Coaching to Success-

Check out the YouTube video on the right entitled "Coaching to Success" which YouTube entitled "National Anthem Went Wrong". This young girl had been chosen by popular vote to perform in the NBA finals. When the unthinkable happens, it is a coach who comes to support her and helps her succeed. Observe also that the coach is inviting the entire community to participate in this girl's success. We need to create this type of culture in our school if it is not there. We all succeed when we help one another along.

The effective use of Accelerated Reader in the library and the classroom yields similar benefits from this same model. Using personal goal-setting, the teacher/librarian becomes the coach to help each child succeed at his/her goals. A student's goals are based on accuracy (85%+), frequency (points), and difficulty (book level). Coincidentally, these are the same goals the coach in this video uses out on the court to prepare his team for the finals.

Watching this video made me think about all of our struggling readers and what it must feel like to read textbooks above their reading level each and every period of every day. These students want to be better readers, and with a little coaching using independent reading, we can get them there.

I have been listening to Stephen Krashen and some well-meaning librarians tell us that reading incentive programs have little effect on student reading scores. "Students read better when they have unfettered access to books and they can read what they want." HOW this happens has not been well defined, and when attempts are made, it seems the role of the librarian is insignificant. Often, we are being told to get out of the way and just fill orders as if we worked at a Literacy Home Town Buffet.

I am anxious to write an entire paper on what we have seen in our District as we rolled out Accelerated Reader Enterprise Edition; and I can't blame anyone who was caught in the reading incentive "Points for Pencils" literacy movement. I would suggest it may be because you lifted the hood and looked in the trunk instead of the engine.

As intended, AR is a reading comprehension program. When a student finds a book they want to read, they know they are being asked to work on comprehension strategies while enjoying the text. Because they are aware of the book level, they know how much they will be challenged. (This may solve some of the unfinished books talked about earlier.) Teachers are encouraged to model good comprehension strategies during read alouds and students are asked throughout the year to do their very best on each test. It is also a perfect model to help coach students to better and broader reading. In AR, we set goals just like a coach would - based on accuracy, frequency, and difficulty. This makes AR perfect for "Reaching and Teaching" every student and it is a much more significant role for the Library Teacher, than the buffet model of "keep it hot and sell alot."

This is not a time in California to operate our libraries with the "Business as Usual" model. California students do not have their school library on speed dial. We can not just open the doors and hope they will come and check out all of our wonderful titles. Just compare your in-house computer use to your book circulation if you find this hard to believe.

With Reading Practice integrated into our Reading Instruction, our District's goal is to use AR as one tool to get our schools out of Program Improvement. So far, based on the enthusiasm from our students, teachers, and administrators, and our fidelity to the program, we are well on the way.

Haven't we all had the sneaking suspicion that what we are teaching our students will eventually make us obsolete?
pre 1980's- If we teach them how to use the card catalog they won't need us to find a book. (At least they need me to make the cards)
1980s - If I show them how to use these resources on CD-ROM they won't use my cards. At least they need me to show them how to find things with these new browsers.
1990 - If I show them how to Yahoo they won't need me at all. At least they will enjoy my lessons on collaboration.
2000s - If they are using backs of my old catalog cards to write down their grades they track online, they are using their flash drives to download everything they need to take home with them, and they all have a personalized "All About Me" page, and they collaborate with their phones, PDA's and Facebook.....maybe, just maybe, I can get them to read my blog.
And when the money in California is gone for everything but essential services, what will we tell them? That will most likely be when we choose to fall on our swords and tell the administration to continue to fund all of these wonderful services we fought so hard for to help our students achieve and we return to the classroom to show them how to use them. Oh, that's right, our libraries are our classroom. There is hope if our students and teachers see our classrooms relevant to their world.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina , the New Library of Alexandria, is dedicated to recapture the spirit of the original. It aspires to be:
The World’s window on Egypt;
Egypt’s window on the world;
A leading institution of the digital age; and above all
A center for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding. (Wikipedia)

The Lighter Side of Wikimediocrity

Wiki content is springing up on the Internet like the gopher mounds in my front yard. When I look out on my lawn of what use to be a flat plain of well-groomed fescue, it is hard to decipher the master plan these gophers have adopted. Where is the planned community? It is evident my gophers’ only mission is to create more playgrounds and kitchens for themselves and their children. It appears to be the same model adopted by the MySpace.com design team.

I wonder if our students’ hunger for content and self-expression often lead them to adopt my gophers’ model. Students will invest days on their MySpace page if they feel it will have an impact on their dating life, but often overlook the connection between the pursuit of knowledge and the eventual lasting contributions they will be able to make to their future family and community. As librarians, we can help build bridges between the tunneling for information and personal success. Our best work may be realized when we work one-on-one with a student and connect the classroom content to this student’s own goals and aspirations. Yet, when we drive home, we wonder why we do not take more time for these types of interactions with our own students, teachers, or even family members.

I propose, as we approach the New Year, we take on a completely upside-down project. I propose we start a CSLA Wiki site of life-changing library career questions. Aren’t most revolutionary ideas born from trying to answer a single question? Imagine a website built entirely of questions! Not Asked Frequently Enough Questions-if you will. This site will be composed of:
Questions we ask ourselves on the way home from work,
Questions that motivate us to surge ahead,
Questions that defy us to move out of our stable career orbit,
Questions that get us to imagine what is important to our students,
Questions that challenge our current models of library service,
Questions that confront us to be smarter at what we do, and
Questions that help move generic libraries to brand-name learning centers.

Here are just 15 questions I have asked myself in traffic to get our Wikicareerprobingquestions.org site launched.
1. What are my students interested in when they are not at school?
2. What is it about my school that seems to make progress move at a glacier pace?
3. Do I have the courage to create global community warming on campus?
4. What do I perceive as my biggest obstacle to building a model library program?
5. How do I make the love of reading a contagious disease?
6. How can I harness all of this student energy around me to light the library?
7. Can I list 10 things that might happen if I got more involved in my students lives?
8. What is using up most of my energy?
9. Is what my critics say about me true?
10. Who matters most to me at work?
11. Am I driving my program or just paying cab fare until I retire?
12. Who needs my help the most?
13. How do I want to be remembered?
14. What will remain of my work when I am no longer here?
15. Do I have the passion to change the world?

I am convinced the gophers in my yard think they are doing a great job. They may even come out of their holes when I am asleep and admire the mounds they have created, but I’m not certain they are asking the right questions. Like, “Do you think the landowner appreciates all of our hard work?”

Starting the Year-
Part of working as a Library Media Teacher in a large district is to be able to create a dual vision. First, there is the local vision of how to promote literacy among your own students and staff to support their academic goals, and then there is the second broader vision of how your efforts support the district-wide objectives and goals.

It is every LMT’s desire to share effective programs with the other libraries in the district. It is important to create a degree of equity within the district so that students at each school have access to similar opportunities and programs; but how do you promote these services across the district when there are sites that for many reasons seem to be low performing organizations and are unable to create buy in for new programs? Sites whose staff responses often seems to be, “I do not think that would work here.”

Share your ideas, react to the controversy, but get involved and add your handprint to our virtual library wall. 

Welcome to our librarywalls blog. Taking a fresh look at school library services is one way to creatively administer services and minister to students and staff. We do not spend enough time on these two endeavors; we are too busy managing the library. Here you can stop by and learn to manage your vision so you can become a better administrator of quality library services. Enjoy your time here, and being away from your desk.