Flying off the Shelf

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) just had its biennial conference in Charlotte, North Carolina last weekend and the NJ version (NJASL) had their annual one this weekend.  Both events were great experiences, but there was something odd.

I heard a few people dismiss Danah Boyd’s excellent presentation about the online world of young people and how important it is for librarians to be a part of it.  (Unfortunately, the actual presentation is hidden behind AASL-lines, but you can check out Joyce Valenza’s discussion of it on her NeverEndingSearch blog).

I was curious about the negative reactions; folks seemed to think it was irrelevant, and one woman said it made her concerned about what the remainder of the conference would be.  Now, I did not speak to a broad spectrum of people, but the comments started me wondering if we librarians do not embrace techies unless they are one of us.  After all, Joyce Valenza’s terrific presentation at NJASL (the first keynote sing-along I’ve ever seen) was full of technology, and I heard high praise (and a lot of concern about being behind) after her presentation.  However, she is one of us so it might have been the messenger.

Maybe it was more the message.  Valenza showed a plethora of practical ideas that included more than social media and would equip our students with the right “apps” for success while Boyd focused more on theories about young people and social media.  I’m not sure if it was the message or the messenger; however, librarians need both.

I truly believe that our sustainability lies in joining with instructional technology people, embracing theorists and ethnographers like Danah Boyd, and moving out of the typical comfort zones of librarianship.  AASL and NJASL reinforced this more than ever!

I am so ashamed.  Seriously, I just want to go all ostrich and bury my head in the sand.  But let me start at the beginning:

I met Deven Black, spedteacher, during #Edchat on Twitter this past Tuesday night.  (Please see Teacher Reboot Camp for an excellent explanation of and invitation to #Edchat).  I began to follow him, and he in turn followed and direct messaged (DM’d) me.  (Yea!)  In his DM, he mentioned his blog, Education on the Plate.  I checked it out and was impressed, and then told him I just started a blog and would appreciate any feedback.  Here’s what he said (in less than 140 characters each time, of course):

• I just read your blog and my only advice would be to figure out who your audience is; it was not at all clear.
• I read all your posts and it seems like you have three very different audiences. If so, that
• If so, it is hard to reach and keep the interest of all three with one blog. I had no idea what you were talking about in your..
• ..top post, and that is not good. If I don’t know what you’re talking about, I am not coming back to read more.

Ouch!  Oh, no!  Five posts in and I’m already driving people away.  Yikes!  After my panic, and given my TLw/ASMP affliction it took a while, I realized how right he was and how lucky I was to ask for his help.  For goodness sake, I was an English teacher.  I taught about audience, but I was so excited to get feedback from my students and then share that feedback  that I completely forgot about my audience.    I promptly went back and revised my last two posts in an attempt to make them clearer and more reader friendly.  I hope it worked…

However, I am still unsure about my audience.  I’m guessing that the “three very different audiences” Deven mentioned are social media educators, librarians, and students.  Is it wrong to write for all three?  My intention is to focus on learning (with an emphasis on my experimentation with Web 2.0), education,  and libraries but not necessarily all together in each post.  I’d really like any educator to enjoy reading the blog and also wanted to invite students into the conversation, too.  Is this asking/expecting too much?  Now that I have revised the last two posts, does my blog seem more consistent or do I have to make some choices?

If you have any advice or insight about audience for blogs, please share them here.  They will be a great help to me, and I can share these lessons with my students who are blogging.

As always, thank you!

In my prior blog post, Help Wanted:  From My Students, I asked my students for help with a social bookmarking lesson.  A brief description of the lesson and my shout-out to these awesome sophomores is found in the prior post.  This post, however, is dedicated to answering some of the concerns they voiced in their comments.  I hope that I can learn from them, and hopefully, other folks can learn from them as well.

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Hi, folks!  You gave me some great advice and were so nice, too!  Thank you for your honesty, and please know that I am also available for tutorial every day except Tuesday when I advise a club.  Below I will comment on some of the suggestions and ask more questions as a result.  The questions are for everyone because I have a feeling that these folks may not be the only ones who felt this way.

Reader Blog4Cassandra said: “…the only part that I would change is to give us some more wiggle room with diigo. We did run out of time in the end, but if there was another link or website that we could go to in order to find out other ways on how we could use diigo to our advantage, that would be great.”

I’m not sure what you mean by “wiggle room.”  Is it more time to play around on Diigo?  Do you think there is something that we could cut out to make more play time?  I didn’t find any other resources that explained the power of Diigo better than those that are on the project link page.  Please let me know if you find any.  Thanks!

