Shonda has asked for testimonials. Here is mine.
In my first school library position (1992), I served in an elementary school
with 750 students. I met with every student and classroom teacher (CRT) in
the building - 29 scheduled back-to-back classes each week.
There were two advantages of this school's culture that helped me move our
library program to a half-fixed, half-flexible schedule. First, the CRTs
were required by the principal to remain in the library during the "library
lessons." She believed that CRTs should know what was being taught in the
library and the only way to know that was to be present. (This was not true
across the board in this district.)
The second feature of this school was a strong teaming model. Grade-level
teams met for two hours every Wednesday afternoon. I met with two teams each
week so I reached all the teams in a one-month period. The lessons I taught
in the library were related to the classroom curriculum and at times, they
were collaboratively planned - and co-taught.
At the December faculty meeting that year, the principal "allowed" me to ask
the faculty if they would agree to an every other week fixed schedule. They
knew that I was an effective teacher who helped them meet their classroom
learning objectives. They had SEEN me work.
In the second half of the year, I met with 14 or 15 classes each week on a
fixed schedule, freeing up 14 or 15 time blocks for collaboratively planned,
taught, and assessed lessons and units of instruction. I don't know if I
could have moved that faculty to a fully-flexible schedule because the
district transferred me to my Waterloo the next year.
At my second elementary school (same district), I had 23 scheduled classes a
week. CRTs were not required to remain in the library with their students
and most of the time, the children were my sole responsibility (including
one class of monolingual Spanish speakers at each grade level. My second
language is French.) I worked with grade-level teams on a rotating basis "to
fill" the empty slots on my schedule. I was miserable and felt that my
teaching was not valued by CRTs and the principal nor was it particularly
effective or valuable to students.
In the fourth quarter of the year, I convinced the principal to put forward
the idea of the flexible schedule (which she had told me she would institute
during my interview for the position). The CRTs "gave" it to me and they
planned with me, some co-taught with me, and we booked the library every
minute of every day for 9 weeks. I worked incredibly hard and the CRTs, most
of them reluctantly, admitted that co-taught lessons were more effective for
student learning.
At the end of the year, the principal told me she was going to let the CRTs
vote on the library schedule. I told her that I knew what the outcome would
be and that I would resign. She protested and said the CRTs would vote for
what is best for students.
Surprise! The majority voted for the fixed schedule, and I resigned to
pursue working in a neighboring school district where I could practice
school librarianship to the best of my ability (in flexibly scheduled,
fully-integrated, collaborative school library programs).
The bottom line: CRTs must SEE that our work helps them meet their
instructional needs and the learning needs of their students. Principals
must stand up for school library programs that best serve students and
educators. Unless there is language in the consensus agreement related to
"specials" providing planning time, it is up to CRTs, teacher-librarians,
and principals to re-evaluate this "tradition" in light of what works for
student learning.
Best,
Judi
Judi Moreillon, M.L.S., Ph.D.
Literacies and Libraries Consultant
Author: <http://tinyurl.com/yzvy5g> Collaborative Strategies for Teaching
Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact
<http://storytrail.com/> http://storytrail.com
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