Part 2: Family Library–Gratifying Work in Progress

Posted on August 8, 2015 by bakrawiec

In general, here’s how our Family Library worked.

Usually after school (rather than before), when there was more browsing time, parents or grandparents would come to the library with (though sometimes without) their children.

I would create a family account for them, with unrestricted check-out privileges, both in terms of the number of books that they could check out and the length of time they could hold the books.

(I did that, not because I wanted to minimize their number of visits, but because many of them told me how much of a sacrifice it was for them to come before or after school, and I didn’t want them to miss the chance to read with their children.)

Participating in their children’s book selection was eye-opening for all concerned—the children, the parents, and me!

Sometimes, while the children were off collecting the books that they were interested in, parents would confide in me various concerns about their children’s reading interests and habits, and I would have the joy of recommending books and negotiating with the children a willingness to try some of the recommendations that their parents made, as well as helping parents to be willing to respect some of their children’s choices.

Having the parents in the library gave me a chance to hear their feedback–to get ongoing reality checks. One comment made in the morning, when a mother was returning her son’s family-loan book, has turned out to be a wonderful retirement take-away compliment.

Her son told her how much “I got” him; understood him. I do believe that I understood him better because I spent more time with him after school when he and his mother were in the LMC and there were no other students whose needs I had to meet but his—for as long as his parent was willing to stay in the LMC—contract time or not.

Truthfully, there were many days when I planned (hoped!) to leave on time that a parent or grandparent would come to the LMC to select books, and although I felt a momentary twinge of regret, it was a very fleeting moment.

Often, I was one of the last faculty members in the building, hosting the parents and children who were selecting books. And those were my proudest moments, and most humble moments. There was nothing more rewarding than providing an environment and opportunity for parents and children to share their love of books with each other and with me—even if  I was the facilitator in the background.

During Kindergarten orientation and at every back-to-school night, our Principal invited and encouraged parents to take advantage of the Family Library.

Fortunately for me, when I spoke during Kindergarten orientation, which took place in the LMC, there was always a parent or two with older children who were happy to speak firsthand about the Family Library experience.

This past orientation (my last one, it turns out), a father was there whom I first met when his older son started kindergarten. At least one morning a week for the first few months of school, the father came to the LMC before school and read to his son, as both sat close together on the “story steps.” (It was a beautiful sight that I will long remember…I’m sure you can imagine how many times my eyes were wet when the pair left the LMC…)

Sometimes parents came, too, on their own, to learn how to use the free online resources that our district had subscribed to for at-home use.

Other times, particularly on conference days, parents would stop by the library at the classroom teachers’ suggestion to bring home books to broaden the choices the students made for themselves.

Students loved having a family account, which increased the number of books they could enjoy without affecting the number of books set aside for their particular grade when they came to the library as a class.

Although the idea was that parents would come into the library, given various transportation constraints and circumstances, parents were able to obtain a family account by sending a note with their children, and children often returned family account books without their parents.

Perhaps the most gratifying story for me is this one. A parent often came to the LMC after school with her three children—one toddler in a stroller, one preschooler who eventually became enrolled in the PreK program, and one primary student. The younger two were very friendly, lively and talkative.

Imagine my surprise when I greeted the PreK student during the school day and her teacher motioned to me that the child was mute. I knew the child spoke. I heard the child speak. The child regularly spoke to me after school in the library.

Her mother and I talked about the situation, which continued throughout kindergarten. When the opportunity arose, we used her talking time in the library to engage in conversation with her teachers, who would “just happen” to stop by.

By first grade, she was talking up a storm in the classroom. Her metamorphosis was as gratifying as it was amazing, and I was privileged to play a minute part in helping her feel more at home in school, due to the shared time she spent with her mother, siblings, and other children after school in the library.

There were other perks, as well, described in the next post.

Posted in Books, Children, Education, Families, Family, Kidlit, LIbrarians, Library, Library Media Specialist, Parents, Reading, School, Students, Teachers, Teaching | 2 Comments

Part 3: Family Library–Payoff

Posted on August 8, 2015 by bakrawiec

There are many things I am proud to have done professionally; there are many things I will miss about being an educator.

High on the list of those things is the Family Library experience I was privileged to facilitate, which I saw firsthand had a variety of benefits, from promoting parent-child bonding to enhancing LMC-community relations.

