Pickering H.S. Practicum Hours: Sept. 11-15

This week was very exciting because I was able to start my practicum hours at Pickering High School Library and see how a different library works in Vernon Parish.  Pickering is a large complex that contains both an elementary school and a middle/high school.  It has a mixed population of both military and civilian children, but is predominately civilian.  Only 20% who attend Vernon Parish School's are military.   There are only about 900 students within the whole complex.  With 630 being in the middle/high school.  So the school is relatively small.  The high school has 36 full-time employed teachers and the teacher ratio is 17 students per teacher.  The graduation rate is 92% and test scores are about average with 60% passing in math proficiency and 54% passing in English proficiency.  It was interesting to note that more than half the students (57%) come from an economically disadvantaged background.  I was also surprised to find out that the high school had recently cut their AR program.  I thought this would make an excellent opportunity to boost student engagement in reading and talking about reading by introducing booktalks to the middle grade ELA teachers.  I'm hoping to have success with this during the course of the practicum.

 Pickering High School Journal

9/12/12 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (5.5)
9/13/12 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (6)
Total hours to date: 11.5

Summary of Daily Activities/Experiences:
-Labeled, processed, and organized new student workbooks and textbooks.

-Reorganized non-fiction and fiction shelves in the library.

-Evaluated non-fiction collection for currency in certain subject areas (i.e. technology, space, and medicine).

-Met with middle/high school ELA teacher Mrs. Winn to begin formulating ideas for unit lessons for constructing book talks.  Mrs. Winn would like to increase student recreational reading.  Since the school has recently dropped their Accelerated Reader program I decided it would be a good idea to introduce the concept of booktalks to get students actively reading and discussing the literature they read.

Personal Reflections:

This was my first week at Pickering High School.  The librarian and I have been trying to coordinate times and I think we have finally settled into a schedule that works for both of us.  My first day consisted of getting a feel for the library.  The library has several student aids that help to put away books and check out books for students.  Students mainly run the front desk.  The first task I wanted to tackle was to organize the library shelves.  Although students are helping in the library the shelves were in disarray.  The non-fiction section had not been organized since the end of the following school year.  I noticed that a couple of students who came in to the library to find books, were either taking a long time or were unable to find the book altogether.  I immediately started organizing this section and was able to the 585’s before taking a break.

Throughout the course of my work, the librarian was assisting a teacher who was working in the computer lab with a class.  The librarian was not directing the lesson, but was assisting with technology issues that would arise with the computers.  I was intrigued to see that except for students coming in to find books, there were not whole classes that would come in, except for the computer lab.  Perhaps the teachers are not in a research unit now.  After eating a quick lunch, I started on the fiction section and could organize most of it before I left.  Mrs. Labato controls all the textbooks for the school. This is an aspect that I did not know middle/high school librarians dealt with.  I was presumed that classroom teachers dealt with their own textbooks.  This adds another dimension to the role of the librarian.

Meeting with Mrs. Winn was extremely fun and exciting!  Mrs. Winn is seeking to create a love of reading in either her 7^th grade or 10^th grade class.  We are still deciding on which class to work with, but we are beginning to hash out a plan for the unit that I plan to deliver.  We only had 25 minutes to meet with each other.  This was really to just get to know one another.  I will be meeting with Mrs. Winn a few times next week to further talk about and to produce lessons.  

Parkway E.S. Practicum Hours: Sept. 4-8

This semester is starting off in a whirlwind of activity.  I will be taking two classes.  The first is IST 564: Educating Student's with Disabilities and IST 972: Practicum.  My practicum requires me to perform 120 hours at both the primary and secondary level.  So 240 hours total.  For the primary school I have chosen to work at Parkway Elementary School with Mrs. Tammy Travis.  For the secondary school I have chosen to work at Pickering High School with Mrs. Kelli Labato.  Both are well trained librarians.  I am curious to see how school libraries work here in Louisiana as opposed to Hawaii.  I am sure there will be differences.  I will be observing and taking everything in.

In addition to these two classes, I will also be working on my edTPA in order for me to obtain my certification for teaching.  The assessment requires me to create a portfolio and to collaborate with a classroom teacher on a unit consisting of 3-5 lessons.  I am very excited about this opportunity to work with classroom teachers and to work with students.  I have decided to work with Mrs. Leigh Anne Friedrich, a third grade teacher at Parkway Elementary.  We will be working on a culture unit and students will choose a country to research and create a poster.  I plan to suggest to Mrs. Friedrich that we do a gallery walk to wrap up the unit and invite another class.  This way students will be able to have an authentic audience.  The second teacher I've decided to work with is Mrs. Cathi Winn, a middle school English Language Arts teacher who works with grades 7,8, and 10 at Pickering High School.  We will be collaborating with her on a unit about student led book talks.  I plan to scaffold learning and teach students the necessary skills to successfully analyze books, use descriptive language to relay the content of books to their classmates, create a quality book talk, present it to their peers, and offer constructive criticism.  I am looking forward to working with both teachers and their classes.

For these blog posts I've decided to share my journal entries
that are required for IST 972.   I think they will prove to be an excellent resource for both myself and others who would like to know what school libraries are doing today.  In addition, it will be an excellent chance for me to practice reflective teaching.  I hope everyone enjoys reading them!

IST 972 Journal:  Parkway Elementary

September 5, 2017 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (6.5)

September 6, 2017 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (6.5)

Total hours to date: 13

Collage of Parkway Elementary Library

Summary of Daily Activities/Experiences: September 5 and 6, 2017
-Helped with introducing 1^st graders to the library and their library routine.

-Helped with introducing 3^rd graders to the Accelerated Reader system and finding books that fit within their reading levels.

-Processed books for Accelerated Reader levels.

-Delivered instruction to Mrs. Friedrich’s class.  We discussed the importance of not being judgmental and labeling others.  Mrs. Friedrich recently had a student diagnosed with type I diabetes.  She thought it would be a good opportunity to have the me come in and discuss the topic.  The class was step-up like a mini human library session with the students being able to ask in-depth and probing questions to the student and the student’s parent. 
-Observed the SLMS teaching a class.

-Cataloged and processed books to be added into the collection.

-Met with one teacher to discuss a possible research unit for her class.

Personal Reflections:

This week was very productive and I got a feel for the overall structure of the library program.  I will be honest; this library program is set-up entirely different from the libraries I did my fieldwork hours in while in Hawaii.  This school has a more traditional library program, where the program is more of a special rather being fully integrated into the school curriculum.  Classes come in for only 30 minutes, so the librarian has a very limited amount of time with each class.   In addition, this school is very focused on Accelerated Reader, with third graders beginning to receive grades for their participation in the AR program.  I’m not sure how I feel about this, as I believe it cuts down on students being able to have an active voice and choice in what they want to read.  In addition, I see the AR program taking up large amounts of time to teach and manage.  Time that could be spent doing a mini lesson or activity. 

Mrs. Travis has expressed that she would love to hear any suggestions that can help her with approaching her library program differently.  I am hoping that by working on the requirements for the edTPA she will see that she can stretch her services to include more student research and teacher collaboration.  There is a pulse to this library program, but I would love to see the program become the heart of the school. 

There were a couple of interesting episodes that happened this week that directly tie into IST 564 and I was happy that I could experience them.  I think that one suggestion, and possible area for growth, would be to make strides in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the library program and to open more of a dialogue between the librarian and classroom teachers.  I could see this having enormous potential in the growth of library resources and creating a more diverse library program that would ensure all students are included.  I will try to see if I can sneak in my suggestions gently.  Causal observances and just being able to remember them when she asks will go a long way.  Especially if it’s done with a smile!