Dear Arline and Colleagues,
Both Shonda and Toni offer some great advice for helping classroom teachers
make the adjustment from a fixed to a flexible schedule.
Here are a couple more ideas that you may or may not have considered as yet.
It's important for your principal to establish a value for classroom-library
collaboration. A word from him/her as to the rationale for this decision may
set a tone of positive expectation for what's in it for students as well as
for educators. Building a culture of collaboration is the principal's
responsibility.
Get others to speak for the change. Is there an educator among the 3rd-5th
grade classroom teachers with whom you may have collaborated or experienced
a more significant level of cooperation under the old schedule? If so, a
testimonial from that person may help pave the way for others to see the
benefit for themselves.
And maybe most importantly of all, it's absolutely critical that you believe
that the flexible schedule with classroom-library collaboration and
co-teaching provide the best learning opportunities for students and the
best support for classroom teachers.
If you approach the flexible schedule - unapologetically - you will
communicate confidence and commitment to your colleagues. That will go a
long way toward minimizing the inevitable sense of loss that comes from
change.
Have an exciting year!
All the best,
Judi
Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Consultant
Author: Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension:
Maximizing Your Impact
http://storytrail.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Toni Buzzeo [mailto:tonibuzzeo@TONIBUZZEO.COM]
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2007 9:26 AM
Subject: Talking to Teachers
Hello Colleagues,
As list traffic is still slow and Arline didn't TARGET this topic, I
thought we might have a discussion of an interesting dilemma.
>Somehow I have to convince them as I believe already that this
>schedule is a good thing and will be a
>benefit to students & teachers.
I agree, Arline, that it's difficult to face a group of teachers who
are very likely to DISAPPROVE of the schedule change you are
implementing (but let me pause to applaud you and your
forward-looking principal!). They'll be unhappy, you predict,
because they will perceive something being taken away from them (prep
time) and they are, no doubt, like teachers everywhere, feeling like
lobsters in a pot here in Maine, with the heat below them slowly
being raised until they are desperate.
The key, it seems to me, is to reassure them that this change will
benefit THEM as well as their students. In general, we know that
there are many benefits for teachers and wise teachers are willing to
collaborate because:
*They understand the benefits to themselves and, especially, to students.
*They understand that collaboration actually is working SMARTER
(students learn more and more effectively in the same amount of time).
*They are undefended (they trust themselves and us enough to step back
and see what develops).
*They are trusting (either by nature or because we've built that trust
with them over time).
*They are motivated (either, again, by nature or because a wise
administrator has put systems in place that require collaboration
with the librarian).
But these are theoretical reasons. I suggest that you begin in a
practical way by offering them a clear and concrete reason to
collaborate with you. Suggest that you will begin your collaborative
work with them by helping them to address the deficits/gaps in the
standardized test data. Never in the course of the history of
American education have we had so much DATA. So from my perspective,
it is in the best interest of all members of our school communities
if we begin our work with teachers by working to close those gaps
that they are struggling so hard to address.
After you introduce the concept at the faculty meeting, schedule a
meeting with grade level or department teams to examine the data and
set forth your plan to address the deficits in the context of content
area projects or units that also embed information literacy
skills. Your teachers, then, will clearly see how THEY will benefit
from their work with you despite a (beneficially) changed schedule.
Best,
Toni
Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Maine Association of School Libraries Board Member
Buxton, ME 04093
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
Collaborating to Meet Literacy Standards: Teacher/Librarian
Partnerships for K-2 (Linworth 2006) BRAND NEW!
***************************************************
Rather than presenting the information as a "there's good news and then
there's bad news" situation....why not present it as a "here's a win-win
situation" starting this year!
In other words, you will no longer have 3-5 grades as a fixed schedule class
which means you now have the opportunity to collaborate with those teachers!
Present the new schedule in terms of how you will be able to work with
teachers (to lighten their loads) by becoming a team-teaching partner with
them on specific units. If you know of a specific unit that each group does
during the year, you might want to consider drafting a few ideas in a bit
more detail and creating an outline of how you can help make their units
more effective. You could even create a short PPT of what you can do as a
result of having more time to work with each group.
Show your teachers that you can help with the creation of a new unit;
provide specific instruction on the use of the print / electronic
resources; show students how to use Big6; teach them how to cite their
sources; teach them how to gather facts for research; etc., all in the
relationship of the specific projects that they normally do. Be sure to
state how you will use THIS type of information as an assessment of student
learning in the library so that you can also provide data at the end of the
year which shows how the library impacts student achievement. (See Dr.
Violet Harada's work for addition ideas on
this...)
This shouldn't be a "bad news" situation....your teachers may initially
think that they're losing something, but you need to remind them that you
are also a teacher and that your expertise includes teaching information
literacy skills. By having more time to work on projects with specific
teachers (and telling everyone about those projects afterwards---because
you'll want to share your success, promote that teacher who is collaborating
with you, and inspire others to work with you too), you'll be a much more
important element within the instructional curriculum.
Present this is a positive fashion and it won't be considered as negatively
as you might think. Showcase your strengths as you share the changes that
will occur and you'll gain some interest from those who never "saw you as a
teacher" before today. Praise your principal for having the foresight to
realize the importance of a flexible schedule and allowing you to become an
important part of the teaching team (and keep your principal involved in
what you're doing as you do
collaborate!) Provide your teachers with something tangible (a lesson plan
idea list for collaboration with you, etc.) to take with them after your
meeting----and a schedule of when you'll be stopping by to talk with them
about their special project / activity that they do each year. Be prepared
with ideas to share with them about how you WILL be teaching their students
this year in a much more effective way!
Good luck and keep us posted on what happens!
~Shonda
--
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
Library Media / Technology Specialist
Digital Bookends wiki / blog:
http://digitalbookends.pbwiki.com
http://shonda.edublogs.org/
sbrisco@gmail.com
Resources for Texas School Librarians:
http://txschoollibrarians.ning.com/
http://txschoollibrarians.wikispaces.com/
"Digital Resources" columnist
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