Parents liked the convenience of coming right to the school library (often in addition to, as much as in lieu of, going to the public library).  I liked that it helped me get to know the students better, in the context of their family dynamics.

For non- or limited- English-speaking parents, whose children often translated their needs to me, I was happy to encourage them to read to their children in their native language and to provide books with which they could do that.

For those parents who wanted to learn or to help their children learn English, I was happy to share bilingual dictionaries, as well as pictorial dictionaries for them to use—sometimes for the entire school year.

For the mother of a hearing impaired infant, I was happy to provide American Sign Language dictionaries, and other books that many of the students enjoyed using as recreational reading.

All told, I am grateful that once-upon-a-time, my colleague trusted me to edit her library visitation report, and that the librarian whose library she visited and wrote about—who incidentally was retiring at the end of the year in which my colleague visited her library—inspired me to reach the students and the parents in a most gratifying way–by starting a Family Library!

Whatever time an LMS might volunteer or whatever inconvenience an LMS might suffer, the investment is more than repaid by the fulfillment the LMS will feel promoting a shared love of reading between parents and their children, who will be in each other’s lives long after the LMS exits.

And, in that regard, if an LMS does not already own a copy, I heartily recommend setting the tone for the Family Library by sharing with parents Rosemary Wells’ thoroughly engaging book: Read to Your Bunny.

Like it or not, parents are the first and best teachers to give their children an authentic love of reading. A Family Library helps parents have the confidence and convenient access to the resources they need to do that.

By inviting parents into the school library, LMS’s find a way to invite themselves, their love of books, and their expertise into students’ homes where they can invisibly partner with parents who will love reading their children into being twenty-first century learners and leaders.

And in return, as if the promotion of student reading were not gift enough, the LMS’s gain staunch backers, who understand, appreciate, and defend the school library program and its funding.

Providing a Family Library experience for all the school library stakeholders (including faculty and staff who got into the Family Library spirit by borrowing materials for their children and grandchildren!) is a wonderful service that I never regretted facilitating.

Why not give it a try? What have you got to lose compared with all you have to gain?

Posted in Books, Children, Education, Families, Kidlit, LIbrarians, Library, Parents, Reading, Teachers, Teaching | Leave a comment

to drink or not to drink in public…

Posted on August 7, 2015 by bakrawiec

In a recent post, I alluded to occupational constraints regarding the personal use of social media, put in place in what has turned out to be my last teaching job.

Reminds me that at the other end of my teaching career, at the start, there were no “social media” prohibitions, but there still were “social” impositions.

In one of the first “conversations” (listening sessions) I had with my student teaching cooperating teacher, she made it a priority to offer me some potent off-the-record unsolicited advice, which I paraphrase:

“Definitely do not frequent local taverns (today’s bar lounges). You don’t want parents seeing you with a drink in your hand, not during the school week, and not even on weekends. And, preferably, don’t drink in public, even elsewhere. You never know. Parents socialize out of town. One of your student’s parents might see you.”

(No, I did not start teaching when Laura Ingalls Wilder taught.)

Fast forward to today. Certainly, in sociology speak, norms and mores change…

While I doubt there are restrictions on teachers’ drinking in public; nevertheless, nowadays, being arrested on DWI charges can result in the loss of a teaching license.

While it might seem ludicrous to suggest that public drinking was something seen as unbecoming to teachers (particularly, I suspect, to female teachers?),  in some sense, I guess, the spirit of the prohibition could be thought to be flattering–not that I am suggesting we return to those customs and mores.

Educators were held to a higher standard of social behavior, given the enormity of the impact they have on the character development of youth. An impact that continues today.

What do you think? Why should or shouldn’t educators, as role models, be held to high(er) standards of public behavior?

What were the norms and mores governing social behavior in your line of work? How did you feel about them?

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25 years after the head-on crash, I’m headed in a new direction

Posted on August 6, 2015 by bakrawiec

It was twenty-five years ago this morning that a routine drive to work on a rainy Monday morning ended up with a totaled car and physical injuries, resulting from a head-on crash with a pick-up truck on a major highway.

While the whole story of that life-defining event needs an entire book to do it justice, suffice it in this short post to say that the accident was the best-worst thing that ever happened to me.

