Archive for February, 2008
Today we started a research project with our 11th Honors American Literature/Composition.
To help facilitate the research, we set up our pathfinder to point them toward literary criticism articles on The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye.Students could go to either http://del.icio.us/creekview_hs_library/Gatsby_criticism or http://del.icio.us/creekview_hs_library/Catcher_in_the_Rye from the main pathfinder page.
All links work, and students have the passwords if prompted to enter them. In addition to these resources, we have pulled nonfiction and reference books with literary criticism, too. We also reminded students that literary criticism is generally not available for free on the world wide web; nearly all of it is accessible through print materials or research databases. We also reminded them that Sparknotes and other similar products are not literary criticism. I thought we had made this as easy as possible.
Yet, we still had students SEARCHING GOOGLE for literary criticism!!!
What do you do with this? How do you overcome this mentality and resistance? It does not get any easier than the way we presented the information through del.icio.us!
I freely admit I am totally and completely baffled! Ideas? Suggestions?
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Dear Representative Coleman:
I would like to respectfully request that you include media specialists in the proposed HB 157 legislation that would allow certain groups of educators to return to full time employment and collect full retirement benefits under certain conditions.
Quite frankly, I am shocked we would be excluded from this legislation. Information literacy is no longer an “optional” aspect of a child’s education; it is imperative that today’s students acquire and hone these skills in order to be prepared for post-secondary education and today’s workforce. More importantly, one must have information literacy in order to effectively participate in our democratic society.
What do media specialists do? I assure you we do more than “check out books”! I arrive before most teachers do, and I am usually one of the last to leave. I do not get a planning period or a fixed lunch; most days I am lucky to eat while I work at my computer at the circulation desk or between classes that we are teaching. Whether I am teaching a group of ninth graders how to access information through a research database, helping an individual child master a technology skill, or collaborating with our teachers to develop lessons that we will deliver together to our students, I *TEACH* all day long, every day. In fact, I was voted “Teacher of the Month” in September of 2006 at my school and was a finalist for Teacher of the Year this year. I tied for 2nd place for the 2006 Golden Apple Teacher Award in my school, an award voted on by teachers. Many media specialists in our state have been recognized as “Teacher of the Year” in their schools and their districts!
This legislation implies that we are not “worthy” of the same benefits as classroom teachers. I can assure you that I work just as hard, if not harder, as a high school media specialist than I did as a classroom secondary English teacher (and that was pretty darn hard!). We as media specialists teach just as classroom teachers do and work with many learners day in and day out in our libraries. I might also add that you have to have at least a master’s degree to even *BE* a media specialist—this is not a requirement for classroom teachers! In fact, I have a M.Ed. and Ed.S. that I earned in person from the University of Georgia, the only School Library Media program in Georgia to earn AASL accreditation.
Qualified and talented media specialists are more important than ever in this age where information literacy is a requirement, not an option! We are at the heart of learning in Georgia’s schools. There are numerous research studies that show media specialists and effective school library media programs are correlated to increased student achievement. Here are some resources that have just a sampling of the evidence of how we impact achievement:
I believe my fellow faculty and administration would attest to how vital I am to my school as the media specialist. If you want to see what I do, I invite you to visit:
I will only be 51 when I am eligible to retire—this legislation would be an incentive for me to extend my career as a K-12 educator and would enable me to afford to work in a rural district where qualified school library media specialists are always in demand.
I am a leader, a shaker, and a mover in my school who is passionate about teaching and learning as a media specialist. We as media specialists are always on the leading edge of new innovations in education and teaching strategies. I urge you to please include school library media specialists in this legislation so that children in Georgia can not only have access to highly qualified classroom teachers who may come out of retirement, but also to highly qualified school library media specialists as well.
Thank you for listening to my concerns and considering my request.
Respectfully,
Buffy J. Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
770-720-7600, x. 253
buffy.hamilton@cherokee.k12.ga.us
http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/creekview-hs/mediacenter
http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/creekview-hs/buffyhamilton
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I was quite disturbed to learn of proposed legislation that would exclude media specialists from proposed retirement legislation. According to Betsy Razza, our GLMA Legislative “liaison” and “advocate”, HB 157 would allow:
… a retired teacher to return to full-time employment and continue to collect his or her full retirement benefit. A certified teacher is defined in this bill as teaching pre-kindergarten through grade 12 employed by the public schools who has as his or her primary sole responsibility the academic instruction of students in a classroom.