Reader dandre10 said: “I think it would have worked a little easier and gone smoother if you went step by step on how to get into Diigo and then install the toolbar because then not everyone would be confused. Maybe if you put it on the projector so that everyone would be on the same page, then everyone would understand what was going on.”

Right on!  I tried to backtrack and do so, but it was too late.  I will definitely do this next time!  Thank you!

Reader laurat15 said: “Some of the tutorial videos got a little boring but I understand that we needed to understand the basics of it.”

Hmmm…I wonder if I cut one of the videos out.  What do you think?  Or what if you watched the initial one at home on your own, and then we could jump into tagging right away?

Reader anshu said: I thought that the lesson was helpful, but I did not understand how to use diigo very well.

So…let’s see if I get this right.  The concepts of social bookmarking and tagging were helpful, but diigo did not go over well for you?  What do you think would help?  Did the diigo part of the lesson provide you with enough information to get started?  If not, what was missing?  What else should I include to help you understand diigo better?

Reader soccered99 said: I think you could improve on making the class less confusing. . .for the technically challenged anyway. I was just confused and its nothing that you did its just my understanding for technology which is probably level 1. Also if you could go over the steps that you did a few times because unless you do I probably won’t grasp it.

I definitely need us to put our heads together on this one.  Do you think pairing up folks who are more comfortable with technology with those who are not would be helpful?  How can I prevent students from feeling frustrated either because they feel behind or because they desire to move ahead?  This is a challenge for all teachers and all learners since we each have different strengths.  Any ideas?  I don’t want to rely on tutorial.  I’m looking for things we could implement in class.  What say ye?

I think I got all of the areas of concern.  It was so great to hear from all of you about what worked and what didn’t.  Plus, we are talking about learning, which definitely fits into the realm of your blogs.  TTFN!

“Wah!  I don’t know what to write.”

Yes, this is what I was saying to my husband the day after my first post (and sadly thinking after my second and third).  He told me I sounded like a student.  Why am I telling you this embarrassing story?  Because we teachers are often bad students.

We forget what it was like to learn, particularly out of our subject area, and when challenged to do so, we do the very things that we complain about our students doing.  I see it at in-services and have been guilty of it myself.  However, we were learners once and can be again.  Part of the problem is that we focus on ourselves and teaching instead of the students and learning.

Teachers are seen as subject experts, and as a result, sometimes we’re afraid to be wrong and learn with and from our students.   Doug Johnson said something similar in a recent post titled, Where are the others?:

“It is hard, as a professional in the world of schools, to admit you don’t know something or don’t understand it. I don’t think our profession makes this easy either.”

So, I’m jumping off the diving board into a very scary pool hoping I don’t hit my head (although if I do, at least I can forget what I’m about to try).  I worked with a group of students today.  We worked on social bookmarking, tagging, and Diigo.  I am asking them to help me improve.

First, let me share a brief overview of the lesson.  The resources we used are on this project link.

1. Discuss what paper bookmarks and show “Social Bookmarks In Plain English” video
2. Discuss tagging with what they already use (Facebook, Flickr, blogs) – why do we tag?
3. Show “Tags: Content Tagging and Its Importance” video.
4. Show sample picture of from “Cloud Appreciation Society” and ask students for words they would use to tag it.
5. Compare our choices to the same picture in Flickr so students can see the personal and varied nature of tagging, and how they could use it both for themselves and to communicate with others.
6. Show Edublogs explanation of categories versus tags. (we may or may not show the video about the importance of tagging – the guy is pretty amusing, though.)
7. If you are struggling to think of a tag, try to wordle a blog post (thanks to Bill Wolff for the idea!). Practice wordle and add tags to a blog post.
8. Introduce Diigo w/ Tour video- show how it goes beyond bookmarking
9. Create a Diigo group and discuss the possibility of having standard group tags.
10. Play with Diigo…yeah!

Ok, folks, please excuse me while I ask my student to help me learn.

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Ok, students…it’s your turn now.  Be honest but kind.  I promise…you’ll never see me cry (I’ll hide it).  Give  ideas and suggestions that are constructive and specific.  Tell me what worked and what didn’t.  What would you add?  What would you remove?  How can we make this lesson better?  Thanks, peeps!

I have to admit that sometimes I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.  I understand that this may sound ridiculous, but since I became a librarian, I never have missed having my own classroom more than I do now.  Why you might ask?  Education has changed.  Teachers are being encouraged to experiment more and become more student-centered.  Simply put, I want more time with students, I want to be able to sequence instruction, and I just basically want more more engagement in student learning.

