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Panel discussion

Fort Bend ISD offers summer training in electronic resources and information literacy. During new teacher orientation, new librarians meet and receive training on the automation system. New librarians also meet six times a year to discuss topics of particular interest to them.

Dallas ISD provides sessions in the summer and fall and has lots of resources for new librarians in a moodle/blackboard environment.

Northside ISD uses a mentor program. Mentors must obtain permission from their campus principal to participate. They make visits to the new librarian’s library and attend new librarian meetings. They are also provided with a monthly checklist of things to discuss with the new librarian and create a new librarian goodie bag.

Denton ISD has Librarian Fish Camp – 3 days in the summer before school starts in August. During this camp, they present sessions on literature, research, databases, and the automation system. They also provide pullout meetings in September and January. Topics on these days include research process, reading lists, book orders, budget, inventory, plus campus visits to experienced librarians.

Round Rock ISD also has a 1 day new librarians’ workshop that starts with asking about their concerns and what they want to know. They also have a mentor program. New librarians are carefully matched with an experienced librarian and are encouraged to meet often on a given timeline.

Region 2 provides training for library paraprofessionals. Title I specifies what paraprofessionals can actually do. They offer two strands of training for these paras: Zap! You’re a Library Aide for people who have come back from the summer and find that they are assigned to the library, covering the philosophy of library service. In the spring, a session is offered on school library management where the participants can present problems they have encountered and discuss solutions. Customer service strategies are also presented.

Presentation by Stella Farris, Austin ISD

National Board certification attests to the fact that a librarian has been judged by a peer group as one who is accomplished in the field. It gives credibility to a librarian as a professional and leads to leadership opportunities. More importantly, librarians who are certified by the National Board have a better understanding of their roles and make a bigger impact on student achievement.

The National Board standards for librarians cover what librarians know, do and how they grow as professionals.

Basic requirements:

Bachelor’s degree, 3 years teaching experience, 4 portfolios, 6 essays

Portfolio topics: Instructional Collaboration, Appreciation of Literature, Integration of technology, Documented accomplishments. The literature and technology portfolios require video component, in addition to the written pieces.

The essay portion of the certification is timed and taken at a scheduled time. Two prompts are given and the candidate must address both prompts in a limited amount of time.

Info on National Board Certification for Librarians

Cost is about $3000 total, but funding is available from various sources. Some districts pay a stipend for librarians who have national board certification.

A new option is Take One. It allows teachers to sample and learn the standards for a particular area, videotape themselves doing a lesson and provide written commentary on that lesson.

Resources:

Discussion groups

Achieving National Board Certification for School Library Media Specialist – A Study Guide by Gail Dickinson

AASL web site

Education World

Blogs: Teacher Sol, Certifiable, Teaching Safari

Only 12 NBCTs in Texas! Might be something to look into!

School librarians are in short supply across the state of Texas and certification options are limited to nine universities. Dallas ISD created an alternative certification program for librarians in their school district in order to fill some of these positions.

A school librarian task force worked behind the scenes a full year before the program actually began. The program they developed consisted of several components. Participants took 9 hours of university coursework in the summer before beginning as a school librarian. A job shadowing component allowed participants to choose from an approved job shadow pool at each level for 5 days during the year. Mentoring was also part of the program. Experienced librarians were invited to complete a mentor application and were selected by the alternative certification staff. The mentors received training and a $1000 stipend. The district’s moodle system was used to post information for the mentors to use when working with the AC new librarians. AC librarians also participated in traditional district new librarian training along with fully certified librarians who were new to the library/district.

The AC Coordinator met once a month with the AC librarians to discuss questions and concerns, made site visits, gave TExES preparation training, and offered cataloging and children’s literature courses.

AC participants also had to complete portfolios to show growth for the year. The program allowed participants to become certified school librarians in two years.

Participants were actively recruited through newspaper ads, information sessions, district web sites and other communication publications.

The program was funded by the A-Plus grant (Alternative Programs for Librarians in Urban Settings) and was awarded almost $1 million. The program added 45 librarians to the district over three years.

Approximate program expense was about $6000 (if a participant was not in the grant).

Applicants to the program had to provide an application, a resume, transcripts, 3 letters of recommendation. The web site for the program is http://teachfordallas.com/librarian.

Candidates who qualified for the program were interviewed with a ranking instrument. They also had to take a computer test consisting of basic Word skills, web searching skills, and basic lesson planning ability.

Most participants passed the state certification exam on the first attempt.

