Re: new job/first week

[Karen C Ruehl <kcr@CSD.UWM.EDU>]

Ms. Chaney,

As a person who has been in the educational setting for over twenty
years, I have had a great deal of interaction with administrators and
supervisors. It is one thing to have a particular phulosophy about
education, it is another to impose that philosophy on others and to judge
them by it.

Sincerely,
Karen Ruehl
Library Media Specialist
Humboldt Park AND Greenfield Montessori School
Milwaukee, WI
<kcr@CSD.UWM.EDU>





On Sat, 31 Aug 1996, Deborah Chaney wrote:

> Love all the thinking this topic has generated. I find it interesting
> that the people who want to justify how very busy they are, who don't
> think they can possibly begin on the first day, have taken the time to
> respond to EVERYONE on the list. But I have received so very many
> individual messages from librarians on this topic who totally agree, and
> who in fact open day one. And they too have all those tasks to complete,
> and som eof them have less than wonderful automation systems, and some of
> them have no aides to help them.
> Ah, the old "you're just an administrator who doesn't understand" logic.
> I knew that would surface......
>
> On Fri, 30 Aug 1996, Anna J Russell wrote:
>
> > I too wonder if service beginning when the students return, is possible.
> > I don't believe it is.  In my case, the first week of school is spent
> > helping place children in classrooms and ESL testing was done in the
> > LMC.  I too have an outdated computer system that I must input students
> > and move students.  And this year  I returned to no system.  In my case I
> > have found that most teachers do not want library the first couple of
> > weeks.  I think that perhaps Deborah needs to return to the elementary
> > school for a year to see the real world.
> >      I would love to open the first day--I have been know to open the
> > second week.  It usually resulted in a disaster--and teachers requesting
> > to wait until at least the 3rd week.
> >
> > On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, James Mong wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Deborah Chaney
> > >
> > >  The point is: Service should begin when the students
> > > > return, just as it does for classroom personnel.
> > > > Deborah Chaney
> > > > Coordinator for Library and Media Services
> > > > Birdville (TX)ISD
> > > > chaney@tenet.edu
> > > >
> > > >
> > >         Well, I HAVE to say something about this statement.  It is a much
> > > desired thing to begin service as soon as the students come in the door.
> > > BUT, if you have no aide, a computer system that requires all new
> > > students to be put in by hand, all old ones updated and new barcodes
> > > printed out as well as trying to get a class list from a multitude of
> > > teachers, it is impossible.  On top of that there are books to be
> > > processed that weren't finished last year, Accelerated Reader records to
> > > be deleted, updated and passwords invented for 600 students.  This is
> > > just a sample of jobs to be done.
> > >         My point is this, it is a fine thing to begin service
> > > immediately, but if you are like most school librarians I know, the first
> > > week to ten days are a blur of getting ready to open the library and
> > > there are only dreams of immediate service.
> > >         Hey, I'm not really coming down on you Deborah. I just wanted to
> > > speak up for those librarians (like me) who have so little and are
> > > expected to give immediate satisfaction.  I enjoy the job, but it takes
> > > me longer than "now" to get it going.
> > >         My two cents.
> > >         James Mong
> > >
> > > Riverview Middle School-- Huntington, IN 46750
> > > jmong@neptune.esc.k12.in.us
> > >
> >
>

Karen Ruehl
<kcr@csd.uwm.edu>