A Reflection on my dispositions as a school librarian
Reflective - Some of my most reflective moments came after conducting additional site observations at two school that were very different than my practicum school; these were Idlewild Elementary School, a Title I and partial magnet school located in inner city Charlotte, and Lakeshore Middle School, a flexibly scheduled, average performing school in Mooresville. I got a lot of great ideas from both schools that I had never thought about before. For instance, at the middle school, I got to see how shelving fiction books by genre instead of by author works extremely well and this was also my first opportunity to observe co-teaching on a flexible schedule, which was extremely well executed and effective. At the elementary school, I learned tricks for monitoring student behavior to appease the principal by documenting all student behavior and class performance notes in a weekly class log and I also got ideas for hosting family literacy nights and a Starbooks cafe to reward strong readers. My reflective paper I wrote about these school observations allowed me to better synthesize what I liked about these different tactics and what school circumstances I felt would best accommodate implementing these ideas.
One of my biggest personal reflections has been that I would like my school library program to be predominantly centered around literacy with perhaps less emphasis on technology. My current practicum supervisor loves technology and almost overdoes it as everything she asks her students to do is technology drive and very self-directed, leaving little opportunity for direct teaching and the promotion of reading. While technology is important, I much prefer the teaching style of some of the older librarians who use technology only to support or enhance a lesson, but not to replace their emphasis on reading.
Finally, I've also realized that if I was to become an elementary school librarian on a fixed schedule, I would really need to find ways to take time for myself as being around kids all day with very few planning periods is very straining and tiring. Ideally I would try to make sure I get employed in a school without a fixed schedule for the sake of my sanity!
Ethical- Everyday, I respect differences in diversity, and points of view among learners, learners’ families, and colleagues. My school has a very multi-cultural group of students including many Hispanic children and I've been careful not to discriminate against anyone through my words or actions when working with a group of students. I've noticed there are a lot of different learning styles; some children catch on to directions faster than others, so I am willing to work more closely with those students who need extra support. I treat all students equitably and I adjust my expectations for kindergartners compared to my expectations for 5th graders. My supervisor has given me plenty of opportunities to exercise my own professional judgement toward students without her hovering around me. I've broken up squabbles between kindergartners who can't seem to share and I've held older students accountable for their actions when they act like they're too lazy to do something.
Inclusive and affirming of diversity - My co-taught lesson with the third grade teacher included ways to differentiate the lesson to suit all learners of all different learning styles. We paired students together based on their strengths and weaknesses when it came to researching. We'd pair a stronger researcher with a weaker researcher in the hopes that the stronger of the two could motivate the other student to stay focused and try their best. I’ve also had to work with a couple students who were on the autism spectrum. I made sure to give them more one-on-one attention as time allows.
Personal and Professional Conduct - Having opportunities to actually teach the students has been my favorite part of the practicum. So far, the students have been doing self-directed STEM centers, which has not given me a lot of time to interact with them. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of learning how to design lesson plans that are more conducive to working with kindergarteners as opposed to 5th graders. Each grade brings its own rewarding challenge. I love seeing the kids’ faces light up when you can tell they have grasped a concept or have thoroughly enjoyed the inquiry based activity I planned for them. I like hearing updates from my supervisor about the school library and technology instruction workshops and meeting she’s attending to help me gain ideas.
Engaged and Committed to teaching as a profession - I am very diligent about asking my supervisor questions about what’s been going on in the media center during the times I’m not there and asking her to explain a procedure or the rationale behind something with which I may not be familiar. I’m eager to learn knew skills such as how to operate the green screen app or the spheros to show the students how to use them. Sometimes I ask for additional projects so I’ve been shown how to process and catalog new books; I’ve also asked her to explain how she orders new books from Junior Library Guild and how she selects and reorders her magazines. She’s also carved out some special time for me to do booktalks with the 4th graders and ONE Access presentations about public library digital resources; that was the first time I had done booktalks with a live audience, so I had to tweak my presentation each time I gave it to keep their attention.
Self-efficacious (effective, successful) - I try my hardest to have a positive attitude and be a good role model for the kids every day, even when I don’t have a lot of energy or aren’t feeling my best. I approach any new task or teaching assignment with confidence and if I realize I can’t figure out to do something (which happens with the technology), I ask for help. The kids help energize me and I try to feed off their energy to give a dynamic reading of a book or an engaging presentation when I’m teaching. Positive vibes really come through when I’m co-teaching with a classroom teacher or collaborating with my supervisor; our energy feeds off each other.
