Deep Thinking

In 1991 I assisted my first student teacher in Highland Park, Illinois. When I later went on maternity leave that same year, she was able to be my substitute. I loved the experience, but was so very nervous at the time because I wanted to be sure that I was doing enough to assist her. At the end of that school year I ended up moving out of state and began a long process of gaining experience in a variety of settings: rural, urban, military, and suburban school libraries and classrooms. With the attractive, affluent schools available in counties surrounding mine, there is not a large number of student teachers looking for supervising teachers here. This year in January 2006 I am once again reconnected and am supervising a student teacher. I find the experience rejuvenating and stretching. It is reaffirming and exhilarating. Reminds me why I love this job so much that I work a second job to feed the 4 hungry teens in my house.

Imagine the shock this student teacher had when I had to leave the school to attend ALA Midwinter with her having only 1 day experience with me in the library and more casual visits earlier! The first two days were calm, but then Monday hit! With classes coming every 15 minutes to make up for the “weekend dearth of reading materials,” she experienced the overwhelming sense of an extreme checkout day. Returning Tuesday I was able to regroup and divulge the theory and the thought behind the practice. Why do we do the things we do? What is the attitude and expectation underlying practice? How can we manage chaos and maintain a positive environment? I love the experience of seeing this active library through new eyes. Being able to demonstrate the need to prioritize and juggle is so vital to our profession.

During our time together, I have sent a ton of materials home and emailed a few websites. Friday night as I left with only one folder and she staggered out with 2 bags and 5 notebooks, teachers in the hallway told her they could hear the “whip cracking.” Since everyone knows I am far harder on myself than on everyone around me, no one would have been surprised to know I slipped back in over the weekend for more “stuff” to complete at home.

One of the best things I did was encouraging her to sign up for LM_NET. Becoming a subscriber to LM_NET is probably the single most important act I did professionally to take the leap beyond the walls of my library. (Agreeing to serve as an officer in my state and then in Affiliate Assembly would soon follow. )

With her permission, tomorrow I will post some photos I took during one 30 minute time period to show the vast amount of interactions and activity that occur while a literature lesson is going on in the corner. I put them together into a Word document with some captions so she would have a beginning entry for her portfolio to educate her university supervisor on what exactly does happen in a school library.

In the meantime, here are some links to LM_NET’s archives with HITS on student teachers:
HIT by Debra Waugh in 2002 on Activities for Student Teachers
Gloria LeMaster’s Hit from 2000
Lisa Von Drasek’s reply to having a student teacher