Dana Hochstedler and Rob Cox are both elementary media specialists in the same school system. This is Rob’s first year.
Learn more about both Dana and Rob at http://eduscapes.com/sms/hochstedler.html
You might start the discussions with Dana on her insights into maximizing a library center budget, her assignment covering two elementary buildings, and also facilities planning (One of her schools opened this year). You might ask Rob for his candid views on the first year on-the-job; his position is also divided between two schools.
Designed to meet the needs of pre-service as well as professional school library media specialists, this blog provides news and information, book and technology reviews, and professionals sharing their expertise.
Dana and Rob,
ReplyDeleteHow difficult is it to manage your time between two schools? How does this effect daily workings, such as collection development? How do you make sure you are treating both media centers as fairly as possible and not play favorites?
Amanda
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI see you have a fair amount of experience in school libraries prior to becoming a media specialist. Given that you had worked in school libraries before, were there any surprises in your new role as a SLMS? Do you have any advice for others who are about to embark on their own school library journies?
Thanks,
Chad Heck
Amanda asked..
ReplyDelete“How difficult is it to manage your time between two schools? How does this effect daily workings, such as collection development? How do you make sure you are treating both media centers as fairly as possible and not play favorites?”
Hi Amanda, It is very difficult to manage my time between the two schools. I find that I spend so much time doing the day-to-day tasks that I don’t have the opportunity to work on the big picture items near as much as I would like to. Things like collection development are done on the fly. I have yet to truly analize either of my collections, I have done my ordering based on my impressions and the recommendations of others. The aides at both schools see what gets checked out on a regular bases and know what kids are asking for so I depend on them a lot. I have also had students at my intermediate building pick books on the Follett website that I then bought. I hope to formalize a system where kids get to choose more books, maybe make it a part of the reading program that kids who read X number of books get to spend X number of dollars for new library books. In any case, I definitely like having the kids help with it, they know what they will read far better than I ever will. I’m not fair at all in my treatment of the media centers. They are such different situations that I don’t worry about it at all, I try to do what I think is best and leave it at that. I have spent a lot more time working on stuff at the intermediate building than I have the elementary, but I am sure the pendulum will swing the other way at some point.
Rob
Chad asked…
ReplyDelete“I see you have a fair amount of experience in school libraries prior to becoming a media specialist. Given that you had worked in school libraries before, were there any surprises in your new role as a SLMS? Do you have any advice for others who are about to embark on their own school library journies?”
Hi Chad, I have been surprised at the number of different decisions I have to make, sometimes things that are kind of goofy, like whether the music should be played in the hallways after school? I have also been very surprised at the number of teachers who spend their time telling the kids to be quiet in the library. I had not seen that in any of the other buildings that I have worked in, but I see it all the time now. The noise the kids are making rarely bothers me half as much as the noise the teachers are making trying to get them to be quiet! However, I have decided that I can work on that next year; I think I need to be accepted as a valuable member of the staff before I start telling teachers to be quiet in the library! I may regret not working on this right away though, time will tell. One of the media specialists that I did my student teaching with told me that I should pick my battles wisely, and I am finding that I have a surprising number of battles to fight. It’s tough trying to decide which ones are worth fighting now, and which to put off. I would have broke my own decision about telling teachers not to shush the kids in the library one day if I hadn’t been so stunned; I actually had a teacher shush her kids because they were laughing too loud. I was reading a funny story at the time! I sat there in total awe, unable to make my mouth move.
Regarding advice, the best advice that I was given before I started is almost trivial, but oh so true:
“Stand over the trash can when you read your mail.” I am still amazed at the volume of catalogs I receive. 2-3 every day, and we are now into our 4th month of school! With two buildings, I have thrown away hundreds of catalogs and they still pile up.
The worst advice that I was given:
“Don’t change anything right away.”
The intermediate school library I took over had a Young Adult section. I hated it immediately because it made no sense to me in a library that only serves 2 grade levels, and I literally could not figure out the criteria based on what was included and what was not, but I was afraid to do away with it because it was a big change. I ended up deciding to go ahead and do it right before students started checking out books which resulted in me spending my weekend moving books. It proved to be a smart move because the YA section didn’t make sense to anybody else either, and it was a real turning point for me. I truly took ownership of the library when I did that, it really changed the way I felt about it. I wish I had done it over the summer though instead of waiting until after school started.
The advice that I would give to you from my own heart is to trust your instincts.
