AASL Key Concepts Interview: Collaborate
School
Librarian Interview on AASL Foundation “Collaborate”
The first interview I conducted
was with my supervising librarian, Mrs. Curtis, who is an elementary school
librarian. She chose to reflect on the American Association of School
Librarians (AASL) Framework foundational key competency “collaboration.”
According to the AASL framework, collaboration is defined as “work[ing]
effectively with others to broaden perspectives and work toward common goals”
(AASL, 2018). My supervising librarian chose this foundational standard because
she has been reflecting a lot about collaboration this school year.
This
year, Mrs. Curtis is working on a totally fixed schedule. Every day, she sees
every single grade level. Within the week, she she’s every student in the
school. Her morning consists of 3rd – 5th grade, and her
afternoon consists of kindergarten – 2nd grade. Therefore, her
schedule makes it incredibly difficult for her to collaborate this year. This
is especially hard for her because the only time teachers have planning time is
when she is watching their students. Therefore, the schedule is not set up to
foster true collaboration between he teachers and school librarian (C. Curtis,
via personal communication, October 28, 2021).
Nevertheless, she still tries to
collaborate with teachers when possible. She has tried multiple tactics this
year to try to get teachers to collaborate with her or for her instruction to
support what students are learning in the classroom. For example, the first
thing she did when she received her schedule this year was ask her principal if
there is anyway she could have coverage at least once a month to be able to
meet with every grade level during their grade level meetings. However, the
principal did not comply with this request because of the severe sub shortage
happening in the district right now (C. Curtis, via personal communication,
October 28, 2021). Additionally, she tries to talk to teachers for a few
minutes every day when they drop off or pick up their students. During the time
while students are lining up, she will ask teachers what they are working on in
class, ask how she can support learning in the library, and try to talk to
teachers about what they did in the library that day. She will also ask
teachers to email her copies of their lesson plans. Furthermore, she also tries
to talk to teachers to advocate for collaboration when she is on duty as well.
Though this may seem minimal, it is the only time she has access to teachers
throughout the day (C. Curtis, via personal communication, October 28, 2021).
Overall, she said this year has
been the hardest year for her when it comes to working with teachers because of
her classroom schedule. This has been an important learning experience for me
because I do no think I ever really considered how the schedule can impact such
a huge component of our job. I have heard of fixed and flex schedules before
and always knew librarians preferred flexible schedules or some sort of hybrid
schedule, but I had no idea how vital that schedule really is to a conducive
learning community. Now that I have seen the schedule and heard Mrs. Curtis’s
thoughts, this is something I will advocate for in any future school library
position I hold.
Though Mrs. Curtis has not been
able to collaborate this year, she did reflect on previous collaborative
experiences. One of her favorite units to collaborate with is the 2nd
grade animal unit. In this unit, students learn how to use the nonfiction side
of the library, work with the library catalog, and are introduced to credible
sources. In the past, teachers would not use the library for this unit. They
would just study animals in their classroom. However, Mrs. Curtis was able to
convince one 2nd grade teacher to use her resources. Mrs. Curtis
said working with this teacher was like a true partnership in fostering
learning. They would teach together and plan together, which really helped
enhance the learning experience for students (C. Curtis, via personal
communication, October 28, 2021).
After the teacher told other 2nd
grade teachers about her experience working with Mrs. Curtis, the other
teachers wanted to try using the library resources as well. Mrs. Curtis told me
that this is one of the best ways to advocate for the program is word of mouth
between teachers. She said that when she can get one grade level teacher to
agree, she knows others will usually follow suit after they hear about the enhanced
learning experience (C. Curtis, via personal communication, October 28, 2021).
This was another great take-a-way for me because I never really considered how
the actual collaborative experience could be its own form of advocacy. Word of
mouth can be a powerful form of advertising, especially in a small community.
In terms of resources, Mrs.
Curtis usually uses all of the books in her collection, SC Discus resources,
examples from previous years, and the state standards while collaborating with
teachers. Additionally, she has reached out to the Aiken County Public Library to
collaborate with resources before. She has also tried to order materials specifically
for collaborative opportunities if plan with her in enough time for the materials
to come in.
At the end of the interview,
Mrs. Curtis said that she would ideally like to use data from previous years
and this year to show her principal how collaboration can positively influence
student learning (C. Curtis, via personal communication, October 28, 2021).
Overall, this is important because data is a common language everyone in
education speaks. If she can show the principal how this schedule is not working
in a way that is data driven, it will more than likely lead to future change.
This is another important take-a-way for me because it shows me that it’s
important to speak to administration in a way that they understand. This also
shows that it’s important to always be planning for the future. Overall, I
learned a lot from Mrs. Curtis’s interview on collaboration.
Resources:
from https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf
Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/collaborate/
Comments
Post a Comment