Whirlwind

Today was a whirlwind day.  My alarm did not go off, so I began by rushing to get out of my house and then sitting in traffic for nearly an hour to go the six miles to my fieldwork school.  I ended up being there late for the tech menu day, but fortunately I had communicated with my supervisor and they were able to move things around so that I presented toward the end of the session rather than toward the beginning.

My session was focused on using blogs in the classroom, both as a prompt for student discussion (responding to blogs written by others or by the teacher) and as a forum for student writing.  I addressed how to get started by having students respond to another blog and how to move into using teacher blogs as discussion prompts.  We discussed teaching students how to comment appropriately, how to assess student blog posts, logistics, and how participating in a blog comment discussion benefits students.  I thought it went pretty well.  I look forward to seeing some of the comments from teachers.

After that I worked on the collection development policy for a bit before meeting with another teacher to brainstorm possible lessons for a world history course.  She is using the flex lab next week, and fortunately I will be on campus and can join her and her students in the lab.  The flex lab is a computer lab with a class set of laptops, smart board, lcd projector, etc.  Teachers must meet with the LMT to use the flex lab ahead of time, just to be sure things are set up and ready for use.  The LMT, depending on her schedule and the requests of the teacher, may stay and co-teach or facilitate the lesson or may just pop in and out.  Since this teacher is having students debate and I used to coach debate, I'm going to stay to help.  I am really looking forward to being in a classroom with students and seeing what they can do.

Next, there was a district technology meeting to attend at the district office.  While it was interesting, the agenda had changed from when the LMTs were invited, and much of it (as it turns out) was not relevant to what LMTs do in this district.  There was a discussion of when to "age out" computers, what to do with them, how to set up an inventory control using the network, etc.  I had a panic moment while I was thinking that I had no idea how to write a script to keep tabs on computers on campus (as one of the men at the meeting indicated he had done).  It turned out that was someone else's job, much of what was said had nothing to do with the LMT (although it was an interesting discussion to be aware of), and the district LMT coordinator was a little annoyed he'd made everyone come to the meeting.  I was relieved I wouldn't have to add network administrator to my list of job duties.

Following that I got to sit in a "debriefing" session with a student who had served on a "digital natives" panel discussion during the tech menu morning.  It was really interesting to get her perspective on how the session went and to hear the questions teachers raised and her concerns as a student. 

Finally, I made some real progress on the CDP.  I have some editing and polishing to do, and then I think it will be ready for my supervisor to look at while I begin working on evaluating the print collection. 

It's difficult not to wonder how Dr. Loertscher would view the role of the LMT at this school and what he would think should be done differently.

First, I think he would love that the LMT is so involved in planning professional development and is such a strong technology leader at the school.  He would love how often she collaborates with teachers to create lessons for the flex lab. 

I am sure he would say there could be more collaborative planning and lesson delivery, and that he'd like to see the LMT involved in lesson assessment and leading students in meta-cognative exercises (the big think). 

The state of the print collection might be a concern, although honestly we rarely discussed the print collection in his classes.  I do think, though, that this is an area where I can make a real contribution to this school. 

It is also impossible to be on this campus and not wonder how the LMT can possibly fit everything in.  One thing I'd like to have in place before I finish my fieldwork is an idea of how to allocate my time as a teacher librarian.  How much time (per week, on average) should be spent on collection development?  Collaboration?  Co-teaching?  Other administrative duties?  Time was much more structured in the elementary school.

Finally, I notice that there is a shocking lack of hand sanitizer on the high school campus.  There was hand sanitizer every 2 feet at the elementary school, lol!  I think I may bring some, just because I have already had 3 colds this fall and I do not have time for them.

Seriously, though, my plan (other than to watch and learn and to work with as many classroom teachers as possible) is to draft a cdp, complete a collection evaluation, and get at least one "buy" list going after evaluating the collection and beginning weeding.  I'd also like to reorganize some of the things in the library so that items like supplemental novels currently on shelves out in the main library are somewhere less "public," and there is a space for the fiction collection to go during construction (or at least create a plan so that can happen).