What Happens When Schools Skip Feshman Library Orientations?

This morning the plan was to get all the English Language Learners through their initial entry assessment (LAB-R) but just as I was checking their schedules to go find them, Ms. S., the new 9th grade English teacher came running in asking if her kids could please, please come for a library orientation during the upcoming period (about 10 minutes away) and the period just after lunch. She seemed completely desperate to get her kids into the library and jazzed about books. Who could say no to that?

The unfortunate thing is that if all three schools' administrations would insist on, and allot time for, freshman and sixth grade library orientations for all incoming students, then this sort of panicked, hastily prepared, hit-or-miss sessions would be a thing of the past. I'm hoping against hope that my message will get across in time for next year... Be that as may, I quickly wheeled out my projector and SmartBoard and before I could manage to put together a couple of introductory PowerPoint slides the kids were knocking at the door.

The first section was a very well-behaved group; downright angelic by freshman standards, actually. Two volunteers jumped at the chance to sit at the librarians desk and sign the books out to their classmates using the OPAC.

The hurriedly arranged orientation called for a brief intro by Ms. S., a several minute talk about the specifics of out library, including an interactive "What do you like to do at the library?" slide andpp plenty if time for kids to rove around, select a book or two and get some reading done. Section one went off without a hitch.

Afterward, I ran around assembling my new ELLs only to find that yet another new enrollee from Ecuador had arrived just today, so she came with us and sat with the three other studious and well behaved girls for the first few sections of the test before it was time for lunch.

During lunch I tweaked and expanded my PowerPoint orientation slides and in came the next group. Ms. S. warned me sotto voce upon entering that this was the rowdier section.


In fact, I was pleasntly surprised. I found them quite attentive during my intro talk and kind of fun to work with during the book browsing phase of the class period. They were a tad noisier and a few had a harder time settling on book choices, but they were also kind of witty and playful, which I didn't mind a bit, although I'm afraid Ms. S. may now think I'm overly permissive.


I trained one volunteer J., on the OPAC and he was the quickest study I've had yet. He was soon joined by a female classmate X. (too shy to be photographed head-on) and the two hardly needed any help navigating the system except when a new student whose name wasn't yet on the rolls needed to be added manually and they seemed to pick this kind of thing up quickly as well.


Groups of kids chose books quickly and settled in at tables right away to enjoy them. Ms S. and I worked to find books for the several lost souls who weren't having any luck.


By the end if the period, everyone had checked out at least one book and some had even come back to the desk to get one or two more.


I was sad to see them go, but the next period arrived I had to get my LAB-R test takers back together, which turned out to be no small feat in terms of tracking them down, and we managed to get through almost all of it. A few last pieces to wrap up tomorrow.

Finally, I stopped into an extra after school enrichment class in US history to help two struggling ELLs, who seemed to really appreciate the attention and support, and ended up staying with them the whole period.

The ELLs, both newly arrived and those continuing from last year are requesting a self-contained class. Ben, the co-director in charge of programming is going to set one up next week. This should be a big boost to the suddenly burgeoning ELL population and a good way for me to further my ESL classroom teaching practice, which I always enjoy. How it will all fit into my schedule is a worry, but, oddly, and perhaps over-optimistically, I feel as though I just might be up to the challenge.

Long Day

Today was my longest school day thus far. I was greeted just before 8:30 with boxloads of books unearthed from former IS49 classrooms on the ground floor.





I appreciate the custodian's impulse to bring them to the library but my IS49 backlog already makes me feel like Sisyphus, and frequent unexpected deliveries of discovered classroom libraries only seal the deal.

Luckily the weekly library meeting with Karali, The Green School's principal, was already on the agenda for today and this became Agenda Item Numero Uno. Long story longer, Karali agreed to run interference between me and the well-meaning but often cantankerous head custodian.

We want the books, but we need advanced warning and, at this point, we need them to be stored somewhere outside of the library while we take care of the backlog. After a breif kerfuffle, two of the affable, accommodating custodians came up to sort things out.

I was hoping that during the flap, I'd be able to solve the problem of the mysterious TV that suddenly appeared in the library last week.





It has neither DVD player nor VCR and the heinous looking metal cart it's strapped to has the added bonus of years' worth of filth and detritus. I sent out an e-mail to the staff to see if anyone wanted it, but so far, no takers. Karali thinks we should put it on Craigslist. However we jettison it is fine with me at this point.

On the ESL front, we've received six new English Language Learner enrollees since school opened for the school year, four of whom need formal assessments (LAB-R) asap. Tomorrow is my personal deadline to get them all tested. I also met with Ben, co-director of The Green School, and our lead Spanish teacher, Frank, to talk about our ESL program with Native Language Arts support. Very productive meeting, but the problem remains that the ELLs at each level of English proficiency are scattered throughout grades and cohorts, making our original push-in plan unrealistic. Many students are about to be reprogrammed because of this and other issues and we'll probably end up with one self-contained class and a second period of push-in for more advanced students, as we did last year.

Finally, I stayed late for the first meeting of Parent Association leadership to kick off the year.





