Do educators need a tea party?

Read my comment to Joyce Valenza's posting.

Do educators need a tea party?: "I can feel the grass roots growing. But they need a little water, or perhaps, some tea. Daily, my email box and my Twitter stream fill with..."
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Maybe you'd like to join my armband wearing to mourn the loss of school librarians and school libraries across the state, including Marin County where there are only a handful of school librarians left in elementary school and a few at middle and high schools.

What do think? Do you think the loss of school library programs is just the price we pay for recession. What do you know about your local school library? What have you done to support school libraries in your community and elsewhere?

February is Love Your Library Month but we need to do a lot more than loving our libraries--we need to get out there and fight for our libraries!

Did you know that in President Obama's proposed budget, he does away with separate funding for the Increasing Literacy through School Libraries program. This after declaring last October Information Literacy Month for the first time ever! Where does he think kids are going to learn info lit skills except with the help of their school librarian? He has also did not mention public libraries in his jobs creation program even though public libraries are the place many people go to find information about jobs and job training when time get tough like they currently are.

Shame on you, President Obama. We're waiting for leadership in specific and measurable ways and you, instead, take away or gut proven programs.

Yes, I am in mourning and yes, I still love my library.

I certainly hope you do, too.

How can you help? Write policy makers, including the President, our Congresswoman (Woolsey), our Senators (Boxer | Feinstein) on the Jobs for Main Street Act, and state politicians (Leno | Huffman) to demand support for school and public libraries.

The Teaching Lab

Last week there was a lively discussion on a school library listserv I belong to about the usefulness of computer labs in libraries as opposed to having computers arranged in a less concentrated way. My response was to describe our set up and how I prefer it to the computer lab approach.

When I first came to Redwood there really wasn't a space to teach information literacy lessons. The Reference Room was broken up into a couple sections each with it's own tables and chairs but with no focal point. and the Main Room didn't really have a space large enough for a class to gather in because book shelves extended throughout the room. Even when we had the occasional staff meeting teachers were sitting between book shelves.

After a few months I began to really see how this wasn't going to work when I had a class in and needed to demonstrate something online to them, not to speak of library orientation sessions and other kinds of presentations.

My first priority was to have a suitable teaching space. By rearranging some of the furniture and moving the librarian's desk out of the center of the room, hanging a screen and figuring out a fairly efficient way to hook up an old LCD projector I was able to turn the Reference Room into a makeshift teaching space which could hold a class of 30+ students. One of the major drawbacks to this setup was that the room is long and narrow (it was the whole library in the early days of the school) and I felt I was not able to hold the attention of kids in the back of the room. My dream at that time was to move the screen to the long side of the room and have a teaching station with a computer and ceiling-mounted projector.

When plans were being made to pass a construction bond I made sure that the teacher station idea had a priority in the modernization project. By moving computers to tables around the periphery of the room (with data- and power-cables coming via ceiling conduits) we made the configuration which we currently have. I also made sure that there was a teaching station (a recycled piece of the old circulation desk) with a hard-wired laptop which could easily be connected to a ceiling-mounted projector. I've been very pleased with the way that the project turned out and can very quickly be online and projecting just what I want the students to see and do.

There are sixteen desktop computers in the room on 48"-wide tables. I specifically chose the wider tables because I don't like to look of computers with no workspace and the wider tables allow students to work side-by-side when necessary. In the middle of the room are four large (8'x4') tables each with at least six chairs. That means that the room can seat 40 in some comfort. The wall shelves still hold the reference collection of around 6,000 titles which didn't have to be sacrificed and which grows each year along with prudent weeding.

The other secret to making the room a success as a teaching space is our 28 laptops which are able to access the wireless network and can be used anywhere in the library. Usually when multiple classes are using the library, we've got some kids on the desktops, some on laptops, and some using the print collection. I really like the combination of all these ways to access information because it forces me and the students to explore all the resources the library has to offer. I like teaching in the Reference Room because I can easily walk to the shelves to show kids where books and other items are located and if I forget something, I'm not running to another location to get it, it's all right there.

My desk is also on the floor of the Reference Room which puts me in the thick of the action all day long.

Skepticism, An Essential Information Literacy Attitude

In a recent column Time magazine's Michael Kinsley discusses his concern over two memoirs which were admitted by their authors to have been faked. One, written by a white woman, was about growing up as a half-Native American gang member in South Central (Los Angeles). The other was the story of a woman who claimed to have been a Holocaust survivor as a child, which features an episode of her having been protected by a pack of wolves for a time. Kinsley refers to these fake memoirs as "autophoniographies."