Reading Joyce Valenza’s blog post, 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media, I get so excited.  I have just started working with these amazing tools and have already seen how powerful they can be.  The work I did at my school over the summer with our one-to-one laptop program, project-based learning, and social networking has altered my way of thinking.  During this work, Rob Mancabelli, our technology director, planted the seed that the mission of the library could be to help students create a Personal Learning Network (PLN).  However, in my current environment, I just don’t know how.
Because we have block scheduling and many electives, there are very few classes that all students take.  I have tried to create some type of curriculum or sequence of instruction.  I have to say that I am tired of being seen as the lady who comes in and shows students some resources that they may already have seen.  I heard again today that students feel like we show them the same things over and over.  I don’t want to present instruction anymore.  This is not why I became a librarian.

When I was an English teacher, I was able to break down difficult skills and use formative assessments to gradually scaffold a sequence of activities.  I have been trying to do that as a librarian, but it is proving so difficult.  Now that I am trying to build in social media and PLNs, I crave a way to make sure that all of my students are prepared to continue learning.

As Joyce said in her blog post:

“This is the best time in history to be a teacher-librarian. Major shifts in our information and communication landscapes present new opportunities for librarians to teach and lead in areas that were always considered part of their role, helping learners of all ages effectively use, manage, evaluate, organize and communicate information, and to love reading in its glorious new variety.”

I couldn’t agree more; in fact, what is happening now is one of the main reasons why I became a librarian.  I love being in the role of guide for both teachers and students.  This is a challenging position that requires a special kind of leadership.

However, after six years, I find myself frustrated and overwhelmed.  I find myself wondering how Joyce fits all of this in with her students.  I feel like an outsider looking into the classroom, someone there to provide students with the book or primary source when they need it, but not someone doing what Joyce describes in her blog.

I am reaching out to those of you who are the types of teacher-librarians that Joyce describes.  I know that librarians need to be curricular leaders (I’ll write more about that at another time), but with everything changing, I’m just not sure what being a librarian should be.  I feel in the core of my librarian-soul that I can do this and I am so excited, but I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.  I just need to admit I need help, so I am…

Am I just being impatient?  How do we put it all together?  What does this “new library” look like?  Do you have a curriculum?  How do you know that students are getting the skills they need?  What skills do you focus on?  How do you make sure that all students get the same skills without too much repetition so we are not seen as irrelevant?  What types of assessments do you do?   I know I’ve just asked a ton of questions with no easy answers.  Any advice you can provide would be terrific!

A recent post by Shelly Blake-Plock at TeachPaperless discusses Diane Ravitch’s slamming of the 21st century skills movement.  It reminded me about a discussion I had with Will Richardson and the technology director at my school, Rob Mancabelli.  We were chatting about whether or not high school teachers share the same elitism that some college professors have.   Now, I must admit that it was right before lunch and I was weak from hunger, but I chose to call it “subjectism” instead.  Let me provide a definition:

subjectism (n.) – the belief that one’s subject matter is more important than student learning.

I have thought about this frequently because I did not become a high school English teacher (my position before becoming a librarian) out of a love of literature.  In fact, I did not read a lot of the literature that was assigned to me in high school and college.  I did, however, love working in the Reading and Writing lab helping other students discuss literature and work on writing.  This is what led me to teaching high school (after numerous years of exclaiming that I would never, ever do it).  While I do think that a lot of teachers enter the profession because they love helping and guiding, I also think that for some folks it comes from a deep love of subject.  Unfortunately, sometimes this deep love gets in the way of learning much like a former lover can get in the way of a new relationship.

I was not happy teaching English because I felt like I was forced to put my subject above learning.  Why else would 14 year olds be forced to write 3 literary analysis papers and a research paper in 18 weeks?  Why else would I be told to drop my personal poetry portfolio, during which a previously reluctant football player read his amazing poem “I’m Gonna Hurt Someone,” for the sake of dragging freshmen through A Tale of Two Cities? I felt as if I were slowly wringing out my students’ love of reading and writing.

Gratefully, our English department has changed.  In fact, our leadership in general has begun to focus on teachers as learning experts rather than just subject experts.  This is a very difficult transition; I totally get that.  However, it is necessary.  I realize that many folks feel threatened by letting go of what they love.  I felt this way over the summer while co-teaching an Introduction to Graphic Novels to other teachers.  I felt like I needed to provide more content in order to earn my pay, gain the respect of my peers , and basically prove that I am knowledgeable.  It was so difficult to let go and provide room for the participants to explore and create.  However, my co-teacher (and husband) knew it was the right thing to do, and it worked wonderfully.

