HIT 4: Limit on Students from Study Hall?

[Gabe Gancarz <gancarz@ENTERACT.COM>]

BEGIN HIT PART 4:

----------

I am a 10-year veteran librarian at a small pre-k-12 rural school of 600.
We are on 8-block, so that there are no study halls until 2:30 when the
entire 6-12 section of the school has 40 minutes free (study?).

During the day, entire classes come into the library and I have no
restrictions whatsoever...just a sign up calendar for classes.

During "homeroom" I allow only 2 students at a time from any room.  Anyone
else must come to me and get a pass before hand.  NO ONE is kept out of
the library if they simply plan ahead. This policy keeps my 1500 sqare
foot facility (yes, 30' by 50') from becoming a mad house.

We also have another policy...anyone on the "D/F List" must sit in their
homeroom/studyhall and STUDY....or have a pass from the instructor they
are being "challenged" by (or the librarian) to leave the homeroom.  At
first it sounds crazy to restrict failing students from the library...but
they only need to come to me and get a pass and EXPLAIN what they will be
working on.

I have definately had to do PROMO work with PR on this.  People hear that
students "aren't allowed into the library???" and they get righteously
indignent.  Of course, administration is the first to challenge the
policy.  Each new principal has gone through stages of questioning and
then acceptance.  The bottom line is, EVERYONE IS WELCOMED to the library
if I expect them!

----------

I guess I'm pretty linear when it come to using the library during class
time. Students should not be allowed in without a definite purpose or they
are taking away space from those who need it. I worked in a high school
library that was extremely busy, there was no room for students that did
not know what they were doing. Consider the needs of the students that are
in the library for a purpose, I always defend their right to study and
research in an educational environment.

The library is not a study hall. The local librarians have all students
sign in and define their task so that they know what they are responsible
for. This has solved many problems and centers the students on the reason
they are there.

At the high school I allowed a certain number of students in per teacher.
The teacher understood the need for this limit and were very cooperated.
The number would depend on he size of your campus and the number of
teachers that use the library

One "funny" thing happened one day. One of the foreign language teachers
sent a student in because he had a cold and the teacher didn't want to
catch it. Too bad for the library staff and users. I didn't have the heart
to send the poor student out, two rejections in one day would have been a
bit much, so I had him sit way back in the corner.

----------

We tell study hall monitors that they must have a pass from a classroom
teacher before they let the students come to the library - so they have to
have a purpose for coming to the lmc.  This may not be great for the PR
for the library, but unfortunately the head librarian seems to see to it
that we have a bad reputation anyhow.  I would like for us to be a bit
more lenient - this policy leaves us many periods with NO ONE in the lmc -
which looks bad and is quite boring too.

If I was in charge, I would let more come from the study halls when we
don't have classes in here - but they would still need to have something
specific to do - or if they are reading magazine or book it would have to
be without disturbing others.  Last year the head librarian limited it to
3-4 from each study hall, but it sometimes got out of hand.

----------

I limit it to twenty students plus those that come from classrooms to look
things up, etc. I am in a 540 member junior high which seats 40 students.

----------

I think the number of students you allow in the library from study hall is
directly related to the amount of staffing you receive and the number of
students in your facility researching with their regular classroom
teacher.

In our facility, grades 6-12, we allow only 3 students from a teacher who
is not in the library with their class.  We only allow study hall students
who have passes from a regular subject teacher for a specific purpose also
(read a magazine, research a current event, etc.).  If the class has a
substitute, we again only allow students who have a pass from the regular
teacher access.  To give you an idea of our size, I can only seat
approximately 40 students in my facility, and our regular class sizes are
between 20-28 students each.

----------

Years ago when we had study halls, I always had this problem and we are
only a school of under 600.  My rules were...

* No student could come without getting a pass from me prior to their
  study hall.

* They had to show me their research/assignment that needed library time.

* If I had one or more classes in the library, I also then wouldn't let
  any study hall students come in.

If you don't do this the problem is threefold...

1) The study hall teachers that don't mind taking advantage of you/the
library by sending all their problems and just anyone that wants to come
for social hour...

2)  The least serious students that are looking for a easy out...no
studying...meet their friends...especially the romantic friends.

3)  And of course the many who never managed to quite make it to the
library and wandered the halls until caught.  It could be and often was a
nightmare.  I was delighted when we got rid of study halls.

----------

I have to limit because we were getting more students than we could
handle.  Four people were working flat out during lunch (our equivalent of
study halls) and not able to monitor behavior.  Students were staying 20
minutes and just talking to each other.  So we limit one student from each
home base during lunch.  That could still give us 20-30 divided between
the three lunch periods.  Our principal okayed it first.

----------

Yes, I have a limit - 6.  Sometimes I wish I made it a % of the total
study hall not to exceed 6 because I informally walk around the school and
see some SHs with 2 kids left in them when I am bursting at the seams!

Yes, I got some flak - particularly from aides who supervise SHs, but my
opinion is that if you don't like monitoring SH, get a different job.
Because as an aide THAT is your job.  Harsh but true.

----------

END HIT PART 4

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
    All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law.
To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to:
 listserv@listserv.syr.edu         In the message write EITHER:
 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
 3) SET LM_NET MAIL  * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv
 For LM_NET Help & Archives see:  http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=