ISCI 794

Blog Assignment

Interview #1

Interview with Carolyn Crosland - AASL Shared Foundation - Collaborate 

This interview was with my supervising librarian, and we had a great conversation during and after the internship. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with classroom teachers during my internship. The internship and collaboration opportunities were important aspect of the internship and provided some key points that will affect how I initiate collaborative opportunities in the future. 

The biggest take away that I had from our discussion was that unless you can insert yourself into lesson planning, teachers are only going to see you as the "book check out lady". Teachers in ELA have a tendency to reach out more often as books and literacy tend to go hand in hand, but the library is just as important to other disciplines. Mrs. Crosland shared some of the collaborative projects she has done at her time at her school such as world of finance with the math classroom and colonial times day for the social studies classes. Talking about these collaborative projects highlighted that the experience the students get out of this opportunity with stay with the students longer. Collaborative projects require more from both the teachers and the students but the benefit for the students is well worth the extra effort. 

Collaboration is hard to start when librarians are new. We talked about reaching out to teachers often with offers of help beyond book check out. The more the teachers here your name and your willingness to help, then they are more likely to reach out in the future. It is hard to be seen as more than just the book check out lady so as a librarian, we must be proactive and seek out chances to work with teachers and attend grade level meetings so that all subject areas can see that the library or librarian is there to not just pull resources but to be an active participant in the education of students. The final thought that Mrs. Crosland offered was the barriers that exist when the administration is not supportive of the library in general or collaboration. Administration that already understands the importance of collaboration goes just makes our job easier. If collaboration is not a priority or supported, then as a librarian we just have to be more creative about finding times in our busy schedules to make collaboration happen. Mrs. Crosland does not have very supportive administration and during my time with her, I came to better understand that collaboration does not require days and hours of conversations and meetings. Collaboration can be one 30-minute meeting with some follow-up emails or short conversations. This was a great lesson that I know will benefit me in the future.