Just in Case You Haven't Heard...

Often parents assume the school is teaching their children everything they need to know about life, and educators assume parents are training their children in all those areas of life knowledge and skills that aren't covered in textbooks and coursework. But in reality, too many children are missing out in learning a number of life lessons or they learn them the hard way or wrong way.

I first created these little signs of mini-life lessons to post discreetly in the book shelves throughout the library for students to discover and read on their own. And now I've created packets of themed mini-signs and letter-size posters so anybody can use them to display anywhere. 

So far the packets include subjects about:

eating:

fashion:

 learning:

 relationships:

 & smoking:

The Shelf Mouse posters are available under my name, Donna Van Cleve, to download at www.teacherspayteachers.com for $1.25 for one page of 4 mini-signs and 4 letter-size posters and $2.00 for two pages of 8 mini-signs and 8 pages of letter-size posters. That's cheaper than a greeting card! (my standard for getting a good deal). The posters or mini-signs can be placed on bulletin boards, in bathroom stalls, in book shelves, above the water fountain-- any place students would get a chance to read them.

I'm just about finished with a set pertaining to the "Internet" and "Research," and have many more in the works. I also have research packets, library posters, and other items available on TeachersPayTeachers, and I am adding items each week. This is a great resource for inexpensive,  original ideas to supplement your teaching. Hope you'll check them out.

Donna Van Cleve                                       .

I drew this cartoon and the previous post's for several research assignments in two courses for my Master's degree in Library and Information Science. I don't think they helped my grade-- the teachers didn't even comment on them.

Early Information Storage & Retrieval

Donna Van Cleve

Circus, Circus!

I created the following circus display in the children's area of the public library I managed for 9 years. We didn't have a budget for displays, so I used whatever I had on hand at the library or could find at my house, with the exception of the beach balls, which I picked up at the dollar store. I wish I had better picture of the Big Top, but I strung crepe paper from the ceiling at the middle of the children's area to create the illusion of a circus tent.

I hung a couple of beach balls from the ceiling to make it look like the seals were playing with them and one was balancing it on his nose.

I made the seals from navy blue folders-- you can still see the creases where I unfolded them. I taped them to a book end to stand it up on the table.

I taped half-circles of two different colors of paper around the edges of the three round tables to give them the effect of performing platforms.  In the background, you can see some of the circus theme shelf markers sticking out of the bookshelves-- clown hands and an elephant's snoot. 

I displayed circus theme books on the tables.

Shelf markers - clown feet, a leopard's tail, and the elephant snoot.

More shelf markers: a tiger's paws and tail, and a lion's tail.

A different way to display the tiger paws and tail.

I love the challenge of coming up with creative displays on little or no budget. I've found some amazing things behind stores in town-- display racks, perfectly good materials, etc. You'd be surprised what you can come up with, and it's so much fun to see the children's faces when they come into the library and see an environment that gets them excited about reading.  

What do grades mean?

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," the flight attendant began. "Your captain this evening learned only 70% of what he needed to know in order to fly this complicated jet airplane. Enjoy your flight!"

Or how about the following scenario:

As the nurse wheels your gurney towards the operating room, you notice the surgeon's certificate on the wall stating that she learned only 73% of what she needed to know to operate on you. The next certificate stated that the anesthesiologist learned only 68% of what he needed to know to put you under safely, but an extra-credit book report allowed the teacher to round his final grade average up to 70%. 

Frightening, isn't it? But we don't give it a second thought when it comes to grades in school. Too many students and parents alike think that if the students can only get that passing grade, they're okay. But have they learned and retained the skills needed to function proficiently in life and in the workplace?

Grades are supposed to represent a percentage of how much a student has actually learned or mastered, but do they truly? 

• What if a student copied off another student's work? 
• What if one student did the majority of the work for a group grade while everyone else in the group coasted? 
• What if the parent did the homework or the big project for their child? 
• What if a research assignment was simply copied and pasted or even plagiarized the night before it was due? 
• What if the teacher had to constantly coax, threaten, or beg a student to turn in something before the end of the six weeks, and finally accept late work and a poor effort just so the student received a grade?

Little or no learning has taken place in each of those situations, yet the student received a grade. 

Is this the kind of workforce we want to do business 

with in all areas of our lives? 

Everyone pays when the learning process is missed in the pursuit of 'making the grade.' Grades are important in one's educational career, but they're meaningless in the workplace if the skills and knowledge are absent. 

One must be careful to not miss the learning 

in the pursuit of the grade. 

And yet it happens daily.