The participation is much greater than it has been in prior years, with Freshman parents eager to contribute. We weren't sure if parents would be overwhelmed by too much fund raising talk, but the parents themselves kept coming back to the idea that raising money for the school was the main thing they want to do. Fantastic!

I gave a brief talk about the library and how parents could help. They seemed very interested in coming in to help process books perhapsa few other duties. These efforts would be incredibly helpful. We kept going until after 8:30. With any luck we'll be able to keep this enthusiasm up for the entire year.

- Posted remotely via mobile phone.

Scheduling Meetings Continue

Met with Nicholas today and worked through Lyons' requests/requirements. They want me to run a study skills class two days a week which could dovetail with college entry talks. It sounds good and I'm eager to do it. I know these seniors pretty well and have had my ups and downs with them. I hope a study/college class will be more up than down.

On The Green School front, worked on ideas for the Parent Association and volunteered to be part of a series of trainings on creating a non profit and doing fund raising that the school has paid a consultant to run for us. Participating will be a great way to further library funding efforts to support our students.

Confirmed Thursday, September 23rd as the date when a local Brooklyn Public Library young adult services librarian will set up a table in the cafeteria from 10:30 to 1:30, giving students at all three schools an opportunity to get public library cards and learn about BPL's many young adult programs.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, the schedule will be approved and I'll be able to send out my first communiqué to all staff.

- Posted remotely via mobile phone.

First Day of the First Full Week

Worked a lot on schedules today. Mostly English Language Learners' schedules from The Green School. I'm still trying to figure out which periods will be best for my push-in/pull-out instruction. The students are quite scattered in terms if language level, which will make things challenging.

This will also help me figure out Lyons' library times. Meeting with Nicholas, Lyons' amazing AP, tomorrow, and Ben, The Green School's fabulous AP, to finalize on Wednesday. In the meantime, I got an e-mail from New Visions' college program coordinator asking if I could teach 30-minute sessions on getting to college for all senior advisories at Lyons: this is exciting and I very much want to incorporate this into my talks with Nicholas.

Lots more students were in today than were at school last Wednesday (no comment) and bunches of regulars stopped by to say hello. Really marvelous. Also, Elias already had me staying late to help him with ELA homework. I wish we could bottle his motivation and give sone to his classmates!

On the whole, the kids seem more at ease in school and more comfortable with us adults. Here's hoping that small attitude shift will help make this a more productive school year.


- Posted remotely via mobile phone.

Day One of the 2010-2011 School Year

Yesterday the students came back to school. Having been in and out of the building all summer had the effect of calming my nerves. I felt ready to go and had fewer butterflies than I would have had otherwise. I came in on an early schedule because neither my daytime ESL nor my after-school library schedule has been finalized. It was disheartening that no classes even visited the library as a quick first day hello. I had specifically asked Lyons admin to make sure their sixth and ninth grade advisors brought their kids in since their Day One schedule listed a "school tour," but the message seemed not to have got across.

While waiting, however, I shelved all the books that had been in the New Arrivals display last Spring and unpacked the first batch of new books, which had just arrived, placing them out as New Arrivals.



I began a new Reading Vine across from my door and Karali, the principal of The Green School, wandered by wondering aloud if vines shouldn't sprout up in different places, specifically across from ELA classrooms. I like this idea. My hope is that the various vines might one day begin to meet each other. As Karali said, the more kids see them, the more inspired they'll be to add leaves to them. I started vine number two across from 12th grade ELA and will start the others next week. I haven't cut out any leaves yet, but can get a batch out to teachers early next week.

The best part of the day was that students came of their own volition to say hello. Two of my ESL students came running in telling me how disappointed they were not to have a self-contained ESL class with me this term. Who knew? I thought they had found it stigmatizing. Their complaint made me feel appreciated, though! I explained that, starting next week, they would see me every day as I'd be coming into their classes to work with them there, rather than have them all together in a class of their own. They don't seem 100% convinced that this will work for them. I want to make sure I give each of my English Language Learners sufficient attention every day. The population is small enough that I believe I can make this happen.

This weekend I'll map out which hours of the day work best for The Green School's ESL students, then go back to Lyons and TYWLS to finalize their library times. A quiet first day doesn't mean I'm not going to have a year that roars.

- Posted remotely via mobile phone.

Sabrina's Magic Spell

I never thought I'd live to see the day, but late this morning a group of Lyons high school students used their lunch time free choice library access to put pencils to paper and work on a class project instead of noodling around aimlessly on the library's dinosauresque computers, huddled close together around one or two terminals so that I won't see what sites they use to jump the Department of Ed. firewall and go on Facebook. Through my tears of joy I summoned the presence of mind to snap a photo of this miraculous event.




It seems I owe this paradigm shift to tenth grade ELA teacher Sabrina. The kids told me they were working on a poetry project for her. Yay Sabrina! Yay poetry! Not only were these students failing to exhibit their usual library behaviors, which always look to me like pointedly and aggressively wasting time while complaining loudly that they're bored, and were actively discussing their work, without doing so disruptively. Simply amazing!

