The Work has started...

I had been working earlier this week to group my non-fiction books into the categories that I am thinking about using for the new sections in my library. As I have moved along this week, I encountered a  dilemma when I was working towards Ditching Dewey. I had a moment (okay, actually a day or so) where I found that I worried about whether I should actually do away with my Dewey Decimal System. 


My reasons for changing my library include the students ease of use and to have the students check out and be able to find more materials. But as I was working through the 500 section of my shelves, I was having my doubts. They first started when I was working with the animals. I have decided to divide my animal books into two sections, Land and Water. As I was going through the many, many animal books, I was wondering if this was really necessary. I mean except for pets, all the animals are organized right there in the 500s. SO, why am I re-doing all of my sections? I finished dividing the animals and logging them into the computer (so I can change their call numbers) and pondered this thought for the next day and a half. 


Luckily, Friday night, I was at a retirement dinner and had the chance to discuss my worries with my friend and school's Reading Specialist who not only is a great supporter of my library program, but also has a very good understanding of children's literature and what they like to read. She reminded me why I was Ditching Dewey, and the quick two minute discussion we had reaffirmed my commitment to the new system. 


So, today I started back to my reorganization. I worked through the rest of the 500s and all the way through the lower numbers. I ended up adding a section to the shelving system; Jobs. I did come across a group of books that I don't know what to do with, I will research different categories and see where they might go, but for now they are in a pile on one of my shelves (luckily school is now closed for the summer and I have a few months to do all this work). I did come across a problem as I was working today. one of my sections is going to be "Tales". This section will include, Fairy, Tall and Folk 

Tales as well as Legends, Myths and Fables. My problem was that as I separated the books into these sub categories,  I found that I had so many Folk Tale books that I thought I should weed them. As I started looking to weed them, I couldn't decide which ones to get rid of. Many of them are newer and others that relate to our curriculum, that I didn't know what to do. My decision was to go on to another section and come back to this weeding thought later. My final decision on them was to just have a larger "Tales" section than I was planning and to keep most of the books.


At the end of the day, I had completed categorizing most of the non-fiction books that I have and I am getting ready to go after the Biographies, which I am going to shelve along side the non-fiction books in the new sections. 


Of course now that Summer Vacation has started, I will not be working everyday. My next day in the Library will be after the 4th of July, but I will be working on changing my call numbers for the card catalog and checkout system, as I can do that from home. 


Please keep following along as I chronicle my work away from Dewey. 

Moving Away From Dewey

As I move away from Dewey, the first thought I encountered was how do I separate my sections? Many people have argued, Dewey has its problems, but if you go away from it, isn't your new system going to have problems also? And if so, then why bother? I'm sure my new categorizing will have its share of complications, for example when I first started thinking about my sections I wondered where books about Pirates or Medieval times would go. (I have since decided that both of these will go into my World History section.)

For my new system, I have decided to use a modified version of the BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) Headings, which according to the Book Industry Study Group website is used by "Many of the major businesses within the North American book industry"; In other words, these are the same headings that Amazon and Barnes & Noble use. In deciding to use these headings, I thought about how best to make it easy for my students to find materials, that would make sense to them.

The following list contains the section headings I plan on using.

ART
COOKING
CRAFTS
GARDENING/FARMING
GRAPHIC NOVELS
HEALTH AND HUMAN BODY
HISTORY

HOLIDAYS AND CUSTOMS
HUMOR
LANGUAGE
MATH
MUSIC
NATURE: ANIMALS
NATURE: EARTH
PLACES
SCARY
SPACE
SPORTS
STORIES (FOLK TALES/MYTHOLOGY/FAIRY TALES)
TRANSPORTATION

Other possible headings are:

BUSINESS
CULTURE
MACHINES
SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY

I'm being realistic in that, I'm thinking I may find that I need to modify my headings as I get into this endeavor, if that happens, I will update my list here also. I will also keep you informed of any other things that arise as I move ahead with this project.  