My experience in the number of different buildings I have worked in so far has convinced me that you have to find what works for you and not worry too much about trying to emulate somebody else. Your teaching style has to suit you and your personality! Don’t be afraid to be yourself. The principal that hired you (or principals in my case) saw something in you that made them hire you, so don’t think you are going to disappoint them by being the media specialist that you want to be.
Steph
ReplyDelete“First question is for Rob: Is it difficult to switch between working with elementary school kids and middle school kids? What is the biggest difference you notice between the two programs?”
I don’t find it at all difficult to switch between the kids; in fact, it’s a lot of fun to see a wide range of kids. What is difficult is the extra time I spend coming up with things to do with them. I can’t take my lessons from one building and use them at the other. On the other hand, it’s fun always changing what I am doing from day to day. The two programs are like night and day.
Dana was the media specialist at the elementary I took over and we are very like-minded on what we should be doing, so it has been relatively easy to take over. The intermediate school is a different story. It has been slow going getting the teachers used to the idea that I can teach the kids something. The previous media specialist just cataloged books, didn’t do any teaching. She still works in the district and has been very helpful to me so don’t get me wrong, I don’t really mean to be too critical, she is simply different from me. However, she has left me a situation where I really have to change the attitudes before I can do the things that I want to do. I have made a lot of progress, but it has been painfully slow! I have to take the attitude that it will be a very long process and that I will only be able to accomplish so much in one year, otherwise I would be too frustrated. It’s kind of strange on a day-to-day basis; I go from an elementary where everyone takes it for granted that I do things with the kids and the library is a bustling place to an intermediate building where I am constantly reminding the teachers that I exist and the library is normally as quiet as a graveyard. The intermediate is even dividing within itself. The fifth grade teachers are happy to work with me if I remind them constantly while the sixth grade teachers won’t give me the time of day regardless of what I do.
Rob
Sawyer asked…
ReplyDelete“I found it so interesting when you mentioned that you had changed careers and became a media specialist. What factors lead to your decision? What benefits and drawbacks have you experienced from your new career path?”
Hi Sawyer, I hated being a mechanical engineer from day one and I hated it for 11 years. I finally got laid off, found a new job, got fired, and found myself walking out of job interviews thinking “man, I hope they don’t offer me that.” I realized I had to change and I can only attribute it to the mysterious workings of God that I ended up where I’m at. It’s too long of a story to tell all the details, but one of the great benefits of it is that I appreciate my wife a lot more than I did before, she was incredibly supportive of my career change, “above and beyond” as they say. Other benefits: lower stress, lower blood pressure, healthier attitude, getting to work with kids. I used to work at a place where the boss would want to know why you weren’t working if he heard people laughing. Now I work at a place where I get hugs and I can bring in old 45 records and play them if I feel like it. Drawbacks: less pay, a lot less pay!
“Also, I noticed that you have worked as an aid in several media centers before running your own. What components from your previous school experiences were "must haves" when you started your new job.”
I think the single “must have” experience I touched on earlier with Chad’s question. I have seen enough media specialists at work to realize that no two are alike, and no two do the job exactly the same way. Do what works best for you. I also have learned not to worry too much about what the students or teachers think of you. If you do your best, they will accept you the way you are. Kids and teachers are both like that, very forgiving, very loving.
Emily asked...
ReplyDelete“What insights have you learned so far as to what school librarians are able to do realistically versus the theory we gain in a university learning environment?”
Hi Emily, most of what you learn in school is the theory of how it could be done if everything was perfect. In reality, it never works the way it does in theory. However, I think the theory is still good to know, you need to know what you are shooting for before you can take aim. I think the biggest thing I can tell you that I have learned regarding the reality versus the theory is that you can only do a small part of it. I just don’t have time to teach all of the information literacy standards, and help the teachers teach reading, and help the teachers teach writing, and teach the teachers how to use technology effectively, and develop my collections, etc. Something has to give. I hope I spend my time as wisely as I can, where I will do the most good, rather than just doing what is easiest or the most fun, but it’s hard to say for sure.
The other thing I have learned is that in theory I’m in charge, in reality I am responsible but have very little power.
Rob
Nicole asked...
ReplyDelete"I am doing my internship at Carmel High School next semester with Bonnie. I'm very excited about it. What did you find most useful in your intership experience now that you are a full fledge media specialist?"
Hi Nicole, you will love working with Bonnie, she is wonderful. I think the most important thing I learned during my internship is that you can be very professional and still have fun. I've been so busy at both of my schools that I havn't had enough time for fun things, but I havn't forgotten it. Also, meet the kids where they are at; at their level, if you don't get too hung up on the things they can't do they will surprise you with what they can do.
