Day 7: 3/12/12

Today was almost identical to last week.  There were four classes of 7th graders coming in for their first Gandhi research.  They are the third class, and the last (i believe).  The class had a substitute teacher, but she has substituted these students many times, so they were fairly well behaved.  

I am unsure if they were all better because of my low expectations, the different teacher, or that we explained why they were working on this project specifically.  One class was so well behaved that each one got a prize for being the best class yet.  They were all fairly quiet, respectful and on task the entire period.  The last two classes were a little rougher, but most of the groups worked hard and did their research.  

With the rest of the day quiet in the media center we worked on a lesson plan for "The Hunger Games".  It was fun to work together on such an fun and interesting lesson, it all came together so nicely!  We started working on promoting the book fair.  Marian worked on the website while Lizzy and I counted handouts and put them in the homeroom teachers' mail boxes.  

I'm excited to see how the book fair goes, I plan on being there for most of the fair.  I didn't learn anything big today, other than I am definitely where I want to be.  I'd love to stay here permanently, but I think the key is the camaraderie.  Finding the people who you can collaborate with, and who make your day that much easier and more special.  Each day I spend at my regular job is just one more that makes me realize I want to help the kids before they come to college.  To prepare them for what is yet to come.

On an exciting note, I only have 47 more days until classes are over!!  Cannot wait!

Day 6! 3/5/12

(I'm almost caught up!!!)

So today we had a chance to see our Gandhi lesson in action.  We had 5 seventh grade classes come in today (wow!) to work on these lessons.

The first thing we learned by the end of the day is that we needed to explain why they are doing this research.  In NC students take a writing test in grades 4, 7 and 10.  This assessment by the state sticks with them through their school lives.  We are given the prompt early so they may do the research and practice writing what they plan on writing.  Some of the students still didn't care after we explained this, and of course were off task most of the time. 

The Gandhi lesson was very interesting, I actually learned a few things that I didn't know before.  Their prompt is : "How did Gandhi help the people of India overcome the problems they faced?  Were his methods effective?"  We broke down the lesson into 6 stations to help them learn different parts of his method; into beliefs, humility and influence.  They took notes on each item and answered questions.  They will then take these notes and start drafting a paper in class.  

Overall it was interesting and fun.  There were of course a few students who needed to be talked to or quieted down, but that was to be expected.  Even when they are rowdy like this, i still enjoy the lessons.  I think I would be more likely to call their parents (which Marion said she did a lot of the rest of the week when the students were misbehaving) only because of my experience as a 7th grade teacher.  Once you let them walk on you, the continue to do so, and do not listen to anything constructive you have to say.  

We also worked on updating the blog for the library with a few Manga Mania items.  I created a budget spreadsheet for the media and technology to keep track of what was purchased or requested, but not paid for yet.  I had a chance to experience a large number of 8th graders coming in to take a test.  Their teachers just sent them over without any hall pass or agenda and expected us monitor them.  We sent them back and made them get their agendas and sign in to the library as expected.  We spread them through the room and let them work on their tests.  Because there are a number of 8th grade classroom directly across from the media center the teacher forget they have to follow the rules for their students.  

Oh!  I forgot to mention that Lizzy was moved from part time to full time, so now there are three of us around on Mondays!  It is amazingly helpful to have an assistant, I can't quite imagine what Marian would have to give up to take on the duties that Lizzy handles for her.  She is great, friendly and intelligent; loves working with the students and is also fun to talk to.  I know she will make a great teacher soon.

I really do love spending the day here, I feel spoiled when I leave and have to go back to my job.  As exhausting as it is to work 6 days a week (and school work the other day!) I am happy I get one day with other media center folk.  I will be quite sad when this experience is over.

Day 5: 2/27/12

I went through the basic start up today again (check in and out, and newscast). Then we had 8th grade Social Studies classes come through all day to work on a Civil War project. They worked in groups of 3 and needed to do research on a specific topic (different for each group) to create a poster to present to the class on Wednesday. They had today and tomorrow to work on the research and create the poster. Marian explained the library rules (for those that were sure to break them) and the tools they would use for the lesson. The teacher explained the lesson and created the groups then Marian and I walked around to help out if they needed it and explain things they didn't understand.

Some students were studying the assassination and were creating a newspaper about that day. Others created maps of the battles or of cities. One group wanted to make a song about a battle. It was really interesting to see the different creative ways of the groups.