Ditching Dewey

 My fifth graders use the card catalog every week, they always find the book they want on the catalog and then ask me where they can actually find the book. They know how the Dewey Decimal System works, they know it is in numerical order, but every week, they have to ask where to find things. I have taught them how to use Dewey, labeled the high interest shelves and used increased signage to help, but to no avail.

So, I am going to shake things up; change the look and feel of my library, by organizing the shelves using a categorizing system based on the BISAC Subject Headings. Yes, I'm going to DITCH DEWEY. I got the idea reading about METIS, which I found at Brief Book Bytes.

It's not that  I don't like structure, as a teacher/librarian, I like being able to shelve things in an easy manner, it is just that I think that Dewey is outdated and the children don't really need it or use it. I honestly don't think most of the adults in my school use it either. They come in and ask where things can be found, the same as the children.

I have spent a lot of time reading both sides of the argument for 'Ditching Dewey' and everyone keeps using the phrase, "Librarians search and students browse", but I don't think that is completely true. I think students don't search, because they don't understand the system; even when taught, the whole decimal thing throws them off. I usually start teaching Dewey by talking and teaching about decimals. Students can understand the concept in 3rd and 4th grade, they can organize a pile of books without a problem, but using the system to find books confuses them once they go to the shelves. I believe, if the shelves were organized so that they could relate to them, it would make searching easier.

Thus, No more Dewey.

In my research about getting rid of Dewey, I also read, "Anythink’s WordThink: A Revolutionary Organizational System" and understand why they have more books circulating and more patrons using the library; it is easier for the patrons to use a BISAC approach and less intimidating, whether searching or browsing.

Anythink calls their system WordThink, the group in New York calls theirs METIS after "the Greek goddess of wisdom and deep thought". I have no idea what I am going to call my system (which is going to be a kind of mix of both of these systems), I'm more worried about making it work and figuring out how to do it.

So, over the next couple weeks and months, I will be sharing with you my journey from Dewey to my new system. I haven't even really started yet, and already I am thinking about the process in my sleep. I don't know if that is a good sign or a bad one, but only time will tell.

As the Garth Brooks song says:

sometimes you just can't be afraid 

To wear a different hat 

If Columbus had complied 

This old world might still be flat 

Nothin' ventured, nothin' gained 

sometimes you've got to go against the grain.

I guess we'll see if I sink or swim...

A Quick Book Thought about Wonderstruck

This past week, I read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick and I have to say, I was blown away. The story like The Invention of Hugo Cabret is told in Pencil drawn pictures and words. Where Hugo Cabret needed both the words and the pictures to carry on the story, this book tells the story of a young man named Ben all in words and uses the pictures to tell the story of a young Girl named Rose. Ben’s story 

takes place in the present where he is trying to cope with life since his mother has passed away. One night he finds some information about his father he never met and the same evening is struck by lightning and loses his hearing. Rose’s story is set in the past where she is a lonely deaf child who knows her mother, but is ignored. As we read along their stories only seem to have protagonists being deaf in common. But as the pictures and words converge toward the end of the book we find that this is not the only commonality that the stories hold.

I enjoyed this book more than Hugo Cabret, which I liked and thought the story was good, but I never really empathized with the characters. I found Wonderstruck more compelling and the characters more to my liking. Both Rose and Ben are likable, characters who I could understand and relate too. The peripheral characters in this book help the story along very well; however there is one character that reminded me of Hugo Cabret in that he has a secret room where he should not. I don’t know if Brian Selznick wrote this character and sequence into the book as an inside joke for people who enjoyed Hugo or not, but it reminded me of a passage or two from the Caldecott Winner.   

I would highly recommend this book, and actually think that if Hugo Cabret won the Caldecott, this in my opinion should win it also. Because where the pictures in his other novel helped the story along, in this one they tell more than half the story. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it is considered for a Newberry, the story is that good.

Click here for more information about Wonderstruck.  

