Wednesday, August 15, 2012

One small success


Picture this- it is late May in a typical suburban high school.  A teacher decides that this is the best time for his Senior English classes to begin their "research paper," and has signed them up for an entire week in the library.  He rationalizes the timing, because he really just has them gathering a few facts about the year they were born.  Now we could have a discussion about all of the things are wrong with this logic and easily scrutinize the pedagogy of this assignment, in fact I tried.  But the fact is, the situation was real and I was faced with a week of dis-engaged seniors who were not being challenged to think, let alone research...

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Building relationships, building community

View of Connetquot High School Library on Back to School Night 2008


For the nine years I was the library media specialist at Connetquot High School.  Every year I introduced each class of ninth graders to the library during a one period orientation.  But I didn't spend a lot of time showing the students where they could find books or telling them how to check them out (although I'm sure I mentioned it).

Instead I spent the period trying to demonstrate that our school library functioned on a culture of mutual respect.  I shared with them that I had never really used my own high school library because I didn't feel welcome there. I told them I trusted that they knew what appropriate school behavior was and expected them to act accordingly.  I said our library was modeled after what they might find in a college and with that freedom came responsibility- no one wanted to stand over their shoulder reminding them of the few rules we had, but then again we would if they gave us reason.  The 30 or 40 students who were in the library from lunch or study hall were always a part of my presentation; I pointed out how while I was teaching they knew that they had to stay really quiet, but that later, when we were doing an activity they would be able to talk a bit more.  It was such an interesting dynamic- the older kids were really modeling for the new students that what I said was true.  Once it was established, it was a pretty easy system to maintain and throughout the year. I found that everyone generally fell in line as they assimilated into our culture of respect. If you ask what my objective for that orientation was, I would have to say it was all about building relationships with the students.