Interview #1

         On October 5th,  I conducted an interview with a school librarian from a middle school in Horry County. The school serves around 800 students in grades 6-8. I asked the following questions...

1. What are some examples of how you implement the AASL School Library Standards into your teaching?

2. What resources do you use in your library program that help you implement the standards?

3. Do any of your lessons require you to collaborate with classroom teachers? If so, how?

4. What are some of the challenges you face when trying to implement the standards into your classroom?

5. Is there anything else you would like to share about the standards that we have discussed?

        While talking with the school librarian she informed me of many ways she uses the standards in her classroom. She teaches 3 out of 5 days in the week. Each day that she teaches she has a specific grade level. For example, she teaches 8th grade on Wednesdays, 7th grade on Thursdays, and 6th grade on Fridays. She rotates teachers so each class gets to visit and she is able to meet with every student in the building. During these classes, students learn how to find and search for books which allows them to use skills such as inquiry, learning to search, filter, select appropriate resources, and how to take notes and reflect on their reading. The school librarian also collaborates with other teachers to co-teach lessons. Classes are held in the library at times when students need to conduct research. The librarian is able to meet with the classroom teacher before hand to see how she can best support the students during the process and be prepared. During the class, the teacher has resources available and helps students with the research process and provides formative feedback. During classes students also get to explore. Students are taught to navigate the online catalog. Students are then allowed to practice searching and selecting resources that are of interest to them. This helps students foster their curiosity and strengthens their ability to locate and evaluate information. Students are constantly engaged in the library. They are taught digital citizenship which is done through a presentation, discussion, and then students see real-life scenarios that they can role-play. Finally they take a short quiz to determine if they have mastered the subject. 

        Many of the resources discussed during the interview were ones I was already familiar with. She mentioned using EBSCOhost Research databases, books and ebooks, online encyclopedias such as Britannica Library, Sora, Destiny (the school library database), audiobooks, student laptops and relevent apps to the topic being taught, and KWL charts. She also mentioned digital collaboration tools such as Padlet, Jamboard, and Google Docs are used to help with collaboration among students and teachers.

        Many of the lessons do not require her to collaborate with the classroom teachers but she often gets teachers that want collaboration when teaching research. This usually happens when resources are needed. The classroom teacher brings the students into the library and the students have access to resources they would not usually have in the classroom. In order for this to be done effectively, the school librarian meets with the teachers before the lesson to ensure all the materials that are needed for the students are ready for them to use.

        When asked about the challenges that she faces I could relate. There are scheduling conflicts, student skills gaps, time constraints, assessment complexity (measuring the growth of inquiry skills is harder than tradition tests), some teachers do not fully embrace collaborative planning, technology coordination, and maintaining engagement. The challenges she faces seem to be common challenges in a school in general. The one that stood out to me the most was the time constraints. She mentioned that inquiry based lessons take longer than traditional lesson and that can be hard to do during a class period.

        This interview was conducted after one visit. I still had 4 more visits and I was excited to see each aspect of what was discussed. I loved being able to see the collaboration process and how the lesson ended up being implemented. The idea of collaborating with classroom teachers and the technology teacher in my school makes me excited. I feel like working with others helps students get the most out of their education. I understand the challenges of time constraints and not all teachers are reciprocal to collaboration but I feel that this is something that can be done if done correctly. While I do plan to teach in an elementary school setting, I was able to see how much more mature middle school students are and how much more information they can process. This is something I did enjoy and after interviewing the school librarian she ensured me that there are challenges with middle school students that for the most part they are well behaved and are more independent that elementary students.