Many apologies-I am very late in posting this hit. Hope it will be
helpful to those of you who work with student teachers.
ORIGINAL TARGET:
I am very excited that I will be assigned my first student teacher next
spring. I also feel that I need to be more prepared than I am right now
to provide her an experience that will prepare her for a future as a
Library Media Specialist.
Some of the activities I've thought of to have her take on include
creating a display in the hallway display case, supervising a student
assistant, facilitating a satellite class, cataloging new books,
importing cataloging info on pre-processed books, handing circulation
including keeping records, subscribing to and using LM_Net, reading my
professional journals and adding book recommendations to the
consideration file, assisting students in database and Internet use,
helping with the Media Arts Club, and planning a small collaborative
unit with one of our teachers.
Can you think of areas I should cover that aren't mentioned above? (I'm
betting I've left out some obvious ones.) And, am I asking for too much
with this many duty expectations? I just want her to come out of her
student teaching better prepared than I came out of mine!
Also, do any of you have any special structure/forms for this that you
could share with me?
TIA for any suggestions. Send to me directly, and I'll post a hit if
anyone requests one.
REPLIES:
How about booktalks?
I haven't been to "library school" yet or anything, so maybe this is
somehting they cover there... but if not, I would have loved to have
someone walk me through how to go about weeding the collection, what
(and how) to order through catalogs, what/how to order from book
vendors, and what to include in a library budget. Maybe these are
things your student teacher could help with?
I think she probably needs to understand a budget. That seems to be
hard for newbies to grasp.
I also think you should have her create some advocacy docs such as a
memo to the principal outlining some of the monthly activities in the
media center. I would also have her do a newsletter for the faculty and
a separate flyer for the students highlighting some special area of the
collection.
She needs to be involved with parents so attending a PTA meeting and
maybe even addressing them (if appropriate). If not, I would plan some
other activity that involves parents even a letter home. This could be
centered on the principles of information literacy and she could explain
to parents how they support the SOL and how you implement them in the
media center.
I could go on and on but I think the more they get, the better off they
will be.
You've hit the biggies but I have a few additions. I had a fabulous
mentor
but it seems as though there isn't ever enough time to squeeze
everything
in! I would have benefitted from instruction on book repair/care,
assisting
with collection development/book orders and weeding tips. I really
appreciated the amount of time I was able to work with students. My
mentor
was wonderful about taking the time to talk with me after I taught a
lesson.
She provided both positive comments and helpful suggestions. Have
fun!
I just finished my student teaching in a high school media center. I
went in with many requirements from my college. The requirements kept
me very busy; I noticed that many of them are the same things that you
suggested. The one thing that I had to do was weed a section of the
library and then make a list of new purchases for that section. I also
had to do a budget for the media center.
Your ideas are good and it is good that you have some suggestions
because my mentor media specialist and I went into this blind. It
turned out great, but was a lot of work on both of our parts.
I only had to do 125 hours which is not very many days and my time was
split between high school 10 days and elementary 6 days. It is very
difficult to do collaborative projects in that time, but I did it and it
was a very worthwhile experience.
I am an MLS student who just completed her student teaching at the high
school level. May I suggest you also include a project on assessing one
(small) area of your collection for its completeness and, within a
budget you set, finding resources to enhance what materials you already
have? Collection development and budgeting are two major areas that
should have a part in the student teaching experience.
I'm very interested in students teacher preparation, although work on
the elementary level. All your ideas sound fine to me. I wonder if the
university the student attends had guidelines you need to follow. The
students I have from the University of RI have practicum guidelines
specifying what they could be expected to do week by week and also have
the evaluation sheets that you need to use. These two documents pretty
much cover anything you could have them do in the allotted time (which
is not long enough here, only 5 weeks at elementary, 5 weeks at
secondary) The trick is to find staff members who are willing and
patient enough to collaborate with your student. There is really
nothing in it for the teachers, and it takes more time than working with
you, They have to like working with the student teachers. I find that I
need to be in on the collabortion, let the student take the lead, but be
able to clarify things later for the student.
Good luck. I really enjoy working with students teachers. It makes you
think about what you do and why and it keeps you fresh with what is
being taught in grad school.
I think you have some great ideas. However, I
would try to talk to your student teacher ahead of
time to discover how much she experience she has in
library work. She may already know how to catalog
books or do circulation. She may need the extra work
in the teaching part of being a librarian-- also, I am
not sure how useful it would be for her to create
display cases. If there is time for that, that would
be great, but I would first try to get her used to
both collaborating with teachers, preparing lesson
plans, and teaching the kids. Those, I find, were the
skills I was least prepared for when I started my job
this year as an LMS. Also, perhaps you can teach her
about managing the school library-- budgeting, etc.
Hope this helps.
Might I suggest having her design some curriculum? In some grad
programs, this part is sadly lacking or missing completely and it's hard
enough to do when you are teaching also. You could provide your
input/expertise and she would have a stockpile, so to speak, of plans to
use when she has her own school!
You might also have her help with your closing down the library at the
end of the school year--another thing that is NOT covered in many
programs. And, as I'm sure you know, it can be a daunting task which is
not best learned on the job!
Congrats on having a student teacher--keep us posted on how it goes!
I think I may have additional information that was sent to me at school.
If so, I'll post a second hit from there when I return to work in
January. Thanks to everyone for sharing your ideas!
Deb Waugh
debwaugh@frontiernet.net
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