This week Joyce Valenza and CathyJo Nelson joined us for a conversation about libraries and the new role of the librarian.
Chat:
Lisa Parisi: Hello
Sheila: Hello
rbuckhoff: Good morning
MariaK: hello
pgeorge: Good morning :-)
Lisa Parisi: Good morning Peggy
edtechtalk: Hi all!
Sheila: Ok now me
Lisa Parisi: We are here.
pgeorge: seeing and hearing now :-)
rbuckhoff: me too!
Lisa Parisi: Click on the little play button on the bottom
to see and hear our show
connect2jamie: hi all! Happy Sunday!
pgeorge: K12 Online conference is eager to do a conversation
with you to announce plans for this year, Have you been contacted yet?
pgeorge: yes!! photos!!
pgeorge: what a beautiful place for a wedding!
CathyJo: hello--still tuggling to getin
CathyJo: struggling
Lisa Parisi: Answer skype. That's where the sound is.
CathyJo: LOL does it not figure the media specialist is
struggling?
Lisa Parisi: LOL
pgeorge: can you use autostitch for that on ipad?
Rebecca Buckhoff: My nikon camera will do time lapse. Use the delay photo settings to set it up.
Sheila: Topic today is the future of libraries.
pgeorge: it stitches multiple pics together
Sheila: We can hear you CAthy Jo!
pgeorge: great topic!!
joycevalenza: sorry, we lost power and cable!
Cathy E: Cathy E- hello all
pgeorge: welcome Cathy and Joyce! Great to hear from both of
you!!
Sheila: Morning all!
CathyJo: agreed
CathyJo: librarian is not going away
connect2jamie: In TX librarians must be teachers first, have
3 yrs classroom experience and a Master's in Library Science. Our certication
is called a Learning Resources Endorsement.
connect2jamie: I like the term teacher-librarian.
CathyJo: SC required a teaching degree first
connect2jamie: We do not have computer tchrs at the
elementary level.
Rebecca Buckhoff: I am an elementary teacher working on my
master's in instructional media. CA does
not require a bachelors degree for a school librarian.
CathyJo: it varies from district to district re tech teacher
connect2jamie: Wow! Not even a bachelor's degree?
Cathy E: I am called a technology facilitator -
Sheila: I know of one district that went from no tech teachers
to librarians and now they have switched back, tech teacher/librarian. Staffing
issues. Now they have to do all for one person.
Rebecca Buckhoff: I know the librarian at my school is
working on her bachelors right now.
Cathy E: There is a tech facilitator at each of our schools
- but the job VARIES a lot between schools
connect2jamie: Great point @CathyJo! I started a master's
degree in edtech and gave it up b/c I found that my mindset is very
library-centric. I just love edtech on top of htat!
connect2jamie: that
pgeorge: do you find teachers view you differently based on
your title? I love the title Teacher Librarian.
CathyJo: Joyce!! HOOK ME UP!!
Rebecca Buckhoff: My students increased the amount they were
reading dramatically when I start a book chat on Edmodo.
connect2jamie: @pgeorge YES! When I first came to my school,
I frequently got the question, "You have to have a degree to be a
librarian? You have taught before?"
We don't get that ? as much anymore.
pgeorge: Great way to do it Rebecca!
Cathy E: What was the grade level of kids reading those
books
pgeorge: Thanks Jamie
Rebecca Buckhoff: I teach a 4/5 combo
Lisa Parisi: Rebecca, I have book groups on Edmodo too. Would love to have you join my fourth
graders.
MariaK: Cathy Jo and Joyce - links to your library sites,
please.
Sheila: Good point Cathy Jo! Many facets.
joycevalenza: http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com
connect2jamie: You are right @Lisa. There is a huge push in
many districts, including mine, that values nonfiction reading and research,
and de-values fiction literature.
MariaK: thanx
connect2jamie: I find that I have to kind of help teachers
"sneak" literature in.
Cathy E: That is a perfect solution
Cathy E: I'm going to school tomorrow and suggest that
Lisa Parisi: Wow, Jamie. That's sad.
joycevalenza: What a beautiful partnership!
pgeorge: excellent advice!!
joycevalenza: I think that's true everywhere
Cathy E: So I have another question...were kids allowed to
come in anytime druing the day to check in/out books? Who checked them in?
joycevalenza: eeek!
joycevalenza: 4th grade is the best time to grab young
readers!!!!
connect2jamie: Yes. Lots of excerpts being read &
studied at elem level, but no whole works in the curriculum. In fact, on each
wk's ELA curriculum, it states something about no novel studies are in the
curriculum.
Rebecca Buckhoff: Our librarian reads to the kids, teaches
library skills and incorporates comprehension activities. Not much research in the library.
connect2jamie: In library time, I try try TRY to do
activities that promote leisure reading, but there is more and more
research/digital citzenship curriculum prescribed for us, and the literature
piece is
Rebecca Buckhoff: I emphasize teaching internet research
skills and incorporate that with book research.
connect2jamie: definitely in danger of being lost. '
Cathy E: @Rebecca that is the way it is at my school- but
there is a full time assistant.
CathyJo: I know several teacher librarians/media specialist
who have never spent adya in the
classroom who are successful
Sheila: I love our librarian. She knows most people's tastes
in books. She also works in unit development with teams and individuals. She is
also our whole school event planner, ie one book, one school, etc.