Rob
Hello to both of you!
ReplyDeleteI welcome any advice and guidance--here's my situation:
I currently work in an elementary school as a curriculum specialist. My office is located in the media center, so I observe the daily events. This year we have a new media specialist (it's also her first year). Our previous media specialist retired after 30 years. We also have a new principal (also first year) who is not very involved or supportive of our media program. Needless to say, our media program is floundering. To add insult to injury, after conducting a mini collection analysis, the results were not good! My current media specialist has been relying upon my guidance and I'm just learning! Basically, it's like the blind leading the blind!
Given our circumstances, where do you suggest we begin? We need some help prioritizing. Assuming that we have limited funds to work with, what will give us the most bang for our buck? I like Rob's attitude that he had to take ownership of his media center. It's hard when things have not changed in our media center for the past 30 years to implement new policies. From the perspective of both a novice and an expert, what are some practical goals for this year?
Dana or Rob,
ReplyDeleteBecause you are split between two buildings and have to prioritize your time and efforts, what are some of the things that you place of the back burner that may not be as essential as others? I think I would have a difficult time deciding and would take on more than was humanly possible to accomplish. In my teaching experience, I find that things never really slow down, and I often find myself never getting to the things I say I'll do later when I am less busy. How do you make time for these things or do some of them never get accomplished?
What do you feel is the most important aspect/element of any media center (both in terms of facility and programming)? What one thing would you fight to save at the expense of everything else?
Thanks for participating with our class. I already feel like you both have given us valuable insights.
Julie Mansfield North
Margaret asked...
ReplyDelete“I currently work in an elementary school as a curriculum specialist. My office is located in the media center, so I observe the daily events. This year we have a new media specialist (it's also her first year). Our previous media specialist retired after 30 years. We also have a new principal (also first year) who is not very involved or supportive of our media program. Needless to say, our media program is floundering. To add insult to injury, after conducting a mini collection analysis, the results were not good! My current media specialist has been relying upon my guidance and I'm just learning! Basically, it's like the blind leading the blind! Given our circumstances, where do you suggest we begin? We need some help prioritizing. Assuming that we have limited funds to work with, what will give us the most bang for our buck? I like Rob's attitude that he had to take ownership of his media center. It's hard when things have not changed in our media center for the past 30 years to implement new policies. From the perspective of both a novice and an expert, what are some practical goals for this year?”
Margeret,
I think the purpose of a library collection is to provide interesting reading material for the students and to support the curriculum. To maximize the bang for your buck, look for books that do both. Given your job, it sounds like you should have a pretty good grasp of what the curriculum is so look for books by well known authors that are about the subjects your school is teaching. Don’t forget that a good fiction read-aloud can be used to teach a non-fiction subject. I am a person who prefers non-fiction so I’m not saying that I like the idea of slighting non-fiction, but given limited resources I wouldn’t spend money on a non-fiction book that is only used once a year for a report. Non-fiction books about animals tend to fly off the shelves, so I wouldn’t hesitate to get books about sharks or horses either I’m just saying that when you don’t have money you need to be creative with what you do. Dana is much better at that than I am! I would also ask myself; who currently uses the library: 1st grade, 4th grade? I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to please any grades that don’t normally use the library, if there are any. I also wholeheartedly agree with what Dana said about focusing on a curriculum for your media program rather than the books. You will gain more in the long run by figuring out what you are going to teach and how you are going to teach it. Everyone will notice that right away, few will notice any changes to the collection of books.
Regarding the new principal, try to find something you can do to make his/her job easier. Volunteer to serve on a committee or something. I don’t really have this problem, both of my principals are very supportive, but I know my elementary principal is very pleased that I have taken an active role on our language arts committee, word gets back to them. When I was an aide I had a principal that didn’t know much about computers, so I would help him do things that made him look good to the other principals and I kept my mouth shut about it. He appreciated that. If you can find a way to make the new principal look good you will be rewarded. Also, administrators are impressed with numbers; I would share the research Keith Curry Lance has done on the impact of a good school library. Don’t forget that the principal’s hands might be tied regarding budgets; you may have to convince people higher in the chain. Dana and I have supportive principals, but we are still split between two buildings due to the superintendent not being very supportive. Obviously, these problems cannot all be fixed in one year! It takes time just to get to know people, be patient.