Presented by Terry Alegria Roper, AC Coordinator, Dallas ISD

Jane Claes and Janet Hilbun have been doing research about state book awards and shared their findings with us.

Did you know that 49 states have a state book award? Mississippi is the only one that doesn’t and they are considering it.

Why are state book awards so important? They get kids to read and think critically about literature in order to make their selection. The book lists of nominees are also great collection development tools.

The Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s award is the oldest of the state book awards, first given in 1940. Only 11 of the awards were chosen exclusively (nominated and selected) by children. In most cases, the books are nominated by adults and children, then voted on by children.

Nomination criteria vary, but in most cases there is a publication date, whether or not the book is still in print, and the author is living. Some states say that books that have won a Newbery or Caldecott are not eligible.

Generally, students must read a certain number of books to vote and librarians handle the voting in school and public libraries.

The major difference between state and national book awards is that children participate in the selection of the winner.

Big recent winners are:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini – 21 awards

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer – 16 awards

Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo – 15 awards

In the past four years, the top 5 winners have all been considered fantasy or science fiction or magical realism and all of these winners have had movies in production.

It is interesting to note that the top authors who have won state book awards have never won a national book award, such as the Newbery or Caldecott. Some of these authors are Peg Kehret, Andrew Clements, and Dan Gutman.

There are 27 books about dogs that won 47 awards. Five books with the word “ghost” in the title won 11 awards and 16 series books won 21 awards. Ten sequels won 70 awards.

What does this mean for collection development? Taken as a whole, state book awards show clearly what students like and want to read. These books have already been through a rigorous selection process. Looking at these lists also help you keep up with trends in student reading. It is an existing tool that many librarians are not using.

Janet and Jane have a book on this topic coming out this fall: Coast to Coast: Exploring State Book Awards from Libraries Unlimited. Another resource is H.W. Wilson’s Core Collection of state book awards.

A really great and untapped resource for collection development!

Presenter: Marty Rossi, Region 20

There are some great new tools available to help us promote the online resources offered by the state. One of these is a great video in the style of the Mac vs. PC commercials featuring the Open Internet vs. the K-12 Databases.

In addition to these new videos, there are also some training modules called Mini 10s. These provide materials that you can use when presenting information about the databases to parents, teachers and administrators.

A recent survey found that 92% of librarians feel that the state databases contain the content that students need. Comments on the survey also emphasized the feeling that having databases provided by the state helps to address the equity issue and gives the same resources to student across the state.

Live blogged: please excuse awkward wording and misspellings.

If you’re like me, you’ve been so busy with your first life that you haven’t taken the time to investigate Second Life fully. Valerie Hill, librarian in Lewisville ISD, is studying Second Life for her doctoral dissertation. She came and shared a little bit about SL with TASLA attendees.

SL has many opportunities for school librarians. There are many professional development sessions, virtual classrooms, conferences, workshops, immersive learning environments, and research symposiums.

Valerie described participating in meetings with school library heavyweights, such as David Loertscher and attending conference such as NECC and TCEA virtually through Second Life.

There are other virtual worlds: Whyville is one in particular, for students ages 9-12.

Virtual worlds have many benefits for students. They are synchronous, participants can interact, information can be manipulated in ways not possible in the “real” world, and real time voice communication is possible. The learning curve and possible expense are some of the limitations.

Word of warning: Just as you stay away from the rough parts of town in real cities, there are parts of Second Life that you may not want to visit.

Have you tried Second Life?

The Texas Association of School Library Administrators will meet this week in Austin. This annual meeting is full of information and networking opportunities for the school library leaders of Texas. In addition to the traditional updates from TSLAC, TEA and TLA, attendees will hear presentations on web 2.0 technologies, staff development/training and using data to market the school library. Click here to see the full schedule.

If you aren’t able to attend, check this blog or follow me on Twitter for updates on all the happenings! If you’re a Twitter user who is attending the conference, use the hashtag #tasla09.

Looking forward to seeing everyone and learning lots!

Have you read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? If you haven’t, put it at the top of your summer reading list! It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time and I’m dying to get my hands on the sequel, Catching Fire. It won’t be out officially until September, which is why I can really relate to the guy in the cartoon below. I’d do almost anything to get my hands on an Advanced Reader Copy!

The Hunger Games official web site

The Closed Stacks blog pointed me to this post featuring amazing cakes decorated like children’s books. They are so cute that I just had to share! Go to the original post to see more.

I don’t know if this is for real or not, but it made me laugh, so I wanted to share it! Maybe a commercial like this isn’t a bad idea…