Texas schools in the Hunger Games

So as we continue along through National Library Week, another librarian I admire works closer to me.  Sara Stevenson is the librarian at a local middle school.  Periodically she writes opinion pieces published in our paper. Last week she had a piece comparing the testing situation in the state of Texas to the novel The Hunger Games.  It was spot on!  I am so envious--I wish I was that clever, eloquent, well-spoken.....well, you get the picture.

I love Sara's passion for school libraries and the way she writes -- people understand the problems we face.  Not just in the library world but with education across our state in general. Too much testing, not enough instructional time--these are problems affecting all of us, not just librarians. 

This article was especially good because of the analogy to the Hunger Games, the hot title of the moment.  She compares Gov. Perry to President Snow.

                    Instead of investing in the state's own citizens, Texas legislators, along with Gov. Rick Perry (aka "President Snow"), chose to pour $468 million in tax dollars into a British company, Pearson, for developing a new round of high-stakes tests: the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.

And the analogy continues on. She refers to the unfortunate fate of District 13 in the book--a nuclear bomb because the district did not "behave."

             The stakes rise with each subsequent failure. Schools and districts live under the threat of the "unacceptable" label or "bomb." As a result, schools conduct their business in fear and without freedom.

 When I sent Sara an email telling her my admiration for her article, she told me that ironically, the idea came to her while she was monitoring the STAAR testing a few weeks ago.  She looked around the room and saw a student reading the popular title and the idea blossomed from there.

All I can say is, "Good job Sara!"  And quite frankly, I'm jealous I didn't think of it first!

National Library Week

This is National Library Week.  And to celebrate this week, I'm going to highlight some of my library "heroes"--librarians I admire for their dedication to our field.  Today I would like to share an article from The Unquiet Library--a blog by Buffy Hamilton.  She is an outstanding leader in the world of school librarianship and her blog posting is entitled "Do I really have to leave the role of school librarian to do the work of a school librarian?"

She discusses an article in the current issue of School Library Journal about a librarian who leaves the library to becomes a technology coordinator. The author of the SLJ article wonders if this is what we librarians will need to do in order to insure our future survival.  As Buffy states, 
            
                   We’ve wondered about the future of the profession and the challenges of becoming more immersed as an instructional leader and pedagogy specialist in a current model of school librarianship that is physically limiting in the sense that one person, two at best in most places, is expected to excel in multiple roles for student populations that might vary from 850 to 2500 students and up to 100+ faculty in a building.

But is turning into something else the answer?  Why can't we be proud of our job as librarians?

           I respectfully disagree with Linda Braun that the future of school librarianship is to walk away from our title and to try and do the same or similar work under a different title.

And while this may not be the best response to the article, the doubts and worries I have for the future are reflected in her article so I know I'm not alone. Seems like all across the country schools are facing the same issues--too much testing, not enough budget--and libraries and librarians are ending up near the bottom of the list of priorities. 

 I just need to keep the faith--

           in my heart I  still believe in the possibilities of libraries and school librarians–but those will never come to fruition if we acquiesce and abandon the effort to elevate the library as a site of participatory culture and a cornerstone of every child’s learning experience in schools, as a partner who can support our teachers by being embedded as part of the team to give every child positive, constructive, and meaningful learning experiences...

Read her article.  She is much more eloquent and professional than I could ever hope to be. 

Do schools kill creativity?

As I tell my students, "Hoppy Easter!"  We have Monday off --a bad weather day and luckily we didn't have any bad weather this winter--yippee!!

Here's something to think about over the long weekend. Another great TED Talks video--this one by Dr. Ken Robinson who talks about the fact that schools tend to kill creativity in students.  Words to think about...

Have a great weekend!

Great SLJ article

This month's edition of School Library Journal has a great cover article entitled Why Read?  The author has done a fabulous job of showing the importance of reading in terms of child development.  He addresses the link between literacy and imagination. 

I wish I could say I had written this paragraph because it is exactly the way I feel too.

                      My greatest joy, then, as now, was to find a place away from others, to be alone and have it happen again, the renewable miracle: to feel the world I live in start to slowly recede while at the same time another, different world builds itself more and more distinctly around me.

