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I'm not normally one to post about my own life, but I'm at a sort of crossroads and curious what hatrack thought. (I warn you now, this is kinda long)
Some background: I was a teacher from April of 2002 to March of 2006. Though I graduated with an English degree, I primarily taught math - moving from a role as a permanent substitute teacher at the high school level to a full-time salary as a middle school teacher.
At the start of the 2005-06 school year, I changed schools - trading up, or so I thought. The new school had a higher salary, it was closer to home, and it seemed to have a more organized administration. Unfortunately, looks were deceiving.
By the start of November I was miserable. I still enjoyed teaching and dealing with students, but the absurdities of the system were starting to catch up to me. Between the overemphasis on standardized tests, concerns by the administration over no child left behind, huge amounts of micromanagement by our department heads, and coworkers that were very cliquish and difficult to get along with, I had been pushed to my wits end. I no longer liked my job, or wanted to be there.
I felt it would be best to finish the year out and resign - until one of my best students commented "You really don't like school, do you?" and another said "You're only happy when we're miserable like you". It was time to get out - I wasn't faking it nearly as well as I hoped, and I figured it would be better for them to have a new teacher rather than a bad teacher.
So I left. I gave my 60 days notice when I returned from winter break (which I incorrectly thought would revitalize me), and left teaching in March.
Since then, I took a few months off to write and travel, then took a temp job at an insurance company. They hired me full time, and I'm putting in my time and getting my paycheck. But this is a job just to pay the bills - it's not anything I could see myself doing for a living.
I've thought about going back to education a bunch of times, but the bad aspects keep jumping to mind. The stress, the late nights grading and planning, the stress, the administrative pressures for test scores, the stress... Every time I miss it, I am reminded of why I left.
And then I latched onto the idea of going back and getting a library and media certification.
I had considered it back when I was teaching - both after seeing just how awful a bad librarian could be and seeing just how great a library media specialist could be. It intrigued me then, but it's more intriguing now.
The pros: I love books and research, I love computers and A/V technology, I enjoy working with students, there would be no standardized tests, there would be no department curriculum, I'd teach the kids for a few days and then send them back to their teacher (kind of like a grandparent does), and I'd get the salary/vacation/benefits of a teacher.
The cons: Anyone know any cons? I mean, I think I've painted an idealized picture, but maybe I'm missing something big and important. I know I'd need to go back to school for a 32 credit program (requiring me to take the GRE and pay between $15-20k in tuition), but I don't think that would be so bad - I kind of miss being a student, anyway.
Does anyone have experience as a library media specialist? Do you know anyone in this field who doesn't like their job? Is there something glaring I'm missing? Any other thoughts?
I'm thinking this may be a good fit for me, but maybe I'm not asking myself the right questions.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I was originally planning to look into this field, and wanted to do it before I really wanted to teach, but I did come across some cons after meeting and talking with the library/media specialist at my kids' school and discussing the job with her.
First - are you talking about being a L/MS in a K-12 public school setting? Because that's what I was planning and so that's the job I researched. What I found out may not apply to people who work in higher education or as a public librarian.
The librarian I talked to said she loved the idea of being a librarian but that the real job didn't match her expectations nor did she get to use her training. She was trained for and expected to do a job where she would work in conjunction with teachers to help develop curriculum and reading programs, get to work hands-on with a lot of kids, help them with research projects, do instruction in technology, etc.
In actuality, she said she wound up spending most of her time doing one of two things - typing and sending home letters to parents for kids that had lost library books and organizing and running the school book fairs. Not what she signed up for.
There's little to no teaching aspect of her job, she said she honestly felt most days they could replace her with an aide that handled the checking out of books and she wouldn't be missed. That made her sad, because she really wanted to be a part of the education team and didn't feel like she was. The things she wanted to teach kids were handled by the school's technology teacher. She really felt like an undervalued and under-utitlized member of the education team.
I was very discouraged, and decided that despite the headaches involved with being in the classroom, that was indeed where I wanted to be.
Maybe things are different in your area, I'm not saying that the perspective of one elementary school library media specialist is the ultimate word on the matter, but you wanted some cons so now you've seen some. My advice would be to job-shadow, for more than one day if you can swing it, and get an idea of what they really do.
Oh, I forgot to add: Jobs in this field are getting harder to come by. Some schools now split librarians - my system does this - the middle school and jr. high share a media specialist, she goes back and forth between two buildings and two libraries where they used to have a full time specialist in each one. With the way schools are headed, many don't see the need for full-time media specialists anymore. Like my Ms. Suzanne, my kids' librarian said, she can be replaced by a clerk that makes a lot less money. Something to think about. Here's an article with more info:
There are efforts underway to re-establish the school librarian as a valued member of the education team but one wonders how successful they'll be. With kids often so technologically savvy they don't need help with research projects, school budgets strained to the limit, and as Suzanne said, the fact that some people look at her and say "We can replace her for lots cheaper" it may not be a profession with a lot of future opportunity.
[ January 23, 2007, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Belle ]
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I've seen both types, actually, and I think a lot is contingent upon the media specialist to define their own role in the school.
For instance, in one middle school I taught at, there was a librarian who had been there for 35 years, and barely had any idea which side of a mouse to use. Her beloved card catalogs had been replaced by the district, and all the books labeled with bar codes and a different numerical classification system. She didn't know how to check out books, had no idea how to use any of the media technology, and didn't even have any computers in the library for students to use for research. It was impossible to find anything on the shelves, and she told teachers to give her a week's prep time to get books they might need for any given lesson - which she wouldn't let the students check out, because she didn't know how to do it. It was awful.
