It’s that time of year again when testing, proctoring, SAT, FSA, CBT, IPDP, DPGT and our beloved inventory invade our world. But let’s not forget that our students take on the brunt of that invasion. They are scurried into an environment full of silence, anxiety, unfamiliarity and solitude in compliance with state requirements. It feels more unnatural for them than it does for us. Although student test performance impacts our final evaluation, we must not let this bring us down if circumstances have us thinking pessimistically. Time to turn that frown upside down. We must try to think of our students and aim to bring some joy into back into their lives. That new and eager teacher librarian we once knew can work some happy magic yet! Make one last ditch effort to freshen your library displays--- even if you don’t feel like it. Make yourself do it for the kiddos. Try using some shelf talkers in bright paper to entice your students and make them smile about a book they might have never seen before (see picture). Curiosity might kill the cat but it will energize our students from that testing-mode trance. Send home flyers with summer reading lists… start with the SSYRA books! I have a Summer Sale of SSYRA books and bolster the number of books I can buy for my SSYRA program in the Fall (see picture with flyer next to Narwhal display). I make sure I am encouraging students to read those books over the summer as do all of the teachers at my school. Flyers and website updates are a must… don’t forget to push notifications to your school’s app if you have one. If your school uses Renaissance Place, then promote the SSYRA books with their AR levels to entice even more students to pick up a copy and get a jumpstart on reading for the summer. Kids love the excitement of new books… especially the SSYRA books! Finally, get your students involved in the process. Let them shelve books that are returned in those last few weeks. They love helping. The safe bets are allowing them to handle your Easy, Fiction, and biographies. I try to handle the non-fiction myself to avoid excess student shelving error. I use a due date card that lists a large number representing the day that book is due. If that day of the month has passed then the book is due the next month on that day. When the books are returned, the students automatically remove the due date card and place it in a basket (see picture –open book and basket over book return). The basket fills up daily. So my students are always asking if they can organize them and file them away in my office on card trays in order by number. I love how eager they are to help. It helps them realize the many things we do in the library and how each small act of kindness brings yet a little more joy right back to us through our precious students. And who cares if our student helpers make mistakes, nobody is perfect… in fact life is not perfect. It stands to reason that our libraries should be a little imperfect as well. Additionally, try to energize your colleagues with some seasonal quotes or motivational images. I use the staff bathroom down the hallway from the library to send messages of joy to my educational partners in crime… especially when there are less than 20 days of school left! (See “Keep Calm cause Summer is Coming” picture). By doing these things we can deliver a dose of joy into our lives, albeit a small serving. It’s time to let your hair down and ride the “End of School Year” wave. Just make sure your kiddos feel the joy of that wave as well. Help them remember that the library and it’s keeper, the librarian, is a place of refuge and yes… joy! May this school year journey end with reading smiles and abundant joy as you embark on the summer of 2018. Happy Readings! Milene Del Rio has served as an elementary school Library Media Specialist in Miami-Dade County for 25 years with a short stint teaching kindergarten. She is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher who loves to integrate informational literacy into the curriculum with a digital touch. Milene facilitates schoolwide reading programs, book clubs and battles of the books to help students develop a life-long love of reading and the library.
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We Want You!4/24/2018 Spring is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, and with it, we at the FAME Communications Committee are kick-starting the FAME blog back to life. The InFAMEous blog will be a place to share ideas, speak about important issues, and collaborate as educators. We plan to feature topics that are relevant to our profession, including digital citizenship, media literacy, program management, intellectual freedom, advocacy, and more. To do this, we need your help! While the Communications Committee has some great ideas for this online space, we would like to hear your voice as well. If you are interested in sharing a great idea, or have some wonderful advice on a topic related to our profession, please contact Jessica Smith at [email protected] to learn how you can be featured here on the InFAMEous blog. Be sure not to miss a post by staying in touch via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and/or Pinterest! We are looking forward to collaborating with you! Jessica Smith FAME Communications Committee What's in a Name?2/9/2016 For years now, school librarians have suffered an identity crisis. Just what are we called? Media Specialists? School Librarians? School Library Media Specialists? Tech Integrationists? Teacher Librarians? There has not been a cohesive moniker for our profession since the ‘70s when the term “Media Specialist” came into vogue to explain that school libraries housed more than just books, and school librarians were curators of information in all formats. Today, almost fifty years later, patrons use libraries for use of free Internet, video games, audio books, movies, music, meeting space, cafés, portable digital devices, databases, magazines, newspapers, and yes, actual books. The public understands that libraries are multi-purpose community spaces, yet they are unaware of what the role school librarians play in those spaces. Three years ago, when Duval County Public Schools decided not to fund school librarians in middle and high schools, and only fund elementary school librarians part-time, I did an unofficial, informal survey of parents and the community. When I asked parents, “Do you realize that your school no longer has a media specialist?” I got varied responses from blank stares to responses such as, “Well, in times of tight funding, there may not be money for specialists.” Yet when I phrased the question as, “Do you realize that your school no longer has a school librarian?,” parents wouldn’t even believe me and were aghast that their child’s school was without a librarian. I firmly believe that the discrepancy in what we have called ourselves all these many years has helped lead to the decrease of our profession in schools. I believe there is a correlation between the inconsistency of our title and the misunderstanding of our true role in schools. AASL voted