Question One for OELMA Conference Credit
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How can your role as a collaborator and leader in your school affect student achievement?
October 12, 2009
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To be deemed worthy of collaboration with today’s teacher, the LMS must be a leader and take the lead in many things throughout their building. As the only LMS in a system of 6200 I’ve had to take many drastic steps and make many bold changes in our system. I’ve challenged my library aides to be much more than a “just bring them in to read to them and check out books” type of librarian. All 13 are the techies in their schools, the liasons to MAZZA in their schools, the webmasters for their schools, their book club leaders, and most will be at OELMA to get new ideas to take back and implement throughout this year. How has being a leader in our system affected student achievement? I believe that I’ve lead most teachers and their students out of their comfort zones and into areas that they never thought they’d be. When our principal decided to bring 50 + SMARTBoards into the High school, I used our equipment monies to transform our media center into a 21st century learning lab, complete with SMARTBoard, hi-tech scanners, new computers and PD for the teachers on how to use it all. The students LOVE coming in to use the lab and the teachers view it as an extension of their classroom. Do I slide in books on carts? On a regular basis. My point is,that you have to take the initiative and the students grab a hold of it and go with it, the teachers have to join in or they’ll be left behind. If you lead, they will follow.
I truly believe that the teacher librarian has a tremendous opportunity to influence student achievement. In our own high school building and indeed around our district the librarians work closely with administrators and teachers to invest and install new technologies. We, too were one of the first classrooms in our building to get a Promethian interactive board. It was installed in our reference room because it’s an enclosed learning lab. I can tell you that that particular lab is constantly in use from district-led professional meetings, to class research and presentations and testing. In addition to that, we recently received an LSTA grant for Start to Finish book kits, Playaways, and the Kurzweil reader. As a result, even our most challenged students may find success in accessing information from our library. Our second computer lab located at the library entrance provides classes and study hall students additional access to our electronic databases. We know that our district encourages teachers to infuse the curriculum with technology, and we as teacher librarians collaborate with our staff to plan and use the resources. By helping provide the tools and the atmosphere, we hope that students are developing those skills which lead to lifetime of learning.
My collaborations with colleagues have lead to many well-designed lessons, but I think what has lead most to greater student achievement is the relationships we have formed in the process. When we pool our resources and carve out time to plan lessons & activities in the best interest of our students, we move from the relationship of fellow workers to colleagues. We become a team, each promoting the strengths of the other, and students react positively to the energy that is generated. Many collaborative lessons have been quite fun for both our teaching team and the students, and that atmosphere has very much affected student engagement and achievement.
My leadership role at our school affects student achievement because it allows me to serve the needs of staff and students and help make them successful. Serving includes trying new technologies to see if they will improve learning; serving includes staying abreast of curriculum resources and trends, sharing them, and suggesting ways to use them; serving includes getting to know students well enough to suggest books and other resources that match their tastes and interests. Serving includes having knowledge of the district’s goals and promoting them.
My role as a collaborator and leader in my school can only affect student achievement in positive ways. I have been at my current school for only three years. I say “only” because that is how long my librarian career has been thus far and in the past couple of years the librarian position had been filled by several other people. Since I have started at the Middle School I’ve had to prove that one, I am here to stay and two, that I am the polar opposite of a librarian who was there for ages and did such things as yell at students AND teachers who did not adhere to her rules. I have had to start small, build trust, learn how to be a librarian and get to know my fellow teachers along with the school district’s culture. I have built a great working relationship with the Language Arts and Reading teacher by going to their department meetings, sharing input about books, resources and directly asking them what I can buy that they want and can use in their classrooms. I see this as building the curriculum through resources that will be used by teachers because it is what they asked for and wanted. I also feel that is a way to start to build as a leader by showing an interest in helping them do their job and making it easier because they have the resources they need. Then when I throw something out in an email about a workshop or new technology they are more inclined to use it or check it out because they trust that I would point them in the right direction. All of this impacts the students. If I am helping the teachers it can only trickle down to the students who will benefit from the resources and information their teachers have at their disposal. I have also started a Book Club at the Middle School. This year is our second year and I am SO stoked that we have 20 regulars at our meetings!! Ten of which are boys!! By being the conductor of the meetings and discussing with the students books they have chosen to read this can only foster the love of books and communication. All of which will not only directly benefit them in their lives but also in their school work.
