Week 5 Articles

What is the Future of Teaching?
I found this article to be very informative, but I also found holes in it as well. It’s interesting to read the fact that student who take online courses are testing higher than those in the traditional classrooms. Catone goes on to say that it doesn’t mean that it’s a more effective way of teaching (online), which I have to agree with him. My first thought when reading the results was that generally students who take online classes are more capable because they have to have that dedication to get the assignments done, the ability to understand without a face to face meeting, and the drive to keep at it. Catone then reiterates that it’s combination of things that lead to the higher test scores. I think a better study would be to have the same professor teach the same class with the same assignments and use the same assessment at the end of the course. This way all of the variables are the same, with the exception being in a traditional classroom versus an online one. I like how later in the article it breaks down learners into 3 different categories. I’ve always agreed that people don’t learn the same way, and that’s why I’m a big fan of Gardner. The chart was a great visual because you could see how each learner benefited from taking classes online, which I would have thought difficult to do with the interactive learner.

It’s Broken; Let’s Fix it: The Traditional Model of School Librarianship:
I’ve read this article once before, but have become a pretty big fan of The Unquiet Librarian, so I thought it interesting to read again and pick up on all those things I missed before. (Kind of like watching a movie for the second time!) Her Media 21 Project is inspiring, and would really make anyone second guessing the library and its importance to revaluate their opinion. Basically, she’s calling for a change, to let go of the traditional library as we know it and instead turn our sights onto ideas that are bolder in scope and practice. However, she doesn’t expect the librarian to do this without any support, whether that be financially or through other staff helping. She makes a good point when she says that libraries are understaffed, for example one librarian and a para for 1,000 students, or one librarian to run several different libraries. So the question is where to start for the librarian? Well, if your lucky enough to still be one of those that’s in one building servicing the right number of students, then integrating yourself into interdisciplinary teams is what Buffy suggests. Librarians should no longer be seen as support personnel! One more thing I’d like to hit on in this article is the political aspect in the beginning. I always find it interesting that so much is expected from our schools and teachers in this country, but then they yank things that are proven to be beneficiary, and ask ‘what now’ or better yet ‘what happened’? It’s basically like taking away the Bill of Rights from them and then asking for them to do their job properly.

Tell me, what do you teach?
I had never heard of the radio show that put librarians on the spot and asked them to defend their jobs. Just reading about it irritated me to a point of no end, let alone hearing it. Even if I was not going into this profession, I would wonder who has a right to ask those kinds of things of another person. I feel as though they were bullied and that the questions they were asked (attendance?) were ridiculous! Valenza goes on to make good points, often times quoting from different sources. My favorite argument was from Charles Simic when he asked how many book lovers has the internet produced? I’m sure it’s far less the number of libraries. However, this I could see as subject to argument on the radio show as well, citing the age old question of ‘So what?’. A librarian has to put himself out there, in the classroom, making the lesson plans, as Grobin puts it, not guarding dead paper. The movie poster that Valenza created I think says it best. It breaks it down into 4 easy topics and then gives a broad description of each. There is nothing specific about the topics, leaving it up to the teacher/librarian to cover the information as they see fit. I think this poster would be beneficial to see in every librarians office.

Reframing the Library Media Specialist as a Learning Specialist:
After reading this article I feel once again overwhelmed with the profession I’ve decided to be part of! However, it leads me to believe how important it is that if a librarian is going to have this much say in the way things are taught, classroom experience is vital. We’ve all gotten advice from someone who has been out of the classroom (or never in it) for far too long, and your thinking to yourself, this is NOT possible. However, what this article does is also encourages the librarian to be an ever present person in the classroom, which is vital if you help plan. If you are constantly in the classrooms, you know how each year new things are tried out, old things are thrown out, and how each teacher has their own teaching style. I found an interesting line in this article when it was talking about co-teaching. It says that it’s not about what the teacher or library media specialist prefers, but what the learner requires. This is where it’s vital that the librarian is in the classroom. They have the knowhow, the lessons, the training, and the ability to teach these informational skills that students need so badly today. However, this once again wraps around to what Valenza was talking about in her article. In our school how is our one librarian suppose to get around to all 38 classrooms to teach these things? Staffing is what’s holding it back. But, I also think that the scheduling could be rethought as well, instead of every single class having a weekly visit, why not have a different system for students to visit the media center? I know it’s vital for the young ones to visit often, and truthfully I really enjoy it, but isn’t co teaching even more vital? I was excited to see a KWL chart in our reading, I often use these with my students, so to see it in a professional article was interesting. I got the most from the ‘What did I learn section’. I thought it was important that they did address the fact that some teachers are doing the things that need to be done, they’re not all incompetent (as I sometimes feel that’s the opinions of the authors). Also, you are what staff observes you doing. This is one of the few jobs that you can mold and make it what you want to! So if you’re constantly behind the desk sorting and repairing books, of course the library is going to be one of the first places nixed when it comes to budgets. However, if you’re placing yourself in those classrooms, getting out and making it a point to be vital, everyone will look other places when it comes to short change.