Thoughts on Respect for Teachers

Over Thanksgiving, my parents commented to me, "When we were kids we wouldn’t talk to teachers the way kids do now." They were appalled at how kids act in school and how the parents respond when they are told their kids have done something wrong. Respect for teachers is low in many places. Anyone who is a teacher knows the environment that surrounds our lives today. The worst part is we are responsible for a lot of these problems.

Let me explain: I teach in two different schools this year and I have found it to be a very interesting. The culture of the two buildings is very different. One has a Principal that is not very well liked the other has a Principal that is liked and respected. But in both buildings, the way Teachers treat each other is appalling. The disrespect they show for co-workers is ridiculous. This may happen in the business world, I don’t know, but the way people complain about how others’ do their jobs or what they do during the day makes me cringe.  They complain that this person doesn’t have as many duties or that person doesn’t have a class during as many periods and they even undermine or sabotage each other.

With as difficult as our jobs are and the climate in the world in which we are teaching, I don’t get this mentality.  How Disrespectful is it (not to say unprofessional) to question what a fellow teacher is doing with their time?  These complainers will never go and ask the person they are complaining about, to task them about their reasons for doing things, or maybe why it seems they have extra preps or why the schedule looks unfair. No, they would rather talk about the other person behind their back, during lunch periods. This is why I have not eaten lunch in a faculty room for six years. I can’t stand the bitching. My question to these teachers that complain is, "Why does it matter what they are doing?" How does this affect you in your teaching? 

There was a student teacher in our building, earlier this year, my one piece of advice to him was, “If you want to be happy in your job, you can’t worry about what other people are teaching or doing during their day.” I told him, “When you start worrying about how much extra time someone else has or how many duties they have, you start forgetting what is important; the students and your teaching.” 

 To be true Professionals, we need to respect the person next door to us as Professionals. And that is part of the problem; we don't respect the person teaching next to us or across from us. And I know I am only the Anti-Librarian, but if we don't respect each other, why should the community we are teaching in?

A Quick Book Thought about The Autobiography of Santa Claus

For those of you that have children that are starting to question if Santa Claus is real and you want them to believe for a few more years, let me share a book with you. The Book is called The Autobiography of Santa Claus: It’s Better to Give and is edited by Jeff Guinn.  I found this book a few years back and shared it with my son when he was eight years old. It is the perfect bedtime read aloud, for before Christmas, because it has twenty five chapters. If you start reading it on December first or right after Thanksgiving, and read a chapter a night, it ends nicely on or about Christmas Eve.

The book starts out with an editor’s preface that explains how Jeff Guinn was invited to the North Pole to help Santa Claus write his memoirs. Jeff describes the Workshop and the people he meets and sees there. The story starts, from Santa’s recollection of his early years and how and why he started giving presents and why he did it anonymously. It tells about him being a Priest, then a Bishop and about his gift giving exploits.  About Chapter five we meet Santa’s friend and oldest companion Felix. It is about this time that Santa starts to explain his magic.

The story not only explains his magic and how he uses it but also tells all about the many special people who helped him through the years and still do; people such as Attila the Hun, St. Francis of Assisi, Marco Polo, Benjamin Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, King Arthur and Layla (better known as Mrs. Claus). Santa explains throughout the book, by relating different stories, how the toys are distributed to all the kids in the world and how he is known by different names. He also tells how many different writers and poets have changed the way he has been received over the years and how these writings have changed the world’s perception of him.

As I said, I shared this story with my son when he was 8. For three or four years after that, when kids in his class would say they didn’t believe in Santa, John would tell them he did. The reason he did was because he had heard Santa Claus’ own version of how and why the Magic of Christmas is real. I personally liked the story because it gives a lot of historical background that is accurate. All of this makes The Autobiography of Santa Claus one of my favorite books, not just around Christmas, but always.