Realistic goals for the first year kind of depend on things you didn’t mention, does the current staff not work with you at all, or is it mainly a money problem? I have tried a number of things to get my 6th grade teachers to let me work with their students the same way I do with the 5th grade students. I have had almost no success in getting them to let me work with their entire class, but I have started to see some results since I proposed working with small groups of students during their study hall. Just today I had a sixth grade teacher stop me in the hall and tell me of a particular student that is having a hard time fitting in at school and she thinks I could help him through something I suggested doing earlier with web pages. The same teacher also suggested I start doing literature circles with her high reading level kids. It’s not everything that I would like, but it’s something. There is an old military maxim that you should send your reinforcements where you are succeeding, not where you are failing. I think the same applies to a media program. Don’t take from this that I am giving up on working with my entire group of sixth grade students, I am just being realistic about what I can accomplish my first year. I guess another thing I would remember is the old wisdom that only a fool keeps doing the same thing and expects different results. Try something, if it doesn’t work, do something else. You need small successes to build on and you will have some failures along the way. I also think it is important not to take your failures too personally. My failures with my 6th grade teachers have nothing to do with them not liking me personally; they simply do not know how I could help them. They have never worked with a media specialist before and have no concept of what I can do. That means the problem I need to fix is one of educating them, not easy, but at least I don't go home feeling bad that they don't like me. You need to know what truly needs fixed before you can figure out a solution. I was lucky to have a lot of good people around me, including Dana, to give me background on the situation. Maybe you can find teachers that have been there awhile that can give you some of that background information that will help you understand why things are the way they are. It’s not easy; I have more difficulties with this at my intermediate building than at the elementary. I am constantly running across things that leave me scratching my head and asking “why is this done this way?” I ask around and the answer is always: “I don’t know.” I hate to change something if there is a good reason to leave it the way it is, but I hate to leave it the way it is if it makes no sense to me or anybody else. In your case, it sounds like everything is broken, so don’t be afraid of making changes. I think I am rambling at this point, so I will force myself to stop! :-)
That last anonymous was Rob by the way, I was typing my name and then something bad happened...
ReplyDeleteJulie asked…
“Because you are split between two buildings and have to prioritize your time and efforts, what are some of the things that you place of the back burner that may not be as essential as others? I think I would have a difficult time deciding and would take on more than was humanly possible to accomplish. In my teaching experience, I find that things never really slow down, and I often find myself never getting to the things I say I'll do later when I am less busy. How do you make time for these things or do some of them never get accomplished? What do you feel is the most important aspect/element of any media center (both in terms of facility and programming)? What one thing would you fight to save at the expense of everything else?”
Julie, I want to get to the place where, when I am trying to prioritize, I always ask myself: "what is the most important thing to the students?" I don’t think I do it nearly enough right now. It’s not easy to figure out what is most important when you have books on the shelf that need cataloged, a class coming in for a lesson, and a teacher that is looking for resources. I find that I probably prioritize based upon how long something will take to complete rather than on how important it is. If I have a job that will take 5 minutes to do and one that takes 30 minutes to do and I have 10 minutes available, guess which one I work on? I find that I usually accomplish everything that I need to, but I seldom do anything as well as I would like to. You have to accept less than perfection from yourself if you are going to survive. I can easily see where it would be easy to take on more than you can accomplish, but I have worked with a media specialist who never said no to anything a teacher ever requested and she burnt herself out in a few years and destroyed her family in the process. I have some big ideas that I may never get to, it’s hard to say at this point. Especially when you consider that I don’t have final say over much of it, I can’t do a big collaboration project if I don’t have teachers willing or able to collaborate. There are things on my wish list that I probably cannot accomplish so long as I am split between two buildings. The frustration level in this job can be very high if you worry too much about what you are accomplishing, or failing to accomplish. The specific thing that I am currently placing on the back burner is collection development, it doesn’t hurt that it was probably my least favorite subject in school! :-) Seriously, though, it currently makes sense for me given that I am still learning my collection, the needs of my patrons, and I trust the media specialists that I replaced and know they put a lot of effort into making the collections as good as possible. I'm more worried about teaching right now. Time will change all of that and my priorities will change too.
I think teaching the students literacy skills (in every sense of the word) is the most important part of a media center program. I always keep in mind that my library is part of an educational facility that is supposed to teach students what they need to know to be productive citizens, or to be self-sufficient, however you want to look at it. That’s a very broad territory that encompasses many possibilities, but it doesn’t include things like: books have to be cataloged perfectly, or shelved perfectly, or my lessons have to cover every state standard for language arts. That kind of nonsense would just get in the way. I try to be the best librarian and teacher that I can be, but I don't want to get bogged down in trying to be perfect. I honestly don’t worry too much about the facility, the small part that I have control over I can make fit my program and I try not to worry about the things I have no control over.
