Thank you all for your responses. I will take everyone's piece of advice
closely. I am so excited and am ready to have fun with this age group! If
you have any further suggestions, please keep them coming! I need all the
help I can get---anyone want to mentor me???? Thanks all!
Laura Gonzalez
G. Washington Middle School
Laredo, TX
Here are the wonderful responses:
1. I have my middle schoolers every other week. Many don't like to read even
though they have to do AR. I usually show videos to these kids. I
concentrate on things that go along with something they are doing in class
or videos of books I don't think they will ever read but need a working
knowledge of. Some I show are Fahrenheit 451, The Ox-Bow Incident, Animal
Farm, etc. I also do the state reading program with them. In Illinois the
Rebecca Caudill program is for grades 4-8, and I include all those grades in
my program. The main thing is to have fun. I try to know what those that
will read want to read. I try to read at least one of all the new series so
I know if the middle schoolers can have them, or if I need to save them for
the high school. Good luck.
2. Dive into the Lone Star list from TLA. They are perfect for middle
school. Be
sure your catalog records include the 586 tag for Lone Star List, so they
kids
can find the titles. Make some sort of reading goal with those books, and
give
a good prize for the goal's completion. You can't lose.
3. I will put a link to our media center website which describes a few of
the things we do.
http://www.hardee.k12.fl.us/Junior_high/lib.htm#Teacher%20Resources
We are big on contests - for students and for teachers. They love them.
We have computers for "educational purposes" only, and that is something
that we have to continually enforce, but feel that the school district's
money should be used for education, which can include educational games,
such as a math racing game that we have.
One reward we do each year is to have the students who have read all 15 of
our state's books (Sunshine State Young Reader Award books) have lunch in
the media center with the principal or assistant principal. We get them the
food of their choice, have music, table decoration, and they really seem to
enjoy it. (as do the principals)
Good luck to you. I love working with this age. I worked at the high
school level and loved that also.
4. I've been a MS librarian for 6 years and one thing I learned pretty
quickly is don't do big long powerpoint orientations with these kids!!
I actually do the first orientations with 6-8 language arts classes over a
two-week period discussing the fiction section (DEAR is big in our school)
and general policies/book checkout (kids are limited to a single fiction
book to facilitate timely checkout and responsibility).
Two weeks later LA classes return for their "regularly scheduled book
exchange every two weeks" and at that time I discuss overdues and lost
books, and they can have two books checked out. (LA teachers continue
bringing their kids every two weeks for shorter or longer times, depending
on what I want to do with them--booktalks, visitors, etc.)
Two weeks after that I have 6th and 7th grade math classes in for a Dewey
lesson and the kids can then have up to 3 books checked out. So, by the end
of the 1st 6 weeks of school, all kids have been in the library at least 3
times and I've covered everything they need to know.
During the next 6 weeks or so, I introduce online resources just one or two
at a time, customized for the particular grade level, subject and research
assignment. These are scheduled with science, social studies, and electives
teachers (our LA research assignments are later in the year). This works
well, so that no lesson is overwhelming with irrelevant material, and by the
time they are 8th graders, kids are using all of our online resources
regularly and fairly proficiently.
5. Follow your instincts, keep participating on LMNET, and I'm sure you'll
do just fine !!!
6. After 6 years in a k-5 school library, 3 years ago I made the switch to
middle school. I really just wanted to try something a bit different and
approached it with the attitude that if I hated it, I would go back to
elementary. Now I will be starting my 4th year this fall and simply cannot
imagine going back to "the little ones" ! I loved them when I had them, but
I think I found my calling by switching to middle school. I'm sure you will
find a HUGE difference between the 2 levels.
Will you be providing a prep for your teachers, or will you be collaborating
on a flexible schedule ? It has taken us 3 years to find what seems to be
an ideal arrangement for our students. This year I gave all of the 6th
grade language arts classes an orientation and then the rest of the year I
collaborated with our staff, scheduling library time on an as needed basis.
I truly feel that this is the way to go with this age group. This allows
the students to learn skills ALONG WITH their curriculum, instead of
isolated "library skills" taken out of context. When I first started, I
asked each team leader if I could have a few minutes of their team meeting
time, sometime within the first few weeks of school. I took this
opportunity to introduce myself, discuss what I could do for the teachers,
and what we could accomplish together. Before I started in this position,
according to our staff, the library was basically a closed room where kids
went occasionally to get a book. It took some time to convince some of our
staff that I really wanted the library to be busy all day every day, and now
we're at the point where I sometimes have to offer alternative slots to our
staff because the library is so busy !!! You may have to work hard at
getting teachers to buy into the concept, and it will take time and effort,
but it's well worth it. Our school was one "in need of improvement" for
NCLB and this year our 8th graders had wonderful GEPA scores that will
change our status. Our principal feels that the entire staff contributed to
our GEPA improvement.
