Sunday, February 8, 2009

Week 4 Webquest and SLMS

I got lost this week-seriously lost. The Webquest was intense, overflowing with information, bursting at the seams, and yet energizing. I got lost in Bernie Dodge's Webquest site, plowing through webquest ideas never thinking my second graders could be up for the challenge of a webquest, why hadn't I thought of that?
I should never have checked on David Warlick, I get lost just following his reasoning...he's worried for all of us, for ideas about educational change that few are on board with, not even realizing what we need to fear. "Will we ever prepare our students in time?" And are we sure what we are preparing them for? He is not sure we know! I heard this quote that sums DW up (although he might disagree) "Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child"
I spent the weekend at a 2 day 10 hour board meeting, listening to Sara Kelly Johns, past AASL president and her work on summits, and telephone conference braintrust meetings with Barbara Stripling, Rosina Alaimo, past NYLA president. Fran Roselli and our State Ed representative John Brock laboriously nudging us through the complex layers of NYS government that moves top down in a bloated, self serving quagmire. (I fear we are all lost somewhere in the jargon) We lobby to get Librarians named in the NCLB legislation, we struggle to have our adminsitrators incorparate the AASL standards for the 21st-Century Learner in the school curriculum. Yet, what did we work on well into the night? revisions to the SLMS Crisis toolkit -for if all our work fails and fellow librarians are released in this economic chaos, students will be the losers. As Arne Duncan (new Education Secretary) just said "It is to no one's advantage if class size skyrockets or librarians get eliminated or school counselors disappear." I am putting my trust in this man, that we librarians, who every day help children find their way- never get lost.

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