Because it was the best thing for me as a whole person, far exceeding the “worst” physical repercussions, I’m glad I resisted the temptation I felt when I awoke that day to stay home with my family.

Within days after the accident, when the impact of the potential fatality fully weighed in on my aching brain and body, I reflected on the two most important unfulfilled life’s desires I would have missed if my life had ended on that highway.

First, I always took for granted that I would grow old, retire, and then have the privilege of attending daily Mass. (Why I thought daily Mass and being employed were mutually exclusive, I have no idea! I just know I always wanted to be able to go to daily Mass…when I retired.)

Second, I always dreamed of being a picture book author, which I thought and hoped could happen at any moment, full-time employment being no impediment.

Concerning my first desire, the accident actually “drove” me (no pun intended) into going to daily Mass, so that by God’s Grace, I learned I did not have to wait for retirement—God fulfilled that heart’s desire while I still was working.

In fact, attending Mass and meeting fellow believers in various cities throughout this land in conjunction with the traveling I did the next fourteen years while working in publishing, was one of my life’s greatest joys and blessings for which I am eternally grateful.

Concerning, the second desire, still no dice. Despite various authorships and publications, as well as a dozen personal, encouraging rejections—no picture book (yet).

So now, it occurs to me. If God granted me one heart’s desire 25 years ahead of time, while I still was working, perhaps He will grace me with a picture book now that I am retired. Like an expectations reversal!

A priest once told me that I needed a “godfather” to get published. I told him I had a “God Father,” and if it were His Will to open publishing doors for me, He would.

Used to be that I dreaded dying without fulfilling the picture book dream—now, in retirement, I am happy to be writing each day—picture book or not.

Since God gave me the heart’s desire to be a writer, I hope I write for His glory. And if I ever seem to violate that intention, I hope someone will kindly tell me!

Have you had any “dreams deferred” to allude to the poem by Langston Hughes? What has happened to them?

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something old; something new…not involving weddings

Posted on August 5, 2015 by bakrawiec

Of all the additional expenses I imagined I might have in retirement, here’s one I underestimated.

Fortunately, on the one hand, it’s a relatively low cost item. And totally discretionary.

On the other hand, the cumulative cost of how many of these I’m wearing out could “break” me. (Hopefully, not really!)

The item?

AA batteries.

Now that I can begin to immerse myself in social media, (prior employment constraints no longer constraining me), I am wearing out the batteries in my wireless mouse as fast, it seems me, as I can replace them.

Using my laptop for matters other than research and lessons for students—using it for “me” (and hopefully for you!)—for (re)discovering my writer’s voice: that is a luxury worth any cost.

And in some ways, it’s not a discretionary expense at all.

For better or for worse, it’s a luxury and necessity I’ve waited my entire work life to pursue more freely and more fully!

What about you? Do you find yourself doing something old in a new way or to a new extent in retirement?

Posted in Education, Employment, Retirement, School, Students, Teaching, Transitions, Work, Writing | 2 Comments

time out

Posted on August 4, 2015 by bakrawiec

When I started teaching, I felt sad that forty-eight minute classes were totally insufficient for students to experience my ambitious plans for exciting learning.

With so much “great stuff” I wanted to facilitate on a daily basis, P.A. announcements, fire drills, and—especially–assemblies were dreaded interferences, which—sad to admit—I found myself resenting.

…Time passed until the day came when I realized I had been…

..repeatedly looking at the clock, exasperated, not that time was speeding by, but that it wasn’t.

How could there still be so many minutes left?

..plaintively looking toward the P.A. speaker, hoping for an announcement–any announcement.

Surely, someone must have something they need to say to interrupt the class!

–rooting for a fire drill or assembly.

Why should there be just two drills a month? …Yeah, and why can’t there be more assemblies? Students need and deserve them!

Initially caught off guard by the change that had come over me; nevertheless, I knew I needed to be honest with myself.

I heeded the loud-and-clear wake-up call, signalling that I needed a new challenge/change, and for my sake, as well as my students’!!!!, I switched teaching contexts.

What about you? How, if ever, did you know it was time for a work change?

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timing

Posted on August 3, 2015 by bakrawiec

July has given way to August.

And I realized something about the passage of time during these countdown days.

In the past, when I was counting down to the start of the school year, I did so at this half-way point with a sense of incredulity that the summer was “flying past.”