several years ago to use “School Librarian” as the profession’s official title (http://www.ala.org/news/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/adopt_aasl). This past year, the peer-reviewed journal Library Media Connection became School Library Connection, and you will notice FAME’s Committee for Governing Documents has strived for consistency by using the term school librarians throughout FAME’s Bylaws and Policies & Procedures. Providing this consistency with our title is a first step for our profession to reestablish our vital role in education. The next step will be to make sure we are consistent in how we fulfill that role, proving our worth as essential instructional staff. Collection Development2/9/2016 Let's talk collection development a bit, shall we? Recently, Florida school libraries were in the news when the Caldecott Honor and Printz Honor book This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki was found and challenged in a Seminole County elementary school (http://www.wftv.com/news/local/third-grader-finds-inappropriate-book-in-seminole-county-school-library/58768586). This One Summer is a graphic novel aimed at a a YA interest level. It has been found in several elementary schools, despite it's YA level, because it received a Caldecott Honor medal in 2015 (http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2015/03/lets-talk-about-caldecott-this-one-summer/). Some may be mistaken in assuming a Caldecott designation automatically means it is for the elementary level. However, in determining the most distinguished American picture book for children, the Caldecott committee is required to consider American picture books for children of all ages, including pre-teen and early teen youth. Graphic novels fall within that range and are considered by the committee. This year, the Newbery committee provided excitement and surprise when they awarded the picture book Last Street On Market Street by Matt de la Peña with the Newbery Award. It is only the second time in Newbery history that a picture book won the award. So Caldecott does not necessarily equate to picture books, and Newbery does not necessarily equate to chapter books. Mistakes like only going by award lists for collection development can be prevented by making sure there is a collection development policy in place and then following the policy. Every policy should include the methods a librarian pursues in determining the best books for his or her community and collection. This should be a multi-step process and include having an understanding of one's school community and reading reviews, interest levels, and recommendations prior to selecting titles. One should never rely on book jobbers, award lists, or even reviews as a single source of recommendation. In this particular case, this book has four different starred reviews, a Caldecott Honor, and a Printz Honor, in addition to having been on SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books 2015. It is obviously a worthy book for school collections for the appropriate school level. Mistakes of assuming that a book belongs in an elementary school based on the award without reviewing the interest level of the book or checking multiple review sources is one very important reason a certified professional school librarian should be in each and every school. President's Message Winter FMQ1/6/2016
red carpet, evident in the giggles of grown adults cavorting in the Maker playground, evident in the belly laughs of librarians watching National Book Award winner Neal Shusterman and SSYRA winning author Chris Grabenstein duel in Late Night Library Games. #FAME15 was testimony that by being self-managed, we are now stronger than ever.
Now that we have a firm foundation, it is a prime opportunity to build on that foundation and plan for the continued successful future of FAME. The theme for #FAME16 is Staying Relevant by Moving Forward, which applies to both our profession and to our organization. Just as school librarians are proving their relevance through innovative leadership and instruction in information literacy and problem-based learning, FAME is moving forward to ensure it meets the needs of both the members and the millions of students in the state of Florida. It is time to reevaluate our mission and vision and plan for the future. This year, we will be drafting a strategic plan outlining the mission, vision, belief statements, goals, and objectives of FAME. This will help provide guidance and direction for future decisions, projects, and programs, and provide a unified vision of our future. This can only be done with input from the whole membership. We want our strategic plan to reflect the needs of our membership and our students, so it is imperative that we gather the opinions from as many of our diverse and varied members as is possible. As rejuvenating as our conference is, FAME is much more than our annual conference. It’s even more than the Sunshine State Young Readers Award. As our state professional organization for school librarians, FAME offers scholarships to librarians earning their Masters in Library Science, monetary awards to secondary school librarians who develop programs that enhance and support the self-esteem and well being of young adults, a scholarship to high school seniors espousing the importance of Intellectual Freedom, and awards to administrators and principals who recognize and support the importance of strong school library programs. FAME provides programs for our students to learn and shine; students earn state recognition for their media projects and change the lives of authors by selecting the state’s winning children’s books. FAME advocates for you through legislative efforts and various communications. And of course, FAME offers professional development specific to our profession through monthly webinars and the annual conference. This is all something to be very proud of, but we can be even better. At the AASL national conference in November, a panel of administrators, district librarians, and school librarians from Project Connect spoke on empowering school library programs. One statement stuck with me. A panelist asserted that we have always viewed ourselves as support systems within our schools. We help teachers teach and students learn by curating resources and supporting the curriculum. Yet he challenged us that we have it backwards. We should lead first, then teach, then support. I view FAME the same way. I believe that we can and should be leaders in the nation as a model library professional organization. We then should teach our members through excellent and innovative professional development. And finally, we should support our members. By being the leader, we secure our relevancy and prove our worth. Please help guide FAME to its future as a prominent national organization by contributing to the strategic plan survey today. Our future is impelling! FAMEFAME is a collaborative, responsive, dynamic network for Florida school library media professionals. Archives
June 2018
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