CathyJo Nelson

Conversations Episode 110 - Changes for Librarians

This week Joyce Valenza and CathyJo Nelson joined us for a conversation about libraries and the new role of the librarian.

Chat:

Lisa Parisi: Hello

Sheila: Hello

rbuckhoff: Good morning

MariaK: hello

pgeorge: Good morning :-)

Lisa Parisi: Good morning Peggy

edtechtalk: Hi all!

Sheila: Ok now me

Lisa Parisi: We are here.

pgeorge: seeing and hearing now :-)

rbuckhoff: me too!

Lisa Parisi: Click on the little play button on the bottom to see and hear our show

connect2jamie: hi all! Happy Sunday!

pgeorge: K12 Online conference is eager to do a conversation with you to announce plans for this year, Have you been contacted yet?

pgeorge: yes!! photos!!

pgeorge: what a beautiful place for a wedding!

CathyJo: hello--still tuggling to getin

CathyJo: struggling

Lisa Parisi: Answer skype. That's where the sound is.

CathyJo: LOL does it not figure the media specialist is struggling?

Lisa Parisi: LOL

pgeorge: can you use autostitch for that on ipad?

Rebecca Buckhoff: My nikon camera will do time lapse.  Use the delay photo settings to set it up.

Sheila: Topic today is the future of libraries.

pgeorge: it stitches multiple pics together

Sheila: We can hear you CAthy Jo!

pgeorge: great topic!!

joycevalenza: sorry, we lost power and cable!

Cathy E: Cathy E- hello all

pgeorge: welcome Cathy and Joyce! Great to hear from both of you!!

Sheila: Morning all!

CathyJo: agreed

CathyJo: librarian is not going away

connect2jamie: In TX librarians must be teachers first, have 3 yrs classroom experience and a Master's in Library Science. Our certication is called a Learning Resources Endorsement.

connect2jamie: I like the term teacher-librarian.

CathyJo: SC required a teaching degree first

connect2jamie: We do not have computer tchrs at the elementary level.

Rebecca Buckhoff: I am an elementary teacher working on my master's in instructional media.  CA does not require a bachelors degree for a school librarian.

CathyJo: it varies from district to district re tech teacher

connect2jamie: Wow! Not even a bachelor's degree?

Cathy E: I am called a technology facilitator -

Sheila: I know of one district that went from no tech teachers to librarians and now they have switched back, tech teacher/librarian. Staffing issues. Now they have to do all for one person.

Rebecca Buckhoff: I know the librarian at my school is working on her bachelors right now.

Cathy E: There is a tech facilitator at each of our schools - but the job VARIES a lot between schools

connect2jamie: Great point @CathyJo! I started a master's degree in edtech and gave it up b/c I found that my mindset is very library-centric. I just love edtech on top of htat!

connect2jamie: that

pgeorge: do you find teachers view you differently based on your title? I love the title Teacher Librarian.

CathyJo: Joyce!! HOOK ME UP!!

Rebecca Buckhoff: My students increased the amount they were reading dramatically when I start a book chat on Edmodo.

connect2jamie: @pgeorge YES! When I first came to my school, I frequently got the question, "You have to have a degree to be a librarian? You have taught before?"  We don't get that ? as much anymore.

pgeorge: Great way to do it Rebecca!

Cathy E: What was the grade level of kids reading those books

pgeorge: Thanks Jamie

Rebecca Buckhoff: I teach a 4/5 combo

Lisa Parisi: Rebecca, I have book groups on Edmodo too.  Would love to have you join my fourth graders.

MariaK: Cathy Jo and Joyce - links to your library sites, please.

Sheila: Good point Cathy Jo! Many facets.

joycevalenza: http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com

connect2jamie: You are right @Lisa. There is a huge push in many districts, including mine, that values nonfiction reading and research, and de-values fiction literature.

MariaK: thanx

connect2jamie: I find that I have to kind of help teachers "sneak" literature in.

Cathy E: That is a perfect solution

Cathy E: I'm going to school tomorrow and suggest that

Lisa Parisi: Wow, Jamie.  That's sad.

joycevalenza: What a beautiful partnership!

pgeorge: excellent advice!!

joycevalenza: I think that's true everywhere

Cathy E: So I have another question...were kids allowed to come in anytime druing the day to check in/out books?  Who checked them in?

joycevalenza: eeek!

joycevalenza: 4th grade is the best time to grab young readers!!!!

connect2jamie: Yes. Lots of excerpts being read & studied at elem level, but no whole works in the curriculum. In fact, on each wk's ELA curriculum, it states something about no novel studies are in the curriculum.

Rebecca Buckhoff: Our librarian reads to the kids, teaches library skills and incorporates comprehension activities.  Not much research in the library.

connect2jamie: In library time, I try try TRY to do activities that promote leisure reading, but there is more and more research/digital citzenship curriculum prescribed for us, and the literature piece is

Rebecca Buckhoff: I emphasize teaching internet research skills and incorporate that with book research.

connect2jamie: definitely in danger of being lost. '

Cathy E: @Rebecca that is the way it is at my school- but there is a full time assistant.

CathyJo: I know several teacher librarians/media specialist who have never spent  adya in the classroom who are successful

Sheila: I love our librarian. She knows most people's tastes in books. She also works in unit development with teams and individuals. She is also our whole school event planner, ie one book, one school, etc.