If I could have, I would have put the skids on the rapidity of the clock–delaying, at least for a little while, the start of the September school year.

This year, pre-Retirement countdown, July seems to have been fuller than in the past, with more time, and September still seems far away.

Now, I still don’t want to rush September, but I don’t want to delay it, either.

Time seems to be as it should be.  All is moving well, it seems to me–at least for today.

How, if at all, has the sense of time changed in your retirement?

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not what, but who; joyfully (un)realistic!

Posted on August 2, 2015 by bakrawiec

The same undergraduate methods professor who introduced me to the Henry Adams quote, discussed in prior posts, that guided my teaching, gave the following words of wisdom, which he repeated often throughout our coursework, making them his mantra.

I’m paraphrasing:

When someone asks you “what” you do, do not respond in terms of what you teach.

Never say,“I teach social studies.”

Always remember. You do not teach a subject. You teach students.

Reply with who you teach.

What do you do?

I teach seventh graders.

If they press for what you teach the seventh graders, then you are free to tell them “social studies.”

At the time, although I “got” what he meant, it seemed as if he were doing nothing more than splitting hairs, making much ado about nothing.

Fortunately, his admonition took root, and those words have provided a compass for me to appraise in what direction my teaching was going.

What was taking more prominence? Was the subject matter serving the students, or were the students (as audience for me) serving the subject matter?

There came a moment of truth for me, mid-way in my career, when I found myself interviewing for a part-time job, as a way of reentering regular classroom teaching after doing other kinds of teaching while our children were growing.

The interviewer asked me about my teaching philosophy, and I confidently said that I took it as my responsibility to ensure that every junior high school student I taught would be more mature in June than they had been in September, and that I would use social studies, with its emphasis on such life skills as withholding judgment, examining both sides of an issues, seeking and evaluating evidence etc. as a means of providing opportunities for that growth.

The interviewer asked me if I were serious about my response.

Thinking she was about to commend me, I assured her that I absolutely was serious in that commitment. I felt an absolute responsibility to do my best to help every student (about 125 per year) to grow. I would count myself as having not done my best job if even one student hadn’t grown in some meaningful way–academically,  socially, or in character etc..

Responding that my philosophy and goal was totally unrealistic, she told me in no uncertain terms that the interview was over and that my candidacy was over as well–I would not be considered for the job.

Normally, I would have been totally crushed by such a harsh putdown, but I recall leaving with an interior peace that–call me unrealistic–despite what she said, my teaching philosophy and commitment to students was the right compass for me—even if not for her.

As disappointed as I was, I knew that I would be more disappointed reporting to a supervisor who did not share my values. I counted myself lucky that she was so honest. That left me free to leave with my with professor’s mantra, not only intact, but strengthened. I knew what kind of teacher I wanted to be, and that position was not the right one for me in which to be that kind of teacher.

…I do remember thanking my professor, by then deceased, in my heart, while feeling sorry for the rest of the interviewer’s reports, and for her students.

…I do remember, thinking too, that maybe if the interviewer, a department chair, had had my methods professor, she would have felt differently. Maybe she would have embraced his mantra, too.

Fortunately, I got other opportunities to be the kind of teacher I wanted to be. The kind who teacher for whom the subject taught is the means, not the end. The kind of teacher who keeps in mind that it is fellow human beings–students–that the teacher is privileged to learn from and with–and is privileged to teach.

Have you ever had deep-seated work beliefs ridiculed, misunderstood, or subverted? How did you respond?

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halfway out, and still fighting the bad rap

Posted on August 1, 2015 by bakrawiec

Halfway through the sixty days’ resignation to retirement, I’m thinking about the posts I’ve written as a map of where my mind has been.

Surprised that I’m still reflecting so much on teaching–still infuriated over new teacher evaluation systems and high-stakes testing—maybe because the inanity of it was the frustration that drove me out.

Some cynics (realists?) believe that was the whole point: to create a totally frustrating condition that would get older, higher paid teachers to quit. In my case, the first variable fits, but not the second. Given all my teaching experience for which I was not compensated, I was a veritable bargain!

I remember when I started teaching in a well-to-do suburb where my husband and I could not afford to live—or even to rent an apartment—overhearing from my junior high students what kinds of allowances they were getting, and thinking that I’d be better off being adopted by one of their families. (I think, a live-in housekeeper made more than I!)

