Nine Stories about Kids

Inspired by a fellow educator from the Teacher Leaders Network , John Holland and his 12 stories, I wanted to share my stories about kids over the last almost twenty years that I have been an educator. These are the ones that come to mind from my years of teaching.


Cory - Most days of my first year of teaching seventh grade language arts Cory either sat on the stool next to me at the front of the room or stood next to me from whatever spot I chose to teach. Cory was my first experience with an ADD child. He fashioned angel wings that we attached to his back that he wore to the cafeteria one day. He wanted to "be good" so bad.


Tyrone - Every sentence was a song to Tyrone. It didn't matter what you said, he could find a phrase, a chorus, a verse from a song that fit right in to what you were saying....and he would sing it, out loud, right in the middle of instruction. He was sixteen and in the ninth grade. He dropped out of school that year.


Brett - Green Day was god that year, and Brett wrote lyrics like he was Billy Jo Armstrong. It was the year I was fired up about Nancy Atwell's In the Middle and used her writing workshop to get a group of seventh graders fired up about writing....even if it was lyrics that they wrote sometimes.


"Red" - I don't remember his name, just his fiery red hair, his bad attitude, and his announcement that he didn't read. EVER. He read The Outsiders in my seventh grade language arts class; he connected with literature. He said it was the first book he'd ever read. He was Ponyboy.


Sarah - She cried when I told her that I was leaving the language arts classroom to take a job as a media coordinator in another county, and she wrote me the nicest letter about how much she'd miss me. I don't think I've ever used the stationery she gave me. Using it up seems like it means losing the memory.

Jessica - That girl loved to read, and she was the BEST student media assistant that I've ever had. She was diligent about keeping her shelves straight and was always pleasant and excited about helping other students. She insisted that we have a Battle of the Books team, even if it meant only four eighth graders on the whole team. We lost the battle, but we won the "war".


Amy - Another of my wonderful student media assistants, I saw her at a local drugstore a few years ago. She told me she was now working in education and that she had a baby. She had turned out to be a little more serious than her seventh grade days. I felt old.

Michael - The day he hid in the media center, reading graphic novels, we knew there was a problem. We were his safe place most of the time. More than once, I had to calm him down when he was frustrated. Did I mention he was very smart and autistic?

Autumn - In the mornings, sometimes she'd help us check out books; other times she'd just want to crawl under the counter in a fetal position and go back to sleep. She always shared her stories of home with us. She was always planning to move and wouldn't be coming back after the semester, track out, the summer. I'm glad she came back each time.

So many students over the year, it's always amazing what sticks with you.

R.I.P. Socrates

Socrates was my friend today, and we had a blast with a group of sixth graders!

Today I introduced the Socratic seminar to four different classes of sixth graders. One of our social studies teachers had given formative assessments on her recent content instruction, Ancient Greece. Those students who scored below the requisite score remained with the teacher for remediation on the content; those students who scored above the requisite score spent their class time in the media center with me.

After viewing the painting, the Death of Socrates, we read an excerpt from a text on the death of Socrates. I opened the seminar discussion with the essential question: was Socrates' trial and death justified?

While students struggled with the seminar style in the beginning, some of the students provided some really thoughtful responses and comments as the discussion moved from the basic indictment that Socrates corrupted the youth of the time to thoughtful comparisons with historical figures in our own culture, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., who faced imprisonment and assassination.

The seminar format is such a unique instructional style and a real change from the usual lecture/sit-n-git of some classrooms. While some of the students remained quiet and maybe unsure about jumping into the discussion, other students shared interesting insights into the history and culture of ancient Greece, the philosophers, and freedom of speech.

Ultimately I was energized in my role as seminar facilitator today! Thanks for letting me teach and enrich today, Ms. S!

The Purpose of Staff Development

In my Google reader today, I had a great image from Doug Johnson's The Blue Skunk Blog about staff development. How appropriate since I'm currently sitting in an in-service, a staff development session, about student intervention strategies.

So what does it say about me that I am actually blogging while a clip of Abbott and Costello doing "Who's on First?" plays? I know the clip is to demonstrate how we all need to be on the same page, we all need to use the same language, and we all need to be the experts to instruct appropriately for our students.

