Location: KIS (Grades 5-8) Hours Observed/Volunteered:14 Total Hours Observed and Volunteered: 32 Observations and Thoughts: This week was much different than the last. This is because their were parent conferences at KIS as well as the Scholastic Book Fair. KIS conducts the book fair differently than the two elementary schools I work at. Unlike the elementary schools, KIS has the book fair open during the school day. Students, with permission from their teachers, can go visit the book fair to purchase items. Another difference is that KIS holds the book fair in the school's library, while the elementary schools host it in half of the gym. Lastly, at the elementary schools the book fair is not run by the SLMS. At KIS the SLMS is the one who organizes the book fair from start to finish. I assume these differences are due to a couple of reasons: Reason one being that because the SLMS is in complete control of the book fair by hosting it within the library, she can closely supervise the book fair. She is always there if students want to browse or purchase items. In the elementary schools, they don't have that luxury; there is no extra staff to stay in the gym during the school day. While the book fair may be closed during the school day, elementary classroom teachers are allowed to bring their students into the gym for browsing during the school day, but no purchasing can take place. The book fair is only open during parent conferences. Parent conferences only happen for two nights, so the book fair is only open for two nights, limiting the amount of time students can purchase books. This is another difference between the schools because at KIS they conduct the book fair for four whole days giving students plenty of time. Another reason for the differences is that students in the intermediate school are older and more mature than elementary students. Intermediate students know how to deal with money better than elementary school students. Therefore, the SLMS, still with supervision and guidance, can trust intermediate students to visit the book fair independently (without their guardians) to purchase books. I also want to mention that because the SLMS is in charge of the book fair she also has control over what products that are displayed during the book fair. For example, she dislikes all the extra non-book materials such as funny pencils/pens, erasers, and do-dads (ex. Lego character attached to a Ninjaga books). She explained to me that these items often get stolen. She also explained that some of these items are also quite expensive. It may be only be five dollars, but she doesn't want students to waste all their money on an eraser that looks exactly like a cassette tape, when they could be purchasing a book instead. She does put some useful, non-book materials such as bookmarks that only cost 50 cents, smaller erasers, and pencils on display in front of the registrar for students to purchase. For the bigger items that come with attachments (colored pencils, water paints, toys, stickers, tattoos, etc.) she places one of each out on a table with a sticker that says "For Display Only". The reason for this is, again, to protect products from being stolen. She keeps the rest of these items behind the registrar for purchasing. Another thing she mentioned were the pens that write in invisible ink. These can be dangerous because students tend to use them to write mean messages about other students. These items are kept out of the book fair. While going through the boxes and carts of books she also choses which books can be available for purchase. For example, the Guinness Book of World Records is very expensive, so she will only put one out. She knows that it would be a very rare event if a student purchased it. She will also look at the appropriateness of the books. Books that are not appropriate won't get put out or they will get placed on top of the carts, out of reach of younger intermediate students. Although it may seem like the SLMS is taking many things away for purchasing, what comes in the Scholastic Book Fair these days seems like more junk than good literature. She understands that she needs to have a wide variety of books to meet the needs of her students, but she also has the responsibility to get books to children, not fancy pens, coloring books, and do-dads. Back when I was in elementary school, I remember having tables filled with books to purchase and only one table full of junk. Times have certainly changed. I was very excited to help with the book fair at KIS because I have never seen one from behind the scenes and what librarian doesn't like a book fair? It was nice to get some tips and tricks about how to set up and conduct a book fair from the SLMS, especially if I conduct my own someday. It is unfortunate that the book fairs include many items that are clearly not books. A BOOK fair is suppose to be about BOOKS to READ and get them in the hands of students. It seems as if companies are slowly turning away from this philosophy. Volunteer Activities: * Created New Non-Fiction and Fiction Signage. (See below) * Cataloged more books into the KIS library * Created barcodes and spine labels using Destiny and stuck them to the correct book. * Added genre labels on the newly catalogued books *Shelved * Checked out books * Learned to used KAPCO covers. These covers protect the soft cover books from damage. * Viewed the KIS and the district's library budgets with SLMS to understand how the budget was created. * Looked at a collection development report from