I’m not sure what I would fight to save at the expense of everything else, it’s hard to imagine. I guess what you’re really asking me is what is most important to me? I think working with the kids; it’s why I got into this in the first place. I like books, but they are secondary to me. Rob
Sawyer, thank you for the complement. My wife truly deserves the credit, she is earning the money while I have the fun!
ReplyDeleteyou asked... (I like to repost the question becaue I tend to get lost and ramble, I need to go back and look at it now and again!)
"Since you have been an aid in the past I am sure you understand what an important role aids and volunteers play in the media center. How do you make the most of your aids (if you have one) and the volunteers who offer you their time?"
When I was an engineer I often had bosses that would give me an assignment and then micromanage me. I never put all of my talents and energy into a task when I didn't feel like I had ownership. When I was an aide, my media specialists would give me responsibilites, any advice or suggestions they had, and then they would get out of the way and let me do it how I wanted. Obviously, you have to trust that the aide is not going to do something really goofy, but the latter is what I want to shoot for, you are wasting the talents of your aides if you don't. Dana and I both have aides that are already very independent, so we don't have to work at this much. They have to be, they are there every day, while we are split between buildings. It can lead to problems, like sometimes my aides set library policies that I don't agree with! I don't like that, but I put up with it because I couldn't function without them being willing to take responsibility for things. It's a vexing problem, there are some things they do that I really don't like, but I don't want to kill their independent spirit either. I'm getting a new aide because Dana is taking one with her to her new building when it opens next month. I'm hoping that I will be able to set the library policies that are important to me from the beginning and then give her some independence on the other stuff. Volunteers are a whole other story. We don't have any regular volunteers where I'm at now, but I worked with them when I was an aide. They are a very mixed bag, sometimes they are great, sometimes hopeless. We have some student helpers at the intermediate building and they are pretty darn good! I'm finishing up a book fair where we had a number of great volunteers, we simply could not have done it without them, didn't have anybody that was a problem either! The volunteers you get are pretty much dumb luck unless you know somebody that knows everybody else and can recruit good people. That was the case with my book fair, I was very fortunate in that regard.
Rob,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice and inspiration. I had a serious discussion with my media specialist today, and we agreed on your plan to let the curriculum guide our purchases. We just adopted a new science curriculum, and we have big gaps on our shelves. I guess I am just struggling with the idea that recent, popular fiction brings kids into the library, but as a school library, our job goes way beyond that. I also think I will target 2 teachers who are receptive to new ideas with some collaborative lessons, and my media specialist has thought about doing some lessons in the computer lab (We don't have a technology person!) Maybe if a few teachers can get the word out, then others will see that we are striving for a "new and improved" media program. And, I guess that an uninvolved principal isn't the end of the world. I think she has her hands full with other responsibilities and that we pretty much have the freedom to try some different things. After all, she's new too, and won't know how things used to work. I like your covert plan to make your principal look good. Surely, a successful media program will reflect positively on my principal. I've got my work cut out for me!
~Margaret
Hi Steph, thanks for your comment. I have had fun, I hope I have shared something that will be of use to somebody. Our district doesn't have a district-wide collection development plan that I am aware of. For that matter, I'm not aware of any district-wide plans on anything. It's something Dana and I have talked about, since our district does not have anybody that oversees the media centers there isn't anybody to coordinate such things. We don't even have meetings or anything for all of the media specialists. Dana and I coordinate what is going on at the 3 elementaries, and I take that knowledge with me to the intermediate, but I have no knowledge at all of what goes on at the middle or high school. Regarding your question about how common district-wide collection development policies are; I have never seen one anywhere in my travels. That's not a large sample, but I would guess it's not unusual. On the other hand, it may be that they exist and I just never happened to find them. Everyone in a school is so busy that they don't always do a very good job of letting others know where to find things or that something exists in the first place. I am guilty of that myself. I also do not yet have a collection development plan for either of my media centers, it is one of the things that is on a back burner for now. Dana probably has something much more specific, I don't know if she has a written plan or not, but I know she has paid Follett to do a detailed study of her collections and she knows what she needs to work on. If anybody has anything else that you want to ask, or you just want to bounce an idea off of someone. I would be happy to hear from you, and I am very certain Dana would be too. I know I have been very fortunate to have Dana so close to me in my first year, I can't even begin to tell you what a difference her experience and knowledge has made for me! robert.cox@mvcsc.k12.in.us
ReplyDelete