After the infamous episode a couple years ago in which James Frey's memoir turned out have been padded with tales which were exaggerated or non-existent, I moved his book from the biography section of the library to the fiction section. His wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last of such books.

Kinsley's response to the publication of these books was interesting and has implications for information professionals and those we teach: "[B]ook publishers--unlike newspaper and magazine publishers--do virtually nothing to check or warrant the accuracy of what they print." (I have a feeling Time will be getting a few letters over that comment).

I think we sometimes mislead our students when we imply in any way that they can be secure in using books (print or digital), online subscription databases, or any other source of information without scrutinizing each source with a skeptical eye.

I continually remind my students to "check every source." No source of information is perfect and all have to be taken with some skepticism. As a matter of fact, the entire process of research should be based on a kind of skeptical mindset.

And this doesn't just apply to bogus memoirs. Another recent incident in the news revealed that a study which most likely played some part in the author's winning the 2004 Nobel Prize for Medicine had to be retracted because the author couldn't later verify the results.

The bottom line is not that we throw up our hands and quit looking for information, stop creating knowledge, cease producing results--but that all of us model how to be careful in assessing and evaluating information no matter what the source.

iPods Beyond the Music

A recent entry on the Online Education Database site entitled "100 Ways to Use Your iPod" says: "If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven't been keeping up with the latest technology. The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them. From downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications, learning on the go has never been easier. To find out about the many different ways you can transform your iPod into a learning device, check out our list below."

I'm not sure why the author skipped from pre-teens to college students but obviously, high school students and their teachers should be aware of how MP3 files can be useful to them as well.

The list mentioned includes sites like Raybook! which "combines texts, images, audio and video into a single package you can use on your iPod," iPREPpress, SparkNotes and SparkCharts, and NotePods.

It also gives lists of educational podcast sites, tutorials, iPod applications, and iTunes U (universities such as Stanford, UC, and MIT, which offer downloadable lectures)

In the Bessie Chin Library catalog we have begun to catalog websites which provide podcasts. Just search for the subject "podscasts" to see what we've got so far.

A great portal to all things iPod and educational, this page is well worth taking a look at.

Diversity Week in the library

This week was an interesting one. The library hosted two Diversity Week speakers on Monday and Tuesday and we had a full house for both presenters.

On Monday a group from the teen homeless advocacy organization, Ambassadors of Hope, talked about the problems homeless teens and young adults have in Marin County. The speakers someone who was homeless herself as a teen and determined to do something about it to help others. A young man who had recently been homeless also told of his experiences on the street. They showed a movie narrated by Peter Coyote, a county resident, about the particular problems homeless teens face here. Once they turn eighteen young people can no longer be part of the foster care system and with little or no support many become homeless.

Tuesday's speaker from Seeds of Learning explained the issue of fair trade to students who attended her presentations. She had worked in Central America with coffee growers who tend to be exploited under free trade agreements. The picture at the top of this post is from their website.

Both sets of speakers spoke to all seven periods of classes and as many as two-hundred students heard them each period--so they reached a lot of kids.
From the students comments, questions and answers I could tell there was a wide range of beliefs and responses to both speakers.

At Redwood we are fortunate that the Leadership class and it's teachers are not afraid to delve into controversial issues and consider that diversity refers to more than just ethnic or racial diversity. In Marin it's sometimes easy to forget that there's a great, wide world out there with issues and problems that we can make a difference about.

Valentine's Day Greetings

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

For several years the library has provided candy on Halloween and Valentine's Day as a little treat for our patrons, students and staff alike. I find unwrapped, single-bite candy like candy corn or, for Valentine's, the little message hearts. I don't offer wrapped candy because of the trash it produces. Kids really enjoy it, of course.

This year I couldn't find the tiny candy hearts so I only got the larger ones. I guess I was just looking in the wrong place. The only little hearts I saw were in tiny bags inside a larger bag. Talk about a waste. I guess there's some concern about safety!? I also provided new (to me) white, pink and red, candy corn. Candy corn isn't just for Halloween any more. And finally I found heart-shaped Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper Heart Breakers (what a mouthful).

Kids (both girls and boys) were running around with flowers and other tokens of affection. But they really like the candy!