I don't think too many kids are feeling this way about reading any more and that saddens me. Every time a student announces, "I don't read books" I just look at them and say, "I'm sorry."  They think I'm being snarky but I'm truly sorry they are missing out on a life changing experience. They are also missing out on developing the depth of learning in favor of skimming the surface of information.

The article also talks about the sleep disorders prevelant these days because of the lack of "down time" and disengagement from wireless devices.  Kids are using their phones all day long and all through the night because "OMG I might miss a text!"  or some other equally "important" communication.  We're losing the idea of unstructured time--time to develop deep thinking skills. 

Another great line from the article--"What Wordsworth called the “shades of the prison-house” have not yet closed around us; there’s still time available for letting the mind go investigating."  Reading will let us do this investigating giving the focus and time to concentrate--let our brain work through ideas.  Let's hope we never lose this concept of time.  For if we do, what sort of people will we have become?

Flipped classrooms

Here's a nice infographic concerning flipped classrooms. I'm still on the fence on this issue.  I see the benefits for students and this infographic has some very convincing statistics.  However, I also work with many students whose Internet access is sketchy at best.  If they didn't have access to our school library, they wouldn't have Internet access at all.  How does this idea then really benefit them?  What about the kids who aren't doing homework now--what would be the incentive for them to watch a video before class?

And I work with enough teachers who don't have the technology skills to put together videos 3-5 times a week.  I know they need to learn this skill but I also know of many who won't, can't or just don't want to give up the time.  I guess until teachers shift their mindset to seeing the benefits of this typ of instruction, changes will not happen. 

But take a look at this infographic.  It's got some very compelling statistics--makes one pause to think.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Riding Shotgun

A great book for professional reading--here's my review!

The book Riding Shotgun addresses the topic of student-led change within a school.  The authors, Christine Simpson and Sarah Ambrus, provide anecdotal experiences as well as tools to facilitate implementation of change. 

 “Students are the drivers of change, but there has to be a passenger riding shotgun: you, the educator.” (page 5) . Students can be empowered to provide real world solutions to the problems, resulting in changes that go far beyond the typical “band aid” approach taken by most schools.    But school officials can’t just expect students to know how to move from the “Brain Hurricane” of initial ideas to a focused workable solution without a good deal of guidance.

Each chapter is designed to help administrators navigate the fine line between providing guidance for students and dominating the entire process, providing the framework needed to guide students from the initial steps to forming solutions, acting on those ideas and then studying the results to see where further improvements can be made.  Each step is illustrated by examples of the process in action at a pilot school where the students focused on the problem of bullying. 

Additional chapters discuss the long term effects of the student driven changes, the positive impacts on the learning environment of the school and the leadership opportunities offered to the students involved in the change process.  Again, anecdotal evidence, combined with specific tools used, offers guidance for administrators who wish to involve students in a similar process.

Student comments are included at the end of every chapter in the book.  These insights, from the very people affected by the program, show the true power of student-led change. 

We hear so many negative stories these days about teens in our society.  This book, however, leaves the reader filled with a profound sense of optimism and faith in our students.  As one student said, “There are so many ideas out there waiting to be heard, just waiting to be given a voice.” (pg. 46) This book provides the adults in a school the means to give students that voice.

Overdrive?

I know there are passionate feelings in the library world regarding Overdrive these days.  I think libraries are trying to figure out the best way  to work in the digital world and I don't know that Overdrive is the best way.  But right now, I think it's the best way to start. 

Our district is trying to get an Overdrive account set up for our students.  It fits into our movement to a BYOD format since Overdrive covers multiple formats.  Also, they seem to have the most options of books available--although with Penguin's pull out, that might have changed.  I know some of the issues people have with Overdrive concern the publishers and there's nothing we can do about that right now.

I think, too, this move is something public and a highly visible way to show our district's libraries are cutting edge.  Not too many school districts are able to get into the program due to cost, but we might be able to pull it together right now.  The PR value alone is worth it in my mind.  I'm tired of feeling like people think we are an old antiquated institution.  Having an ebook subscription and promoting it relentlessly would go a long way to polish our image.

So if anyone out there in cyberspace has experience with Overdrive, I would love to hear what you think.  Any pros? cons?  What should my district consider before signing on the dotted line?  Please leave me some comments with your opinion.