Not Living Up to the Standards

I believe in the Children's Right to Read and Library Bill of Rights.  I want children to have unlimited access to a wide variety of materials in multiple formats.  I want to be a good librarian and exemplify all that is right and good in our profession.

But...

There are times when I cannot abide by these documents.  There are times when I cannot allow children unfettered access to the library collection.  There are times when I must put my foot down, when I must deny access, when I must hang my head in silent shame that I have besmirched my professional ethos. At least one of those times occurred today, when I refused to check out books to children who could not read the items they selected.  Here's why:

School librarians have a responsibility to support and enhance the instructional goals and objectives of the school.  If it is an instructional objective that children should select and read materials on an appropriate reading level, then we must honor and respect that goal.

So, when I have a first grader who wants books on basketball, I strive to help him select a book on the appropriate reading level.  If such a book is not available on his level, he must choose something else.  While I insist that the child get one book he can read, I allow him to get a book of his choosing as well.

Sometimes, with older children, I disregard this this policy if I think for reasons of self-esteem children need to be seen carrying around a book similar to those carried by their peers, even if those books are too difficult for them.  It has always amazed me that the most struggling readers really want the biggest, most difficult books. I try to get the most popular books for older readers in an audiovisual format to support struggling readers, but budget constraints too often limit my ability to provide enough.

Conversely, some of my most able kids choose books that are well below their abilities.  I gently prod these children into choosing more suitable volumes, usually with an attempt at humor.  Children generally understand  my understated sarcasm when I compliment them on "choosing books to read to the preschool" and make more appropriate choices the next time.  Sometimes, however, kids just want to revisit a childhood favorite.  And sometimes they just need a break.

I try to get the most popular books for older readers in an audiovisual format to support struggling readers.  Playaways have been very popular with the students of all ability levels.  Research has shown that when audio devices are used in accompaniment with the printed word, children's comprehension increases.  Unfortunately, again, budget constraints limit how many novels I can provide in Playaway or other audio format.

I also invoke the concept of in loco parenti when I deny children access to VHS or DVD feature films on weeknights.  I am happy to allow them to borrow movies on Fridays, so that they can have a weekend to view the film.  I feel I would be doing a disservice to the children and my fellow faculty members if I distracted children from their homework with non-educational films.  Of course, if the DVD or video is educational, I will circulate it to students at any time.

I don't really feel bad about my flaunting of ALA ethics in these cases, because I strongly feel I have an educational charge to fulfill.  The tenet I abuse that troubles me is the violation of privacy that occurs when I send overdue lists to classroom teachers in attempt to retrieve materials.  Again I cite the in loco parenti facet of the educational system, but this violation bothers me most.  I would hate to have a child feel embarrassed because I shared information in this manner.  I violate this knowingly, because without teacher help I would have a hard time getting items returned.

I would like to hear from other library media specialists and hear how they have addressed these ethical dilemmas.   I think using in loco parenti has a reason for my actions could very easily be used as an excuse for other restrictive actions, such as censorship.  That is one line I do not want to cross.

Where I Get My Bright Ideas

One of the best advantages of Web 2.0 is the ready availability of professional and personal development opportunities.  In the last few years I have been able to participate in many professional development opportunites that have been far better for me than the offerings presented by more traditional means.

Twitter has been one of the most impressive sources of professional knowledge, and this realization has come as quite a shock to me.  For the longest time I dismissed Twitter has a type of mini-Facebook status that was used to tell the world what you are doing at a given time.  True, many people use Twitter in this way.  The key to making it work for you professionally is to follow leading thinkers in your field.  Some of the leaders I follow are Steve Hargadon from the Future of Education, David Warlick, and library leaders Ross Todd, Joyce Valenza and Buffy Hamilton.  From their tweets I have been led to a plethora of worthy information that can be used not only in the classroom today, but insight into trends and political actions that will affect my practice in the future.  I highly recommend joining Twitter and searching for opinion leaders you admire.  If you'd like to follow me, I am martinls0030.  An added benefit:  Twitter is not blocked at school.


Many of the leaders in education maintain their presence on  Facebook .  Their pages usually contain more information than that which could be found in a tweet (Twitter post).  I primarily use Facebook as a tool to interact with parents.  It is a nice way to let parents know what is happening in library world, to ask for volunteers or supplies, or just maintain a community presence.  Some have cautioned against interacting with the parent/student public on Facebook, warning that you have to be careful what you say.  I would assert that one should always be careful what one posts, regardless of who the intended audience may be.  