CathyJo: good idea!!

connect2jamie: @CathyJo Yes I do too, b/c some states do not requre it. I have a friend from PA that is in that boat.

Cathy E: A good teacher is a teacher no matter the title

joycevalenza: This makes me so sad!

Cathy E: @ Shelia does she teach scheduled classes so the teachers can hame planning?

connect2jamie: @MariaK that is a realistic worry, I think.

Sheila: No scheduled classes but she will co-teach.

Rebecca Buckhoff: Ours isn't prep.  We go for an hour every other week.  It varies at every school.  The library is also open during recess every day if kids finish their books.

connect2jamie: Yes! Reading good literature helps develop writers! That is why it makes no sense to de-value it!

connect2jamie: Standardized tests is what happened, imo.

CathyJo: probably @Jamie

CathyJo: another battle!!!

connect2jamie: I think in many cases, it is the tchr-librarian that is trying to keep the literature and the storytelling IN children's lives!

connect2jamie: Levelled books are the bane of my existence!

CathyJo: i have refused to leel books in any library Ive worked in

CathyJo: lveleing is an invasion of privacy

Rebecca Buckhoff: Leveled books make kids choose books based on their level rather than their interest.

connect2jamie: A levelled library is an obscene perversion of a school library program.

CathyJo: why cant upper grade kids check out beloved books even tho wrong level?

Lisa Parisi: They can Cathy but they have been brainwashed not to.

Rebecca Buckhoff: Interest based reading makes kids BETTER readers.

Sheila: Does leveling take the place of staff who could do this with children individually.

CathyJo: leveling is an instructional tool not a selection tool

CathyJo: if a class is studying an authors craft, who cares the leel?

CathyJo: level

connect2jamie: I fight that all the time, @CathyJo--teachers are soooo pressured to think only about reading levels, and I am always pushing to let kids have at least SOME books that they choose--regardless of level

connect2jamie: @CathyJo. I'm going to write that down and use it! Levelling is an instructional tool and not a selection tool. Students should have the opportunity to select what they want to read.

connect2jamie: Students obviously also need to have instructionally appropriate choices too. I try to provide an opportunity for kids to have both.

CathyJo: Picture books have there place in the high school too

connect2jamie: I used picture books all the time--a million years ago, when I was a middle school math teacher!

connect2jamie: Tumblebooks is the most popular e-book type resource with my students. PebbleGo is a nonfiction primary level multimedia resource that is very popular too.

CathyJo: why an e picture book for the librarian? Use a doc camera

Rebecca Buckhoff: My daughter is a reluctant reader, but I get her to read every night when she uses my kindle.

CathyJo: i did use even a camera on a tripod to show the pics on the screen bigscreen styl

CathyJo: style

CathyJo: swweeeeeettt

CathyJo: our high school kids REALLY respond tp book trialers

CathyJo: trailees

connect2jamie: Yes our students love to watch and create book trailers and audio book reviews too. Time is a factor though. I work w them to create them before/after school, but it's not optimal.

Sheila: How do you envision school libraries in 10 years? Especially with technology changes.

Sheila: How much will the services change?

CathyJo: you will always need the librarian even ten years from now because we are the ones that bring our teachers to where the kids are!!

Cathy E: North Carolina does a great job of having all those resources listed in one place for us

CathyJo: amen

Sheila: In our discussion, we envisioned public libraries as open public spaces as we move towards resources on our own devices.

Rebecca Buckhoff: downloading emescatalog app right now.

Lisa Parisi: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/

Rebecca Buckhoff: ok that was not he right thing to download.  ignore last post.

CathyJo: we serve not only students, but admin, faculty, staff, and even parents who have inforamtion needs or need to learn new things

CathyJo: my teachers constantly tell me how much they personally learned just by being a bystander in a class Im conducting for kids

CathyJo: In our distirct we do goals based education for recertification, making teachers choose PD for recert.  My teachers have demanded that i offer courses on various topics for gbe.

CathyJo: SO i am doing a one tool at a time series this year

CathyJo: i throw out the topic--they show up

CathyJo: many of these have immediate application in a classroom

CathyJo: it generates significantly more collaboration, as teachers want to implement, but with hep.

Cathy E: @CathyJo - my teachers are required to come to the lab with their kids when I'm teaching.  That way everybody is in the loop.

CathyJo: great session!!

CathyJo: Lisa that is so sad.

CathyJo: Does she not promote the state book awards in the least??

CathyJo: our library has 100-150 kids each morning

CathyJo: before school

CathyJo: we also have a full house (half the mornign crew) during lunches.

CathyJo: of course u should know we have 2500+ kids

Rebecca Buckhoff: I spent large amounts of my free time as a child in the public library.

Sheila: We have a piano in the library ( middle school), a recording "studio", comfy chairs. We even hatch chicks there. More than books!

CathyJo: Hi MAria!!

CathyJo: :)

connect2jamie: yes--thanks so much for hosting this topic this week!

CathyJo: Gotta go everyone--great as always

Cathy E: great job - I learned so much!

connect2jamie: Thanks CathyJo and Joyce!

Lisa Parisi: http://ettconversations.blogspot.com/

Lisa Parisi: Bye everyone!

connect2jamie: Have a great week, everyone!

Rebecca Buckhoff: Bye!

pgeorge: This has been a great conversation! Thanks to all of you!

This week Joyce Valenza and CathyJo Nelson joined us for a conversation about libraries and the new role of the librarian.

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