- "...an evolutionary pattern of change for the library media program is unacceptable" (p. 8). Up 'til reading that sentence the thrust of this book didn't surprise me much, especially given our class discussions and the author's presentations of his ideas so far. I'd been enjoying what I was reading but nothing caught me off guard. Rejecting an evolutionary path, though, upset my apple cart immediately. I'm always railing on about our need as a culture, as a nation, as individuals to evolve, please and thank you very much. But revolutionaries, as Thomas Kuhn taught us all so well, don't evolve. They find critical anomolies not addressed at all by current systems, reject the system as incomplete or flat out mistaken, and replace it with one that appears to fill in the holes they discovered. Of course this is all well and good, and then the next revolution must take place. So I take from Loertscher's words the instruction that I may, if I choose to be a new library media professional, demand that each an every person involved in the students' education at my school adopt a radically inclusive and cooperative approach to teaching and learning. I may envision and work whole-heartily toward achieving technological integration in every classroom at every level. I have to say, this sure is more exciting than evolutionary change--waiting for this or that single teacher to think I might be able to add something to his or her class if allowed to participate.
- Figure 2.1, diagonally dividing professional and paraprofessional duties in half is brilliant. It has informed by daily work since I first looked at it about a month ago.
- "Books on shelves, plugged in computers, and wired schools provide only potential tools, not automatic results" (p. 61). This is so true! I wonder how the admin. will assess the effectiveness of the tools, though.
- Loertscher goes on to answer this question: both "hard and soft" data flow to the administrator(s) making clear the positive changes in teaching and learning. But what are those data comprised of? Standardized tests? How do we measure and show students' increased sense of ownership of their work? I haven't seen it in action and am a bit confused as to what this would look like.
- Collaboration: "The more sophisticated information technology has become, the more important has become the necessity of having a sophisticated human interface between teachers and learners on the one hand and...technology on the other" (p. 69-70). Beautiful and noteworthy explanation of the way the world is and our consequent need for expertise.
- Collaboration: you becomes we (p. 70) when trust is developed (p. 71).
- Regarding that revolutionary approach--Loertscher writes that establishing "a systematic program of collaborative planning" takes 5-7 years, unless, however, one ramps up the process with "extraordinary measures" (p. 78). What might those be? Are they the questions that follow on the next page, the ones designed to assess the current state of collaboration and possibilities for it in a school?
- Understanding teaching styles keeps coming up and I'm beginning to understand why, I think: depending on the style of teaching going on in the classroom, the LMS tailors her work to create a balance between the teaching output (by instructor and LMS) and what the students are expected to learn. Without an understanding of how the teacher teaches, the LMS really can't create collaborate effectively.
- That last point segues directly into the beginning of chapter 8--becoming a good diagnostician.
- "Yes sir, no sir" on p.91...not sure what that means.
- I find the Map of an Instructional Unit really compelling. In fact, I've just seen WebQuests in action for the first time today! Mapping out the entire instructional unit is invaluable, as it helps me to really begin to understand what interventionist collaboration looks like and when the real thing begins, how to construct it. The filled in form is great as a guide.
- Suggestion to provide options for participation is golden (p.102). Nothing like choice to encourage a sense of ownership and personal investment in a learning experience.
- I want to know more about the jigsaw model! In the jigsaw report itself, I really don't quite get the difference between the first set of questions groups A, B, and C are asked and the second set of questions put to the shuffled groups.
- "Mending a hundred books the first month is not a good beginning" (p. 109). I've come to realize over the past couple of days that what people see me do is sit at my desk working on my computer. They see me around campus maybe delivering magazines to classrooms, but for the most part I'm mending books, as it were. I've got to get up and out, into classrooms and grade level meetings.
- The point cannot be made too clear: the LMS is a leader in the school. This is a challenging role for me, but one that I must grow into.
- Ok, but I can't help but continue to ask, why? Why is it so important that the LMS is involved and leading? I know this may sound stupid, but other than for the purpose of self-presevation, why exactly are we indispensible? The author mentions time, resources, and I believe an approach to learning that can only really be exercised by a professional outside the teacher's relatively narrow realm of content instruction. Still, though, I wonder if I weren't working at Pacific Ridge, in fact, if there weren't a library at all, what difference would it make? I mean besides the habit of my colleagues' being used to simply having a library at a school whether they use it or not.
- It's not a rhetorical or self-deprecating question. I need to carefully consider the impact I already have so that I can really begin to imagine the impact I can have.