Support the Bessie Chin Library

Although the Tam District is quite generous when it comes to providing support for district library programs, parents from time to time ask how they help the library as individuals. Of course, donations of used books and videos are certainly encouraged. When we receive donated books or other materials we make a decision about whether or not to add them to the collections based on condition and age, curricular connections, and usefulness for recreational reading. Books we cannot use we take to the Marin County Free Library bookstore in Novato where they help support MCFL programs.

The Bessie Chin Library also has three easy ways you can help provide funds for library and school materials.

• We have a close relationship with our wonderful neighbors at Book Passage in Corte Madera (http://www.bookpassage.com). When a customer mentions Redwood as they are buying books a certain percentage of the sale (up to 5%) is rebated to Redwood in the form of a gift certificate. In the most recent quarter the library received a certificate for more than $125.00 which means supporters bought over $2500.00 worth of books and mentioned Redwood High School.
• A new initiative we discovered recently is called GiftLit. Their website (http://www.giftlit.com) provides a way to give the gift of books on a regular basis and have the school get 15% of whatever the gift costs. Their brochure explains: “our board of literary experts group their favorite books into unique collections delivered in 3, 6, or 12-month gifts.” Collections include: New Baby, Favorites for Boys Age 8-10, Favorites for Girls Age 10-12’ Teen Fiction for Girls, Teen Fiction for Boys, Favorites for Women, Nonfiction for Men, Food & Wine, Read Aloud, and Family Activities. Once you’ve ordered one of the subscriptions you will be prompted to enter the school code (for Redwood it’s RHS82302) and the school gets credit for that sale.
• There is a special Amazon.com search box on the library’s home page (http://rhslibrary.org) and when you order something from Amazon using this box we get a certain percentage of the sale. There is currently no way of ordering via the regular website for Amazon. Any proceeds from these sales come to us as a rebate on our regular library account with Amazon. You can also order books through LibraryThing and Redwood will get the Amazon rebate.

There are links to all of three of these services on the library website (Click on Support the Library). Take a look and make a choice. All of these are great ways to keep up with your reading (or in the case of Amazon, just about anything!) and support the Redwood library program at the same time.

Thanks for all you do for Redwood as volunteers and in so many other ways. It’s all for one cause—your kids and our community.

Teaching Students about Subscription Databases

I had a great experience yesterday involving one of our best teachers.

Bob Winkler teaches English at Redwood and has brought his students to the library many times over the years. Though Bob has a reputation as being cautious in relying too much on technology for teaching and learning, he has really started to see how our subscription databases can help in his classes.

Bob has three 10th grade English classes (not honors) who are reading Macbeth and he wanted them to find a "real" piece of literary criticism about the play to use as they were reading and develop a deeper understanding of the play from what another author had to say about it. There are about 80 students in the three classes.

Previously they had read Oedipus Rex and he had given them pre-selected critical essays from Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex and another book of essays about Sophocles in general which the library had in its collections. This was to introduce them to the type of work they would later be finding on their own. Many of the students were able to use ideas they had gleaned from the essays in a Socratic discussion they had following the reading of the play.

Bob saw the next step as having students find and use critical essays on their own.
He developed an assignment that gave me the chance to show students how to search three of the library subscription databases: EBSCO's AP Source, ProQuest Learning: Literature, and Questia. Each of these requires slightly different approaches and gives quite different results.

Over about forty minutes the students and I we were able to explore in pretty great depth some search strategies, ways of saving information, setting up individual accounts, and so forth.

Following my presentation, Bob immediately took each class to an open computer lab and had them start setting up their accounts and searching on their own. From the on-going feedback I've gotten from him and some his students, they have been very successful in finding the kind of material he wants them to use. He's going to send me a list of the essays they have used and we will follow this assignment up with an intensive on the proper citing of sources.

Among many things I admire about Bob is his attitude toward collaboration. We both retain a certain humility about what we do and can provide to students. He is the expert on using the texts to help students better understand what they are reading, I am able to help them find the texts they need to accomplish that task.

And to top it off he sent me a thank-you note! I want to thank Bob publicly for making my job rewarding and giving his students a great classroom experience which they really do appreciate.

CTAP Region IV Council meeting

I attended the CTAP IV Council meeting last Thursday (Dec. 6).

