Wanderings…

Many schools are purchasing mobile computer labs.  A possible downside is what a recent LM_NET post referred to as a “library detour”.  Teachers bypass the library (and the librarian) in favor of having kids researching in the classroom …. sans librarian.

One practical suggestion to avoid this downside to mobile labs……?  Volunteer to be in charge of scheduling the labs.  I do not have mobile labs – but we might have them in the future.  I plan to handle that situation the same way I handled computer labs when they were added.  Volunteer to take over the scheduling duties.

Right now, the teachers come to me to schedule the stationary labs.  If they are doing an online lab etc.,  I simply schedule their classes into a lab.  However, if they are doing research, I schedule the computer lab AND myself, AND the library (or at least a cart of books).  I have a form that references information literacy standards, so it is immediately obvious that there is a curriculum requirement that needs to be met.

When/if we have mobile computer labs, they will also be scheduled via the library department.  I am hoping to have one mobile lab that stays here (for the most part) to add to the current 15 library computers.  This will allow students to work with books and laptops at tables, providing a more seamless research experience.  The other mobile lab will be reserved for classroom use.  BUT – mobile labs will have to be scheduled by us, and returned to us for recharging.  Yes … I know….that will be a lot of work.  I am blessed to have an assistant.  Not every one is so fortunate.  I also know that many schools schedule lab use via a lab assistant.  If that is the case, then the librarian can check the schedule regularly and make teacher contacts where appropriate.

It is a matter of a small shift in mind-set – research and libraries are no longer bound by library walls.  Research means information literacy, and information literacy should automatically involve librarians.  Furthermore, the library and the librarian are NOT synonymous.  The librarian is as mobile as any mobile lab – and a whole lot smarter! He/she can, should and does travel to where the need is – whether in the library, in a stationary lab, or in the classroom with a mobile lab.  Teachers and librarians have worked together with students in the library for years.  Teachers and librarians can work together just as easily in the classroom.

This might be a big paradigm shift for some teachers – but it isn’t a big leap for us.  We are used to being flexible …… not to mention mobile!

Probably blocked by BESS, our beloved filter.  Incredibly well worth watching – at home if you have to.

My favorite part:

“This is what we need….  If you want to see what kids have learned – give them a project.  Dare them to show you what they can do with the work of their own “head, heart and hands”. That’s when you’ll get kids engaged.  That’s when you’ll get kids learning, and that’s when you’ll get kids who can change the world.

…and Technology needs to be like oxygen – ubiquitous, necessary & invisible.  We need to not think about it – it just needs to be there.”

The Schools We Need – Video

The Schools We Need – Slide Show

In Have To or Get To,  Doug Johnson challenges us to create a “short list” of what makes us happy in our jobs.  I think he and Seth Godin are definitely onto something.

The higher the percentage of things you “get to do” as opposed to “have to do,” the greater the likelihood of happiness and success.

“If you won the lottery tomorrow and never HAD to work again, what things do you do at work that you would continue to do?”

Here’s my list:

• I’d still want to talk about books with teenagers.  Don’t know exactly how to do that if I didn’t work in a school anymore.  Hanging out on MySpace makes we worry that someone from Dateline might pop out at me with a video camera.  Still – maybe public libraries would be open to book discussion groups with guest adult facilitators.
• I’d still want to work with new books – I’d miss that wonderful smell.  Maybe I could find an understanding librarian somewhere who would call me when there were boxes of new books to open.
• I’d still study library trends.
• I’d still want to work on a library related website.
• I’d still blog about libraries.
• I’d still want to do workshops that would help busy school librarians make new technologies work for their students and teachers.

Doug goes on to ask:

How do we encourage those poor people who seem to live an entire work-life of “have to’s” to find a more fitting position?

I’m afraid I have no answers for that right at the moment.

Instead I’d like to ask a related question…. How can we redesign school so kids can “get to” do stuff they like at least part of the day – and not just lunch or recess.?

If we could figure out a way to answer that question – maybe we’d be more help to our students who don’t fit easily into the school mold.

I will TRY to remember to add to this post as I discover  ideas.  Someone on LM_NET recently asked for non-powerpoint presentation ideas for upper level classes.  Some of the ideas that have come in are:

• iMovie is a great alternative…they could compose music with garage band (MACS) and add it to the movie.  Audacity is a program for PCs – similar to garage band .
• A Periodic Table of Visualization methods
• Create a website on thier topic
• Digital Storytelling and Reformning PowerPoint
• VoiceThread
• Animoto
• Flowgram
• PicLits
• GoAnimate
• Glogster

I’ve been thinking about courage for the past few years. Reading Palmer Parker’s Book “The Courage to Teach” got me started. That book made me realize that during most of my career as a librarian, I never really had the courage to actually know my students … and allow them to know me. Somehow I had fooled myself that teaching research skills to students was more important. I’ve been meaning to do a “courage” posting for awhile now.

2 days ago, Doug Johnson asked “Are hope and inspiration our missing ingredients in educational change? Seems like we have the work part nailed!” I say “AMEN!” to that.
Today, Doug started his post with the words “Hope didn’t do it”, and goes on to tell us how the bill mandating school librarians in every MN school did not make it. At the end, Doug says:

I am sadder than I thought I would be. I knew this would be an uphill battle. I wasn’t even sure we should have taken this on, given its odds of passage. But yesterday convinced me that is a necessary fight and we can’t surrender. As the Blues Brothers would put it, our profession needs to be on “a mission from God.”

I too am discouraged. Does no one else understand our “Mission from God”?

Maybe some of Parker Palmer’s words will provide a much needed infusion of hope and courage:

…..good teaching sometimes goes unvalued by academic institutions, by the students for whom it is done, and even by those teachers who do it. Many of us “lose heart” in teaching. How shall we recover the courage that good teaching requires? …. In its original meaning, a “professor” was not someone with esoteric knowledge and technique. Instead, the word referred to a person able to make a profession of faith in the midst of a dangerous world. All good teachers, I believe, have access to this confidence. It comes not from the ego but from a soul-deep sense of being at home in the world despite its dangers. This is the authority by which good teachers teach. This is the gift they pass on to their students. Only when we take heart as professors can we “give heart” to our students – and that, finally, is what good teaching is all about.

From “Good Teaching: A Matter of Living the Mystery” by Parker J. Palmer

So Doug ….Keep the faith. Keep hope alive. Courage!!