Deep Thinking

Stop saying “no”! Perhaps librarians need to listen to a little Oklahoma with Ado Annie singing “I’m just a girl who cain’t say No” to help get in the service mentality. Take one day and track how many yes’ s and how many no’s you share. Make sure you count all the various ways you say NO. For example, I hear “No. That’s not allowed. That violates our policies. I don’t have time. You’ll just have to look on your own. It’s not in. We don’t own it. We don’t do that. We don’t allow that. We can’t have that. We don’t like that. Students aren’t allowed to … We can’t afford that. We don’t have that. We’ve never done that.”

Nearly twenty years ago during library school training there were a couple messages that helped form my character:

Instead of pointing, get up and take them there.
Say “YES”, say “maybe”, say “I wish I could” and reduce the “no’s.”

Look for opportunities to change the no into a special yes. Friday at the very end of the day, two boys were desperate to take out an extra book for the weekend. They wanted to read it while they stayed overnight and they’d been waiting for it to return for 3 weeks. Why should I say “no” when they could simply take it, enjoy it, and bring it back for someone else on Monday? We have made it a habit of allowing an extra book if it’s for research and they are in good standing. By saying yes, will this help instill good memories of libraries as special places where good things happen?

There’s a reason why the top of my doorway in the hall has a banner hanging saying “Welcome Back”. Am I creating an environment of positive learning? Do students value boundaries as part of our team management of their/our library?

Which titles do students ask about the most when they first enter the library?
* Guiness World Records (they can’t take out the 2007 until our 2nd copy arrives so earlier editions are key)
* Origami Paper Animals
* Mighty Robot, Ricky Ricotta, and Captain Underpants
* Pokemon
* Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus
* dragon books
* Pokemon

The students DO know where these books belong, or as we call it “where these books live in the library”, but they have learned that we frantically check in books to put on the carts until we have time to put them away, so the child who asks first might be the winner.

What’s in demand at your library?

I asked that question today as a 4th grade teacher and I prepared to teach a lesson on extracting information from an online encyclopedia article. The responses were so terrific I wish I’d been recording what they had to say. I may have to ask the same question of a different group of students to see if they would make the same statements.

Most of the students said that good readers do stuff like read a lot, read long books, read the whole book (not just the first two pages), read the hard books, read fast, are good spellers, remember what they read, try different ways to read, and other similar comments. They said that bad readers don’t read, read books that are too hard so they don’t finish them, read only the first page or two, read only one kind of book, read only books that are baby books, etc.

Their teacher said that she didn’t think there was any such thing as a “bad” reader, but that all readers have different skills and that anyone could become a good reader by learning these new skills. I talked about good readers having more stuff to hang their ideas off and more techniques to reading. I demonstrated how I taught myself to speed read during junior high and how I chunk words on some pages and simply read whole lines on others. We compared this to how my hubby dear reads and mentally states every syllable while memorizing the entire book.

Then we showed students how they could learn one new technigue today - skimming & scanning. When they kept getting faster and faster, we praised their new abilities and encouraged them to try more. I printed a 4 page article from Grolier’s NBK on Christmas and numbered the paragraphs to facilitate discussion and study of the article. We began with whole group searching, pair searching, then individual searching. We culminated with using Cloze techniques to solicit student citation of sources. But the highlight of the lesson was the very thoughtful discussion of good readers. Everyone was participating. Since these students were the low to average readers, I appreciated the opportunity to debunk their myths on reading. Everyone can become a good reader.

Series reading, not serious reading, is what my students are excited about. The cart I am currently processing full of NEW books has many series titles. Not just the fiction titles that you automatically assume like Bailey School Kids, the Lighthouse Family, Ghostville Elementary, Ricky Ricotta and such, but nonfiction series like the Rourke Discovery Series, Eye to Eye with Dogs, Bridgestone books, etc. While I work on readying these books, I have a constant circle of students browsing.

Two years ago we purchased 92 books in a nonfiction series set and challenged the low, low readers in fourth grade to work their way through the series. This activity was a BIG HIT! Students will beg me to copy the pages listing other books by the same author or in the same series and they walk around with lists they are checking off. Students are reading the backs of nonfiction books like the DK set to find others. They scan for publisher names and look for graphical clues to sets like colors, stars, and symbols.

We purchased a large number of graphic novels in a wide variety of topics and the students are trying to bribe me to let them be in the top 3 to check out the new books. Capstone Press and Stone Arch are suddenly words the kids use. I hear “Have you read the new graphic library history series by Capstone Press?” “No, I’m reading the new Graphic Library from Stone Arch.”

Students are creating their own bookmarks with lists of titles in a series so they can print and share with their friends. Through everyday activities they are utilizing the same tools Amazon.com incorporates for adults. Go, readers and read on!

Did I mention that I have him in my school? Bob Wolfgang is his name and the fact that he intends to retire this year just makes me want to tear up all those calendars counting down the end of school! I wish you could experience a year with a principal who is supportive of reading and libraries, who understands the higher purpose of education and who sees the children beyond their behaviors.