Once I stopped working full time for a number of years to raise a family (unfortunately, virtually unheard of/ financially tough nowadays), in the city and neighborhood in which we lived, our daughter was eligible for reduced lunch (for which my husband refused for us to apply), based on my husband’s teaching salary, even though he had a Master’s Degree, as well as a Doctorate.

Oh, yeah, and the wonderful summer’s off that teachers get, he scrambled each summer to find temporary work—like cutting weeds, which almost killed him the summer he was attacked by a hive-full of wasps.

Now, decades later, despite the fact that we both contributed to our state pensions with money taken out of every paycheck, our illustrious governors who ill-invested and/or redirected pension money to reduce state debt, now paint us as money-grubbing loafers who want to live fat in retirement. (Don’t get me started!)

Sorry. Teaching is not for the fainthearted. The hours are long, given that the work is not left in the classroom at the sound of the dismissal bell (for teachers, not students), nor behind over weekends, holidays, and summers.

And if you are a parent finding dealing with one or a small handful of children challenging, imagine simultaneously dealing with a couple of dozen of someone else’s children for hours each day. Challenging! Draining! Exhausting!

Among the various things I’m tired of in being retired is teachers getting a bad rap.

In addition to teaching, I spent almost twenty years in educational textbook publishing. I said then and I will say now—on the most tense, exhausting, drop-dead deadline day I spent in corporate America, nothing compares with the demands made by being responsible for students—and that is without high-stakes testing, which makes teaching unnecessarily nearly intolerable today.

What unjustified bad rap did workers in your line of work receive?

Posted in Education, Employment, High-Stakes Testing, Retirement, Seniors, Students, Teachers, Testing, Transitions, Work | Leave a comment

high stakes testing: stone walled vs. living stones

Posted on July 31, 2015 by bakrawiec

High-stakes testing really makes my blood boil. (If you’ve kindly read the past few posts: Can you tell?)

More than that. It makes my stomach turn.

A good student (summa cum laude graduate), I was a lousy test taker—a tried-and-true test phobic, actually–all the way through Master’s and post-Master’s courses and teacher certifications (of which I hold four).

Being a scribe for four of the past five years (pre-computerized PARCC) reminded me of another reason I detested having my teaching effectiveness measured by student test results.

Students have free wills. Many of them use those wills to refuse to learn—or to refuse to take tests seriously–even to the best of their limited or superior abilities.

I experienced that student willfulness and incapability firsthand when I was part of the testing accommodation—when I was required to write down special needs students’ answers.

Because I was the library media specialist, not the resource room teacher of record whose effectiveness was being measured, one would think I could breathe easier.

Not so. My test phobia kicked in—full gear. While the students (one with a superior IQ; the other, not so) remained blasé or rebellious, more frustrating than being upset for myself, I was upset for their classroom and resource room teachers.

Regardless of the fact that their students were refusing or incapable of paying full attention to the questions or giving thoughtful answers, it was the teachers who would be branded ineffective for not have taught well—or blamed for not having figured out a way to better motivate their students.

Right!

In my first teaching stint, it was exactly my exhausting myself trying to provide inspirational, motivational, relevant experiences for indifferent students that made me protest that I would rather be a bricklayer or construction worker than a teacher.

Why? At the end of the day, I supposed, I could proudly point to the bricks or edifice and say, this is the fruit of my labor today. It is tangible. I worked; I produced. There it is for me to see.

Not so with teaching. You work. You might not see positive results. Worse yet, you might see negative results. Labor that appears to have been in vain.

Recently, in the light of my impending retirement and time-out reflection, now, in retrospect, I’ve adapted a Scriptural image to describe what teaching was like.

Turns out, I was a construction worker, of sorts, working with, building, “architecting,” if you will, “living stones.”

And, although I have packed up my worker’s tools, someone else can keep going with the building. Maybe chipping away; maybe molding and even tearing down and building up again.

In the end, I got my way. I laid stones—living, breathing, animate stones.

And no paper-and-pencil; no digital test can ever have the final word on my effectiveness. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

In your career, what were you building?

Posted in Education, Evaluations, High-Stakes Testing, Retirement, Seniors, Students, Teachers, Testing, Transitions, Work | Leave a comment