Pamela F. Dear
| A
library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life. -
Henry Ward Beecher |
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(Scholarship, Attitudes & Dispositions, Integrity, Leadership, and Service)
The true value of scholarship is not the acquisition of the knowledge, but the ability to communicate and transfer the knowledge to another person, particularly if the scholar is a library media specialist. The courses I have taken at Southern Connecticut State University have enhanced my own knowledge of librarianship and taught me much about communicating and teaching students with a variety of needs and abilities. One of the first courses I took in the program, ILS 503: Foundations of Librarianship, taught me about the Library Bill of Rights and the necessity of providing equal access to all information. It is our job to collect the information, organize it so others can access it easily, and disseminate it to anyone who is interested.
A sure sign of scholarship is the ability to think: analyze, deduce, question, and reason. The ability to think is a difficult skill to teach, but a library media specialist can provide the means for thought: access to information. A terrific combination of all aspects of scholarship is the WebQuest. WebQuests require thought, research, creativity and technology. In my courses at SCSU, I was lucky enough to develop two webquests. The first webquest was in EDU 566: Media Utilization and Curriculum, and the subject matter was the First Amendment Freedoms. The second webquest was developed with Bernie Dodge in ILS 693, a special week-long webquest workshop. The second webquest dealt with the Civil War. I will be introducing the Civil War WebQuest to my fifth-grade students in Spring 2004. Any lesson plan that can engage the students so that they are interested in thinking, learning, and gathering information is a good plan.
Personally, I love to learn. Part of me felt like it came alive again when I went back to school for my Masters. Passing on the love of learning and helping students to become lifelong learners gives me an indescribable joy. Speaking to students about books that I have enjoyed, or resources for information on a subject, or how to write a bibliography are all ways that I can communicate my knowledge and my passion. I believe strongly that where there is passion, there is interest that can be shared. I share my interests and my passion all the time and the only feedback I need are the gasps of joy and wonder that come with understanding.
The most significant learning for me during my graduate school career was understanding details of learning differences. I have always been passionate about the fact that everyone has a gift. Even so, learning the scientific reasoning of the eight ways to learn was eye-opening. Studying about hetergeneous classrooms and modifying lessons was all new and essential to me. After EDU 566-Media Utilization and Curriculum, ILS 562-School Library Media Centers, EDF 520-Child in American Culture, PSY 370-Educational Psychology, and SED 482-Teaching Exceptional Children in the Secondary Classroom, I understood the significance of developing lesson plans for the heterogeneous classroom. Lessons that are introduced with a multimedia presentation to accompany a lecture and a handout have a much better chance of reaching every student because the material is presented visually, verbally, and in writing. Projects that offer a variety of opportunities for presentation enable a student to present a project using his/her own learning ability. With this in mind, the lesson plans that I developed in my classes tried to include as many learning differences as possible in the presentation and project result. Multimedia is an excellent way to introduce a lesson plan since it can present the material using several senses and learning abilities at the same time. In ITC 570-Utilizing Instructional Media I developed a PowerPoint® presentation on the history of Guilford. The two WebQuests mentioned above in "Scholarship," are perfect examples of including learning differences in the project product.
Sensitivity to a student's special needs and differences is critical for a teacher, but is also essential for good citizenship outside of school. Students need to be taught and modeled respect and appreciation for differences in the people around them. Variety is what makes human beings so interesting and learning to value diversity in our world is as important as learning to read. If I have a few minutes after a lesson is complete, I try to read socially conscious stories that cause the students to think and reflect on issues of diversity, acceptance, and respect. The more diversity is included in the curriculum, the more acceptance and respect will come naturally to the students.
Adhering to a code of ethics personally and professionally shows that a person has integrity, but integrity is not something that should always be witnessed. True integrity occurs when people do what is right because it is right and not because someone is watching. In the library and information world, caring for intellectual property and adhering to plagiarism and copyright laws is one of the most obvious areas in which to demonstrate personal and professional integrity. In EDU 566: Media Utilization and Curriculum I was able to develop a PowerPoint® presentation for introducing the subjects of plagiarism and copyright to students and staff. In January 2003 I became the long term substitute library media specialist at a 5th and 6th grade middle school in Guilford. That Spring 2003 I was able to teach every student in the school (650 students) about caring for intellectual property and the laws and consequences. Now the plagiarism and copyright lesson is a permanent part of the early 5th grade curriculum and I continuously reinforce and model the lesson throughout the students' middle school career.
Becoming a leader in my school is one of my goals. I would like my library media center to be the "heart of the curriculum" and it can only become the heart if I lead the teachers to the media center by showing them how I can help them improve and increase their instructional time with the students. The Iinformation Power book that was required reading in ILS 562-School Library Media Center, made a huge impact on my understanding of the role of the library media center in the school and the leadership of the library media specialist in the curriculum. One assignment in the class asked me to explain my understanding of the leadership of the library media specialist.
I am still new in the school, but I am easing my way into the curriculum of more and more of the teachers. Many are very receptive and anxious to let me help and as I collaborate with additional teachers and accumulate successful lessons, I am sure that my library media center will become the heart of the curriculum. I like to be in charge and be the "go to" person. Since the "go to" person is always the one with the information, a library media specialist is a natural career choice for me.
Recently I collaborated with a teacher in the school to complete a project that required research, artwork, and a PowerPoint® presentation. Initially the teacher only had the research and the artwork on the rubric, but her professional goals included adding more technology to her curriculum. I told her that she should add the PowerPoint® presentation to the assignment for all 300 students and to bring them to the library media center to put it together. The assignment was an overwhelming success and the teacher was amazed at how easy it was to add technology to her curriculum once she allowed me to help her.
As teachers one of our primary goals is to help shape the future by working with students in such a way that they develop into good citizens who will be productive and successful in society. This is a family, school, and community effort and one of the ways that the schools will receive the support they need in the endeavor is if the families and community are kept informed. Since library media specialists are the "official keepers of information" in the school, it is especially important for us to maintain strong lines of communciation with the community. In the 21st century the most efficient way of accomplishing this is through the Internet.
I created the website for my current position as an assignment for ILS 501-Introduction to Information Science and Technology. A year later I became the long term substitute in the media center after the untimely death of the media specialist. Now it is officially my job to keep the news current and the lines of communication open as a service to the community.
The website has the potential to be a tremendous service to the teachers. I intend to add a page that lists links to websites for current school projects. This will allow students to spend more time listening and following instructions and less time trying to type impossibly long URL addresses.