Friday, August 29, 2008

Unintended Consequences

I work at a school where a student who is reading and working AT grade level is notable, so a student who reading and working ABOVE grade level gets a certain amount of attention.

One of my fourth grade teachers introduced her class to Accelerated Reader and the STAR test yesterday. Most of the class was involved with this last year and were eager to start earning some points. The students were testing at the two classroom computers. One of the young men, a new student, watched for a few minutes and logged onto the system. He thought a minute and then entered the title of a Leven Thumps book that he had read last year. 70% and about 10 points! Another Leven Thumps title from last year, another 70% and the boy now has almost 20 points! Teacher administers the STAR diagnostic test. His reading range, as a fourth grader: 4.5 - 8.wayoutthere. Not normal for our school. She brings the young student to the librarian where we start planning how best to meet this customer's needs. We're going to be borrowing a lot of books from other libraries, because this kid likes to read, and WE don't have very much at his reading level, and in his interest areas.

He has been made to understand that this year we want him to test on books he reads this year, not that he read last year, but he was so happy to be part of AR that he improvised just a little. OK, I can work with this.

Mom is a teacher in our school. Let's talk. She transfered him in this year from a sister school in the district. A Lake Wobegon school where all the teachers are beautiful and all the students are above average. But the boy was miserable. Seems the school and teacher limited the boy to one visit to the library per week, two books per week, and both had to be at his grade level. Not personal reading level, but grade level. Mom talked to the teacher last year, this is the way it was.

So, I, the intrepid librarian with books spread across three book carts, and shelves with books spilling onto the floor, have promised I will keep up with the boy.

Why would a librarian, and a school limit a student in this way?

It's not hard for me to understand. We librarians are being told that the library of today is all about technology. Electronic products is what we are to be devoting our time to. No one will tell us how we are supposed to balance that against an already full day of providing reading resources to hundreds of students, so I suspect that many librarians have arrived at the solution: limit library book circulation. Fewer books moving in and out means the librarian may have the time to play with all the technology that someone (not my principal, my students, nor my students) is making clear is the most important aspect of our profession.

My customers come from homes where books are not plentiful. We are still trying to move them into the public library. Most are struggling to move into English, so we offer plentiful supplies of both English and Spanish books.

Five years ago, this school was barely acceptable in the TEA rating scheme. My principal brought me in, BECAUSE I was different. We took most limits off of circulation and are now circulating between 400 - 550 books, every day! This requires a lot of work on the part of library staff. But this is part of the school philosophy. We have a longer day and expect more from our students. So, we have now earned our second consecutive TEA rating of Exemplary! And we are pretty sure that emphasizing reading for pleasure plays a big part in this!

My library budget has been increased this year and I am being guided to apply for grants to facilitate even more materials and services. Don't tell me to cut down on my circulation. I won't do it. My principal won't do it. My teachers won't accept it and my students (remember them? they are my customers) demand more and more reading material. And I plan to meet customer demands!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Little Engine that Could meets Virginia

Took Virginia to our church day care center this summer, with the train and a copy of The Little Engine that Could. We set up the track and the train. Virginia wore a pink engineer's cap and was the conductor. She had a hole punch and validated train tickets for 3 and 4 year olds before they got on the train.


The conductor kept standing on the track, which caused some consternation from the engineer. She also decided that her ticket office was a high table against the wall, and away from the passengers.

That night, Daddy was putting her to bed and asked about her day. "Well, let me tell you!" she began. "I went with Papa Dan to help him, and he read the story, but I did all the work!"

Ah, youth!

Photo Story

Had lots of fun creating a little show on the Blue Tongued Skink. 3 slides, audio, music.

Spent over an hour trying to upload to the blog. Nope.

I think we can do this at school.

Audacity

Frustration has set in. I am wasting my time and my school's time. I have a library to open and I am ready to quit this profession.

I was able to record with some trouble. I was able to put it in a folder on my desktop but from there I went straight to trouble.

Apparently only one at a time can upload to Wiki. Great. There are 6 of us.

When Vaughn can devote 2 hours to me one-on-one, maybe.

Dan

Image Manipulation

Image Manipulation.

It can be done. It was done. Trading card would not cooperate.