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President's Address

10/17/2017

2 Comments

 
MSLA President Carrie Tucker is the Librarian at East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High School 
What I love about MSLA 

Whether we knew it at the start or figured it out on the job, each of us has chosen a profession where one-size-fits-all just never applies. And that is something to celebrate.

We may serve younger students, older students, diverse communities, homogenous communities. We teach children not only to read, but to read critically. We use fiction and nonfiction to teach children about the world outside their community, environmental awareness, cultural awareness, and a sense of place. We use banned books to teach about freedom to read and by extension how a democracy works. We are experts in individualized instruction. In some schools we serve as caretaker in the intellectual and social heart of the school, in others we morph into the go-to tech person with or without the technology integration specialist title. We take on open schedules, fixed schedules, even dedicated course teaching loads. Ample funding, shoestring funding, with support staff, without support staff--we have seen and survived it all.


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2 Comments

Shouting for the School Libraries All Students Deserve

10/17/2017

4 Comments

 
Sue Doherty is the school librarian at Pollard Middle School in Needham, MA,
​and received a 2017 Service Award.
“Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.”
​

The Patrick Ness quotation above became part of my school email signature in 2015, the year all the district’s middle school libraries were closed and all the certified elementary librarian positions were eliminated, and it was still there the next year when the district cut the remaining two certified librarians along with the K-12 coordinator of library and media services.

Like so many districts that rely heavily on state and federal funds, Brockton Public Schools was suffering multi-million dollar losses of education funding in a lean and increasingly competitive fiscal environment for urban public schools.  Because there are no mandates for school libraries or librarians in Massachusetts, we were an easy cut to make.  However, because what we do contributes to student learning in so many ways, whenever I saw an opportunity to advocate and shout for school libraries and librarians during that time period, I took advantage of it.

I was deeply honored to receive a 2017 MSLA Service Award for the work I did in response to all those cuts, and would like to take this opportunity to share some of the advocacy I undertook during that time period and beyond.  We will need to continue to fight for library programming for all students, especially now while there’s a push towards more school privatization and deep austerity budgets for low-income school districts.  We can all contribute to this fight for equitable access to school library programs, both within our own districts and on behalf of students in districts where there are no librarians left to fight for them.  

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4 Comments

"Yes, And...": Improvising and Implementing Positive Change in the School Library

10/17/2017

1 Comment

 
Courtney Ahearn is the lead elementary librarian for the North Andover Public Schools, working at both the Sargent and Thomson Elementary Schools and received a 2017 President's Award.
​


I have a sneaking suspicion that many elementary librarians have some kind of theater background. We’re a generally colorful bunch, we’ve got to have the drive to captivate an audience, and we tend to give every character in a story their own unique accent. While I’ve only ever dabbled in the theater, I do feel that one particular branch of dramaturgy has a lot to offer, specifically to library media specialists who are employed  in districts who are working to rebuild library programs from the ground up, and that is improv.


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1 Comment

The School Librarian: A Vital Partner When Implementing Curriculum

10/17/2017

1 Comment

 
Cindy Erle is the School Librarian at Center School in Stow, MA and received a 2017 Super Librarian Award. 
    The ‘buzz’ in school libraries right now is for them to be a center for Maker Spaces.  It cannot be forgotten, however, the importance of the library and the school librarian as a teacher with the training and resources to assist the classroom teacher to implement the curriculum.
    I began my career in education as a classroom teacher, so perhaps that is what fuels my interest in this topic. The amount of time needed for teachers to implement the curriculum, as well as the other responsibilities, is overwhelming. When I became a library teacher, my first thought was how I might possibly help this situation. The ideal situation to do this is with a flexible schedule, but a fixed schedule can work as well. The first step in the process is to know the standards and curriculum.

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1 Comment

Tech Column: Evaluating Your Ebooks, Why More Tech Isn’t Always the Answer

10/17/2017

5 Comments

 
Margaret Schoen is a Library Teacher at Newton South High School
​ and received a 2017 Web Seal of Excellence.
​
Over the past few years, our team has been evaluating ebook platforms, readership, and purchasing as part of our professional goal. We’ve conducted surveys, run promotions, tested multiple platforms and compared costs. And we’ve come to what might be considered an unexpected conclusion: for our school, and our readers, more tech was not the answer. After all that analysis, we decided to cut back on our ebook platforms to get the most bang for our buck.
​

There were many steps on our journey. First up was simply to measure awareness. We had ebooks, but did students and faculty know it? For students who were using ebooks, what platforms were they using, what technology? We needed this data to decide how to move forward.

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5 Comments

Elementary Column: Summer Reading with our Public Library

10/17/2017

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Wendy Garland is the Librarian at Avery Elementary School, in Dedham, MA,
​and received a 2017 Super Librarian Award 
My district’s Summer Reading took on a new, refreshing feel this year. The Reading Specialists and Librarians were given the freedom to develop our own Summer Reading program and we abandoned reading levels, book lists and logs, and reading minutes. Instead, we partnered with the Public Library and gave our students permission to read far and wide.

