ELEM: mgmt, 2 classes at once

[Dale Dressel <ddressel@SVTEL.NET>]

I'm in a situation where we're trying to get 4 groups of students
through the library in 2 hours so that I can get to my other school and
teach.  (There are lots of issues, but I'd like to focus on how to
manage 2 classes in the library at once.)
I have one class for 30 minutes for a skills lesson, etc. then a second
class comes in and the first group goes to select and check out books
with the assistant while I start teaching the next class (most of the
time a different grade level)  The library is a brand new, large and
echoey room with the "teaching area" set between the non-F and fiction
shelving , bordered on one side by the circ desk and on the opposite
side by windows to the commons area. (Facing the class any direction
means major distraction.) Tomorrow (this week) I'm going to try to teach
with the class kind of crunched into one end of the library where there
is Alllllmost enough seating at tables if we take the round ones from
both ends.  (The rectanglar "teaching area" tables won't fit into the
space.)
The students have said that noise is a problem and that I "should tell
them to be quiet" --- and yes I should and do, but also, I think it's
UNREALISTIC to ask the book-selecting people to not talk to one another,
or even to whisper their requests for renewals, reserves, etc.  to the
assistant.  I try to have the learning group do things that aren't all
that quiet, also.  To compromise either of these activities (selection
and teaching) by making them QUIET activities, I feel, would be... well,
compromising the value of the students experiences in the library. I
could teach library skills in an adjacent media room - but that seems
silly - to take library skills out of the library. ....  I guess that
may be a partial answer to the questions that follow.  I could Sometimes
take my classes on the road...
Have you ever been in a similar situation?  What are some possible
solutions?
Help me, LM_netters!

Marcia Dressel
Osceola Elem and Int. School Libraries
K-2                        3-5
Osceola, WI, USA
ddressel@svtel.net  or   dressel@osceola.k12.wi.us

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