Any time individuals pool their knowledge and strengths to work toward a common goal, results are bound to be better than those individuals working alone. As library media specialists, we have knowledge and strengths that many teachers do not have. The article, “Collaboration: Finding the Teacher, Finding the Topic, Finding the Time”, Angela Gess states that one step necessary for successful collaboration is finding a topic that is easily connected to the standards. My question is, what topic does not require students to access information efficiently (standard 1), evaluate information critically and competently (standard 2), and use information accurately and creatively (standard 3)? That is one of the many beauties of our position. Although we can be knowledgeable of the various curricula in our buildings, we are not experts. When we pool the subject expertise of the teacher, regardless of the subject area or topic, with our knowledge of information literacy, student achievement is bound to improve.
I read the article on Collaboration by Angela Gess. She emphasises the importance of Information Literacy Skills. In a collaborative project the media specialist would lead in the instruction of these skills. The media specialist supports all classes, all subjects and all lessons but most importantly supports the instruction of the information literacy skills. These are skills important for the student’s lessons now and in the future.
I read the articles by Gess, Kowalski, and Loertscher. Now, I am thoroughly jealous of the “Learning Commons” at the Chelmsford High School Library. At a time when my budget is being cut, it is amazing to see what other LMC’s are doing. However, the articles by Gess and Kowalski reminded me of what I can accomplish no matter how small my budget may be. In my roll as a collaborator, I get to help shape student learning across the curriculum. As I tell my teacher, “I am the BASF of the school. I may not be the expert in subject, but I’m here to make your classes better.” I help work information literacy skills into many different subject areas. The teachers reinforce the idea that the skills I teach are important, even critical. Many students seek help in the LMC not just for where or how to find resources or their next “great” read, but also how to format a bibliography, or fix a problem with a Word document or PowerPoint. I even have a few students who stop by for help with their math. It is especially rewarding to have a student that I just helped turn around and help another student with the same problem. I know I help my students achieve, sometimes they even stop by to tell me “thank you.”
As a collaborator and leader in my school, I impact student learning daily. The library schedule in our building has time included in the week for each teaching team (2 teachers) to have a 40 minute research period in addition to their regular 40 minute library lesson each week. During that time I work with the teachers and students on different classroom projects. Seeing students twice a week really helps them to become very familiar with the library; locating materials and finding online resources. The students also see me teaching along with their classroom teachers and this helps for them to see the importance of the library in their learning. By being involved in the collaborative projects I see firsthand where I am strong on resources to support the curriculum and where I may need to work at developing to meet the student’s needs. After reading the article on passenger or crew member, I really began to think about how much I guide students to finding the resources or books they are looking for. I have to make some changes to make sure I am not hand holding too much and giving them the opportunities to make mistakes instead of letting them stumble upon what they need in their own way and time.
After reading the article by Killeen, I am reminded that librarians are usually the only educators in the building who have a handle on the curriculum at all grade levels. We are able to see the bigger picture of how learning is increasingly built upon from year to year. Knowing where students have been and where they are headed provides us a unique perspective. Connections are made to previous lessons and experiences and appropriate resources are provided to teachers and students which enhances understanding at a deeper level.
At the elementary level, student achievement is gauged mainly by reading achievement. My role as a librarian is to get kids excited about reading by selecting materials and developing programs that are engaging and student centered. I collaborate with teachers by extending themes and topics through literature selections for the classroom and shared during stories durign library visits. Students who like to read become better readers and higher achievers.
Offering a trained mind and a teacher’s heart I am on a constant hunt for ways to connect people, places and ideas in ways that will boost student achievement. Since I enjoy working with a team, collaboration is a natural fit and I believe that it invites others to collaborate. It is really almost infectious when a teacher finds out that someone is as interested in their students’ achievement as they are. Gess’s article rang very true in my situation, “Collaboration works when it is done with the right teacher, focuses on the right topic, and is implemented at the right time.” By understanding the dynamics of my school community I can lead a teacher to collaboration and before they know it they are doing a more authentic piece than they first anticipated and I was an integral part of the project. I also believe that data-driven collaboration is a very important piece of today’s collaborative efforts and I really want to target those areas in which our students struggle. The shared responsibility and benefits of data-driven collaboration that Buzzeo talked about create a sense of ownership of my role in student achievement. This gives me purpose and encourages me that I am an integral part of the process – even though I do not hand out grades. This type of collaboration pinpoints the skills that need everyone’s attention – the teacher, the student and the librarian.