At my school we planned and launched the program at an assembly at the end of the school year which was hosted by the Student Council. One third grader shared with us some of her writing, why it was important to her and the story behind it. Next, members of the Public Library staff came to explain what Summer Reading looked like.

They shared with us how to "sign up" for Summer Reading.
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Author Visits @TheNHSLibrary

10/17/2017

1 Comment

 
Paige Rowse is the Teacher Librarian at Needham High School
and received a 2017 President's Award.
​

You are familiar with the magic that happens in libraries, from connecting voracious readers with undiscovered treasures to cracking the facade of an adamant ‘non-reader’. And yet, there is nothing quite like hosting an author in your library and watching students engage with the storytellers, further fueling the passion for reading. According to a study conducted by the Society of Authors, 99.4% of the schools surveyed concluded that having an author visit to the school was “invaluable enrichment that encouraged reading for pleasure, wider reading and creative writing…[with] ‘a profound and lasting impact’.” Beyond the benefits for reading and writing, students can get a glimpse into the mind of a professional researcher and have the opportunity to engage with a model of persistence and determination.


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Academic Column: The Library of Congress: Primary Sources to Spark Inquiry

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Dr. Robin Cicchetti is the librarian at Concord-Carlisle Regional High SchooL
Last summer I was able to tick something off my librarian bucket list by attending the Teaching with Primary Sources Program at the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/). The short version of the experience is that I loved it!

Our district Director of Teaching and Learning forwarded a promotional email she had received and we noticed that there was a new STEM program. She was supportive of my recruiting a team which was surprisingly easy. I attended a week for generalists and librarians, along with a physics teacher. The STEM week was attending by a biology and a chemistry teacher. This was truly a unique opportunity to work with disciplines that don’t typically have a lot of overlap at the high school level.
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Picture Book Column: Looking at Picture Books with Surprise Endings!

10/17/2017

1 Comment

 
Char Sidell is the K-4 Librarian at Codman Academy in Dorcheste.r
​.
​I am sure many of you are familiar with books with surprise endings. In this column, I’d like to try to introduce you to a few more - new books, and some older favorites of mine that may not be so familiar.  I have used as one of my criteria for selection over my many years of experience presenting surprise-ending books with children, the books that once shared, never stay on the shelf!
​

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1 Comment

Ask a Library Legend

10/17/2017

3 Comments

 
Valerie Diggs is the Librarian at Lowell Catholic High School, an Adjunct Professor at Salem State University,
and a former President of MSLA
Given the adversity in our country this summer, what are some good ways to communicate unity and inclusion without appearing political? It can be subtle signs, big displays, or activities. (High school level)

This is a great question considering the events of the past few months and even in the very recent few weeks. How do we address unity and inclusion without being political? This is often a difficult task to accomplish, but I will attempt to answer this question under the umbrella of four actions or interventions.

Care
look after and provide for the needs of:
"he has numerous animals to care for"
synonyms: look after · take care of · tend (to) · attend to ·
(Oxford online)
How do we begin to “care” about those who we might see as not “included” or who are on the fringes?

Consciousness
the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world:
"consciousness emerges from the operations of the brain" (Oxford online)
What actions do we take to create awareness and “consciousness” of what is happening in our country and in the world?

Agency
Actions or interventions, especially such as to produce a particular effect: (Oxford online)
What actions can we take, as educators, to increase awareness while keeping politics at bay?

Dialog
Take part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem: (Oxford online)
What conversations should we be having in our schools and libraries to bring forward the practice of unity and inclusion?

Under the umbrella of the four actions (care, consciousness, agency and dialog) here are some of my thoughts:
​


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Maker-“Spaces” Don’t have to take up Space: Start a Library Go-Cart!

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Leslie Lomasson is the Librarian at Amherst Regional High School
and the recipient of a 2017 Web Seal of Excellence.


Not all school libraries are conducive to makerspaces. Perhaps, as a librarian, you need to preserve your limited space for the academic classes that come in; perhaps the noise from a makerspace section could disrupt other classes simultaneously meeting in the library. This was certainly my dilemma when considering a makerspace in a library which hosts up to three academic classes at a time. So, I simply tucked the idea of a makerspace into the back of my mind, thinking that it probably would not work in the ARHS Library.

Seeds, unexpectedly, grow new ideas:
But it’s those seeds of new ideas that are planted (by my amazing librarian colleagues) that sometimes pop up unexpectedly as a solution to a new problem. ​


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A School Library Cafe Delivers Rewards, Promotes Learning, and Teaches Responsibility in a Less Conventional Way

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Susan E.O. Crowther is the Head Librarian at Chicopee Comprehensive High School
and was the recipient of a 2017 Peggy Hallisey Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
A few years ago, 2008 to be exact, the Chicopee school district completed building a new high school. We moved into the new Chicopee Comprehensive High School with state of the art features. My vision of a successful library was unfolding day by day. The usual specifics, a decent budget, adjustable bookcases, classroom space, and new technologies, were all in place, but I wanted the Chicopee Comp library to be a special place for the whole school community. Certainly the readers were bound to find the library. However, I wanted everyone to find some reason to visit the library, and so ideas for a library cafe began. I envisioned a common social space that would meet the needs of students and teachers. First, I met with the principal to review plans, operations, rules, and how a library cafe would benefit students. Thankfully, everything was approved. I gave my promise that if it did not work out the cafe could be shut down.