Educationese

Did you know 'educationese' is an actual word? According to Webster's Dictionary, it is defined as the jargon used especially by educational theorists. It's first known usage occurred the year I was born-- 1954. Darn. I just dated myself. I honestly thought I had personally discovered it a few years ago. Darn. I just revealed a little more about myself than I should've. But educationese is an ever-evolving language with new buzz words added each year.

Some of the catch phrases I've heard a lot in the past few years include differentiated instruction/ learning, best practices, collaboration, concept mapping, remediation, scope & sequence, benchmarks, core curriculum standards, rigor, strategies, individual learning styles, inclusion, accommodation, modification, interdisciplinary approaches, and so many more. And don't get me started on the acronyms-- ADA, ADD, ADHD, AP, ARD, ADA, AS, AT, and that's only part of the A's!

I can't tell you how many times I sat through inservice training and workshops attempting to understand this foreign language educators were supposed to be fluent in. And I don't meant to discount the effort the trainers put into their latest methods or programs or gaggle of new buzz words and phrases they've adopted to cure our education woes. But much of it is so far removed from real life and meaningful conversations, and especially the process of preparing kids for life.

c. Donna Van Cleve

Can you imagine a high school or college team-- or especially a professional team functioning like this illustration? And yet we see this every day in education. But does real life use these terms and practices? Very few companies will modify their employee job descriptions to accommodate what's lacking in our children's knowledge, skills, and abilities, and yet in education we make those modifications daily for students to be able to pass courses and especially standardized testing. So are we truly attempting to prepare children for life or are we simply attempting to appease the NCLB* god? Check off all the requirements down the assembly line, slap a diploma in their hand, and boot them out the door. Done.                                                                                                      

Thanks to so many required mandates outside of local control that have little to do with actual teaching, our teachers are given an impossible job that eventually drives many of them out of the field, or lessens the quality of education because of the unattainable requirements burying them. If they want to have a personal life, or be a mother to their children or spouse to their mate, or have time to get involved in community, charitable, or church activities, something has to give. Otherwise, the demands of the public education professional is all-consuming. I asked a number of teachers to think about how much of their day (and a teacher's day goes far beyond that last bell) is actually spent teaching or facilitating learning, and the results were from 20 to 50%. That wasn't a scientific study, but it does tell me that teachers who are passionate about teaching are frustrated with all the record-keeping and modifications and behavioral issues they're required to document daily that steals time away from actual teaching.

And since most classes have a wide spectrum of students at different levels of learning and styles of learning, teachers have to differentiate every lesson to include accommodations for visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners, as well as simplify tests and lessons for those students with learning disabilities. And again, it all has to have a paper trail. It exhausts me just to think about it, and yet teachers are doing it every day. I don't know how they keep their sanity and health maintained, or even have a personal life. I have to tell you that some have very little life outside of school. They're on campus at seven and work until seven at night. Then they are asked to work extra-curricular events in the evenings and on the weekends. The teacher/coaches work even longer hours. And the band instructors I know have a monster schedule of before and after school practices as well as regular night and weekend events. I marvel at their accomplishments, but I know, too, that it's taking its toll on them. 

I'd like to resurrect some old terms for today's schooling. Getting back to the basics is a good phrase. I think we ought to cut out half of what we're requiring kids to learn (much of which they don't remember anyway until it's applicable to them), and focus on mastering the basics. Can they read and comprehend well? Can they communicate and write well enough to make an impact on their world? Are they capable of solving real-life problems? Have they been exposed to other cultures and ways of thinking? Have they learned to take risks and to persevere and to think creatively? Do they know how to give their best effort regularly, and to take responsibility for their learning? Do they appreciate the efforts of those who came before? Do they know how blessed they are to live in a country where its Constitution protects their freedoms? Do they know where they've come from? Have we prepared them to not only survive in life, but to thrive well enough to help others along the way? Are they healthy and know how to stay fit? Have we taught them to think and act beyond their I-me-world? Has school prepared them well enough for them to know what they want to do with their lives?  

Common sense and the freedom to use it is another phrase I'd like to see used again. Local control is something else that needs to be reinstated. Too much of what educators are required to do is mandated from outside the school district. And I understand why, but trying to fix a problem in a weak district by piling more directives on every district tends to create unintended consequences of pulling down the whole education system. NCLB started off with good intentions, but we've all seen it weaken education in general when school systems are forced to teach to the test to maintain a standard based on the results of that single test. 