An update we received this evening stated that counselors and media specialists (I guess because we are “S” or service personnel and not perceived as vital as classroom teachers?) were excluded to “save money.” Sources with PAGE and GLMA believe that counselors will be included, but media specialists are still excluded.
To view the proposed legislation:
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/fulltext/hb157.htm
To even consider excluding us is shocking, insulting, and infuriating to me. I arrive before most teachers do, and I am usually one of the last to leave. I do not get a planning period or a fixed lunch; most days I am lucky to eat while I work at my computer at the circulation desk or between classes that we are teaching. I might also add that you have to have at least a master’s degree to even *BE* a media specialist—this is not a requirement for classroom teachers!
This legislation implies that we are not “worthy” of the same benefits as teachers. I can assure you that I work just as hard, if not harder, as a high school media specialist than I did as a classroom teacher (and that was pretty darn hard!). We as media specialists teach just as classroom teachers do and work with many learners day in and day out in our libraries. Qualified and talented media specialists are more important than ever in this age where information literacy is a requirement, not an option!
If you believe media specialists should be entitled to the same privileges as other educators, then please contact these legislators and voice your concerns. Rep. Brooks Coleman is the author of this well-intended but misguided legislation. Please contact him with your concerns and objections at:
brooks.coleman@house.ga.gov
At the Capitol: 404-656-9210
At his home: 770-476-4471
Remember these key points:
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Georgia needs qualified school library media specialists to run our libraries.
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There is already a shortage of fully certified school library media specialists in rural areas that would affect staffing.
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School library media specialists are certified educators by the Professional Standards Commission; our work impacts all areas of the curriculum. We work collaboratively with classroom teachers to co-teach across the curriculum in all areas.
We are more instrumental than ever to public education, yet many legislators do not understand our value or importance. Let us vocalize our concerns to our legislators so that they may have a better understanding of how vital we are to the education of children of all ages in Georgia.
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I came across two items this morning that you might enjoy if you are into history, stories, or archives.
First, I stumbled across this wonderful Flickr collection entitled “Mom’s World” by Joey Harrison. This collection chronicles his mother’s recollections (she provides most of the narratives) and photos of life in Grand Rapids, Michigan between the late 1940s —2007. If you want to hear first-hand accounts of life from this time period, you must check out the photos and narratives…his mother is sharp as a tack! What a wonderful way to preserve history for your family and the general public! Fascinating stories, amazing photography—definitely something you will enjoy.
Secondly, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran this story this morning about a historical collection of rare newspapers donated by Nell McGruder to the Atlanta History Center. If you are interested in north Georgia history (particularly Cherokee County), this is a great story! I only wish the Atlanta History Center had the money to digitize and upload the images of these rare newspapers to Flickr a la Library of Congress! Perhaps they may eventually go to the Georgia Archives?
While reading The English Patient in 2004 for a course with Dr. Mark Faust at UGA, Dr. Faust wisely observed that history is really a series of stories and accounts, not necessarily objective facts that are black and white. I think primary sources such as these affirm that view. It makes me a little sad to think that I never perceived “history” as story until I was a graduate student! I think more people might take a interest in history and its study if they thought of it as story rather than a series of disconnected facts.
I hope you enjoy these resources! Let me know what you think!
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One of the great things about being a librarian is the network of colleagues I can turn to whenever I have a question or an information challenge. I am lucky to work with people both within and outside of my school district who are always willing to share their pearls of widsom with me to help me be a better librarian and constantly refine the services and products we offer our patrons. I am also grateful to work with my extremely talented fellow media specialist Ruth Fleet and media clerk Tammy Beasley!
We are often too busy to take pause and really express our gratitude, but I would like to give a public word of thanks to these people for their assistance in recent weeks!
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Debbie and Damon Abilock of NoodleTools—these two always go above and beyond whenever I have a question about citing a particular source or using some feature of NoodleBib. Over the last two weeks, both Debbie and Damon took extra time and care to investigate some questions I had about citing articles from the Greenwood Daily Life online database. Damon has never failed to answer any of the barrage of questions I have sent him over the last four years! 