Across the room, an eleventh grader worked quietly the whole time on a poster for art class. She showed me her work at the end of period and this time I was so blown away I forgot to get a snapshot.

Could this be the beginning of a sea change? I hope the other teachers and I can continue to cultivate more students who are actually want to use the library as a workspace and not a chill spot. As appealing as the latter may sound to an adult who knows how to chill without bothering other people, the adolescent version of a chill spot without the constant intervention of adults can range from boisterous to literally unsafe.

With some structure in place and some motivating or even, dare I say it, fun assignments for the students to do, it can be a dream come true.

- Posted remotely via mobile phone.

The Three 'Principals' of a Successful Book Talk

In November, with the help of the three fabulous principals in my building, the Gaynor Campus Library hosted its first ever author visit and talk. Thanks to my principals and some fantastic classroom teachers, it came off without any major hitches.

Briefly, here are the elements that worked well:
1. A generous author who was easy to work with.
2. Principals who helped make sure it all came together.
3. ELA teachers who selected student attendees and accompanied them to the talk.
4. Students who have some familiarity with the book and are engaged during the talk.
5. A way to serve food in the least disruptive manner possible.

It all began when the wonderful Ms. D_____ of The Green School told me last Spring that a friend of hers, Peter Kujawinski, along with his co-author Jake Halpern, were embarking on a national tour to promote their book Dormia. Bonus: because they were new authors, they were doing their visits free of charge. Ms. D_____ handed them off to me via e-mail and between the three of us, it was decided that the talk would happen in the Fall 2009 and that Peter would probably be on the East coast at that time and would be the visiting author.

As the 2009-2010 school year began, I was informed that my three principals had decided to rotate their responsibilities and that my administrative contact would be Talana Bradley of The Yound Women's Leadership School of Brooklyn. Last year, Talana had organized a school-wide book talk for her school in the auditorium, so when I told her about the upcoming visit I knew she'd be able to speak from experience. I told Talana that I'd be more comfortable doing something smaller in scale and she agreed that this was probably the best way to go.

In addition, Talana agreed with me that the talk should take place in the library and suggested that 12 students from each school be nominated to attend. At the next Building Council meeting, Talana informed Karali Pitzele of The Green School and Taeko Onishi of Lyons Community School of the talk. Talana and Taeko each decided to purchase 12 copies of Dormia for each student attendee to keep, while The Green School opted to buy about four copies.

Having read the book, I felt it was geared a bit more toward middle school readers than high school students, although Peter assured me that his talks had gone over very well in high schools. Each school settled on its own system for nominating attendees. Lyons ended up with a mix of middle school and high school attendees, while The Green School, with high school grades only, had their ninth grade ELA teacher, Mr. R_____ accompany his whole class of about 12 students to the library. The Young Women's Leadership School, which currently has middle school grades only, selected students through their ELA teachers.

I took care of the catering out of my own pocket. I ran to the closest Subway Sandwich Shop the morning of and bought a tote bag full of footlong sandwiches. At a nearby dollar store, I filled another large tote bag with two-liter soda bottles and salty snacks. Back at school, I stowed everything away in an office fridge, with the soda in the freezer for the approximately two hour wait.

Peter's timing coincided with the second half of my beginner ESL class, so I had told my students that they'd be attending a talk that day, and they seemed up for a change of pace. When Taeko came to the library with the Lyons students, I was able to run to the fridge and grab the food and begin slicing the sandwiches into four pieces each. Peter arrived right on time and we finally met face-to-face. Mr. R_____ and I made the executive decision to serve lunch to the kids as they listened to the talk, rather than have a free-for-all or a long queue while Peter was talking. Mr. R____ and I playing waiter worked out beautifully.

As everyone got settled, we made sure that Peter got his food and when he had finished his plate he began to speak. Peter radiates an air of calm and kindness that the kids really responded to. Although I was busy serving for much of the talk, I know he discussed the inspiration for Dormia and I remember hearing him tell a story of visiting Poland when he was a teenager and meeting one of his uncles and some of his cousins who lived there.

By the time Mr. R_____ and I finally got to sit down, it was almost Q&A time. Students asked some really good questions, such as, "What was it like working with a co-author?" (a pleasure, according Peter) and, "Will there be a sequel?" (yes). Finally, as Peter wrapped up, he autographed a few more books and was on his way.

Some things I might do differently the next time include:
1. Recruit helpers to serve ahead of time.
2. Budget money to have food brought in by a local caterer.
3. Record the talk on video with the author's permission for a more vivid record of the event.
4. Make sure the timing works with all three schools (a small contingent of students ended up missing the event due to a scheduling conflict).
5. Elicit book reviews and on-the-spot written reflections about the author visit.

Overall, it's nice to have the first iteration of something go well. As I mentioned, I have the author, the principals and teachers who participated to thank for that. The students, too, deserve a word of thanks for their time and attention. It was great to see them engage with an adult from outside their circle and do so graciously. I'm looking forward to the next author visit opportunity. If I can organize things just a touch better, I can spend more time capturing and analyzing the ways in which such an event benefits the students.