-----Original Message-----
From: Sarles Patricia (18K500)
Sent: Fri 12/25/2009 8:07 AM
To: Kathy Graves
Subject: RE: Slap in the face . . .
Kathy wrote:
"How about starting the new year with a presentation at your school's
next faculty meeting by sharing with them your education and
credentials, even it you've done it before."
I start every class this way; telling the students why I am qualified to even be
standing before them, teaching them what I am about to teach them.
The teacher is also in the room and I'm sure this is a revelation to them as well.
Years ago when I was in library school to become a librarian (that's my favorite
term for what I am), a friend asked me, "what is that? a certificate or something?"
Unfortunately for both of us, we went to the same private school and we never had a
"real" librarian in our school so it was completely forgivable that she would have
no clue what a librarian was or what their education entailed.
I too was clueless until a friend entered library school a year before I myself
decided I would like that profession as well. It was only then that I said to
myself, "Wow! What a wonderful secret this is! Who knew that library school was so
cool?! and nobody knows about this!"
I've only been in my new school for two months but I did receive one Christmas card
and a gift this year. The card said, "thank you for maintaining the library." Don't
know if that is good or bad, but it was sweet nonetheless.
______________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Jerome Parker Campus Library
100 Essex Drive
Staten Island, NY 10314
voice: 718 370-6950 x1321
fax: 718 370-6960
psarles@schools.nyc.gov
"Ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books. Months passed
without even thinking about being imprisoned....I had never been so truly free in
my life." - Malcolm X
"Some kids go to the library ... Others to the street. But they can't go to the
libraries if the libraries are closed." - Officer Dombranski, NYPD
"Kids are living stories every day that we wouldn't let them read." -Josh Westbrook
"The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with
other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don’t have to
write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with
characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result." -
Louis Sachar
"Our schools are filled with kids who have been treated badly all their lives. They
don't tell anyone, because there is shame in being treated badly. Many-girls and
boys-have been sexually mistreated. Still others struggle in fear with sexual
identity. They respond with eating disorders, cutting, suicidal thought or action.
I can't tell you how many letters I've received from kids who found a friend in one
of my books, a character who speaks to them. And if I get those letters, think of
the letters Walter Dean Myers, or Lois Lowry, or Judy Blume get, thanking us for
letting them know, through literature, that they are not alone. In light of all
that, there's really only one thing to say to the censors. Shut up."-Chris Crutcher
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications on behalf of Kathy Graves
Sent: Thu 12/24/2009 2:08 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Slap in the face . . .
How about starting the new year with a presentation at your school's
next faculty meeting by sharing with them your education and
credentials, even it you've done it before.
My experience is that many teachers think that anyone not assigned to
a classroom with a full complement of students has a job that is
easier than theirs, less stressful, and that every other job in the
school is less important than theirs. I know, I know, many of those
same teachers would not and could not survive in a support position,
but I think if we can educate and partner with them, then we remove
the "them vs us" mentality. I used to be totally shocked that
teachers sometimes behaved badly. It just didn't occur to me that
people in a profession as noble and sometimes selfless as teaching
could behave badly and insensitively, but then I remembered that they
are human beings with all of the foibles and idiosyncrasies of the
species. I was the naive one.
It's sad that we have to advocate and justify our positions to our
teacher colleagues, but, like many, many administrators they did not
go through their own educational journeys with a school library-media
person at their site. They just don't know what it is that we can do
for them, and we find ourselves in the position of educating them over
and over again. Even if they do take advantage of the library and
staff, many times they just don't see what it is that we do,
especially if the library time is considered prep time for them, or if
they send groups or even entire classes to the library unaccompanied
by them. Many teachers who do come to the library with their classes
spend that time correcting papers, or making phone calls or dashing
about trying to finish up something they need or forgot to do. They
are a harried lot!
Post ALL of your credentials, diplomas, awards, certificates in a
prominent spot in your library, maybe next to the circulation desk.
Do the same for any aides or clerks you might be fortunate enough to
have working with you.
Our jobs are not only to educate, but to be a PR expert in our field,
and it never, never ends.
Kathy Graves
Retired IMC Director/Librarian
Siskiyou County Office of Education
Yreka, CA 96097
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