Way to go, Wednesday! You sure tried your best to make it a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad day for me! But, as usual, I survived, and I learned quite a bit today. Again.
I was glad to be a witness to what one could regard as a rite of passage. About 60 girls were in the library at 7:30 am, a good 40 minutes before classes start, to complete their AP, or advanced placement, preadministration session. What a simultaneously exciting and nerve-racking experience! The 30 minutes of writing and then bubbling in their names and other important information as well as putting labels on the front and back of their booklets pale in comparison to the real challenge that they will soon face--two weeks of intense test-taking starting May 2nd. I know for sure that one of the two girls who was in yesterday's book club and who volunteers in the library is already enrolled in AP courses. She was working on her advanced Statistics assignment while she helped retrieve students' print jobs and told me of her plan to go to college and major in Engineering.
Today, the assistant principal, Mrs. Kinel, announced that the girls would fill out course evaluations that would be used to guide instruction. She asked they be completed truthfully as well as constructively. A warning was made against any personal attacks or destructive comments. Those evaluations would be deleted.
When I asked Ann Marie about the type of professional development opportunities at Resurrection, she told me that most of the in-school meetings center around Web 2.0, how to get more familiar and/or become more advanced in areas of technology. That does make sense since almost of the girls submit the majority of their assignments online.
It began to think of how the PDs at my school are never even remotely focused on anything Library-related. Furthermore, my opportunities to share are often reduced to a 2-minute "shout out" about what resources we have and pleas to come in and take advantage of them. That's why I look foward to the PD days sponsored by CPS's Department of Libraries.Since unlike me, she does not have a fixed schedule, Ann Marie has the freedom to take advantage of the wealth of learning opportunities geared specifically to help her throughout the year. Fortunately, she has an assistant who can run the library in her absence when she seeks out ways to guide her program. Next month, Ann Marie will attend the School Library Journal's Day of Dialog at the UIC Forum. How lucky she will be to spend the day with her colleagues as they learn from the best authors and publishers in the industry!
In the past three days, I have seen Ann Marie and Ellen make efforts to try to get others to take advantage of the library's resources--the people and the materials. At lunch time, a Special Education student teacher said that he appealed to three different teachers to help his students work on their Writing assignment. Each of them told him, "No"; at least one suggested that he send the girls to the Think Tank, a study hall with teachers and National Honor Society students, for help. As a last resort, he said he asked Ann Marie who enthusiastically replied, "Sure! Bring them by." Though the girls did not ask for much help when they were there, I believe that they may begin to see the Library program as an ally.
Since circulation is very low, there is such a loose schedule and foot traffic is quite light unless the students come with their teachers, Ann Marie does not run many usage reports. She said that she tries to run them at the end of the year. The fact that Mr. Longo regularly brings his classes in and a handful of students come in the library during the day and actually pull books off the shelves to read has to count as a bit of positive feedback.
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