School & Public Libraries Can Support Each Other!

If you don't mind the pop-ups; I made a Web site with my partner Debbie S. in 2003 called "School & Public Libraries Can Support Each Other!" Some of the links are dead; gee, I don't even know if I remember the password for that page! BUT... it is worth a peek to click on the cached versions of two School District of Philadelphia Web sites:

1. Welcome to LION, an information resource for K-12 school librarians, and
2. Lesson Plans & Teaching Activities for School Librarians

SAVE YOUR SPACE

Your Facebook, MySpace and Friendster accounts will self-destruct by the end of the next Congressional vote. The U.S. House of Representatives has already approved the DOPA bill banning social networking sites. Now the bill goes to the Senate and eventually President Bush. Stop them. The HR5319 bill would even ban websites that are used for positive, professional and social experiences. SAVE YOUR SPACE. Go to http://www.saveyourspace.org and take action now.

And remember, Congress does NOT want you to forward this message, put it on your profile, or use it as an away message.

Follow-up to "How the Teacher-Librarian Supports Teachers"

I want so much to post a copy of the letter that I sent to my new Supervisor of Curriculum as mentioned in my July 20, 2006, post, but I'm afraid I will be stepping on someone's copyright toes.

Teacher-Librarian Orientation for Student Teachers? I Can Dream...

I saw this description of a clinical practice (practicum? internship? student-teacher placement?) at The Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Web page entitled Cooperating Teacher-Librarian Roles and Responsibilities in Clinical Practice. Ok ... wouldn't it be cool if all student teachers got a chance to do even a small part of this as their pre-teacher preparation?! Scroll down to the heading: Suggested Activities/Projects: Curriculum and Instruction. Some of these things teachers should/could already be doing, so why not let them experience it from both the teacher and the teacher-librarian's perspectives? For example,

1. Develop a bibliography and/or pathfinder for a class unit of study
2. Plan/implement library instructional experiences: book talks, information literacy skills, literature enrichment
3. Respond to reference requests by students and teachers
4. Develop a modified lesson plan for a special needs student based on a consultation with a special ed/resource teacher

Even in the heading under Collection Development, what beginning teacher wouldn't benefit from the following exercise? "Select one state standard in one content area, evaluate materials currently available in the collection to support that area, and make recommendations for new purchases." Or under Technology and Production, "Shadow district Director of Technology for one day."

I know I'm "preaching to the choir" when I'd really prefer to be "preaching to the converted," but see if you can follow this train of thought:
IF Information Power and Library Power stress cooperative planning and instruction,
AND by definition, cooperation takes two or more people,
THEN instruct all of the cooperating parties how to optimize their collaborative efforts!

(Hey! Principal & supervisory certificates could be made contingent on teacher-librarian orientation activities, too!)