Receptive to feedback -After any teaching opportunity, I'm always quick to ask my supervisor for feedback and reflect on her feedback to think of ways to improve my teaching. For instance, I did a series of booktalks for 4th graders, which I had very little time to prepare. I asked for advice on how to make them better next time around and my supervisor suggested just shortening the book talks and maybe trying to engage my audience more by asking them questions instead of strictly talking to them.
I've also been receptive to feedback from my supervisor in regards to planning my teaching lesson for this course. She was the one who suggested a digital tool that the kids could use for creating a digital poster and she also pointed me in the right direction for how to teach students about using images that have a creative commons license instead of allowing them to use any image.
Finally, I've been very receptive to feedback from all media specialist I've spoken with at my additional observation sites and have taken their advice very seriously. They've given me recommendations for the best counties to work in and the ones to stay away from. They've shown me the realities of the job (being tech facilitator and webmaster on top of being the media specialist) and I will take this insight to heart in choosing my future place of school library employment.
Responsible - I try to be well prepared and well organized prior to teaching the students. I make sure I have thoroughly collaborated with the classroom teacher or my supervisor to created detailed lesson plans. Prior to giving book talks, I made sure I had read the books and/or reviews and had a well prepared script with transitions. I’ve definitely put in extra time and effort to prepare everything for the Digital Literacy Family Night to make sure that the students and their families had the best experience possible. I’m good at troubleshooting when technology problems arise to find quick solutions. I try to remind the younger students to demonstrate respect toward their classmates and take responsibility for their actions by modeling this behavior myself.
Collaborative - My co-taught lesson with a third grade teacher is a strong example of collaboration. Although we did most of our planning virtually through Google Docs, when we were actually teaching, we worked well together. I've learned a lot from her regarding how to teach a lesson (repeating concepts, asking students to raise their hand to share, etc.) and she's learned a lot from me regarding new resources to use when teaching (new databases, new digital tools, etc.). We've both been really easy to work with and she'll tell me a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of her students so I can tailor my lesson accordingly.
Additionally, for my goal project, I did a lot of collaborating with the public library, the students and their parents to host a Family Digital Literacy Night. A public library employee and volunteer helped with promoting public library resources and photographing the event. The public library also provided a selection of books to raffle. My supervisor oversaw the STEM centers. And the event was promoted through a flyer in student's communication folders to encourage students and their families to come to the event.
One of my biggest personal reflections has been that I would like my school library program to be predominantly centered around literacy with perhaps less emphasis on technology. My current practicum supervisor loves technology and almost overdoes it as everything she asks her students to do is technology drive and very self-directed, leaving little opportunity for direct teaching and the promotion of reading. While technology is important, I much prefer the teaching style of some of the older librarians who use technology only to support or enhance a lesson, but not to replace their emphasis on reading.
Finally, I've also realized that if I was to become an elementary school librarian on a fixed schedule, I would really need to find ways to take time for myself as being around kids all day with very few planning periods is very straining and tiring. Ideally I would try to make sure I get employed in a school without a fixed schedule for the sake of my sanity!
Ethical- Everyday, I respect differences in diversity, and points of view among learners, learners’ families, and colleagues. My school has a very multi-cultural group of students including many Hispanic children and I've been careful not to discriminate against anyone through my words or actions when working with a group of students. I've noticed there are a lot of different learning styles; some children catch on to directions faster than others, so I am willing to work more closely with those students who need extra support. I treat all students equitably and I adjust my expectations for kindergartners compared to my expectations for 5th graders. My supervisor has given me plenty of opportunities to exercise my own professional judgement toward students without her hovering around me. I've broken up squabbles between kindergartners who can't seem to share and I've held older students accountable for their actions when they act like they're too lazy to do something.
Inclusive and affirming of diversity - My co-taught lesson with the third grade teacher included ways to differentiate the lesson to suit all learners of all different learning styles. We paired students together based on their strengths and weaknesses when it came to researching. We'd pair a stronger researcher with a weaker researcher in the hopes that the stronger of the two could motivate the other student to stay focused and try their best. I’ve also had to work with a couple students who were on the autism spectrum. I made sure to give them more one-on-one attention as time allows.
