Week Five Reflections

LM_NET

Jaclyn Adler a teacher librarian in Salem school district wrote to the LM_netters this week asking for advise on how to make the library more instruction focused and also to turn it into a resource center. She was mostly just looking for anyone who had some background knowledge on this process.  This is a change I would like to see in my own library at my school I work at. Frequently I have students who need to get out of the classroom to work on something, not because they are in trouble, but because they can’t focus in the classroom.  Granted, the library would need more staff available to handle the extra students coming in.  I still think it would make my library more useful to the students.

So I have to comment on a post from Juliann T. Moskowitz, a teacher librarian at Seymour, CT. This is from last week, September 14^th.  She writes to describe an incident that occurred in her library one day, when a sub was filling in for a teacher.  At her school, subs spend their plan time in the library helping to shelve books since they don’t have paras. When Juliann explained this to the sub, he claimed that men don’t shelve books and that women were librarians and that it was their job to take care of those things.  She of course was a little taken back by this comment but politely reminded him that there were plenty of make librarians out there doing the very same job she was doing.

I just can’t believe some times how ignorant people really are.  It’s hard to believe people think that way let alone actually speak to another professional that way. I doubt I would have been able to keep my cool in that situation. I probably would have told him to go do what men always do, sit on their lazy butts!

 

BLOGS

             The “Unquiet Librarian” wrote on September 12^th about their “wish list”.  A list of what the library would be able to offer in a perfect world. Many of the items on list centered around being able to access more things for their students that current filters won’t allow.  It is so frustrating to know amazing technology or information is out there but not be able to access it due to filtering problems or outdated materials.  The wish list also included items that would make the library more web 2.0.  The “Unquiet Librarian” wishes to communicate with patrons through text messages and also be able to embed videos or even have access to UTube. These things may be unrealistic now but maybe in the future we can move forward in our schools and have more current offerings to our students.

            Doug Johnson on September 17^th wrote in response to a post from Rod at Edging Ahead, which was about being crazy concerned about technology when there are so many other pressing issues to deal with in schools.  Johnson reflected that critical thinking skills would be the key. I have to say I couldn’t agree more.  Students who learn to think for themselves and who learn to problem solve are the ones who are going to be better equipped for the 21^st century.  We can go crazy trying to learn every cool new piece of technology and trying to implement it into curriculum, but students will benefit more from becoming independent learners.