Low student-to-teacher ratio is another phrase I'd like to see in our public schools. And a secure plan to fund education along with the freedom to use it as they see fit. Since when have we seen that in place? But along with adequate funding, the powers that be must allow school districts the freedom to do things differently if what they're doing is not working. Freedom is another word I'd like to see in our school systems. I'd like to see the freedom to act, speak, or express one's opinion on a school campus without fear of reprisals. Can't tell you how many times I've seen just the opposite of that in the education environment. 

But I've gone to meddling now. I'll expound more about that in novel #9...  

*No Child Left Behind

A New Education Model

I asked a high school counselor if anyone was tracking the students after they graduated to see how well they were doing. She told me no. I realize Texas education has these check-off requirements for a high school diploma, primarily a student's record showing evidence of a certain number of credits of required core and elective courses completed, and especially passing the exit level of the latest acronym for education mastery. Historically, that includes TEAMS, TABS, TAAS, TAKS, & now STARR, which completely fouls up the alliteration. But is anybody concerned if all these educational efforts and requirements are working?

Students receive a diploma, but has it prepared them for life? I've observed that many are well-trained in making a grade, but are retaining little learning. I've seen students-- even the supposed "good students" lie and cheat and plagiarize. I used to see a group of students in the public library where one student did the homework and every else copied off of him. I regularly saw students come in the school library the day before or day of a big assignment due and whip out something sloppy at the last minute, counting on the teacher's overwhelming number of students to mean as little time as possible is taken to grade it. I overheard a high school government teacher tell a guest speaker, "Assume they know nothing," to give him direction on what to talk about. I laughed, thinking he was joking, but then the students couldn't even answer the simplest questions about our leadership or highly publicized current events happening in the world. All of that was related to school. How are those things preparing an ethical, informed, and well-trained workforce?

Last year I visited with an outstanding teacher from a foreign country who told me he saw his first multiple choice test when he was nineteen-- that most all of his tests up to that point were taken in a composition book requiring essay answers. His teachers had no doubt of his knowledge about a subject or lack thereof when he had to write comprehensively about it. But that type of assessment takes a tremendous amount of time to grade, and when public school teachers have 150-200 students to teach, test, and evaluate, along with all of the record-keeping and behavioral issues they have to deal with, the day literally hasn't enough hours for them to do that adequately. They're just trying to survive. Thank you, Texas legislators. That's the same mentality as fixing a traffic jam problem by adding lanes to a highway by painting more stripes on the same size pavement.

But back to post HS graduates. I keep hearing about students getting into financial trouble immediately, especially with the over-use of credit cards (it's free money, I've heard some students say) or over-extending themselves with vehicle loans and/or living above their means in housing, shopping, and recreational activities. I see young adults in fast food and retail businesses that can't seem to handle money or recognize when a bill is incorrect. I've learned from employers that some of their young employees would simply not show up for work if they decided to quit, leaving the business in a lurch to fill empty shifts. I was talking to a man whose son graduated 16th in his class from the highly-rated Round Rock ISD, and he told me his son was not prepared for college-- that he really struggled his first year. If all of these students received a high school diploma, then according to the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills), they were exposed to knowledge and skills that should've prepared them for some level of the workforce or college. Why didn't that knowledge and those skills stick?

I wrote a fable about learning for life after observing so many students who seemed to be clueless that school was supposed to be preparing them for life. Too many couldn't make the connection between classroom learning and real life, and we as educators are not doing nearly enough to change that. Everything in the classroom needs to have real life application, otherwise, why are we wasting time teaching them stuff that they will never use, much less remember until it's applicable or meaningful to them? How can we make it applicable and meaningful to them now?

We need a new education model. We need to shift more of the responsibility of the learning on the student's shoulders-- make them clock in like a real job. School is their job at this time of their lives. Maybe instead of a grade, they should be given a paycheck showing their earning capability based on the effort they made in school. Some wouldn't be bringing home a paycheck, and they need to know that is their future unless they start applying themselves. But too many are counting on the government check each month-- low-performing students have actually told me that.  With the way our government is borrowing in order to keep spending more and more money with little or nothing in return, the coffers are empty, but nobody's addressing that. A crash is inevitable since our leaders can't seem to work together to solve this massive problem. We've set ourselves up for chaos when folks who've never learned through home OR school to take responsibility for themselves and their families... suddenly have to.

We need a new education model when it comes to college, too. The debt for student loans is staggering, and too many students aren't getting a good return for the money invested when it comes to the kind of jobs they're getting, if any. I hear that industries are saying they have to go out of the country to find highly skilled workers. What's wrong with that picture? Are our colleges not preparing students to be highly skilled workers?