Is this professional growth opportunity geared toward me and my needs or is this a "sit-and-git" where all that's said today will go in one ear and out the other?


So far, the presentation has been interspersed with video clips, which unfortunately the librarian in me is questioning whether copyright laws have been broken -- yes, I'm pretty sure we need a training on copyright laws and fair use and educational use. And I definitely need to talk with my staff about Presentation Zen because the PowerPoint slides in the presentation are waaaaay too packed with words -- I'm having trouble reading them from my seat in the back of the media center.


I'm a little confused at this point. Possibly because I'm continuing to blog and have had a non-normed sidebar with my equally cynical and witty colleague. Colors. The presenters are talking about colors. Red. Yellow. Green. Blue. These coordinate with all the wonderful labels we stick on our students. Academically gifted. Special education. Limited English proficiency. Assessed but not identified. Oh, and now there's purple. Who remembers what purple was?

So how effective is such a presentation among a staff of 60 certified teachers at the end of the day? Okay, so it's not at the true end of the day. Today was an early release day, so our workshop began at 12:30 p.m. Some "lecture", some hands-on (looking at data in cumulative folders), some video clips, some handouts. They could really use a microphone. *sigh*

Core content teachers have a real opportunity to strategize, work together, determine the intervention strategies to use with students. Even the elective or specialist teachers are pulled in to the conversation, especially since they see students every day. The drawback for me and the folks at my table are that we don't fit the mold, or at least the mold for this particular staff development.

As a teacher-librarian, I work with all kids. I collaborate with teachers to integrate information literacy skills, but I don't see students in a formal instructional setting every day. Students behave differently in the less structured circulation and independent research setting of the media center. And while I recognize their varying academic needs, we meet a very different need for many students during their library visits.

So while I appreciate the workshop environment and presentation style of this particular staff development, what is the purpose of this staff development for me?

School Librarians, Where Do You Hang Your Hat?

At my library media learning team meeting yesterday, we looked at the beliefs that are the cornerstone for the standards in library media programs using the book, Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action (AASL, 2009).

First, we looked at the nine common beliefs through our own eyes, as library media coordinators. If we had to hang our hat on just one of the beliefs, where would we hang it? What did we see as our focus in our library media programs?

• Reading is the window to the world.
• Inquiry provides a framework for learning.
• Ethical behavoir in the use of information must be taught.
• Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs.
• Equitable access is a key component for education.
• The definition of information literacy has become more complex as resources and technologies have changed.
• The continuing expansion of information demadns that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.
• Learning has a social context.
• School librarires are essential to the development of learning skills.

We were split between two of the beliefs: 'Reading is a window to the world' and 'School libraries are essential to the development of learning skills'. Some of us felt that reading was the main focus of our programs and our work with students while others took a broader approach to seeing themselves and their programs as the place, environment, and access to all. No real surprises there.

But when we looked at the beliefs from other perspectives, we began to see how others view the library media program and how this affects our work. We asked ourselves which belief our principals would hold up as the hallmark for the media program. What would our students say is the most important belief? And what about our parents and PTA? Where would the superintendent or the school board member hang her hat on these common beliefs?

That's when we realized that we have to consider all perspectives about library media, our influence on others, and the advocacy to promote our entire program. If a teacher views the library media program as a place for reading and that's it, will they ever begin to incorporate instructional technologies or encourage educational and social networking with their students? If our principal sees our program as the place for students to improve their technology skills, will we ever get a budget to purchse the latest and greatest fiction? If the superintendent is most worried about and focused on ethical behavoir in use of information, will he recognize the need for inquiry and critical thinking skills within the framework of learning?

We as librarians know that these are a set of beliefs and one does not necessarily outweigh another. It's important to understand the perspectives of all our users in order to meet their needs, build influence and advocate for out total program. However, our hat rack may tell a different story if we tend to hang our own hat on only one or two of the beliefs instead of wearing the many different hats of our profession.

A Writing Challenge

Laurie Halse Anderson, who you all know is one of my favorite YA authors, has issued a challenge on her blog: write for 15 minutes every day this month.

I'm already four days behind! But none the less I am dedicated to catching up, or at least starting from this fresh point onward, to writing my 15 minutes of prose, poetry, recipes, rants, raves, to-do lists....okay, so I'm going to try and kill two birds with one stone: write for 15 minutes a day on my blog.