Destiny (see example pages below). Using the Destiny/ Titlewave Titlewise Collection Analysis. This tool helps the SLMS decide on what resources she needs for her library. * Examined the list of books the SLMS is compiling to purchase with the SLMS so she could explain why she is purchasing the books in her list. She used Titlewave, which is a free website that is connected to your collection through Destiny. On the website it shows you which books you already have in your library, books that are already in your cart, etc. It also has book reviews that are from reputable sources, such as Horn Book Review. * Learned along side the SLMS on how to use Follett Remote, a program for checking in and out books while offline. * Helped set up the book fair: * Created cart signs/posters for patrons to easily locate items * Prepared classroom donation slips and student raffle tickets (Raffle tickets are for the scholastic charity "All for Books") * Checked out patrons at the book fair using the Scholastic registrar * Observed and assisted in classrooms browsing the book fair Signs for New Fiction and Non-Fiction books: Location: KIS (Grades 5-8) Hours Observed/Volunteered: 16 Total Hours Observed and Volunteered: 18 Observations and Thoughts: Thorough out the week I got to see the library in action and therefore learned more about the secondary school library experience. Here are some of the experiences that occurred through out the week and my thoughts about them. 1. On the first day of volunteering, the SLMS showed me the schedule for the week. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were the more busier days. She taught Digital Citizenship classes, hosted book checkout, as well as allowing teachers to use the space for their lessons. Tuesday, on the other hand was a very quiet day because barely any teachers signed up for one of the library activities. 2. During this week I was also able to get to know the library better. I had noticed, unlike KMS and KCS, the shelves were well-organized and weren't over-crowded. At KMS and KCS we don't have the luxury of weeding and checking inventory often due to the fixed schedules. At KIS, they don't have a fixed schedule but rather an open one, where teachers sign up for lessons, book check out, and use of library space times. When teachers don't sign up to use the library, the SLMS can perform duties such as weeding and inventory. The SLMS weeds books that are no longer relevant, old or falling apart, uninteresting, etc. 3. The Digital Citizenship Lesson: Teachers sign up for three digital citizenship lessons per year (one in each: Fall, Winter, and Spring). They sign up for lessons, book check out, and use of library space via Google calendars. The lesson I observed this week was the first digital citizenship lesson for fifth graders. Here are some things that I noticed while the SLMS taught this lesson multiple times that week: * She pre-tested them on what they knew about digital citizenship using the iPad the last time they visited the library. * To start of the lesson, the SLMS build upon prior knowledge by asking them "In the physical world, what were we all taught about talking with strangers?" The answer is simple, DON'T DO IT because it's dangerous. Then , "How does this change when we are in the digital world?" and the answer: It is okay to talk to strangers online, but by doing so can be a positive or negative experience. * Used EQ's to get them thinking about the topic. * Frequently walks around to see everybody rather than only standing in front of the Eno board/front of the class. * Teachers are required to stay in the library while the SLMS teaches, therefore the SLMS sometimes involves teachers in the lessons. * The SLMS gave lots of compliments and positives to the students. * During the video, students were not required to watch and take notes at the same time, but she did divide the tables into three groups before the video was played. This was so they can each focus on one of the characters in the video for the discussion afterwards. * After the video, students discussed with their group about the positives and negatives that happened to their character in the video. The SLMS gave them clear expectations (have two positives and Two negatives written) and visited each group to listen to their discussions. They then presented to the class what their answers were and the SLMS took notes using the Eno board so students could take notes on the other two characters from the video. *During the informal assessment, students played a game called "Traffic Signal". Each Students had three cards: red, yellow, and green and read three online situations. After reading the story, student briefly discussed amongst their tables if the situation was green (proceed/ okay), yellow (slow down and be cautious), or red (stop/ don't proceed). Next, each student holds up the traffic signal they believe to match the situation. Once all cards a raised the SLMS gives the answer and explanation for why the situation is red, yellow, or green. * As the review students had to list four big ideas they learned during the digital citizenship lesson. * At the very end of her slide show presentation was the bibliography, which the SLMS briefly explained the two sources, the purpose of a bibliography, and mentioned that students will be learning how to cite sources this year. 4. The SLMS explained to me that the library can be a busy but productive place at times because there can be one class checking out books, one receiving a lesson, and one class that uses the library space or IPads at one time. 5. I also was able to observe a couple of classes from one grade level use the library space for a speaker that is part of a grant program where kids get to work with other kids from different schools. 