My original post was:
Our district administration worked out a formula by percentages to divide
up our time during the day for the 2004-2005 school year. 25% of the time
is to be administrative duties of the media center and technology support
for the building. 70% of the time is teaching. Is there a percentage that
is recommended for administrative duties (ordering materials, cataloging
etc.)? Are there any studies that show the time a media specialist truly
needs to spend on each of his/her duties in order to be an effective media
specialist? I would like some documentation that gives this information.
If anyone else has additional information, please let me know and I will
post again. I tried to find the Arkansas mandate mentioned below, but I am
not having any luck finding this specific information, or for the Colorado
study or any ALA guideline for administrative duties. A number of people
requested a hit, so I will go with these LM_Netters that provided some
insights at this time.
Thanks!
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Arkansas passed a law--I think 1/3 of the day for library duties.
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I think the Colorado studies shows a higher percentage for administration
- something like 60% but you would need to doublecheck that.
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My schedule is the same as that of the music and PE teachers; thus I have
the same amount of time for administrative duties: collection development,
cataloging, reshelving, weeding, ordering books, etc. as they do.
******************************************************************
Information Power divides up the duties into 4 categories (we have to
report that way on our state dept. report) but not by percentage. The
state dept finally added a category (not in Information Power) this year
to see how much time we spend on things like playground duty and bus duty.
I have 3 periods a week scheduled to do technology but sometimes that
grows as I drop everything else possible to work in this area (such as
when we were moving our computer lab at the beginning of May.) I also have
3 periods a week to work with students who are in an acceleration &
enrichment program. When we were getting ready for the student projects to
be taken to a nearby "showcase" at the end of April, I did less technology
and more AEP.
My resource classes (planning time for teachers) always show up!
I also do some teaming with teachers on a flexible basis (and due to the
latest project, which was putting together a notebook to show site
licenses and individual software, per classroom) and the fact that there
were a lot of student teachers here, I did less teaming and more chasing
around to get teachers to sign off on the license issue. I am exhausted at
this point because much of that project had to be done at home where I
could concentrate better. Everything (and I mean everything) had to be
accounted for and photocopied.
We have had no internet for 4 days, which means that the books I am
collecting for the end of the year inventory and overdue notices cannot be
checked in as we are on a wireless system which goes down frequently
(which is another story).
Then there are the report card grades...But somehow I will get it all done
as I am going away for a few days on the day after school ends (we had to
make up 9 of 11 snow days) and I cannot leave a mess for the custodians!
I have been here 28 years and I do love my job, but it just seems like
there is too much of it compared to the old days. I do love the technology
though! I order most of my materials sitting here at my home computer.
Again, it is too hard to concentrate on the finances (such as they are) at
school where there are constant interruptions.
******************************************************************
Please share this information. This is a very interesting concept. For
those of us with flex scheduling (most high schools) have a varying degree
of teaching time. For instance - I have an 'average" of 6research classes
in the library per week. I also have kids in from study hall every
morning and a big group after school. Although that is a "typical" day -
there are weeks when I average 10-14 classes per day(out of a 10 period
day). And then there will be a 2 week period when I have 3 classes per
day. So - for flex scheduling - the time % would have to be an average
time to make this workable.
******************************************************************
I have no facts or figures but am truly interested in this. I have
charted my minutes several times this year and I spend an enormous amount
of time doing administrative types of things. Minutes here and there
between classes add up fast. I teach 2-50 min. periods one week and 3-50
minute periods the next. My schedule is split with computer lab. Our
school teaching day is from 8:50 to 2:30 with 1/2 hour for lunch (of which
I take 20 min.- too much to do!) I will teach more next year because our
school day will lengthen and we will add two more classrooms.
******************************************************************
Thanks,
Dee Adams
Elementary Media Specialist
Ralston Public Schools
Seymour Elementary School
4900 South 79th Street
Ralston, Nebraska 68127
dee_johnson@ralstonschools.org
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