"You no longer have a choice" Guest post: Mary Mehsikomer
Monday, November 16, 2009 at 11:19PM My friend and colleague, Mary Mehsikomer, a "recovering" state department of education worker and now gainfully employed as a telecommunications cluster director, sent this thoughtful response to "Wherre are the others?" She kindly agreed to let it me use it as a guest post.
I was in a workshop a few years ago where a trainer was working with a group of teachers and showing all the wonderful things that can be done with Google Earth and other online tools to make learning more engaging for students. One of the teachers said, with no small amount of exasperation in her voice, "look, I have two young kids at home, I'm in school all day, I correct papers at night, and so when am I supposed to find time to explore all this stuff and then figure out how to integrate it with my instruction?"
The trainer, who happened to be from a teacher preparation program in South Dakota calmly responded, "You no longer have a choice."
This conversation made me think about how perhaps that teacher is doing things the same way she has been doing them for several years - and maybe they've worked reasonably well-- but she has not really looked to see what could be done in a different, more effective way. She has not engaged with what might be a more relevant experience for her students. The "you no longer have a choice" response has stuck with me as I struggle in my own work to do things better, to do them differently, to do things that make a positive difference to the schools I serve.
By the way, I am not be a school library media specialist. I am, however, a huge school library media specialist advocate. I am very distressed by what I see happening to the profession. I agree there are people who are disengaged from this conversation, and that is very unfortunate. I am very active in a professional organization whose mission is to get school library media specialists to engage and to be strong, proactive, viable educators.
I have, however, also participated in and delivered a number of staff development programs to school library media specialists and classroom teachers. I am sorry to say I have observed that that such disengagement is often a choice. I am not just picking on school library media specialists, but I see this in classroom teachers and administrators as well.
I know in economic times like these, it is very hard for school library media specialists to get the training and time they need to keep up with all they are expected to know and accomplish. There is little money for staff development across the board. Positions are being eliminated right and left, many school librarians have been cut to part time or are expected to serve multiple buildings. They are being set up for failure due to high expectations and low support.
Yet I can't help but think, how much do we as humans perform tasks a certain way because "we've always done it this way." Because it is what we know. It is comfortable. It is what we believe. Is this maybe a big part of what is impacting the profession? The stereotype of shushing and card catalogs lingers on because our human nature inhibits the ability to look at what we are doing and make some hard decisions about doing things in a different way that might have a greater impact, be a better use of time, and provide a better experience for students? Do you suppose it is possible that the positions are cut because administrators and school boards do not have a good understanding of what a school library media specialist does because all they see, if they happen to visit the media center at all, is a person standing at a desk checking books in and out? This is not to say school library media specialists all need to be technology wizards or that those who believe reading is critical and love to promote books are doddering fossils in a Web 2.0 world. What really matters most is the impact on the student. What is the best way to achieve a visible, positive impact on a student? No matter what your belief system is about the nature of school librarianship, is that what your work is designed to do?
There will always be economic problems. We will never, ever have enough resources in our schools to do everything that needs to be done. There will always be politics, policies and work rules that interfere. But what we do have is the creativity, excitement, and passion that I see in many of my school library media specialist friends, their understanding of information and technology literacy skills, and their incredible base of knowledge - knowledge that is meant to be shared. With students. With other teachers. With parents. Not hidden under a bar code scanner.
School library media specialists are ESSENTIAL. Their relevancy might be questioned in this day of massive digital resources, but I shudder to think of an education system and society without their influence. So engage. In whatever way works for you. You only have the kids 30 minutes a week. So make the most of those 30 minutes. Your filter blocks social networking. Talk to your technology coordinator and see if there is another application you could use to accomplish the same goal. Invite your administrator in to watch you TEACH. Just please, please don't hide in your media center and wait for the world to come to you. There is no longer a choice.
Well said, Mary. We need friends like you!
Reader Comments (11)
The argument about needing to learn new things, new ways to do things, I get. I can agree with that. What I HATE is that teachers/media specialists/other frontline educators are given lines like "You no longer have a choice," yet not given the time in which to learn. WHY are educators expected to give up all their time to their job? WHY does the public glorify teachers such as Erin Gruwell who sacrifice the rest of their lives to their jobs, and hold them up as the expectation? I'm sorry, but unless school systems step up and give their employees paid time out of the classroom in which to learn (in NC, many teachers have to pay for their subs to go to conferences or classes during the school day), this is an unrealistic expectation. I think every teacher and media specialist already gives time "off the clock" and our society pushes it too far.
Thanks, Mary, for continuing this discussion so eloquently. It is a choice we have to make professionally and personnally to continue to grow, to maintain the passion, to seek out ways to realize our goals. And, we have to be smart about how we do it. It's not enough to attend the workshops and read the literature - we have to thoughtfully apply it in a way that actually makes a difference; that changes lives, including our own.
Thanks, Doug, for sharing this!
Very well said! Thank you for so speaking up and expressing these thoughts so clearly.
I wish every educator and librarian could read this.
And thanks Doug for making it available.