Let's really think outside the box here. Is college even necessary to fill these positions? Most companies have to train their new employees anyway, why not go a step further and invest in training non-degreed people for these highly skilled jobs with the agreement that they commit to a certain time frame of working for them in exchange for the training. The military services and medical schools already do that. Hands-on training is the best type of training. Those efforts warrant creating new types of diplomas or certificates that would open doors for them in other jobs. A 'college' diploma shouldn't be the end-all in determining the consideration of a good employee on a resume.

I know this is over-simplifying a very complex matter, but something needs to change. Part of the problem is that we get in a traditional mindset of doing something a certain way because it's always been done that way-- whether it's working or not. I've been guilty of that, too, usually in education situations so over-whelming it was all I could do to keep my head above water. I didn't have the time or energy to stop and even question whether things could be done in a better way-- especially when it came to preparing children for life. That's where many of our educators are at this point. Worse, that's where many of the mandates are, too, and local administrators and teachers have little power to change that when they do figure out how to improve something.

One place to start is to look beyond that diploma at the end to see if all those years of investment of time and money and teaching efforts actually paid off in our students' lives. I think if we talked to former students, we'd be surprised to hear what they had to say, and we could definitely learn something from it. Then maybe we don't want to see the results of our efforts because we feel powerless or just too tired to change it.

Librarian on Hold

School started without me this year. Two years ago, our school district had eight certified librarians on eight campuses and well-funded libraries. Massive budget cuts closed one campus last year and cut the librarians down to four, based on longevity, to manage seven school libraries. I was number four. I went from managing one school library for three grades and 600 students to managing two school libraries for four grades on each campus and 1,800 students. This year the District cut the librarians down to two, who manage seven libraries between them now.

It felt odd-- seeing the Facebook posts of co-workers getting their classrooms set up and ready to greet the students. But I felt relief not having to manage two libraries anymore. I felt sad about the fact that schools are dropping librarians like hot potatoes in their scramble to balance their budgets. I feel for the remaining two librarians and the monumental task ahead of them. I wonder if this is their last year, or will the school district finally recognize their value and defend and keep them? It doesn't look promising. The District recently planned a training for a new reading incentive program, and no one thought to invite the librarians.

A school librarian is a

• Teacher of Information Literacy. 
• Media Center Specialist. 
• Proficient in Web and print resources and related technology.
• Student's segue to life-long-learner. 
• Promoter of reading and knowledge.
• Light in the darkness.

A school librarian position is also

• Under-rated.
• Misunderstood.
• Un-mandated. 
• Expendable. 
• On the endangered species list. 

Would you replace a certified, trained classroom teacher with an untrained paraprofessional and expect them to do as good a job as the degreed teacher? Of course not. And yet librarians are being replaced at an alarming rate because someone decided somewhere along the line that the position of a certified librarian was a luxury, not a necessity; that anyone could check out books and shush students.

Did you know that more education and training is required of a school librarian than a classroom teacher? A school librarian today has to have a bachelor's degree, a teaching certificate, a minimum of two years teaching experience, and a master's degree in Library & Information Studies.

Did you know that having a certified librarian and well-equipped library has a measurable impact on student achievement when it comes to test scores? http://www.lrs.org/impact.php

Did you know that school librarians collaborate with teachers, providing resources, lessons, and reinforcement of the teachers' efforts in the classroom?

Did you know that a school librarian spends countless hours of research developing a quality, current collection that supports the school's curriculum, as well as provides a wide variety of materials that appeal to specific age groups' interests in fiction and nonfiction?

Did you know that a school librarian is at the forefront of teaching students information literacy skills, which includes evaluating sources of information and recognizing the difference between fact and opinion, biased and objective reporting, and giving credit for using others' work? These are critical skills in preparing kids for life.

An un-informed, un-educated people are prey to those who would seek to control them through mis-information. School librarians teach students how to find and recognize reliable, trust-worthy sources of information, which are becoming harder and harder to find.

So needed in this time of political rhetoric.

So needed in this Age of Information.

100 Year Anniversary of the Titanic Sinking



100 years ago tomorrow, April 14th, the luxury passenger liner Titanic sank on her maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg. So in honor of man's fallibility, the window display at my second middle school library is about the Titanic.

I covered the back and far end of the loft bed frame with blue bulletin board paper to give it an undersea look, and cut a smaller wave border for the top. I wrinkled strips of orange paper to create a seaweed effect as a background. I had sewed all the stuffed fish about 4 or 5 years ago when I created an aquarium, and I've used them just about every year for something. From the angle in the photo below, you can see the fan that makes the fish move like they're swimming around.

We laid brown packing paper on the floor to give it an impression of sand, and added items representing things that were on the Titanic-- luggage, glassware, jewelry, a ladder etc. along with sea shells and books on the Titanic or shipwrecks.



