My Friday Blogs
Having a Voice by Meredith Farkas
In this article, Meredith Farkas talks about the need for better communication between librarians and their staff. She said that at her last place of employment, they had regular council meetings and all the librarians got together to discuss issues, budget concerns and anything else related to the running of the library. But the regular staff members were not included in the discussions.
She mentioned that the other staff members might have important information or ideas worth sharing and she believed that they too should have been invited to the meetings or at told about what was discussed and decided. I agree that the staff should know what was discussed and decided at the meetings and I think an electronic suggestion box would be good, so if the staff members have any suggestions for improving the library or the programs, they could turn them in. Farkas said that in her next place of employment they typed up the minutes of the meeting so everyone could read them. I think that is a really good idea—post the minutes on a staff bulletin board.
The main point of this article is good communication from the top all the way to the bottom. If the communication breaks down, then the people at the bottom don’t know what’s happening and can feel disenfranchised. Also, great ideas may never be brought to light because the staff at the bottom of the information chain can’t communicate with the ones at the top. Borders was very good (at the beginning) at providing the means for all of the staff to communicate their good ideas and their concerns. It’s important for staff members to feel like they are important and have a say in what is happening.
I think you can take this lesson one step further. I think for school librarians especially, we should be communicating on a regular basis with our principals and, if your district has a library media specialist manager, with them as well. Share what is really working in the library—any success stories, works in progress and even, needs to provide better services. We can show how proactive we are, how well our programs are working and that in turn will show them how needed we are and how valuable we can be to the whole school. Then, when it’s time to calculate the budget, they just might remember all those great things you’ve done and give you a bigger piece of the pie. Speak up and let your voice be heard!
Citation:
Farkas, Meredith. “Having a Voice.” Information Wants to Be Free 29 N Jun 2011. Web. 1 Jul 2011.
Why Would You Build a Classroom? By David Warlick
David Walick went to an ISTE conference and was wowed by one of the presenters, John Medina, a biological engineer and author of the book, “Brain Rules.” Dr. Medina said that our brains thrive on outdoor, survival type problem-solving and that our brains are used to doing this constantly. So, what happens when you put an active, problem-solving brain in a very relaxed, rigid, non-interactive classroom? The exact opposite happens—the brain doesn’t function in the same way.
I think what he is saying is that we need to rethink how we do our classrooms. Maybe each classroom should be a learning center. Group the desks together in small groups, teach them how to find the information and use the technology and let them go. Who knows what kinds of problems they might actually solve? At least we would know that their brains are active and not asleep. Maybe a little chaos and noise is a good thing?
Warlick, David. “Why Would You Build a Classroom?” 2 Cents Worth 28 Jun 2011. Web. 1 Jul 2011.
Many Books—29,000 Free E-books by Richard Byrne
Many Books is a site that has over 29,000 free ebooks that will work with all kinds of computers and ebook readers like Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Nobles The Nook. You can search the site for books by just about anything: title, author, genre and even language.
I checked out the site and I found it interesting. They have Books of the Week—I counted four of them. My favorite for this week is Louisa May Alcott’s Spinning Stories. I had never heard of it. It’s a collection of stories for children. You can browse also by their categories: most popular titles, recommendations, recent reviews and special collections. If you aren’t sure of what you are looking for, they suggest that you browse by looking at the book covers. They also have a new feature: Recent Additions. All in all, I think it is a valuable Web site especially for the high school level.
Byrne, Richard. “Many Books—29,000 Ebooks” Free Technology for Teachers 30 Jun 2011. Web. 1 Jul 2011.
The Best Posts Responding to David Brooks Criticism of Diane Ravitch (& Many of the Rest of US) by Larry Ferlazzo
On his blog, Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day, he posts some people’s response to an article written by New York Times columnist David Brooks. The article is entitled, Smells Like School Spirit and in it, he talks about how he believes that Diane Ravitch has moved from supporting testing and accountability to criticizing it. He does agree with her on a couple of points, but he feels that she only chooses only the studies that support her claims.
Brooks says that he agrees that great teaching is based on a good relationship between the teacher and the student, not based just on test scores. The danger of relying only on test scores is that the focus changes from real learning to answering the questions correctly and schools might do away with or curtail some classes that aren’t included in the testing like art, music and physical education.
“As the educational blogger Whitney Tilson has pointed out, the schools that best represent the reform movement, like the KIPP academies or the Harlem Success schools, put tremendous emphasis on testing. But these schools are also the places where students are most likely to participate in chess and dance.” (Brooks, NY Times)
Testing is only one aspect of measuring change and only one piece of the puzzle. The teachers in these successful schools know what kind of learner they want to produce. Brooks basically says that the tests are not bad; it’s the teachers. The schools that set accountability as a high priority are the schools that will succeed. Teachers and principals need to be held accountable for their teaching. He states that the “real answer is to keep the tests and the accountability but make sure every school has a clear sense of mission, an outstanding principal and an invigorating moral culture that hits you when you walk in the door.” (Brooks, NY Times)
Larry Ferlazzo apparently doesn’t agree with him or at least doesn’t like him criticizing Diane Ravitch. Personally, I didn’t think he did it in a mean way, and I found myself agreeing with him on some of it. I do think it takes positive, enthusiastic teachers who know the kind of learner they want their student to become, to succeed in spite of the testing. Ferlazzo says that writing this article was a bad idea and apparently some people agree with him.
One blogger says that Brook’s misrepresented Ravitch’s views and feels that when testing measures what it is supposed to measure, then it is good, but when the tests fall short, then the testing will not foster good education and that good schools can succeed in spite of the testing not because of it.
Another blogger says blame it on one-parent homes, low income and crime. The schools with money will succeed while the other low-income schools won’t succeed.
Citation:
Brooks, David, “Smells Like School Spirit” New York Times 1 Jul 2011. Web. 1 Jul 2011. (A copy of this was printed in the New York Times newspaper on July 1, 2011, but I read it online, so wasn’t sure if I needed to do the citation for the Web or the paper.)
“The Best Posts Responding to David Brooks Criticism of Diane Ravitch (& Many of the Rest of Us)”, Larry Ferlazzo’s Website of the Day 1 Jul 2011. Web, 1 Jul 2011.
Baker & Taylor and B&N Team Up to Make Library Books Available on the Nook by Paul Biba.
The largest book distributor and the largest bookstore have joined forces to encourage Nook ebook readers to check out ebooks in their local libraries and they are working to make sure that the Nook patrons can check them out of their library without any problem. They made this announcement at the American Library Association Conference.
“The highly acclaimed, bestselling line of Nook ereaders will be featured devices on Axis 360, Baker & Taylor’s revolutionary digital media circulation and management platform . . .” (Biba, TeleRead) Axis 360 patrons will be able to check out ebooks and they will be able to purchase titles on the B&N online bookstore. It sounds to me like a great thing for both libraries and Nook customers. Hopefully, this will increase awareness that libraries have ebooks and it will also hopefully inspire libraries to carry more ebooks. I see it as a win-win situation for everyone.
Citation:
Biba, Paul. “Baker & Taylor and B&N Team Up to Make Library Books Available on the Nook” TeleRead 24 Jun 2011. Web. 1 Jul 2011. (It was listed on the No Shelf Required blog).
Your last posting is very interesting. I had not heard about B & T coming up with this new platform. I'll be looking forward to reading more about this.
ReplyDelete