I do not have an aide, which is unfortunate, but I come in early and work
late all during the year so that I am always 100% for my students. If you
end up in the same situation, I advise that you make lists and prioritize
all tasks, making the students and teachers your #1 priority.
Because I don't have help, I really don't send out overdues as often as I
should. I wait until a book is 2-3 months late and then send a first
notice. What ends up happening is, come May I usually have 200 items still
checked out. Then I spend a TON of time chipping away at getting the books
back. Our kids finished school 2 days ago and I only have 3 overdues left
!!! I consider this a success.
I could talk to you all day, so if there's something specific you'd like to
ask me, feel free to write back. In the meantime, try to spend some time in
your library this summer, get a feel for the collection, budget, etc. It
will be time well spent.
7. If there is anything I can advise it's public relations works wonders,
make your library welcoming.
8. Congratulations on moving to middle school. I think you will love it.
Your
elementary background will come in handy for the incoming 6th graders. The
programs I have put in place are the districts reading motivation program
which is a reading log where students can earn certificates by level
according to the number of books they read. It runs from April to April.
Since our school is in Florida, I also promote the Sunshine State Young
Readers Award books by challenging students to read all 15
titles on the list. Then 3 years ago I created a book reading contest where
each grade level competes to see which grade leve reads the most. The top
grade level is rewarded with an
ice cream sundae from Dairy Queen since they are our Partner in Education.
Each time a studentreads a book, they
complete a form that requires them to provide a short summary about the
book. They must also take an Accelerated Reader quiz on the story and earn a
passing score(set by the language arts dept.).
This year I began a book club which meets during lunch for one hour. I also
produce the morning annoucements daily. This school year I will also be
teaching a television production course for those
students who want to participate on the morning announcements. I also teach
information literacy lessons, such as using the OPAC, online databases,
evaluating web sites, the research process, and
writing a bibliography, Inspiration, iMovie, & MS Publisher. I love
working with the middle school and
I hope you will too. Good Luck!
9. First off, relax. Middle schoolers are great kids. I also was from an
elementary background, but had the added fear--of when I subbed in a middle
school had a knife pulled on me by an 8th grade as a threat, without
administration support. I was an involuntary transfer. I was scared my
first year.
Now after 4 years, I know them to be the truly great people they are.
1. YOU WILL LOVE the sense of humor. And if you have just a hint of
sarcastic wit, you will make a hit. "Good Try" and "Uh huh, I am SUPPOSE
to believe that??" might become favorite phrases.
2. You will have LOTS of requests for adult level books. Just know that you
do NOT have to have it in your library. Be selective. If you choose GREAT
reads and can talk them up to the readers, they will go flying off the
shelf.
3. Talk with the teachers about collaboration. HOW can you help them? You
might want to check out my webpage (hopefully it is still up, I just quit my
position, and am hoping that it hasn't been taken down yet.) for ideas of
how I was supporting my teachers. http://damascus.gresham.k12.or.us/~greer
4. Be firm. They will TRY to push ALL limits. Hey, they are preteens and
teens. They didn't get the rep for nothing. But with clear expectations,
clear rules of what you will allow and not allow, you will do fine. TALK
with the admin and the teachers about what worked and didn't work with the
previous librarian. You might be surprised to why they think that way.
5. You will probably be on a flex schedule. This can be rough at first.
You will have teachers who plan ahead and take all of the BEST time spots,
and teachers who come the day before and want to do a full collaboration
unit, to the teacher who just breezes in her class without scheduling with
the line "ohhhh we can all share". Talk with admin about this. You will
need the backing when you see that you will need to turn away students or a
class.
6. KNOW your BOOKS. Go to the bookstore, library. KNOW what the students
are reading. Be willing to say....Oh, I do not have that book yet in this
library, but I know the library does. Can I show you how to put a hold on
it? And have the library's webpage in your favorites or on your webpage.
I had the students write their public library number in their planner for
ease of access.
Smile. You will be overwhelmed. SO??? This is a great journey.
10. Spend the summer reading books that will appeal to
your new clientele. The fastest way to become the
"best librarian ever" is to be familiar with books to
recommend.
They will push you every step of the way. Set hard
rules and stick to them. You can always back off a bit
later.
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