allowed me to highlight areas where there was additional need.

To the instructional lesson we added evaluating resources, choosing appropriate websites, and quoting/paraphrasing. I curated materials on Pinterest, naming the board [School] Resources, and also included my assessment survey for the students to complete at the end of the lesson.  Finally, Mrs. Young added the board to her class website, where the students could access it at anytime throughout the project process.  We hope this will encourage students to access information on their own, use technology tools, and become independent researchers.

I’m still waiting on the results of the survey. The students have until the end of May to complete their projects, and they can access the Pinterest Board as often as needed. Hopefully, I will understand the overall effectiveness and impact of my goal’s project by the close of the semester.

 

Overcoming Challenges

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that my supervisor faces many different challenges each day.  These difficulties ranges from a simple paper jam in the printer to working around full schedules to meet the needs of the school.  My conclusions? School Librarians must be prepared for anything to happen.  They must be adaptable, diplomatic, and level-headed to face the challenges of the day.  While I have yet to deal with overly trying situations in the library, I would like to share a small portion of what I’ve experienced.

My goals project, which I will discuss in greater detail in an upcoming post, involves providing students with available resources they can consult when writing papers and conducting research.  My product is one I wish to leave with the school, but I am meeting with a Junior English class to measure the project’s overall effectiveness and impact on learning.  During this project, I have tried multiple times to communicate with the collaborating teacher, but my attempts have received limited response.  It seems I’m getting to a point now where we are reaching a mutual plan (it’s only taken three months). However, this experience has allowed me to understand what to expect when working on some collaborative activities.  I’ve learned it takes much communication, persistence, and time to ensure both the teacher and librarian are on the same page as far as instruction and purpose of the activity, and often, these three keys to success are not always easily attainable.  I’m interested to see how this project concludes, as it’s taken many changes to my original plan to get to this point.