Crumpled yellow paper around the life saver ring creates the effect of coral. The ring is authentic-- the name of the boat it came off of is on the other side.  I found it at the same house that was throwing away the disassembled loft bed, which has made the best frame for the library displays. We added our own lettering for the RMS Titanic, which stands for Royal Mail Steamer. I first had HMS on it, which stands for Her/His Majesty's Ship, until a student corrected me.

 

On the side and back of the loft, I added photos of the Titanic, the first telegrams, and some of the survivors along with some interesting questions and answers about the ship and the people aboard.

It makes my day when someone tells me they learned something new or were encouraged to learn more about a topic by looking at the library display.







April is National Poetry Month

I love the changing seasons-- spring and fall, and with the winter rains, we are experiencing a beautiful wildflower season this year. I found a pastel section of picket fencing for $5.00 at a yard sale, and it made a great backsplash of pastel colors for April's display. I also hung a dish towel from France printed with different types of flowers, another yard sale find that cost all of a quarter.

I recycled the wads of colored paper for the effect of spring flowers dotting the floor, and included poetry books in a basket, scattered among the flowers, and on a little bench.

The wire shelves held several more poetry books, which also promotes the poetry contest our middle schools are currently having.

It's hard to believe this year has flown by so fast. I'm working on the display for the other middle school, which is going to be an undersea scene. I'm taking a leave of absence for the next year, hoping to catch up on my writing. Gonna miss these libraries and creating displays each month.





Black History is American History is Our History Part 2

I used the same subject matter mentioned in the following post at the second library. They're just arranged differently.



Black History is American History is Our History

Since my library assistant worked so hard creating on the barn, I plan to use it multiple times before taking it down. It's gone from the book barn to a structure honoring the Underground Railroad and the Quilt System, which I've displayed in some form or fashion several years now.

Four generations sewed on the quilt I used. It was made with over a thousand hexagon pieces. My great-grandmother designed and pieced it; my mother and grandmother quilted most of it, and I quilted a corner of it. If you look at the individual materials, you'll see that my Mamo used some of the ugliest cloth-- they didn't throw anything away-- and at first glance, I thought she was a little senile putting all those patterns and colors that seemed to clash. But looking closer, you'll see that she alternated the solids and the patterns, and with most of them she pulled a color out of the pattern to be the solid color next to it. And when you step back, it makes a beautiful design, and I'm so proud that it's mine.

From what I've read about the quilt system, some folks say the stories that quilts and certain patterns sent messages to those embarking and traveling on the Underground Railroad are not documented or confirmed. But I would venture to say that most of the history of the slaves and the efforts to free them are not documented because of the danger involved for all of them. How ingenious to use common household items such as quilts to send messages to those seeking freedom.





And what a sad part of our country's history that so many folks accepted the owning of other human beings as property. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those courageous folks of all races who risked their lives, livelihoods, and reputations to line up the words of our Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,

that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

"Oh, for the day when Americans are categorized by citizenship, character, and contributions to mankind; when colors refer to our flag instead of a label to brandish as a crutch or a bully stick; when our history is one history, undivided, and with liberty and justice for all." dvc

I just noticed in the last photo that the information I posted about Carter Woodson, which should be to the left of his picture, has been removed. Not sure why. More people need to know about this man; I'll just print out another copy.





The Book Barn

The loft bed turned into a barn this month. My library aide made posters of old barn wood and wrapped them around the frame before Christmas. We switched libraries after the break, so I finished the display for her. I had two old window frames that I tacked onto the back red bulletin board paper (folded vertically like a fan to make it look like slats- see close-up on 3rd picture). I tacked an X of white strips to give the appearance of barn doors.

I added a title using MS Word's letters; drew cartoon cow and horse heads on bulletin board paper and hung them from the loft frame where it looks like they're standing in a stall. I taped some recycled cardstock on their heads to keep them from curling.

I took an iron candle holder and added a rolled-up piece of yellow paper to make it look like a lamp burning and hung it in the center of the loft. I added comments for each animal and attached them to the back wall. The cow says, "Read any mooo-ving books lately?" and the horse answers, "Neigh... I like adventure stories." I know, it's corny, but we had to use barn humor.

The rectangle baskets look a little like hay bales, and we had a red metal tub stored in the back that I put some large bands of fringe in it-- it looks more like spaghetti than livestock feed, but that's okay. I pulled books with barns on the covers and farm animal books and propped some fence wire beside it to complete the display.

After I took the pictures, I placed a small table beside the barn to display more domesticated animal books. And that's our Book Barn.