I cannot say enough about the value of Classroom 2.0 .  With weekly archived sessions going back to February 2008, the viewer may access a wide variety of hour-long presentations on various technology topics.  Live sessions air each Saturday afternoon at noon.  So far I have taken classes on cell phone use in the classroom, Google Research and Google Search Curriculum, Succeeding with Web 2.0, Copyright, Creative Commons and Databases, and Edmodo.  I have a long list of classes I would like to take.  


Online conferences offer another wonderful venue for learning.  Two wonderful conference archives are the K12 Online Conference and the Capital Region Society for Technology in Education (CRSTE) Conference.  I recently attended six sessions of the CRSTE conference and was very impressed with all its offerings.


All of these learning forums are very easy to use and can be accessed 24/7.  When you find time to investigate these conferences and sites, I promise you"ll find something of value to you.

Greener Pastures

While the ground has been covered in snow and no hope of spring in sight, I have been thinking a lot about the farm and yearning for the days to return there. Judging by the 10-day forecast, maybe I will get my chance next weekend!

The farm is good for me in so many ways.  First of all, it is nice to experience a a state of disconnectedness. I am online for the better part of each day and when I am not online I am tethered to my cell phone.  Even though I take both my laptop and cell phone to the farm, I lack adequate service to make the most of these devices.  Most of the time the computer isn't even turned on.  I have no television at the farm, and hence, no NCIS to consume my time.  Even the radio signals are spotty.

When Dan and I work at the farm I feel a true sense of accomplishment and know the sweat of hard work.  Seeing the results of one's labor is truly rewarding,  I am thrilled how much we have accomplished in the short time we have owned the farm.  Of course, last year most of the labor was accomplished by Dan. This is it may not only be desirable for me to share more of the load, it may be necessary.

I have found I do my best thinking and writing at the farm.  Almost all of my National Board entries were either written or planned at the farm.  Looking back on past blog posts and other writings, I can barely believe that I wrote them, their clarity is so above my usual efforts.

Occasionally I will become annoyed with the neighbors running four wheelers up and down the road below us.  I am not as distressed by the sound of the machines as I am the interruption of my reverie. My thoughts pondered beneath the maple trees often turn into action plans for my conduct of life.  It is a horrible thing when a dream is terminated and unrealized.

Dan was able to visit the farm this week when work brought him nearby.  It was the first time either of us had been there since November.  He reported that we had little wear and tear over the winter months and that our "structure" is waiting for us, the trees ready to bud above our Adirondack chairs.  I can barely wait.

School Reform: Are You a Change Agent?

Leadership and vision is a strand of the 2010 CRSTE conference that is underway through March 5, 2010. Christina Bentheim has developed and in moderating a wiki and Ning on the subject of change agentry, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Two summers ago I read School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist by Vi Harada and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. I believe this is one of the most relevant books I have ever read. I summarized the chapter on change agentry on my Infogoddesses wiki, a site I designed for library media specialists in my district. Given the topic's importance and attention in the CRSTE conference, I invite others, especially library media specialists, to give this entry a look. I invite your feedback and would love recommendations for follow-up. Please follow the Infogoddesses link to access this page.

Giving Up Facebook for Lent? Not Exactly.

I have decided to limit my interpersonal interactions with all but the most necessary people until March 20, the first day of spring. Consider this an act to preserve my mental health. With all the recent snow and subsequent snow days, we in Monongalia County are in a collective dire mood. Limiting my exposure to negativity will help me keep some semblance of cheer.

The last time I felt this stressed was during the winter of 2003. Our school had a very open door policy then. Parents would come into the library and ask me when our days of missed instruction would be made up and related questions. "Why did the superintendent call a two-hour delay instead of canceling school?" "Why can't there be school for the kids who can make

it?" "We aren't going to lose our spring break because of snow days, are we?" Ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Today, it is different. My stressors are those I communicate with on Facebook. The questions are the same from the parents with some new ones added by fellow teachers. "Why do we have to go to school if the kids aren't there?" "Why is Mon County the last system to call off school?"

"Why should I have to use a personal day if the county doesn't have to pay for a sub?"

I am not saying that these are not valid feelings, ideas and concerns; what I am say is this: I can't handle it! I am striving to avoid stressors at school but limiting my time in the lounge, and when kids are not around, spending more time in my office. On Facebook I will only check my family posts.

This policy of isolation may not be the healthiest, but I can use my time to more positive goals, such as professional development. It will only be for four weeks.

C. Edmund Collins, Principal Emeritus of Brookhaven Elementary, customarily stopped taking complaints during the winter months. He assured the aggrieved that he would hear their concerns on March 20. If it was really a problem, it would still be a problem on March 20, and he would deal with it then.