The groups were very hard to keep on task though (a common theme). We often leave this up to the teacher because we didn't want to step on her toes. There were a number of kids that were very disrespectful and she needed to take them into the office to talk to them. I learned by the end that this was to help them and that if they were overly rude I did not need to help them since I was volunteering. I wondered what to do in this situation as the librarian, but thought I would work with the teacher to perhaps tell them they had to create a project on their own if they couldn't behave.

This day was mainly for research so they should have been concentrating on reading the material and taking notes, unfortunately I have found that they don't realize that is what they should be doing until it is too late.

I kept walking around reminding them of "who, what, where, why, when and how" to keep them on task. I found a lot of students don't know to use the index to find what they were looking for.

As a last note, what I learned is that the teacher should have talked to the students on Friday to set up the lesson. Five minutes could have created the groups and explained what they were supposed to do on Monday so that they only needed a reminder. She also hid a lot towards the end of the day, as if she had given up dealing with them. This was hard on us to keep motivated towards helping the students. If I were the librarian in this situation, I would have taken the time to let her know about talking to them earlier, as well ask asked for more support towards the end of the day.

Day 4: 2/13/12

Today was a lot of fun. Last year I came in as a one day shadow and helped to create a WebQuest on "The Watsons go to Birmingham" for 6th grade LA classes. Today we were using the WebQuest! A class came in each period all day and we (the teacher, Marian, and I) circulated through the students and helped them not only stay on task, but explained how it worked.

View the WebQuest here!

They start out choosing a car (either a car with good gas mileage but cramped or a big car that will take a lot of money to fill up). They then use mapquest to plan out the route and pick a stopping point. They look up average gas prices to determine how much a tank of gas would cost, and how far they could get on one tank. They picked a place to stop for lunch (either fast food, picnic site, or sit down restaurant) and they needed to add in the cost for this to their budget. They then had to re-calculate mileage for the gas based on their stop location, and how far they could go on this tank of gas.

A lot of the problems were about keeping the students on task. They had a hard time reading what they were supposed to be doing, even though the directions were very clear and walked them through each step slowly. By the second half of the day we learned to keep them on task by reading the instructions for each step for them out loud. There had been a part where the students discuss why they chose a certain car on a twitter-like site, but they abused this with inappropriate language so it had to come down.

The students really seem to enjoy it, but it does take two class periods to finish the entire quest. We created graphic organizers for each student to print out to keep track of each item, and they do a great job filling these out. It helps to keep them on task and move them through the lesson. It also helped us know what they had done the day before and where we needed to pick up with each class.

I loved being able to see this lesson through from start to finish. I now want to create more WebQuest for the media center.

Day 3: 2/6/12

The morning was basic, getting used the routine: turning on the computers, lights, etc.; checking in and out books for students.

Marian and I discussed graphic novels and changing novels into graphic novels. My sister recently went to India and brought back "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" in graphic novel form. We looking into ordering these for the library, but couldn't find a way to purchase them b/c they were printed and distributed in England.

I got to use my book cover skills to mylar cover a few new books. I learned how they make labels and add them into their system. This was an important skill because I don't do a lot of acquisition at work, and really wanted to know how they deal with this task in the schools. I like how easy it is to catalog to books. I also was interested to learn how easy, and fairly inexpensive, it is to order books pre-labled and cataloged.

I learned how they take money for fines and printing and how they do the paperwork for this. As a former math teacher, I really like this aspect as well as the budgeting and spreadsheets. We had a chance to talk about budgeting in respect to collection management and how fines can help with this by giving some wiggle room.

They are working on a Manga Mania event for the students and I made the poster for the students to take home. I also needed to make COBRA posters to post over the halls to keep the students (and teachers!) from plagiarizing and incorrect citations. We also worked on material for staff development together.

I had a chance to pick a few alternative books to "Tears of a Tiger" for a lesson. This was an interesting ordeal because the books needed to be religious in nature, but tread carefully. If the parents don't want their children reading this book, it is unlikely they will want a different similar book. We worked with one of the teachers for this lesson on a phone message to send out to parents about the book and the lesson (hoping they would want the students to read such a great book).

The library leaders (student volunteers) came in again and I love working with them. They are always very helpful and interested in what we are doing. We worked on shelving books which they are great at.

Marian and I had a chance to talk about core curriculum and how the library fits in with supporting the classes. We looked at this in relation to a few of my assignments as well. We seem to work together as a team really well; keeping each other on task and remembering what we need to work on next.

I feel quite at home here and enjoy working with both the staff and the students. It's sad to leave and go to my other work, but it's great knowing that I'm going to school for the right thing!