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Bobby Blount, Director of Technology Services for the Cherokee County School District, for getting us pricing on Flip cameras and Camtasia software.
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Sandi Adams, Web 2.0 Queen, Cherokee County School District, for her great work as our teacher in our Podcasting 101 class! Thank you for helping me get my podcast feed set up on iTunes and troubleshooting my MP4 issue!
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Dave Falke, GALILEO Support Services, for helping me figure out how to find the persistent link to articles in EBSCOhost Literary Reference Center so that I could bookmark literary criticism articles in our Creekview HS Library del.icio.us account for an upcoming pathfinder I am designing for the week of February 25.
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Mike Timmons, Kennesaw State University, for being a guest speaker today for 10th grade students. He spoke about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm as part of a collaborative research project that I have been working on with English teachers Susan Lester, Kendra Nayman, and Sheila Robinson at my school. Thank you to fellow media specialist Vicki Barbre of Cherokee High School for letting us borrow your slide projector!
Ongoing thanks are always in order for:
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Esther Brenneman, Instructional Technology Facilitator of CCSD Technology Services for taking care of all the CCSD Media Specialists.
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Dr. Mary Ann Fitzgerald, University of Georgia, for her constant wisdom.
I have no doubt that just like the winners on Oscar night, I am omitting others, and if I am, I apologize, but I wanted to take a few minutes to publicly thank these great colleagues for their generous help!
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Whether you are a librarian or a regular classroom teacher, check out this post, “Lifelong Abilities, Behaviors, and Attitudes” by Doug Johnson. It is a great column and really struck me as it dovetails with some of my comments in my previous post today on my Media 21 blog.
Take time to read Doug’s post—it is brilliantly thought-provoking.
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I just stumbled across a great library/librarian blog, Gargoyles Loose in the Library. I have been inspired by this post and photo to create something similar although I have no idea where we will put it since we have no wall space and our request to have a bulletin board installed outside the media center was denied.
I am sure we will find a spot somewhere, though! What a great way to highlight our Peach Books, Printz Award winners/honor books, or any other group of books you may be featuring! Many thanks to Frances Harris for sharing this clever idea!
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Beloved author Jon Scieszka, who was just named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress and Children’s Book Council, recently wrote a guest column in The New York Times entitled “Turn Page on Kids’ Book Boredom”. I think the four major tips he offers are simple yet powerful:
1. Let the reader choose what they like and want to read. Fiction doesn’t have to be everyone’s favorite. I’ll never forget my own son’s reaction reading “Little House on the Prairie” (a favorite of many other readers): “Are they really going to spend this whole chapter making a door?”
2. Expand the definition of “reading” to include nonfiction, humor, graphic novels, magazines, action adventure and, yes, even Web sites. If a child enjoys reading, the focus of his or her reading will naturally broaden. He won’t read only shark books forever.
3. Be a good reading role model. Show your kids what you like to read, what you don’t like to read, how you choose what you read. Let kids see you reading.
4. Avoid demonizing television, computer games, and new technologies. Electronic media may compete for kids’ attention, but we are not going to get kids reading by badmouthing other entertainment. Instead, talk with kids about how reading can make a world in ways that movies and games can’t – and admit that TV and games can do things books can’t.
In a separate interview with School Library Journal, Scieszka also offers this piece of advice to teachers and librarians:
The thing teachers and librarians can do is to really step back and take a look at their required-reading lists: they don’t have to be all fiction; they can include alternative genres—and they should absolutely include some nonfiction.
Humor is another genre that gets slighted. You don’t see that many funny books on required-reading lists. Thank God Holes got the Newbery Medal, because otherwise I think people would have just skipped over it and said, “Ah, Louis Sachar, he writes some funny stuff.” People often think that humorous books aren’t really legitimate. So all of those things—nonfiction, graphic novels, science fiction, humor—should be on teachers’ and librarians’ lists.
I found these articles and comments interesting for two reasons. First, it speaks to the issue of the general concern in our country about the decline in reading among young people. More importantly, though, these articles raise the question of “What counts as reading”?