I agree. And since I am a Gemini, I also sympathize with teachers and librarians who are finding it difficult to keep up. I suspect the answer is somewhere in the middle.
I have an idea for a workshop rolling around in my brain. I think i may blog about it - if I ever get around to it =) Anyway - the idea is this: A workshop on how to SAVE time with new technology. What can we stop doing to make room for new tech? How about a workshop where the charge to teachers is to find ONE time-consuming thing to STOP doing, and then pick a new technology to replace it? So - instead of adding yet another ball to juggle - one of the many balls is dropped and replaced with something more effective.
Again - training & time is needed. There needs to be time to learn about the possibilities, FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY by time to integrate a new technology into MONDAY'S lesson plan.
How perfect you mentioned this topic on your blog I was just thinking about this. I was wondering how teachers keep up who are grading papers at home, and have families ,and are taking care of parents etc. We often hear concerns that children in our society are raising themselves because parents are too busy.
I do not have a lot of commitments at the moment other than work and yet I still find it hard to keep up with all the new Web 2.0 tools and technologies, and improving lessons. I often wonder what will happen if I decide to have kids? Will I be able to keep up. I love my work and often neglect my personal life. Yet I know that too often the librarian stereotype prevails. Many people are resistant to change, and if ever there was a time to be visible and proactive it is now. I am concerned about what will happen to our profession. I hear librarians say I am a librarian not a technology teacher, and not take initiative to learn new tools.
I enjoyed the article and reading peoples opinions. I also like what Jacquie said about finding ways to replace time consuming ways with a new technology.I teach workshops at my school for teachers and always start off sympathizing with their lack of time, and telling them I hope to make their life a little easier by showing them a new tool to save time or find information faster. I teach them how to use Google Docs and show them how they can save time by working collaboratively online on: lessons, curriculum projects, personal work, and much of the paper work needed to be discussed and shared at meetings. I also show them Google Templates. They really appreciate some understanding and the fact that I give them hands on time to use what I introduced in the workshops.
Hopefully we can persuade others to at least become more proactive in letting administrators know what they are doing. I think many people are doing great things, but as was said in the article don't wait for someone to stop by. I have had librarians worry about shelving books more then taking time to do something that would give them good PR. I don't have perfect shelves, but my administrators know who I am and that I make an effort to make the their school look good. They also know I care about making an impact on student achievement.
Thanks for the post Doug.
Two quick comments:
1. At the Design Council. we used to say "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got." Teachers and others who are looking for better ways to do what they are already doing are pressing for incremental change and development, not transformation and replacement.
2. Teachers say they have no time to make change. The private sector would laugh and laugh if someone offered them 12 weeks off a year. I don't want to seem nasty but the truth is that teachers could acquire all the time they need by swapping holidays for a payrise and then rejigging the annual timetable a bit.
I love Jacquie's ideas. Sean may be correct in his comment #2, but I doubt taxpayers will pay for it. Hence the reason why the private sector's ideas don't always (and shouldn't always) convey to the public sector.
I was just talking with a younger teacher the other day about possible educational uses for Facebook-- but that particular site is blocked at our 9-12 school with no support from the rest of the staff to "unblock" it. This is an entirely different debate, but yet it all ties together in our educational landscape. I have been saying for the past two years in my district that we should stop trying to keep the students from using phones, iPods, etc in school and begin to use them as educational devices as well as teach them appropriate use. I would love to tell students to either write their assignment in their planner or enter it into their phone. So far, not enough agree with me.
Well said Mary, and right on. Although someitimes exhausted, we need to march into new terrain and not worry quite so much about always knowing everything. Continue the journey, remain humbled by what is left to be learned. If we are being professionally agile, and an assett to students, we should be in a constant learning mode, and model that behavior. If students see that in all of us, it reinforces their appreciation for lifelong learning.
I like Rose's comment here. I know a number of years ago, we would all roll our eyes when we were simply told to "work smarter", but as more of the tools like Google Docs simplify some of the collaborative things we struggled with, maybe work smarter is still relevant. Thanks Mary and Doug.
Hi Patricia,
Some of us have no choice but to work harder - we are limited by our smarts!
Doug
I agree, Libby. As a library media specialist, I can use part of my day to learn and keep up as it is part of my job, but as a teacher, I had no other life and no other time. Family and social life went by the wayside just to keep my classroom to a standard I thought was acceptable, but of course, I always felt that I wish I had more time to do this or explore that. I agree teachers are asked to give up too much for too little pay. I see few other jobs in society where you are expected to devote your own free time without pay to better your career.
I can tell Sean works in the corporate world as he responds as many outside of education do: "but they get the whole summer off." Many corporate jobs (not all) are on a timed schedule. No teacher works a 40 hour week. They work much longer. A teacher in my building once figured out how many hours she would work outside of school to equal working year round, and it was far less than the hours we often put in. Teachers are working during their breaks and summers; they only wish they were getting paid for it. I am sure most would jump at the chance to add another month of working on those things they would be anyway and get compensated for it. As Libby said, that likely would not be supported by the tax payers or the admin who work with budgets.