CTAP Region IV is part of the state-wide California Technology Assistance Program and has a representative group of folks from the Bay Area counties to help devise and review plans for projects the Region is working on. I've been on the Council for three years and it's been fun see all that CTAP IV does for counties, districts and schools in the Bay Area.

One program which they have begun pursuing recently is providing support for mentor teachers who support new teachers in the schools. There has been a dearth of attention paid to technology which is one of the areas that new teachers are supposed to be competent in. In many cases it's because their mentors just don't have the experience themselves and are not able to help new teachers as well as they'd like to.

CTAP IV has been working with the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz to provide training for lead mentors with the expectation that they will take what they've learned back to their site mentors and they in turn will make using technology an everyday experience for new teachers.

The librarians and library supporters who are were there (including Jackie Siminitus and Linda Guitron) suggested that a link to Classroom Learning 2.0, which CTAP co-sponsors, be prominently featured on the CTAP IV Web site.

A Visit to Montgomery High in Santa Rosa

Yesterday a few of us from Redwood went to Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa to see the International Baccalaureate program in action. Redwood has decided to apply to become an IB school and Montgomery High is the closest IB school to Marin County. IB, as the name implies, is a curriculum of internationally-focused education for the last two years of high school.

Nancy Neu, our principal, and Steve Butler, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, lead this second group from Redwood to visit Montgomery, which has had an IB program for at least ten years. Our group consisted of three math teachers, two English teachers, a social studies teacher and myself.

After hearing about the program in general and some of the local experiences from the director of the program at MHS, we discussed one of the signature courses of the program, the Theory of Knowledge class, with the current teacher and then met and chatted with several of the students in the program. All the experiences they reported were very positive. Both the kids and the teacher were enthusiastic about their support of IB.

The second half of the morning was spent by teachers visiting IB classes. I chose go to the library and interview the library media teacher, who I had never met before. Kate Farrell has been librarian at Montgomery for five years. One day a week she also serves as the librarian at two(!) elementary schools in the district. Kate is nearing retirement from a varied life in librarianship and the world of children's literature. She developed a very successful story-telling program in her earlier years and even worked at the state level giving story-telling workshops around the state. She was a librarian in the SFUSD for several years and while with the district served as a liaison with the SF Public Library.

She mentioned a couple things which I think we will have to consider if we decided to become an IB school. One is that in IB there are two history courses, both with a more international focus than what we may be used to. The first course, for juniors, is the history of the Americas and it requires more materials than most school libraries have on Latin America. The senior course has a world-wide focus and so requires more materials which consider the international implications of history.
The other requirement is strong support for fairly high-level research resources of all kinds. This need is generally met these days with online subscription databases. Montgomery students are fortunate in that they have access to the SF Public Library databases which are very rich and diverse.

In all, I thought the trip was very useful and it was my first taste of what Redwood students and staff will need to be provided by the library in order to succeed in this intriguing and potentially wonderful new educational program.

Lots Happening, Part II: Class at Dominican U.

This actually happened Tuesday of last week so it's a little out of order with the previous post.

Martha Allen, a former English teacher-extraordinaire at Redwood, has invited me for a few years to come a talk to her secondary curriculum class at Dominican University. This was the third time I've visited and been able to share my insights with would-be teachers.

There were about 15-20 students present for the class which is a good number for sharing and discussion. I was with the class for just about an hour. About half of the time was taken by my explaining just what a library media teacher is in California, the sad state of our libraries in general and what a good librarian can do for them in promoting and teaching information literacy and helping their kids learn and hone skills they will need their entire lives.

Many of the students had had experiences with librarians, both good and bad, and as always I stressed that most librarians are eager to help in whatever way they can. I emphasized that they really like to be part of the planning process so that the opportunities and challenges of any assignment can be discussed before the kids begin their projects.

We talked a bit about what kids are reading these days and I reassured them that we have a wide range of materials to support various reading levels and interests. We also discussed the concept of free reading which many teachers put restrictions on. I explained, and Martha concurred, that the best kind of free reading is really free, ala Stephen Krashen. His theory and practice is that whether students (children or adults) are reading comic books, magazines or the most ancient classics, it's the act of reading which is essential, not the content.

I really like the opportunity to share with folks who may not be very comfortable around librarians the chance to interact in a free-flowing sort of way, bring up challenges they have faced and see what kinds of solutions we can reach. It's too bad we don't have the time to do something similar at our school sites often enough.