Today one of the Kdg boys “J” decided he wasn’t receiving enough attention and threw over his heavy wooden chair while he was sitting at the computer then stood with his arms folded defiantly. I calmly moved the chair away from everyone and went back to teaching all the others spread out around the room. Since the class of 20 was divided into two, I pointed his behavior out to his teacher who said to “call the office” for the principal. Now “J” has had a really rough year. He has a twin (we have 3 sets of twins in kdg this year) and had been with his twin in one classroom with a brand-new-to-kdg teacher. They were split apart and both moved into separate classrooms with different teachers to try to bring behavior under control. New teacher hasn’t established a relationship with “J” yet and he is enjoying a little notoriety. So, what did principal do when he came down?

He removed child from others’ view, discussed proper behavior, then led him back to the computer to complete the project WITH him. They spent some time together learning, laughing, and exploring the program and “J” was able to get back on track and continue working until he was finished. Principal left room. “J” continued rotating centers then came back to me before the class left and said in an angelic voice, “I would like to use the computer to create another project.” Very calmly I reminded him that only people who were in control of themselves could use the computer. He sweetly smiled and said, “I’ll be very good.” Then he proceeded to whip through all the tasks so he could have a second printout to show off. He was so proud of himself.

I was so pleased with the principal’s response because I wanted the child to stay and learn yet needed the extra set of hands for redirection. I believe little experiences of success like this make the difference in a child’s future. These moments of nonthreatening intervention and redirection set the stage for all learning. Sometimes children don’t need to be taken away and isolated, but need to be taught how to interact properly. Sometimes it’s the adults who need the instruction.

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Response from my principal:
I greatly appreciate the comments in your blog site. If that is great, I feel at times that great is a very low standard. That type of response to children is what we should, and I hope that I am about everyday.

I do have to remind some that I am not trying to set records for most kids sent home. It is much more important that we get them re-engaged in learning as quickly as possible. They learn nothing at home and nothing that they need to know hanging out in the office. I have always tried to focus on getting children over the temporary trauma and back to the main task.

Thank you for nominating this blog for an Edublog award. I appreciate the opportunity to see the innovative blogs “out there” and encourage everyone to check out archives of this and those blogs when you are a first time viewer. Thanks and enjoy your voting.

I meet many people doing awe-inspiring activities with technology at middle and high school levels. Through blog reading and participating in 2.0 activities, I feel like I am experiencng many of the new trends while I struggle to obtain the equipment we need. Yet, in my daily POW (place of work) my greatest ability lies in my being able to break any task or skill needed in the future into the various stages of development of my users.

Let’s look at one group of students at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon. This class has their third substitute teacher since their first one was married and has moved. We have a “most challenging” unbelievable group of kindergartners that have caused a great prayer movement among our faculty members. (I pray before every kdg class for strength this year.) So along with dealing with all their emotional chaos, I will enable them to master their standards in integrated reading, writing, speaking, listening, social studies, science, math and technology while inspiring them to be lifelong learners. While they were working in centers in the library, one group was at the computer mastering working with clicking, dragging, resizing graphics and recognizing/recreating patterns in text and image. Actually a pretty basic activity but it must be developed and become second nature as students progress so they can easily focus on the content, not the actual hand movements.

Here were some of the problems:

* a group of fourth graders came down to “help” for their fun Friday activity and promptly took the mouse away from everyone and “did” the activity, printed it out, and pronounced their finale within 5 minutes.

* after instructing all of them AGAIN that the fourth graders couldn’t touch, they could only stand and answer questions while the kindergartners learned to move the mouse, the fourth graders decided it was really hard to be a teacher.

* none of our mice are the same. They get hard usage and we take whatever donations we can get. Since I work a second job, I calculate that I have to work one hour to provide an new mouse out of my pocket when one breaks.

* when some of the students grasp the concept and learn how to save, print, and begin again, they promptly create 5 or 6 products and won’t give up the activity for anyone else.

* one little girl (let’s say “D”) put her head down and sobbed because she couldn’t grasp the idea of clicking and holding down the mouse button and everyone else was finishing.

So I sat beside D and showed her how funny the mouse really is. We dangled it upside down. I took it apart to show her how it worked. We clicked it in the air to see what would happen and if something would go wrong. I put it in her hands with mine cupped around it and showed her how to click and how to release over and over. Then we placed it on the table with my hand over hers and learned how to move it side to side and up and down. We learned how to point somewhere to click and see what appears. Then using Kidspiration we sat side by side with both of us on computers and raced around the screen clicking madly and watching pictures appear. When she beat me and had more pictures, we started over calmly and talked about how we wanted to control where the pictures went, so we went back to practicing clicking slowly and dragging images around the screen. We discussed exactly what we were doing and thinking with lines like “I’m at the end of the mouse pad and still need to move the picture over to the right, so I’m going to keep pressing down on the button but lift my whole hand (arm) and move it back, set it down and keep sliding my picture over.” We cheered each time a picture went where we wanted and did the high fives when we had our successful print out. PHEW! No more tears.