Personal and Professional Conduct - Having opportunities to actually teach the students has been my favorite part of the practicum. So far, the students have been doing self-directed STEM centers, which has not given me a lot of time to interact with them. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of learning how to design lesson plans that are more conducive to working with kindergarteners as opposed to 5th graders. Each grade brings its own rewarding challenge. I love seeing the kids’ faces light up when you can tell they have grasped a concept or have thoroughly enjoyed the inquiry based activity I planned for them. I like hearing updates from my supervisor about the school library and technology instruction workshops and meeting she’s attending to help me gain ideas.
Engaged and Committed to teaching as a profession - I am very diligent about asking my supervisor questions about what’s been going on in the media center during the times I’m not there and asking her to explain a procedure or the rationale behind something with which I may not be familiar. I’m eager to learn knew skills such as how to operate the green screen app or the spheros to show the students how to use them. Sometimes I ask for additional projects so I’ve been shown how to process and catalog new books; I’ve also asked her to explain how she orders new books from Junior Library Guild and how she selects and reorders her magazines. She’s also carved out some special time for me to do booktalks with the 4th graders and ONE Access presentations about public library digital resources; that was the first time I had done booktalks with a live audience, so I had to tweak my presentation each time I gave it to keep their attention.
Self-efficacious (effective, successful) - I try my hardest to have a positive attitude and be a good role model for the kids every day, even when I don’t have a lot of energy or aren’t feeling my best. I approach any new task or teaching assignment with confidence and if I realize I can’t figure out to do something (which happens with the technology), I ask for help. The kids help energize me and I try to feed off their energy to give a dynamic reading of a book or an engaging presentation when I’m teaching. Positive vibes really come through when I’m co-teaching with a classroom teacher or collaborating with my supervisor; our energy feeds off each other.
Receptive to feedback -After any teaching opportunity, I'm always quick to ask my supervisor for feedback and reflect on her feedback to think of ways to improve my teaching. For instance, I did a series of booktalks for 4th graders, which I had very little time to prepare. I asked for advice on how to make them better next time around and my supervisor suggested just shortening the book talks and maybe trying to engage my audience more by asking them questions instead of strictly talking to them.
I've also been receptive to feedback from my supervisor in regards to planning my teaching lesson for this course. She was the one who suggested a digital tool that the kids could use for creating a digital poster and she also pointed me in the right direction for how to teach students about using images that have a creative commons license instead of allowing them to use any image.
Finally, I've been very receptive to feedback from all media specialist I've spoken with at my additional observation sites and have taken their advice very seriously. They've given me recommendations for the best counties to work in and the ones to stay away from. They've shown me the realities of the job (being tech facilitator and webmaster on top of being the media specialist) and I will take this insight to heart in choosing my future place of school library employment.
Responsible - I try to be well prepared and well organized prior to teaching the students. I make sure I have thoroughly collaborated with the classroom teacher or my supervisor to created detailed lesson plans. Prior to giving book talks, I made sure I had read the books and/or reviews and had a well prepared script with transitions. I’ve definitely put in extra time and effort to prepare everything for the Digital Literacy Family Night to make sure that the students and their families had the best experience possible. I’m good at troubleshooting when technology problems arise to find quick solutions. I try to remind the younger students to demonstrate respect toward their classmates and take responsibility for their actions by modeling this behavior myself.
Collaborative - My co-taught lesson with a third grade teacher is a strong example of collaboration. Although we did most of our planning virtually through Google Docs, when we were actually teaching, we worked well together. I've learned a lot from her regarding how to teach a lesson (repeating concepts, asking students to raise their hand to share, etc.) and she's learned a lot from me regarding new resources to use when teaching (new databases, new digital tools, etc.). We've both been really easy to work with and she'll tell me a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of her students so I can tailor my lesson accordingly.
Additionally, for my goal project, I did a lot of collaborating with the public library, the students and their parents to host a Family Digital Literacy Night. A public library employee and volunteer helped with promoting public library resources and photographing the event. The public library also provided a selection of books to raffle. My supervisor oversaw the STEM centers. And the event was promoted through a flyer in student's communication folders to encourage students and their families to come to the event.