Day 11: Subject headings: Who is the authority?

March 26, 2009
7.5 hours

April is National Poetry Month!

Lisa celebrates this month in magnificent ways. This year she has invited two poets to come & speak, collaborated with the 8^th grade English teachers on a poetry unit and is holding the second annual school wide poetry jam.

To help prepare & get students & teacher excited, I created an annotated bibliography of poetry materials for teachers; the list contained materials available at both the school library & at the local library. The bibliography highlighted not only great books of poetry but teacher resources for incorporating poetry in lessons or units.

Today I created an annotated bibliography of poetry materials for students.

Digging through the online catalog to find materials I discovered two things:

1. The materials needed to be listed in two fashions: poetry collections & verse fiction. The separation would allow for a greater use of both lists as well as a quicker guide to what students were seeking. By listing verse fiction on a separate bibliography, some students will be exposed to a new style & may find a new like for poetry & verse.

2. Your catalog may not be your friend. Some of the verse fiction that Lisa & I knew was within the collection did not list poetry or verse in the subject headings or the summary. This created a big problem for us as we wanted to try to list the numerous great offerings the library media center had! Lisa sent me online. Starting with public libraries & library sources, like VOYA, YALSA, etc, I started looking for any listings of verse fiction. Then I had to search the catalog to determine if the book was within the collection. It was a time consuming process.

As I was working on the project I thought back to both my introduction to cataloging & my school library media center cataloging courses. In both we discussed creating a user friendly catalog. Will the Sears (or other selected subject authority) provide subject headings that the students will use? Is there a value to adding non subject authority headings if it makes the materials searchable by the end user?

85.5 of 100 hours completed

Day Ten: Authors visit!!!!

March 18, 2009
7.5 hours

What a splendid day!  Both Michael Salinger & Sara Holbrook visited the school today. The morning was spent with presentations by the authors.  Each grade had a one hour performance of performed poetry as well as great information about the writing process.   At the end students asked incredible questions about writing, inspiration, careers & much more.

The afternoon was a nearly two hour poetry workshop. Michael & Sara taught students both writing & performance skills.  Students had an opportunity to share their own poetry.

What an incredible day! 

78 of 100 hours completed

Day Nine: Teaching

March 13, 2009
7.5 hours

This is where the rubber hits the road.  Today I teach.

I have taught in a classroom before; I have been a substitute teacher.  I know how to teach.  I can create lesson plans & I have taught lesson plans created by other teachers.  I have even taught an interdisciplinary course that required me to create the plans with another teacher. 

So why did this teaching experience make me so nervous?  I have not a clue.  Maybe it was the number of teachers in the room.  Maybe it was the value of the material being taught.  Maybe it was that I was teaching another’s plans but not as a sub I knew the students would not go over it again.  Maybe it is just my own nerves getting me worked up.

The class was not coming until the end of the day so the majority of the day was spent in traditional routine.  Books were checked in & shelved.  Students came in for classes & study halls.   Materials were pulled for other teachers.

At the end of the day the students came in.  Lisa & I talked about last minute details; I asked her to jump in at any moment if I forgot details.  Off I went… and it went smoothly.  I forgot a few assignment related details but Lisa & the classroom teacher jumped in creating this almost seamless instruction.  When the lesson ended & the students were sent off to start their work, many came to me asking specific questions related to their I-Search.

What a wonderful day. 

70.5 of 100 hours completed

Day Eight: Processing those new books

March 4, 2009
7.5 hours

Remember that day I spent in glorious cataloging?  I do.  (That is the slightly sick side of me:  I do love to catalog!)  Today’s focus was on preparing those books for circulation. This meant stamping with the school’s name & address as well as putting on the appropriate covers. 

My focus was on paperback books.  I know that paperback books are more common in a school library due to student’s preference for the format & the media center’s ability to purchase more due the lower cost.  Knowing how to prepare paperback books is an important skill that requires a great deal of patience!

Lisa explained the process to me, slowing down her quick pace to be sure I understood the step-by-step process.  The first book sat upon the counter taunting me.  How was I going to cover this book without making a mess of the cover or otherwise ruin the book?  This is not my library – these are not my funds – these are not my materials.  I started with the first book that seemed to fit nearly perfectly into the precut shape.

A few books into the process & I felt more comfortable.  A bit of fear still loomed but I knew I could manage it & mistakes were bound to happen.  My ability to recover from them was a more important piece. 

The best part: watching kids review the books I had just finished with a few snatching one up. 

63 of 100 hours completed