Teacher Cooperation with Assignments

[Ken Haycock <haycock@UNIXG.UBC.CA>]

Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 11:05:59 -0700
There is no question that cooperative program planning and teaching is
time-consuming, emotionally demanding and taxing professionally, but then
so is working with kids, especially when 32 ask you the same question
over and over again. There is also no question, however, that
teacher-librarians only impact student achievement through collaboration
with teachers. That doesn't leave much doubt about priorities and "which
ditch is worth dying in". Good luck!--Ken Haycock
From: Ken Haycock <haycock@UNIXG.UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: GEN: Information skills curriculum

When I was responsible for curriculum and staff development in a large
school district [110 schools] we religiously "pumped out" continua of
skills/processes/strategies and scope and sequences of content/skills.
When we paused long enough to review the research and looked around and
consulted with clients, we learned that we were producing little more
than colorful and expensive wall paper for faculty lounges and
classrooms. So we turned to applying the research and started to train
school staffs to develop their own, using the district charts as a
starting point if they wished. State/district produced lists do not
engender ownership and do not take account of different communities and
programs. There is little more professional than discussing and
negotiating curricular and instructional issues in schools if the
principal and staff have the skills to handle conflict productively.--Ken
Haycock