Taking a page from Scott Merrick’s book (http://scottmerrick.blogspot.com/), this will be a reflection on the past year–out of necessity in my case, since I didn’t post anything all year. Here are some highlights:
ALICE Training – This is where I got stuck on this blog process, before school even started. I was so unnerved after we did this simulated active-shooter training that I didn’t know what to say. We had live gunfire (with blanks, of course) and announcements about where the “shooter” had been, and we were to make our own decisions about whether to evacuate, barricade, or fight back. We got hands-on training in the latter two. The training, organized by our local police department, was very effective. As a friend pointed out, our first priority should be to get the hell out with our students.
Snow Days – We had an amazingly winterish winter! Snow days started in December, including one where it was just too cold for kids to stand at the bus stops. Between snow and the book fair, the library was only open for checkout for 7 days in December.
Library Guild – Once again, I had grand plans that didn’t come to fruition. We didn’t get started until mid-November, and only 7-10 kids showed up for the meetings. They had a snack for the first 20-30 minutes, then they were supposed to straighten the shelves for 15-20 minutes, then play board games for the rest of the time. Because there were so few students, I didn’t assign shelf sections this year. Most of them spent the work time standing around and talking, in spite of anything I said. I’m not going to do a Library Guild next year, as I can see it’s not working the way I had hoped it would. I don’t think I’ll do a club at all; if anything, it would be a Game Club. If I could get another teacher interested, it would be easier to stay enthusiastic.
Recognition – I realized that I’m not likely to ever be named Educator of the Year at my school because I don’t have a team to vote for me. This is a common problem for instructional support teachers; also, the pod architecture in this building encourages the grade levels to act as closed groups. I need to do a better job of publicizing what I do in the library, not just for me, but so the teachers and upper admin know what good it does to have a librarian in this school. Since our district is using Google, I’m planning to share my library calendar with the staff and put on it what I’m working on.
Virtual Worlds – For the past two years, I’ve used Second Life at school to attend meetings of education groups. I thought my administrators were supportive of this, since we’ve discussed how my virtual world activities contribute to the profession as a whole. Apparently they were unaware, and I was told (on my rezday, ironically) that I can no longer access Second Life at school. I accept this, but it’s naturally very disappointing. I’ve noticed that attendance has been down at the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable now that I’m not doing announcements before the meetings. I think our district, like many, doesn’t realize that use of virtual worlds is included in our state Standards of Learning:
Technology Communication Tools
C/T 9-12.15 Communicate effectively with others (e.g., peers, teachers, experts) in
collaborative learning situations.
A. Use technology tools for individual and collaborative writing,
communication, and publishing activities.
• Use various technology resources to develop, revise, and assess written and media-based reports and projects, integrating technologies as appropriate.
• Independently collaborate with others using digital communication tools.
• Use digital communication tools to communicate with specific audiences.
B. Participate in communications among different cultures.
• Contribute during a distance-based communication project that includes
individuals from different cultures by leveraging the differences of those cultures to develop solutions to common issues.
C. Participate in online courses, social and learning networks, and virtual worlds.
• Manage goals for learning in an online course.
• Participate in activities that involve social and learning networks and virtual worlds.
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/computer_technology/2012/stds_comptech_9-12.pdf (Thank you to Bill Schmachtenberg for pointing this out.)
Stats – Circulation was down 21% this year. That’s appallingly different from what I expected at the beginning, since the library wasn’t closed for instruction at all once orientations were done. When I added things up, though, we were actually open for 18 fewer days than we were last year. Also, when I think about it, I heard teachers and students say many times that they were reading on their eReaders instead (phones, tablets, etc.), since we implemented BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) fully this year. The high school librarian and I have talked about buying more eBooks for our libraries, and I think now is the time.
Collection – The collection is in better shape this year than it ever has been. I’m especially proud of our fiction collection, which is full of popular and worthwhile books, and is expanding beyond its space. I just finished moving, weeding, and dusting that whole section so I could fit all of the books in. I’m just starting to work on my official project for this year, renovating the sports section (796). My SMART goals for this year are based on that, since data shows that it’s the most heavily-used nonfiction part of this library.
Student Request Program – Students can request books for the library, and I try to buy those books whenever possible. This year I kept track of fulfilled requests: 101, not counting the books the students selected from the book fair for the library. The best part of this program is the looks on kids’ faces when the get to check out the book that they requested–that makes all of this worthwhile.
Well, that’s a mish-mosh, but those are some of the things I’ve been thinking about. Feel free to leave comments in response!