I started by engaging our students and teachers in a contest. I posted the information on the library website and sent it to their all-school email accounts. After distributing some background about my idea, I asked them, “ What do you want your library cafe to be named?” There was an overwhelming response, and the name StarBooks Library Cafe won the vote. Students created posters and compiled rules for StarBooks.
 

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Musings on Banned Books.... Or How to Engage Your Critical Stakeholders

10/17/2017

5 Comments

 
Barbara Fecteau is the Librarian at Beverly High School
​ and the recipient of a 2017 Super Librarian award.

Recently I went to a book launch at Newtonville Books, a smart, adorable independent book store - like something out of a Nora Ephron movie. As I was waiting in line to have Mitali Perkins sign my copy of You Bring the Distant Near (which you should be reading right now!), I listened in to the conversation of the two well-heeled women in front of me in line.


Super Well-Dressed Woman [seriously, lipstick on a Sunday afternoon? Why??]: Look at that display of banned books. Hmmm... I guess there must be issues going on in the high schools so they have to ban these books.

Slightly Hippie-Dippie Woman [Indian print skirt, birks, dangly earrings – ever so patient]: These probably aren't books that are banned here, just books that have been banned in other places.

S W-D W: Well, if schools are banning them, there must be a reason...

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Ignite Talk: Giving students a voice with Touchcast

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Laura Gardner is the Teacher Librarian at Dartmouth Middle School
One of the rules of an Ignite talk is to NOT talk about one tool and from my title it looks like I’m breaking that rule. We librarians are such rebels, aren’t we?

Over the last three years, the teachers and students in my school have created over 500 videos with our green screens and the free iPad app, Touchcast. We have four green screens in our library, three others around the school in classrooms and countless green tablecloths that go up in hallways and classrooms when we’re doing a big project. Several teachers now have their own channels. Some students even create their own videos at home, for extracurricular projects and of course, just for fun. This has fundamentally changed our school. The specific app isn’t what matters; it probably could have been any app. However, I do think Touchcast is the very best choice; not only for student projects, but also for flipping your classroom, school news shows and MakerSpace-style video creation. It is easy and fun to create videos that promote future ready libraries for every school. You can include video apps including polls, quotes, and pop-up images as evidence, all the while using green screens to create backgrounds such as news shows and of course, school libraries.

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Ignite Talk: Dreaming of Possibilities

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Wendy Garland is the Librarian at Avery Elementary School, in Dedham, MA,
​and received a 2017 Super Librarian Award
My 7 year old son stands at the bottom of the driveway.  He is prepared for his new car wash business.  He holds a sign.  It is written in large, wobbly 7 year old letters, in pencil on scrap paper.  I could not read it from the other side of the kitchen, let alone from a moving car.  Yet there he stands, awaiting the customers that he is sure are just around the corner.  45 minutes later he is still there.  In the same spot.  This is the same boy that bounces from one activity to another.  How is it possible that he is standing, alone, at the end of the driveway for three quarters of an hour?

“How’s business?” I ask.  “No one yet” he responds.  Did I mention that we live on a dead end?  Did I mention that he is charging $20 a car?
​

My entrepreneurial son is feeling a bit defeated after several afternoons of standing at the bottom of the driveway.  I talk to him about the price of his car wash.  I explain that while I know he has his heart set on a twenty dollar bill, people are looking for the bargain car wash and only want to spend about $6 or so.  He begrudgingly makes a new sign to reflect the NEW rate - $6.  And while he’s at it, I suggest using a marker so drivers could see it better.  He goes back to the end of the driveway.

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MSLA Twitter Chats

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
After a brief hiatus for summer, our monthly MSLA Twitter chats resumed in September. Twitter chats are a great way for members to share ideas without having to go to an actual meeting. It is a virtual meet-up which allows collaboration from the couch or wherever you might be. The Twitter platform also makes it easy to share online resources and links.

If you weren't able to join the most recent chats, or want to revisit the resources shared, follow the links below to the archives of our chats:

​October 2017: Collection Development
September 2017: Collaboration
June 2017: Summer PD and Fall Plans


Based on feedback from a member survey, the Twitter chats will continue alternating between the second Tuesday and Wednesday of each month and run from 7:30 to 8 PM. The next chat is Wednesday, November 8th.
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    Forum Newsletter

    Co-Editors
    Reba Tierney and
    ​Luke Steere

    Reba is the School Librarian at Waltham High School; Luke is School Librarian at  Wilson Middle in Natick

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