There.

It's been a month, a little over a month, since I took my week long writing workshop and I'm afraid that I haven't been any more motivated to find my comfy spot and find myself in the imagination and words that need to spill onto the page. Yes, there are tons of stories swirling around in my little ol' head, and I know that if I don't get them on the page soon they will be a nice swirly, yucky-mucky mess of goop and goo and I won't be able to flesh out the characters and figure out the settings and the plots will be majorly messed up.

What was once a mid-morning spark will be lost. Forever. Write. It. Down.

I don't really have writer's block. I'm not at a loss for words. I'm just usually at a loss for time. A friend always says you make time to do the things you want to do. Is it that I really DON'T want to write? I don't think so!

During my writing staycation, I was SOOOO majorly inspired every day, lots of ideas and characters trying to crawl out of my head; it was like I might explode.

An explosion of writing would've been nice. I need to trade my mouse and keyboard for pen and paper.

Master Manipulators, School-Based Leaders, and Big Cry Babies

We've all heard the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", and I must say that some of my fellow colleagues are pretty well lubed! Whine about having a particular duty, and surely that duty will magically disappear. Complain about needing more materials, even in a budget crisis, and surely new books will appear on your classroom shelves.

See your fellow colleague go from a 10-month position to a 12-month position in order to provide the needed higher level math at a year-round school, complain about that incredibly loudly and indicate how you'd like to be 12-month, too, because it's not fair, blah, blah, blah....

Tonight I'm trying to decide into which of three categories these squeaky wheels fall. Are they master manipulators, school-based leaders, or just big ol' cry babies?

I guess I would define master manipulators as those teachers who subtly work the system, not for the good of the children, but for their own evil, selfish plots. Maybe they are the ones who agree to head up a committee, department, or other endeavor so they can control the time, money, and efforts surrounding said endeavor. Ultimately, I know they are out for themselves and they do not have the students' or their fellow educators' best interests at heart.

Sometimes those squeaky wheels are the school leaders. They are the teachers really trying to make a difference in the academic lives of their students. They squeak because they know that having that additional novel, resource, material, whatever it is will help them teach better, more effectively, stronger in order to help a kid learn, achieve, grow. They squeak because they are the voice for all their past, present and future students. They squeak for the rest of us who are timid, unsure, too reserved or frightened to speak up for ourselves and our students.

And then there are the plain ol' big cry babies. They wail about what's fair and unfair, usually about their own situations, their selfishness right on their sleeve. But while they aren't necessarily wanting to gain anything for themselves, they don't want others to gain anything either. They may think they are crying foul, boo-hooing to help their students, but they just wind up alienated themselves from their colleagues and coming across negatively to most.

Obviously I want to continue to be a school-based leader with the right amount of squeak to manipulate the system for the benefit of my students and my teachers and to ensure that we all get the best environment in which to teach and to learn. I'm just not sure how much of a squeaky wheel I truly want to be.

'Between You and I', These Teachers Doesn't Talk Right

I've spent my forty years learning the English language, relishing in the fact that I speak and write it very well and trying my darnedest to help students, and now my own child, learn to speak and write correctly.


It still grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard to hear one of my colleagues, an educator in his or her own right, to butcher the English language, especially in front of other teachers. If I hear one more 'between you and I' or another subject-verb disagreement come out of the mouth of another classroom teacher, I think I'll scream, or explode trying to hold in the frustration and anger.


How can teachers expect their students to grasp the finer aspects of grammar when they themselves misuse words all the time?! And how can I as a former English teacher sit back and allow said teachers to throw around their misplaced modifiers?

While email and other technology has improved communication from teacher to teacher, it has also brought about a lack of professionalism, I think. The quickly typed email with misspellings and lack of punctuation or the abbreviated 'text type' makes me shake my head with disappointment when I find those in my inbox. It only takes a second to spellcheck, folks!

Mama always told me that it was inappropriate and rude to correct other people's grammar. She was referring to the adults who misspoke and my quick remarks to her about their faulty language. She reprimanded me more than once when I tried to correct family members.

Perhaps one of my great goals in life as an educator is to help young people speak and write clearly, effectively, and correctly. I wish my other colleagues would get on board and get it right!