- p. 129 Now on to creating avid and capable readers: I like the notion of the whole school's taking on the task of nurturing readers, especially the entire school year's plan for increasing and improving reading.
- Same pg. - I now have a cadre of 16 educated, strong-minded mothers volunteering in our tiny library who are hungry for things to do to help the school. They have the $ so they have time. It's an incredible resource and I'm working hard to keep them involved. They would be great for the author's suggestion that the "parent group might take the leadership for the motivational reading activities for the year with the support from the advisory committee" (p. 129).
- Within the year and a couple of months that I've been a working librarian, I've moved from what I considered to be the ideal forms of technology and information literacy training, namely formal instruction, to what I'm embarking on this weekend--curriculum-driven, point-of-need instruction.
- p. 138 - Just thought of a fun game with the Process skills--students mill around in small groups with one of the skills on a piece of paper taped to their backs; each person has to guess which process skill he or she is, based on the examples others' provide for that skill in action. Speakers can't use any of the words in the person's label. For instance, I have to guess my identity when a someone says to me, "when something's not working, you don't give up, you think of all kinds of ways to make things better. You keep thinking and changing your approach until the situation is resolved." I'm a Problem Solver.
- p. 145 - With PRS's mission statement, which speaks directly to ethical responsibility, I can't wait to integrate especially the last three of the Nine Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning, those focused on "Social Responsibility," into our faculty's understanding of what it is to educate kids today.
- pp. 152-153 - Going to copy off the "Integration of Information Technology into the School as a Whole Checklist" and the parallel, "Checklist of Danger Signs When Technolog is Not Supported Well by the Library Program." Important to keep these front burner as we grow into our new space next year--I hope.
- p. 162 - Never thought of confused students lacking motivation and performing below expectations as signals for a good time for research process training. But this approach shows that information skills must work directly and immediately to solve a problem rather than being taught at the outset in hopes that they'll be stored, ready to avoid problems.
- Same. "...when process and content merge...The students begin to take control of their own learning" (p. 162).
- p. 172 - After reading the same idea many times throughout this book, something has just become crystal clear to me. That is, just as "a few quality sources are to be preferred to many poor ones" (p. 172), the flip side to the advantage of a school library's providing sources within school walls is the school library's only providing some sources. In other words the school library's excluding so much more than it includes is one of its primary functions. This is exactly what we're trying to help students create for themselves with the iGoogle pages. I'm so convinced of the worth of students' having their own iGoogle pages that I wonder what on earth will take its place within the narrower world of Google Apps Education Edition. Eek!
- Documenting progress! p. 181 - Over the course of a year, train kids in info. literacy; at the beginning and end, rate each student as a learner, Dependent 1 2 3 4 5 Independent.
- p. 191 - Tip sheets on bookmarks for new technolgies! Simple. Quick. Clear. Must try this for EBSCO and online catalog. I write them, vols produce them.
- p. 203 - "Those who build computer networks don't always understand the needs of the school." I'm very friendly with our IT personnel, hired out not in-house, but I'm beginning to realize that their main goals for students revolve around allowing them just enough access to technology to complete work, but to constantly thwart what they expect to be destructive, irresponsible behavior.
- pp. 210, 215 - Funding agencies like plans that solve problems. Must make a collection map plan (perfect ongoing volunteer job, maybe with a leader to coordinate the effort over a couple of weeks) It will be excellent to really know what we have and to provide potential funders. Similarly, once $ is made available I must account for every penny spent, particularly according to segments of the collection that funders may have targeted.
- p. 218 - Our new library space! Five functional corners are in many ways already in the design--by my intuition and the designers' experience, except the Teacher Respite. Had two teachers in the library just today (very unusual), relaxing and asking about comfy chairs. Must include a real teacher respite especially keeping in mind that the open teacher workrooms may encourage collaboration, but many complain about the distracting noise and exposure.
- p. 228 - Back to $, budget must have justifications (haven't done this so far), be spent wisely, and produce a "reportable result."
- p. 235 - Advice: document what I do. I 'spose I'm a little nervous about this. All the more reason to do it. Make sure PRS's largest investment in the library, my salary (albeit, part-time), is being wisely spent with reportable results.
- pp. 246-247 - Evaluation data collection and analysis could be done with a couple of highly skilled, experienced volunteers in coordination with teachers, then collated and examined over the summer with these vols.
Taxonomies of the School Library Media Program by David V. Loertscher
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