It actually took 4-5 minutes to do this with D, but I have great hopes for our investment of time in her future. Often these kdg girls need to know that they can do I.T., technology is just one more thing to figure out how to make it mind, and doing something slowly but with thought can be even better than quickly finishing.

Why do I spend so much time with the little ones when I am very capable of teaching high-level information literacy curric. and could be training new LMS? The social aspect of integrated technology! While I was working with D, one of her teammates was standing behind her patting her on the back and letting her know that she was loved. The atmosphere of helpfulness permeates our library. Everyone is encouraged to try new things. Failure is not an end, but a mid point. If we can instill these ideas now, just think what these children can accomplish later in life.

As part of the AASL Vision Summit we brainstormed some of the past trends for school librarianship. I appreciate the varying ways we approached the topic as you can see by some of the charts. This group approached the topic with bends at every decade hence the pentagon.

This group approached our history by charting the impact financial resources have had on our programs. Notice the waves. As we anticipate an upward trend and another wave of funding in the next 10 years, will you be ready to capitalize on the wave?

This chart shows how we can get sidetracked and run in circles in our profession. We don’t always travel the same path, yet we will all end up facing the same future.

This group looked at the history through our standards. We discovered that in the 1920’s “enthusiasm and the ability to teach and inspire” were valued.

This group used the idea of many strands that could all be twisted together much like DNA twists. There is a strand for our profession, education in general, and technology. I can also envision a strand for students as learners and one for parents and other’s view of us.

What aspects of our history interest you? How do you see the past influencing the future? Do our users really care? Does it help guide us to new trends or does it hold us back as we focus only on ourselves?

We were brainstorming our visions for the future and I veered off down my own thought path for a time.

What if in the future someone called my library and heard this message:

Welcome to the library information center and the services of our professional staff members….
To ask a question and get immediate help, press one.
To request time with the librarian for instruction and planning, press two.
To access files and e-books or have documents sent to you, press three.
To participate in a conference call, press four then enter your class code.
To take the assessment on literacy for a course, press five then enter your class code.
To upload files for the librarian to read and critique, press six.
To locate partners for a class, team, or individual project, press seven.
To review and download podcasts of lessons and new media, press eight.
To reflect upon your learning and create a podcast, press nine.
To leave a positive comment on libraries, literacy, and the librarian, press zero and be sure to notify your local school board and legislators on the impact school libraries have on student achievement.

I am so fortunate and honored to have been chosen as Tennessee’s delegate to the AASL Vision Summit in Chicago Dec. 1-3. By some fluke yesterday when I didn’t receive the email notification that my 3rd attempt to fly out of Nashville to Chicago had been cancelled, I simply went to the airport and they put me on a flight 20 minutes later. Those waiting knew that flight had been there an extra 3 hours, but for me, I simply walked up and was slipped into the next flight. What are the odds?! On the plane the stewards tossed out 4 bags of snacks since they knew everyone was hungry and we had a happy time flying into Chicago with a grateful group of people so relieved to be going there (No grumblers in the bunch) My luggage even arrived first off the plane, the shuttle was right there, and my internet is free in the hotel since I signed up as a frequent guest. I met up with Julie Walker and school librarians from New Mexico, Idaho and Kansas City and we had a fun time eating downstairs and talking shop/ethics/social dynamics/etc.

One of the most fun preparing for this Vision Summit has been the suggested reading. I finally finished taking my notes, highlight, writing arguments and lesson plans/activites based upon my reading of this paper. The word librarians only shows up in 2 paragraphs and school libraries are mentioned only as places of access and as protection. Still, if you are interested in thinking, this is a wonderful article to scaffold your personal exploration of participatory culture. I really appreciated the diverse list of Sources though I’d like to note that the school library bloggers are not represented. Let’s get out there and be heard!

This is the paragraph that I originally received and the explanation:

If you are interested in some optional, provocative pre-reading, download the paper, “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” (Note: this is 68 pages). For those of you who just want to peruse, there is an Executive Summary on p. 3 - 4 and a “Who Should Respond” on pp. 56 - 60. http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029245/k.C5DF/Results.htm The paper was commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation and written by Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT.

One final note: when I happily checked in at the hotel and we laughed that I was able to escape my chaotic household of 4 teenage boys, 2 dogs, one cat, and hubby dear plus not having to work at any of the other 3 jobs I had for the weekend, the hotel staff enthusiastically told me that I had a room in the quiet zone. When you closely examine the sign you will read:

Welcome to the Quiet Zone
Please be considerate of other guests.
Our promise to all guests staying in this area is to extend the following courtesies:
* No housekeeping or maintenance activities between 9 p.m. and 10 a.m.
* No children, leisure groups, marching bands or circus animals will be assigned to this area.
We ask in return that you do your part in keeping noise to a minimum by
* Keep TV and radio to a low volume.
* Ensure guest doors do not slam.
* No loud singing in the shower.

Julie seems to think they may have assigned me to this floor to make me be quiet. I thought they knew I needed the quiet to rejuvenate. I know you won’t believe me so I took a photo here: