Interview #4

                  My final interview took place in the school library of a neighboring elementary school on November 17th. This elementary school is located in Horry County and it houses around 800 students in grades PK-5th. 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?

        I could relate to this librarian probably the most. I was nodding when I got her response to how she implements the AASL School Library Standards. She said she remembers when the standards first came out and everyone seemed to be confused in what they meant. She remembers a staff development session where they tried to go through them and talk about what they meant and it wasn't very successful. I related to that the most. I remember looking at the standards for the first time as well and being extremely confused. She said she now knows that she implements the foundations of include, explore, and engage the most in her classroom. She mentioned the other foundations are more research based and therefore doesn't have the time to really dive into them at the elementary level in a 45 minute class once a week. She said she implements read alouds with different and varying perspectives to encourage sympathy, empathy, and acceptance of others. She also encourages her students to expand their horizons and stop reading only Dog Man. She uses Book Talks to get the students interested in other books and is going to try Genre of the Week in the second semester to encourage students to read other books. The district uses BeanStack (an app to log pages of books being read) to get students engaged in reading but she also felt the same way that I do about it. She doesn't know how accurate it really is since the students are logging pages themselves (I often see my students logging the same book or exaggerate on the page count when logging). Digital Citizenship is also something she mentioned about what she teaches in the classroom. She uses Learning.com, Nearpod, Common Sense Media, and TeachDiggit.com. 

        As far as the resources she uses she said she uses a collection of books she has chosen over the past 20 years and new ones that she adds to the collection each year. She said she also uses student iPads and the Horry County Schools Students Learning Commons. 

        When asked about collaborating with teachers she said that unfortunately when operating on a fixed schedule there isn't time for collaboration. When teachers are in planning of in PLCs the special area teachers have their teacher which means she has a class. She tries to accommodate her teachers though whenever they request something. Library was never meant to be a part of specials rotations and that collaborating with teachers works better at the Middle and High School levels where their schedule is flexible and not fixed. That is where she feels that co-teaching with classroom teachers is more doable.

        When discussing her challenges her main challenge was with the foundations and standards themselves. She feels they are extremely vague and abstract and it is difficult to pinpoint just what they mean and formulate a lesson plan from them. She feels that as the years have gone by over her 34 years of teaching, standards are no longer concrete. They have become increasingly more complex and difficult to decipher. She would love to see examples of lesson plans for each of the foundations but mentioned there may already be something out there and she just hasn't found it yet and needs some refresher courses.

        One of the major take aways from this interview was the idea that collaboration doesn't seem to be an option in elementary schools with fixed schedules. I still don't want to believe that though and want to try and find a way. I've been thinking that I can still implement lessons in my classroom that coordinate with what the teacher is teaching the students in teh classroom. It wouldn't necessarily be a co-teach lesson but collaboration can still happen if a discussion is had and each person is teaching their part. I feel like libraries with a fixed schedule do have a harder time meeting some of the foundations and standards but if you get creative I feel like it could happen.