CathyJo: good idea!!
connect2jamie: @CathyJo Yes I do too, b/c some states do not
requre it. I have a friend from PA that is in that boat.
Cathy E: A good teacher is a teacher no matter the title
joycevalenza: This makes me so sad!
Cathy E: @ Shelia does she teach scheduled classes so the
teachers can hame planning?
connect2jamie: @MariaK that is a realistic worry, I think.
Sheila: No scheduled classes but she will co-teach.
Rebecca Buckhoff: Ours isn't prep. We go for an hour every other week. It varies at every school. The library is also open during recess every
day if kids finish their books.
connect2jamie: Yes! Reading good literature helps develop
writers! That is why it makes no sense to de-value it!
connect2jamie: Standardized tests is what happened, imo.
CathyJo: probably @Jamie
CathyJo: another battle!!!
connect2jamie: I think in many cases, it is the
tchr-librarian that is trying to keep the literature and the storytelling IN
children's lives!
connect2jamie: Levelled books are the bane of my existence!
CathyJo: i have refused to leel books in any library Ive
worked in
CathyJo: lveleing is an invasion of privacy
Rebecca Buckhoff: Leveled books make kids choose books based
on their level rather than their interest.
connect2jamie: A levelled library is an obscene perversion of
a school library program.
CathyJo: why cant upper grade kids check out beloved books
even tho wrong level?
Lisa Parisi: They can Cathy but they have been brainwashed
not to.
Rebecca Buckhoff: Interest based reading makes kids BETTER
readers.
Sheila: Does leveling take the place of staff who could do
this with children individually.
CathyJo: leveling is an instructional tool not a selection
tool
CathyJo: if a class is studying an authors craft, who cares
the leel?
CathyJo: level
connect2jamie: I fight that all the time, @CathyJo--teachers
are soooo pressured to think only about reading levels, and I am always pushing
to let kids have at least SOME books that they choose--regardless of level
connect2jamie: @CathyJo. I'm going to write that down and
use it! Levelling is an instructional tool and not a selection tool. Students
should have the opportunity to select what they want to read.
connect2jamie: Students obviously also need to have
instructionally appropriate choices too. I try to provide an opportunity for
kids to have both.
CathyJo: Picture books have there place in the high school
too
connect2jamie: I used picture books all the time--a million
years ago, when I was a middle school math teacher!
connect2jamie: Tumblebooks is the most popular e-book type
resource with my students. PebbleGo is a nonfiction primary level multimedia
resource that is very popular too.
CathyJo: why an e picture book for the librarian? Use a doc
camera
Rebecca Buckhoff: My daughter is a reluctant reader, but I
get her to read every night when she uses my kindle.
CathyJo: i did use even a camera on a tripod to show the
pics on the screen bigscreen styl
CathyJo: style
CathyJo: swweeeeeettt
CathyJo: our high school kids REALLY respond tp book
trialers
CathyJo: trailees
connect2jamie: Yes our students love to watch and create
book trailers and audio book reviews too. Time is a factor though. I work w
them to create them before/after school, but it's not optimal.
Sheila: How do you envision school libraries in 10 years? Especially
with technology changes.
Sheila: How much will the services change?
CathyJo: you will always need the librarian even ten years
from now because we are the ones that bring our teachers to where the kids
are!!
Cathy E: North Carolina does a great job of having all those
resources listed in one place for us
CathyJo: amen
Sheila: In our discussion, we envisioned public libraries as
open public spaces as we move towards resources on our own devices.
Rebecca Buckhoff: downloading emescatalog app right now.
Lisa Parisi: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/
Rebecca Buckhoff: ok that was not he right thing to
download. ignore last post.
CathyJo: we serve not only students, but admin, faculty,
staff, and even parents who have inforamtion needs or need to learn new things
CathyJo: my teachers constantly tell me how much they
personally learned just by being a bystander in a class Im conducting for kids
CathyJo: In our distirct we do goals based education for
recertification, making teachers choose PD for recert. My teachers have demanded that i offer
courses on various topics for gbe.
CathyJo: SO i am doing a one tool at a time series this year
CathyJo: i throw out the topic--they show up
CathyJo: many of these have immediate application in a
classroom
CathyJo: it generates significantly more collaboration, as
teachers want to implement, but with hep.
Cathy E: @CathyJo - my teachers are required to come to the
lab with their kids when I'm teaching.
That way everybody is in the loop.
CathyJo: great session!!
CathyJo: Lisa that is so sad.
CathyJo: Does she not promote the state book awards in the
least??
CathyJo: our library has 100-150 kids each morning
CathyJo: before school
CathyJo: we also have a full house (half the mornign crew)
during lunches.
CathyJo: of course u should know we have 2500+ kids
Rebecca Buckhoff: I spent large amounts of my free time as a
child in the public library.
Sheila: We have a piano in the library ( middle school), a
recording "studio", comfy chairs. We even hatch chicks there. More
than books!
CathyJo: Hi MAria!!
CathyJo: :)
connect2jamie: yes--thanks so much for hosting this topic
this week!
CathyJo: Gotta go everyone--great as always
Cathy E: great job - I learned so much!
connect2jamie: Thanks CathyJo and Joyce!
Lisa Parisi: http://ettconversations.blogspot.com/
Lisa Parisi: Bye everyone!
connect2jamie: Have a great week, everyone!
Rebecca Buckhoff: Bye!
pgeorge: This has been a great conversation! Thanks to all
of you!