Thoughts On Teaching and Disney Imagineers

 If you have read my other website, you know that I admire Walt Disney very much. He was amazingly creative and I think his mind was one of the best of all time. When he was alive, Walt had a special group of workers called WED (which was taken from Walt’s initials) that built the amazing things he dreamed up. After his death, WED grew into W.D.I. and now it is Disney Imagineering. These Imagineers as they are called upon to create everything you see on the Disney properties, worldwide. Everything from the design of the Resorts to the queues for the attractions; these people are amazing. I wrote an article once saying that I wished I could be an Imagineer. But the more that I think about it, I don’t wish for that anymore. I wish I could hang out with them and watch them work, because as a Teacher/Librarian I feel I am kind of am, an Imagineer.

I say this, because I have seen the Imagineers’ 10 Commandments. I have listed these commandments below with my reasons for believing that I am like an Imagineer.

1. Know your audience – I do this by designing my lessons to make the most sense for the students I am working with.
2. Wear your guest's shoes – I think about how I would receive the lesson I am teaching. Does it bore me or is it too slow? If so, it will be for the students (my guests) also.
3. Organize the flow of people and ideas – I try to use good story telling techniques, tell good stories not lecture too much. I also try to use clear logic in my lessons and the way my room is organized.
4. Create a weenie– In Disney’s terminology, this the focal point of a park or an attraction. In teaching it is my hook that gets the kids interesting in your lesson.
5. Communicate with visual literacy – I always try to use non-verbal ways of communication, using color, shape, and actions to keep the class interested.
6. Avoid overload - Resisting the temptation to teach too much, to have too many objects is sometimes difficult, since I only have a certain amount of time to cover so many topics.  But, the Imagineers believe, you can’t force people to swallow more than they can digest, that you need to try to stimulate and provide guidance to those who want more. As a teacher, I need to be aware of this also.
7. Tell one story at a time – Teaching one topic or skill at a time is ideal.  The Imagineers say:  “If you have a lot of information divide it into distinct, logical, organized stories, people can absorb and retain information more clearly if the path to the next concept is clear and logical.”
8. Avoid contradiction – I try to do this every day or else the students won’t believe me and won’t listen for very long.
9.  For every ounce of treatment, provide a ton of fun – I try to make learning fun every day. If they don’t enjoy coming to my class, they aren’t going to learn a whole lot from me.
10.   Keep it up – Once you get to the high level of teaching where you are researching your topics before you start teaching them; you are designing lessons at different levels, adapting them and changing them as needed for the best experience for the students and then presenting these lessons in fun and interesting ways, which helps the students to learn the concepts you are teaching, you need to keep doing it. I continually change the experience of the library as the classes and students change from year to year, thus giving them new, interesting and exciting things to look forward to.

Most teachers who are still vibrant, good, exciting teachers do these things. These are the teachers that students remember when they grow up (for the right reasons). These are the teachers that students talk about at the dinner table with their parents. These are the teachers that other teachers talk about in meetings and workshops. These are teachers we should all strive to be. These are the Imagineers in our schools.

A Thought on a Being Thankful

When I was in college, I got yelled at in my first education class for or answering a question incorrectly.  Actually, I got yelled at for being wise. The question asked was, why do you want to be a teacher? My answer was, "For weekends and summers off." I was just being funny, but the teacher didn't find it humorous at all. She ranted on and on about if that was my attitude, I would never be a good teacher. Looking back on it, I see that she wasn't that great of a teacher herself. I say this for a few reasons, one she had no sense of humor (if you can't laugh, how can your students enjoy school?) and two being a screamer is just not the way to connect with students. 

The reason I bring up this story is because I am very Thankful that I am a teacher and not just because I have my weekends and summers off (although sometimes those thoughts help). I am Thankful that I am a teacher, because I get to see children   learn and become creative thinkers. I am thankful, because, I get to work with other teachers who are good at what they do and enjoy their jobs. I am Thankful, because in today's world where many people are out of jobs or are working in jobs where they are not happy; I get to do what I enjoy doing every day. I like telling stories, reading books and teaching about literature. I enjoy sharing and teaching and I enjoy learning form my students. I am Thankful that I am a Teacher. I hope all the teachers out there are Thankful also.