We can learn so much from our elders!

Professional Learning Community:Common Assessments

My school's PLC is reading Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. (Dufour, Dufour, Eaker and Many: 2006). This past week's assignment dealt with common assessments and the need for all professionals to come to agree on the most important tasks. Only those most enduring tasks that are essential for building understanding at future levels should be assessed, and those assessments should be standard for all children throughout a grade level.

The conversation takes me back to me first days of teaching. In Preston County, department members met together and decided the essential knowledge that each child needed to have before progressing to the next level. The content was derived from state's content standards and from enduring deficiencies perceived by the faculty. The faculty then developed a pre/post test instrument to be given each child at the beginning and end of the term. We used these tests as instruments to assess both our effectiveness and the children's progress.

In addition to our pre/post instrument, each child was administered the annual CTBS test. As some of my colleagues suggested, the CT in this moniker was silent. While the test gave an indication of how our students fared in comparison to others who took the test, it did not provide the insightful measure that our own tests did.

The pretest should have been a valuable instrument to determine what our children already knew and what they needed to know. Unfortunately, it was not used that way, at least not by me in my early career. Now I know that I should have used the test to inform what I teach.

I also know now that the post-test, while providing a measure of what we had accomplished, was useless in helping us fine tune instruction to meet our students needs. It occurred after the CTBS test was administered and after the instructional period had ended, too late to use for any type of intervention.

Today, by contrast, we have a myriad of tools that help us guide instruction. We have DIBELS to assess reading in grades k-5 and Acuity to assess math and reading in grades 3-5. All textbook series come equipped with ready-made assessments for chapters and units, as well as suggestions for formative assessments along the way. What is missing from these tools is teacher input, teacher-consensus about what is most important for our students to know. The teacher, it seems, is inconsequential in this equation, irrelevant and unnecessary to guiding the intellectual development of her students.

I think it is high time we take back our classrooms, even if initially it means more work. As suggested in Learning by Doing, we need to "Keep" the essentials in our standards, "Drop" the unnecessary from our CSOs, and "Create" what is lacking. As Leslie pointed out, the CSOs are our curriculum, and we should frame instruction around those learner outcomes. We need to eliminate the textbook as the driving force in our curriculum and rely on our collective professional judgement.We need to develop our own tools of assessment that are relevant to what we as professionals have collectively agreed is most important for our students.

In short, I think we need to blend today's assessment-saturated atmosphere with the practices we used in Preston County Schools in days of old, We can use the ready-made assessments such as DIBELS, Acuity, and publisher-made tests, as Peggy suggested, but only to the point that they assess our instructional goals. The rest can be disregarded.

How liberating that would be for both teachers and students.

I See the Light! Or How Classroom 2.0 Live Has Given Me New Directions

Since December 2009 I have been tuning in, mostly via archives, to the Classroom 2.0 sessions. I have learned a great deal about the use of Web 2.0 technologies --and I thought I knew a lot already. I would completely recommend these sessions to anyone interested in developing new pedagogical skills. You won't be disappointed.

Here is an example of how one session changed my practice:

Copyright, Creative Commons and Databases with Joyce Valenza and Buffy Hamilton. Library media specialists with recognize Valenza and Hamilton as leaders in our field. Valenza's presentation focuses on the purpose of copyright, noting that it was intended to enhance rather than to restrict access to materials. New copyright rules specifically allow for transformative use, the use of copyrighted material in the creation of another work. Valenza also explains Creative Commons and recommends that students license their work under Creative Commons not only as a means of protecting their rights but as an instructional tool in intellectual property awareness.

Hamilton's presentation concerned ways to increase use of databases by students. She recommends creating custom widgets to guide students research.

The direct result of my attending this session was that it inspired me to create my AskMrsMartin page. Though not specifically the purpose of the their presentation, the links that were included and the embedded content on these links, gave me new ideas to pursue for this page. I embedded on my site several widgets that seem to be popular with the students. This site has been quite valuable in giving the library a virtual presence. For example, by use of the instant messaging widget, students working on research assignments were able to communicate with me at home when the could not independently find the information they needed. I was able to provide the scaffolding they needed to complete the projects.

Classroom 2.0 sessions air live each Saturday at noon EST. Archived sessions and links are available shortly after the live broadcast. I have only attended one session live, but I look forward to attending more. Simply put, we cannot independently keep up with the emerging tools and trends in educational media. Classroom 2.0 provides an inobtrusive way for us to interact with others who share our passions and concerns. Check it out!