So here is my challenge to teachers (and myself):  fight your own subjectism.  Don’t let it get in the way of learning!  I know you love your subject, but that love may actually prevent your students from learning.  Does that mean we never teach directly and explicitly again?  Of course not…that would be silly.  Content is still important, but it should not be the main focus.   It’s all about the learning, including teachers learning to let go.  As Blake-Plock explains, it is not about choosing between teaching skills or teaching content but about teaching both simultaneously.   We must be subject experts in order to guide inquiry and give students a voice in the classroom.   I would argue that you need even more subject expertise than one would need in a more traditional classroom.  Don’t let go of that love because it will inspire your students.  Just don’t let it blind you to what your students can contribute.  Then breathe…ahhhh!

Have you fallen victim to your own subjectism?  Do you believe that too much love for a subject can get in the way of learning?  Let me know what you think!

I am a librarian at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, the school Will Richardson wrote about in his blog post “Willing to be Disturbed.”   He visited our school over the summer (the same school where he taught English) and heard our Superintendent, Dr. Lisa Brady, read Margaret J. Wheatley’s piece of the same title to the folks in our one-to-one pilot group (of which I am a part).   She also sent a copy to every staff member and quoted from it during our opening day “ceremonies.”  I am very lucky to have educational leaders who support being disturbed.  You see, we are currently in the midst of sweeping and dramatic changes.  We are asking folks to allow themselves, their teaching, and their philosophies to be disturbed.  If anyone needs proof that I’ve been disturbed, they need look no further than this blog.

Let me explain…if I were to diagnose myself, I’d be a technology lover with acute social media phobia or TLw/ASMP.  I really do love technology – love learning it, using it, playing Bookworm on it.  After my initial fear of destroying everything on the computer was allayed, I became pretty experimental.  Granted, it was mostly with programs (I don’t like to go behind the screen if you know what I mean), but I would never consider myself a technophobe…until it came to social media.  Oh, I now have a Twitter account which I initially used to be a lurker; I’ve just recently begun dipping my toe in the Tweetsea.   However, working with the pilot group this summer (amazing, open-minded folks that they are), collaborating with people from the Science Leadership Academy (SLA), and listening to and/or tweeting with people like Will Richardson, Chris Lehmann (founding principal of SLA), Damian Bariexca, and Buffy J. Hamilton (just to name a few) have changed me profoundly.

Before you say, “well, you grew up with technology…of course, you are comfortable with it,” just know that I did not buy my first computer until I was in graduate school and you have no idea how frightening it is for me to be writing this, much less thinking about posting it on Twitter.  My husband, Brien Gorham, has had a blog for quite some time, Virgil’s All Night Diner.  He was out there commenting and creating while I just looked from the side and said “no way” until now…

Why do something I find so terrifying?

For my students…how can I expect them to blog if I don’t have one?  How can I engender a collaborative spirit in my students if I only watch from the sidelines and lurk on Twitter?  How can I help them become generous generators and sharers of knowledge if I don’t do it myself?  How can they begin to create their own Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) if I don’t start to do so myself?

For myself…how else can I learn from so many wonderful people without at least attempting to join in?  How can I establish a PLN if I just lurk around like some stalker of knowledge?  How can I better myself if I don’t embrace the changes I see around me?

For my colleagues…how can I be an advocate for classroom use without being there myself?  Maybe they’ll be brave enough to dive in if I’m there to swim with them.

So, my friends, here I am…feeling “digitally naked” but so very excited.  Yes, I will still make my husband read this before I post it (geez, it’s only my second post after all), but I will post it.  And I will put it on Twitter and maybe even Facebook.  Heart beating frantically?  Absolutely, but the time has come.

I would love to know…when did your time come?  Please consider commenting and/or sharing your story.  What made you become a blogger/social networker, and how did you enter into the “conversation?”  Was it or is it still difficult to put yourself out there?  What advice can you give to new folks, like myself?  I can’t wait to hear your stories, and I’d love to share them with my students and colleagues.  I hope to hear from you soon!

I am!  In the past few months, I have begun to delve into two overlapping areas of change — school libraries and 21st century learning.  I am so excited and a bit overwhelmed.  These changes are, in part, why I decided to become a librarian.  I already loved working with my students as an English teacher in the library; therefore, I knew I would love being a librarian full-time!  However, the new possibilities for collaboration and technology in librarianship were just as big a draw for me.  Now, with a new focus in my school to better prepare students for the 21st century, I have the opportunity to explore, discover, and let all of my preconceived notions “fly off the shelf.”