Librarian as Teacher and Learner-Regina 11/2/12

Librarian as Teacher and Learner

    As Sara Johns says, "It's time to make some noise." (p2)    If we as librarians are to succeed in proving that we are more than just the one who dust the books, we are going to have to make that noise.  We are teachers and we do know the Common Core skills that our students are to complete and we do know how to collaborate with our teachers to teach these skills.   We do know how to help calm their nerves as they worry about meeting all the requirements for the Common Core Standards. We are teachers.  We teach skills, technology, research and how to not plagiarize.   We teach our students how to work individually and to cooperate with each other in groups.   We encourage our students to be creative and to use our technology to prove their ability to do so.   We teach.  We are needed and we are worth our school districts money.  It was a sad thing to read about the teachers in Valenza's article.   I do know if I could fight  and defend over and over my position and the need for me as they have had to do. Valenza worries that she may not have "made it perfectly clear that we teach and what we teach."  I too worry about that in my job, have I done everything I can to insure that my superiors see the need for me?   Do they know what I do as their Librarian?   I am the only one who can answer that question.   I teach.  I need that peace of mind that I have done everything within my power to show that I teach.   As the librarian I have to make sure that technology, space, and collaboration are all within my library.  Staff and students alike have to be informed of what you have available for them and that you are there to guide them and help in all manners.  I like the poster that Valenza made that listed what she did. (p4)  That is not a bad idea for all librarians.

    In our text "Empowering Learners" we read that we must "evolve from a 20th Century industrial model to a dynamic, fluid environment that promotes high-order thinking."  As our libraries become the learning commons we will be moving forward as a fluid environment.   We will have provided the open concept of working together in a space that is conductive to learning.  We will have provided a space that is virtual as well as physical.  One of the actions that is listed is for the media specialist to "create an environment of mutual respect and collaboration."(p32)    That is what our libraries today are moving toward in a learning commons and that is what has been accomplished in the video that we viewed on you tube. "CHHS Learning Commons Part 2."   That librarian was valued by her principal and staff and students alike.  She had worked to make the Learning Commons a space for all to create and learn and use the technology that is readily available to students today and she was successful and I am so glad to see that there is hope for us all if we just push ourselves out there and prove that we do teach and that we are as valuable to our school community.   As a manager of the library/learning commons we are the one who brings forward the supplies and provides for the needs of our students and staff.  We are the collector, the gardener of weeding, the jobber of all instructional materials in our library.  We have purchased, begged, and spent our own monies to insure that everything is there for our 21st Century Learner.  We are teachers.  Woolls teaches us in chapter 8 how to manage our libraries.  From records to weeding we learn that the librarian is the teacher, the lawyer, the collector, the gardener, the purchaser and the house keeper.  We wear many hats.  We learned that from parents to law enforcement agents are among those we must contend with on top of our teaching duties.  I have questions concerning our legal jobs from reading this chapter and will post them at the end of my paper.  Woolls teaches of our technology decisions that we will make throughout our careers and that we must make "careful explanation" of everything we do. (p130) Just as we have learned to advocate for our libraries within this class; we must do the same to "implement new technology" for our libraries.  In chapter 10 we begin the chapter with the "four components of school library media programs," they are "personnel, materials, equipment and facility."  Again we learn that the librarian is responsible for it all.  It is beyond me how so many people today can stand up and say that the librarian is not needed.  We attend classes to better ourselves in our jobs.  To ensure that our students are being taught by the best and that we learn about the very newest of everything just to be able to present it to our staff and students.  We learn in the Catone article that education is presented to us online as well as in traditional classroom settings and that more and more the online courses are being utilized by many non traditional students as well as our younger students.  The article says that test scores seem to be better from a student who takes courses online but the article could not say why.  Canton also gives a "framework for online learning" (p2) that from my prospective is no different than classroom attendance learning, we all must learn the same thing, no matter where we sit and the article backs up my opinion on page three.  The article states that how we "apply" what we learn is what is most important.  We will need to "adapt" (p3) ourselves to use the "new tools and methods" learned but that too is something all teachers already have learned.  The point is that online courses will be used to teach the teacher and "online learning is an adequate stand-in" (p4) for the physical professor but not a replacement all together.

Important questions for you to help me with:-thoughts from Woolls chapter 8.

1)  If a parent comes into the library and tells you that she/he does not want their child to read this book or that subject or anything from a certain author or two;  what do you say?  Do you agree and block the child or do you inform the parent that all books in your library are age appropriate for their child or what?  This is not clear in the chapter we read.

2)  If the law officer comes in and subpoena's your records of a teacher or student; do you quickly hand them over or do you call in your superintendent?  Our chapter was confusing to me on this matter.

3)  Do you feel that online learning is less of an education than regular classroom learning or more?

4)  Do you have a selection policy in your library for all materials?