Feb 28 2006
“Collaborating from the Center of the School” by Toni Buzzeo
This article is from LMC Jan. 2006: 18-20.
Toni Buzzeo cites Information Power [1988] as the origins of the mandate for collaborative relationships between teacher and librarian and the philosophy of the library as the “heart of the school.” The article discusses collaboration as a mission, and indeed it should be the mission of the library and librarian to attempt collaboration with all teachers (or at least all willing teachers) to help increase student achievement.
The article encourages the school librarian to “stop whining” and do everything necessary to put the library at the center of the school. That’s great in philosophy, but what do you do with resistant and/or apathetic teachers? Buzzeo says we have to be responsive to and have respect for different styles and levels of involvement, but when nearly everyone is hands off—you also have to dig in and start somewhere!
No Child Left Behind is a cause for conflicts within, shifting funding from libraries to literacy programs and training for teachers. The reading specialist in a school is seen as more valuable than the librarian. There is clearly a lack of understanding of the role of library media specialist. Section 1251 (part of the Improving Literacy through School Libraries) does emphasize the need for excellent library media centers, including professional development and activities which foster collaboration. We need to increase and document student achievement through collaborative practice. The various school library studies clearly document this fact.
I find myself in the most difficult situation for effecting change that I’ve ever worked in. I think that my administrators support the library to an extent, but there is still not full support (i.e. encouraging/requiring teachers to engage in collaborative lessons and activities with the library program). With our current administrative changes, I need to spend some time discussing my concerns, hopes and vision with our new leader so that I can find out if he shares my vision.
This is the fourth school I’ve been employed at where the library program was not thriving. I’ve tried reaching out to teachers, especially younger teachers, but it seems that testing and accountability are (understandably) a high priority and that there is such pressure to make sure that students are successful that spending time in the library is secondary to the work done in the classroom.
I’ve even been disappointed with the number of teachers who don’t seem to encourage reading. Out of eight language arts teachers, only half send their students on a regular (weekly) basis to borrow books. I am trying a reading promotion that we tied in with the Olympics (also from LMC) and it will be interesting to see how many students participated. I’ve decided that students who read more than 8 books (two per week) will be entered into a drawing to win the iPod shuffle I won from some online drawing in October. This was not annouced, so it will be a true “who is interested in reading” activity. I’ll be sure to report on how many participated after the promotion ends on Friday.