6. Dealing with behavior: One of the concerns I have always have about teaching at the secondary level is behavior. Granted, I deal with behavior every day at the elementary level, but secondary is a whole different animal. Also, my expertise and experiences are also mostly with younger children. During my time at KIS this week, I got see the SLMS handle some interesting behavioral situations and she handled them very well by staying calm and collected. I also heard her say that the best form of apology is changed behavior. I want to hold onto that saying in my teaching tool box because it is true teachers don't want to just hear "I'm sorry". We want to see change, learning, and growth. 7. I learned some different strategies for asking students to come out of a discussion: Count to 10 but skip count (this makes it fun, silly, and a quick), say the alphabet up to a certain letter (let's say G) and students need to be ready or quiet before that letter. I also heard a really good saying from one of the fifth grade teachers "Turn and talk then back on track". I would like to remember that one, as well as my students. Some of these observations listed above worked well with the library and the classes that had a library lesson. Personally, I would like to try or add some of these experiences I observed this past week during my own lessons (for example, the strategies for asking for quiet, Google calendars, four big ideas review, and have a busy but productive library). These observations from above were some really good experiences to see. Volunteer Activities: *Introduced to administrators, secretaries and some teachers. When I met the principal, she was very interested to hear about my program of study and when I student teach she would like me to invite her to one of my lessons so she can see me in action. She was very supportive and friendly. *Put up Book Fair Posters up around the school. *Had a lockdown drill while a class was in the library. *Divided Book Fair flyers among teachers. *Helped SLMS with Padlet. *Processed Follett book order: Checked packing slip, stamped new books with KIS (Front inside cover, title page, a page in the middle of the book, and back cover), stuck due date slips in the back of the books, wrote barcode number on the inside back cover with a sharpie, added series number and genre labels on the spines, uploaded order into Destiny, and displayed books on the window sill of the library. *Observed the SLMS's formal assessment. *Learned how to cover hard cover books with a dust jacket. Location: Killingly Intermediate School (Grades 5-8) Total Hours Observed: 2 My first impression of the library was that it was amazing. There was so much space and it looked like a well-rounded, high-quality, and inviting library. The Library is located towards the front entrance of the school just past the main office. There is one school library media specialist and a full-time library assistant who mostly deals with circulation and cataloging. Unlike the elementary schools within the district, this library has an open schedule where teachers sign up for instruction by the SLMS. I am interested to see the difference between these two types of schedules in person. As you enter the library, the circulation desk is the first thing you see. Move beyond the circulation desk the library is split up into sections and can be clearly seen: Fiction, non-fiction, biographies, and graphic novels. There is also a section of desks that include computers for research purposes as well as another similar section without computers for studying. There is also two or three recreational reading areas that include comfortable chairs. In the back of the library is the classroom area which features a eno board, tables and chairs in the shape of a "U" for instruction. The SLMS has access to her own IPAD cart, which includes enough IPADs for an entire class, which she uses for instruction. This is unlike the elementary schools, where technology is not used often/at all within instruction. Other things that the SLMS has within her library space is a back office, access to TV's, and a room of weeded books that teachers can use for their classrooms. Another item that the SLMS use to have was a book trailer corner. She would set up a TV and chairs so students can watch book trailers. I can't remember why she no longer includes this into her library, but I hope to include this into mine. While speaking with the SLMS, she was very interested to hear about my education and what I was hoping to get out of this experience. Some of the things we talked about me observing or learning about include: going over the budget, weeding, cataloging from scratch for non-fiction materials, and instruction for older grades. She has expressed her excitement in having me volunteer and student teach with her. She is a very positive and energetic person, who has also had previous experience teaching the elementary grades. Although, she has never had a student teacher before, and was apprehensive at first, we both agreed that this will be wonderful for the both of us and expressed our excitement for this new experience. I will begin my volunteer hours this coming week. Here are some pictures of what the library looks like (FYI it is decorated for Halloween): |