Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Post Secondary Experience

The secondary experience has entailed behind the scence activities such as periodical preparation, creating book lists, collecting books and shelving. There is less hands on with the students and less teaching as they are more independent at this level. The students behavior is a big issue in the middle school and takes away from the learning experience. Finding ways to motivate the students to read and not openly defy the teacher takes thought and preparation. Understanding where this age group is in development and social skills must come into play to keep them on task and learning.

Secondary libraries are much larger than elementary and require a great deal of time to become familiar with the collection. Although I am familiar with some of the authors, as they do house adult literature, I found myself having to use the OPAC a lot in order to help students. Getting to know the physical layout of each library was a challenge as well as they were all different reflecting the individual tastes of the librarians who set them up. The age of the buildings also had an effect on the layout, technology and collection. Although Kenosha has a format to how the books are cataloged, individual librarians can personalize their collections to their student body and personal preferences.

Towards the end of this practicum I felt I could be a great asset to a secondary library as I felt I was able to grab and hold the students' attention better than the regular librarian. This maybe due to the novelty of new person, or that I was attempting to relate the information to their age group. I found they love to listen to stories and I tried to give the lessons in a story telling way by relating the subject to an experience of mine.

I so wish I had just opened up a book and started reading it to a group of 7th grade girls who I was trying to help find a book to read for pleasure. They were loud and trying to be disruptive. I thought by sitting with them and talking about books I could stir their interest. They did quiet down and talk with me, but I feel I missed a golden opportunity to turn them on to reading if I just would have opened that book and read from it instead of trying to talk them into it.

Monday, July 12, 2010, Bradford High School

7:30-8:00 Check in and shelve books. Review school policies on student behavior, check library circulation for over due books.
8:00-8:30 Go to classrooms to retrieve overdue books.
8:30-9:00 Enter data into book lists for high schools according to genre.
9:00-9:30 Assist 9th grade students working on Mythology research, word processing and printing.
9:30-10:00 Assist 9th grade students working on login problems, Mythology research, word processing and printing. Assist 10th grade students on login problems, research, word processing and printing.
10:00-10:30 Assist 10th grade students on research, word processing and printing.
10:30-11:00 Check in and out books, shelving.
11:00-11:30 Enter data into book lists for high schools according to genre.
11:30-12:00 Go to classrooms to retrieve overdue books.
12:00-12:30 Process periodicals for shelving.

Friday, July 9, Bradford High School

7:30-8:00 Prepared website resource list for Greek mythology research.
8:00-8:30 Troubleshooting as to why none of the library computers could get on the Internet. Had to restart routers and computers. Assisted 9th graders logging on and completing research for Greek mythology.
8:30-9:00 Checked in and shelved books.
9:00-9:30 Assisted 10th graders with logging on and finding research resourced for various topics.
9:30-10:00 Checked in and shelved books
10:00-10:30 Prepared new books for shelving.
10:30-11:00 Worked on entering in book lists for core subject areas into OPAC system in public folder.
11:00-11:30 Worked on entering in book lists for core subject areas into OPAC system in public folder.
11:30-12:00 Worked on entering in book lists for core subject areas into OPAC system in public folder.
12:00-12:30 Worked on entering in book lists for core subject areas into OPAC system in public folder.

Thursday, July 8, 2010 Mahone Middle School

7:30-8:00 Prepared websites for 7th grade constitution research.
8:00-8:30 Found books on the constitution and court cases. Made copies of exhibit evidence.
8:30-9:00 6th grade read from dirty jobs book. Went online to discovery channel and watched videos on dirtiest jobs. Help find books and check out.
9:00-9:30 Gave 7th talk on rights and what the constitution means in the US compared to other countries. Read a mock trial and gave out evidence exhibits to determine the verdict. Discussed.
9:30-10:00 Assisted 7th grade with online research and finding books for constitution.
10:00-10:30 8th graded discussed going green and alternative forms of renewable energy. Gave book talks on the various books in the library. Assisted finding books for research and checked out.
10:30-11:00 6th grade read from dirty jobs book. Went online to discovery channel and watched videos on dirtiest jobs. Help find books and check out.
11:00-11:30 Gave 7th talk on rights and what the constitution means in the US compared to other countries. Read a mock trial and gave out evidence exhibits to determine the verdict. Discussed.
11:30-12:00 8th graded discussed going green and alternative forms of renewable energy. Gave book talks on the various books in the library. Assisted finding books for research and checked out.
12:00-12:30 Checked in books and reshelved books. Cleaned up library shelves.

Wednesday, July 7, Bullen Middle School

7:30-8:00 Read book reviews in professional journals and made recommendations for Diane.
8:00-8:30 Continued to read book reviews.
8:30-9:00 Helped 7th grade class find books and check out. Taught a few students how to use the online catalog.
9:00-9:30 Helped 6th grade class find books and check out. Straighten and shelved books
9:30-10:00 Helped 8th grade class find books and check out. Taught a few students how to use the online catalog
10:00-10:30 Discussed with Diane her collection and how she decides on purchases especially graphic novels.
10:30-11:00 Helped 7th grade class find books and check out. Taught a few students how to use the online catalog
11:00-11:30 Helped 6th grade class find books and check out. Taught a few students how to use the online catalog
11:30-12:00 Helped 8th grade class find books and check out. Taught a few students how to use the online catalog
12:00-12:30 Organized the shelves and shelved books.

Tuesday, July 6 Tremper High School

7:30-8:00 Read over 2nd semester lesson plans from spring of 2010 and filed by teacher. Ruth keeps a file for each teacher and saves all their lessons for future reference.
8:00-8:30 Moved professional manuals to a different part of the library to make room for the expanded fiction section. The district is going with a vendor’s cataloging this year and short stories will no longer be a category to catalog with. Therefore all short stories now are shelved with fiction.
8:30-9:00 Assisted a health class with finding resources for their issue .
9:00-9:30 Continued moving the fiction section.
9:30-10:00 Went over the high school periodical collection and organized the magazines.
10:00-10:30 Read book reviews in professional journals circling recommendations for Ruth.
10:30-11:00 Assisted a class find online resources for controversial issues such as abortion. Ruth showed them Opposing viewpoints
11:00-11:30 Assisted another class find online resources for controversial issues.
11:30-12:00 Prepared periodicals for shelving.
12:00-12:30 Went over state standards for information literacy with Ruth.

Prewrite for secondary practicum

In a high school library I believe there is less contact with students as a class and more one on one activity. The librarian helps more with technical issues and helping students find the proper resources. He probably introduces freshman to the workings of the library in the beginning of the year, but after that works with classes only for special research projects.

There is not a set schedule of classes so the day is far more flexible which could pose a big problem. I fear there is a great deal of behind the scenes duties and less teaching. Allotting time to get everything done is also going to be a major task. Since the collection is so much larger than an elementary school greater time will be dedicated to book selection. With more books comes the responsibility of more time being given to processing and the repair of books.

Shelving of the books is going to take a large chunk of the day and I doubt there are many parent volunteers to help. Although with a full time assistant it may be more her job. The circulation has got to be huge with over 2,000 students so I imagine it is just a constant cycle throughout the day. Maybe students help with shelving?

The high school librarian has to do a lot of locating resources for the teachers as their class loads are heavy and the library is large. He probably spends as much time helping and working with teachers as she does with the students. Also there has got to be a lot of paper work like creating manuals and keeping track of the library statistics. High school students are much more self sufficient than elementary so the librarian needs to keep in constant circulation to be available to those who do need help and to make sure they are following proper citation and research procedure, not actually teaching classes on how to do it.