In elementary and middle school, students’ reading choices are often dictated by their “STAR”/Accelerated Reader Level (or something comparable) or a Lexile. While the intentions behind these scores are typically honorable, I believe the consequences of using these kinds of scores/programs have long term negative effects. I am always fascinated by high school students’ reflections on their experiences with Accelerated Reader. Never have I heard one say, “It made me want to be a lifelong reader.” Instead, I either hear immense relief at being liberated from the restraints of the program and requirements imposed by teachers or I hear students say because there are no longer any external rewards (”prizes”), they see no reason to read. I have heard this over and over again both as a high school English teacher and a high school librarian. During the one year I did elementary library, I can’t tell you how often I cringed when a well-meaning teacher would tell a student he or she could not check out a book because it was not the “right” level.
I was a voracious reader as a child (at home and in school), but I can assure you I might not have been a lifelong reader had AR or something comparable been imposed on me in my early years.
On the flip side of the K-12 spectrum, I have been a witness and a participant in debates about reading lists for high school students in English courses and what choices should be included on those lists. Deep rooted traditions, educators’ personal experiences, district mandates, and political agendas drive who and what makes the final cut on these lists. In recent years, I can’t tell you how many times I wished there was more room in the curriculum for more contemporary literature. This “wish” was expressed by other media specialists at our recent January district meeting.
Yes, there are many classics worth our students’ time, but these classics often crowd out high quality and engaging modern literature that speaks to our students. One example would be Nancy Springer’s I am Mordred. During 2006-07, I elected to use this novel in place of some of the more traditional Arthurian legend novels on our district’s reading list (I will add that Mordred is an approved novel on the district list, but from what I have gathered in talking to other English teachers in our district, it is not one that many people are aware of or may not be perceived as “higher level” reading). In the three times I read this novel with three different sets of 10th grade students, I was amazed, awed, and humbled by the connections my students made with this text and how it fired up their interest in Arthurian lore. Not to “dis” other great Arthurian texts, but The Once and Future Kingjust does not speak to many young adults the way that Nancy Springer’s novel does. Furthermore, one group of students was so perplexed by unanswered questions they had about the novel that we emailed Nancy Springer our “wonderings”. We were thrilled and delighted to receive a response to *every* question within two days! Hearing from a real life author was thrilling to my students and validated their thoughtful questions about the novel! Susan Lester and Kim Blakenship, two fellow English teachers who used this novel with their students, have had the same experiences: students who may have never enjoyed reading or read a book as an adolescent, totally got into this novel.
As Scieszka points out, it takes only one great reading experience to hook a child or teenager on reading. As a librarian, I try to provide a diverse range of books and magazines that meet the reading interests and needs of our students. One of the most liberating things about being a high school librarian is helping students find a book or author that the student wants to read for fun, not because he or she has to do so! Nothing is more thrilling to see the delighted surprise and excitement in the eyes of a teenager who connects to a genre or author!
The question, “What counts as reading?” is not a new one. In my research as a M.Ed. student and Ed.S. student at the University of Georgia, the question was explored in my Language and Literacy Education classes. Plenty of healthy debate as well as qualitative research studies abound regarding this question, yet the conversation of “What counts as reading?” does not seem to be reaching many veteran teachers or even or new teachers who are spanking brand new out of undergrad teacher education.
I hope this question and conversations about it will become more commonplace as we try to balance traditional values and beliefs about reading with the “new literacies” that are evolving right before our eyes. I hope that our libraries will be places where there are many and diverse answers to “What counts as reading?”!
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Current and former students of the University of Georgia School Library Media program learned exciting news on Friday: Dr. Mary Ann Fitzgerald, Associate Professor of Instructional Technology, has won the distinguished College of Education Award for Most Outstanding Teacher!
I think anyone who has had the honor of being a student of Mary Ann will agree that this award is *most* deserving! I was fortunate enough to have Mary Ann as my advisor and to be her teaching assistant at UGA for a semester in addition to taking several classes with her. When I think of people who have been “most influential” in my philosophy as a teacher and librarian, MAF is at the top of my list! She has been instrumental to my development and growth as a teacher-librarian; I am so grateful that I was fortunate enough to be her student at UGA. She sets the standard both as a model teacher and an individual.
I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations to Mary Ann!
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