Project ENABLE - Day 4

Day 4 began with a presentation on motivation and management by Dr. Ruth Small.   We discussed the ARCS model of motivational design originally created by Dr. John Keller.  The over-arching idea that in order for students to be motivated, they must expect that they can succeed and value their success.  When students are not motivated, they get frustrated, angry, withdrawn and discouraged.  I think this is true of adults as well as students.  

Some of the suggestions offered by the ARCS model are things that we plan to implement immediately.  We try very hard to promote active participation and provide variety and choice wherever possible.  Several of the principles mentioned are things that we incorporate in many of our inquiry-based research projects.  Not coincidentally, our inquiry-based projects often are those that show our students at their most motivated. 

 After Dr. Ruth's presentation, we heard from our special education colleagues.  It was interesting to hear their perceptions of what they do and how they see themselves and their role in our schools.  It was obvious that many of the valuable things that they have learned have been through experience--many spoke of learning from their students and from their paraprofessionals. I found it particularly interesting to see how many of the things that the special educators saw as their role were also things that the librarians mentioned--supporting students and teachers, encouraging, collaborating, communicating and advocating were all roles that stood out for me as things I do all the time.  I don't think that I've ever sat down and considered all the ways our jobs are similar.  To be fair, I also haven't analyzed the differences--just not something I've given much thought to at all.  It has been nice to hear from other stakeholders in an informational discussion setting. 

After the presentation by the special educators, we had another group activity where we discussed how librarians can be more involved in the IEP creation and modification process.  Our group had already discussed this after an earlier conversation and had decided that Colleen will start including me in her emailed requests for comments on students' IEPs.  She already emails all their teachers, but as I don't show up on the students' schedules, I had heretofore not been included.  Other suggestions that we may look at included using the librarian as a resources to get the materials and resources that are required by IEPs for students, including librarians in SST meetings and including librarians in professional development that may help them to support students with special needs.

After lunch, we worked on our lesson plan at great length, and nearly finished it.  We were thrown a bit of a curve ball, when we were issued a hypothetical student with a disability and asked to build modifications into our lesson.  Coincidentally, the student we were given was extremely similar to a student that we actually have in our school and we had built the original lesson in such a way as to allow her to complete it with very few modifications.  It almost felt like we were cheating :)

Following our lesson plan work, we learned how to upload our lesson to the S.O.S. for Information Literacy site.  No idea how I was unaware of this site before today...it will be in my favorites from now on!  We'll be finishing up our lesson plan and uploading it within the next day or so.

We got out of class a bit early today, after our daily test.  I'm enjoying the workshop immensely, but my energy is starting to flag a bit, and the early release followed by a short rest was very helpful.  My team finished our action plan this evening and we're excited about some of the changes that we're going to try to effect. 

I attempted a bit of photo-blogging during class today and was pleased with the results.  This has been an interesting experiment in documenting my professional development and playing with different tools to do so.  I'm looking forward to making reflection a more regular practice.

Project ENABLE - Day 3

This morning's workshop started out with two really interesting discussions.  The first covered our group homework assignment from last night.  We began working on our action plan for making our library more accessible for all learners.  We worked on two goals to start with.  The first was our previously mentioned goal of improving communication between the library and the special education department.  We're working on a form to easily communicate the resources available and match the students with what would help them the most.    It sounded like several other groups struggle with the same issue and it was interesting to hear other people's take on how to address this problem.  The other issue we addressed was another item of common discussion.  We are interested in improving our collection, particularly to address the upper and lower literacy levels of our students.  We will work to invest in high interest/low reading level books as well as books with a higher reading level.  We have already begun looking at catalogs for hi/lo books and will look at lists such as the New York Times bestseller lists and the Alex Awards to find higher reading level materials.  Another aspect of this goal is to begin a picture book collection that teachers can use to introduce and support topics.

After covering our homework, we had a discussion about what librarians do all day, using the questions in the previous post.  The librarians had divided into two groups, elementary and secondary.   The elementary librarians appointed a spokesperson, who first shared a library cheer and then spoke to the questions.  I was reminded of the differences and similarities between the elementary and secondary library experiences.  One thing that we seem to share is a sadness in our view of how others in our school district perceive us.   While I share the sorrow, I've worked hard to overcome these negative perceptions.  I try to advocate for my library program in and out of our school and endeavor to make everyone I can aware of what we do in the library.  I think I've gotten to a level of respect within our school, even for those who don't utilize our services.  I put in a few words about my experiences  collaborating with teachers and librarians, and managed to use the words "sucking" "suckee" and "pimping" within the span of 5 minutes.  Regardless, I think I got my point across.  Work to get one person into the library and involved in collaboration and you've done a great job!  I shoot for one new teacher and one established teacher each year.  If I can get those two, I'm completely thrilled!  Success breeds success.

We also looked at library policy and procedures today.  When we first started this discussion, I was aware of our district library policy, which is about 3 pages, and addresses collection development and challenges/reconsideration requests.  It is simple, inclusive, largely based on ALA (American Library Association) material and works for us.  As I work in a library with one assistant, I did not feel that writing a detailed procedure manual would be a good use of my time.  After looking at the example documents and a lively discussion, I am convinced that such a document would be useful to have.  While I think we'll try to keep ours in the 10-15 page range (not 200+!),  i can now see the value of reflecting on our practice and utilizing that experience to draft a procedure manual.  This manual could be useful to substitutes, volunteers and future staff.  Creation of this document is something I will consider for the 2011-12 school year.

We concluded our day with a discussion of the AASL and CCLS standards and some lesson planning.  I was a little surprised by how many people were not familiar with these standards or had incorrect information about their adoption/implementation.  It was really interesting to look at the ALA Crosswalk of standards and apply it to a lesson for Brigitte's Economics class.  We took an old lesson and infused some technology, turning a standard research-and-write-a-paper project into a reflective research and expression through blogging exercise.  I'm really interested to see how this lesson evolves and ultimately is utilized.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's work and find that I'm really enjoying the various perspectives of the participants in the workshop.  My team was discussing today how nice it is to just have time to talk and brainstorm and come up with nifty ideas.  Time is not something we often have, and we are making the most of this week!

While I had been writing this blog mostly for my own reflection, I shared it with the class today, and hope to hear from some of you.  Please chime in with your thoughts, ideas and comments.  I value your input!