However, in the next middle school I taught at (the one that made me miserable), there was a new media specialist hired to replace just such a librarian. He sent regular emails to the staff encouraging them to let him know what materials they might want to use, and gave repeated updates on what was new in the media center for classroom use. Teachers began to use the library and ask him to give small presentations on how to use certain programs. He began to use the budget to improve facilities and get better equipment. All in all, he single handedly began to turn the library culture in the school around.
My third example is probably my library media specialist role model. He was the librarian in my own middle school growing up, before they coined the term "library media specialist".
He started with an old social studies classroom filled with a desk and several bookshelves, and slowly started to improve things. He moved everything to an old storage room in the basement and started to renovate the dusky hallway that led down to the "new" library. When I got there in 1992, it was still pretty crummy looking, but he had purchased a computer with Prodigy (cutting edge, I tell you) and a bunch of VHS casettes for media use. By my eighth grade year, the town approved a proposal to triple the size of the library by expanding into the parking lot, renovated the hallway, and built a new set of stairs dedicated to the library itself. Ten years later, when I taught (briefly) in the building, he had thirty computers, a full media dvd/cdrom library, an interactive library website with several subscription research services, and a state of the art projection/lecture system.
Honestly, though, my goal is not to be in the classroom day in and day out teaching. I'd love to have the students come in for a day or three, then send them back to their regular teachers for the rest of the week - without having to worry about progress reports, parent conferences, report cards, daily lesson planning, etc.
(And, as an aside, being paid as a media specialist to do the work of an aide, while quite literally spending your entire day in a room full of books, isn't my idea of a bad job. )
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Belle had a lot more pertinent to say than I will, but I'll echo it anyway. I flirted with the idea of switching from teaching English to library/ media, and decided against it for a lot of the same reasons as Belle mentions. Our librarians are fantastic but often under-utilized. They LOVE it when I ask for any help at all, because usually they're not teaching.
I decided to stay in the classroom because in spite of the NCLB headaches, I love being with kids all the time and building relationships with them. As a librarian, you get to know more kids, but you don't get to know most of them nearly as well.
My attraction to L/MS was mostly how much I love matching kids with the right book, and I decided I can do that better in the classroom.
So: What do you miss about teaching? How much do you miss the kids?
Edit: Posted before I saw the above...you sort of answered that question already! Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:I'd love to have the students come in for a day or three, then send them back to their regular teachers for the rest of the week - without having to worry about progress reports, parent conferences, report cards, daily lesson planning, etc.
But you probably won't even have them for that long. If kids are lucky, they spend one hour a week in the library. And most of that time is spent in the action of checking in and out books. There is little chance for the librarian to be anything to the kids other than a clerk.
If you care about kids and working with them and making an impact in their lives, I'm not sure you'll have that opportunity. And I'm not sure the frustration you've felt with school administrations will go away. It's just going to be a different type of frustration. Instead it will be fighting for budget allowances, if it's not a parent yelling at you over little Johnny's grade it will be the parent yelling because you either gave Little Johnny an inappropriate book or because Little Johnny DID turn that book in how dare you suggest he's lost it and try to force her to pay for a new copy?
Again, please don't think I'm entirely negative on the career or on you. I'm just trying to fill the role of Devil's advocate here and point out things you might not have considered. If you have considered them and still think it's the best career for you, then I hope you do find some fulfillment and are one of the good ones. And I hope I haven't given the impression that my kids' librarian is bitter or terrible at her job. In fact, she's wonderful. Used to be my daughter Em could go to the library any time as long as she was finished with her work, but this year because of school construction and lack of room she is in a portable classroom. They won't allow kids to leave the portables and walk to the school because of safety concerns (lots of construction equipment and non-school personnel on campus right now) so Em was only able to go during her once-a-week, scheduled library time. For a girl that reads several books a week, that was intolerable. Ms. Suzanne, when she heard this, began opening the library a half-hour early so Em could go there before classes started. She didn't have to do that, she certainly doesn't get paid more for opening early, but she did it for the kids. And Em loves her and she has been a positive influence on my daughter. I just wish she were able to be more of a positive influence, but she doesn't get as much opportunity as she would like, or that I feel she deserves.
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Part of me can see myself teaching again, given the right environment. However, having experience in several schools, all of which shared similar problems and had their share of unique ones, I don't know if that environment exists outside of my idealized imagination.
I lasted about the average, from what I'm told. Middle school teachers last 3-5 years on average, and I lasted 4. A friend of mine lasted 6, and is quitting after this year. Even in just my 4 years, I saw many, many teachers come and go.
All in all, the negatives aren't worth it to me. I'd rather sit here and do clerical crap for 8 hours a day and punch the clock, making roughly the same amount of money and having far less stress.
For every kid that I got through to and made a difference with, I remember several hours of venting to my roommate or girlfriend just to purge all the frustrations/stress from my system every night. For every light bulb I turned on in a student's head, I remember some Joseph Heller-esque absurdity shoved down the teachers' throats by an incompetent administration.
So, I don't see the classroom in my immediate future again. This idea is in the hope that I can get back to the aspects I enjoyed (helping kids, teaching them, and giving them a better attitude toward learning) and avoid the aspects that angered me (school administrations with no more sense than a lump of cheese telling you what and how to teach).
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quote:Again, please don't think I'm entirely negative on the career or on you. I'm just trying to fill the role of Devil's advocate here and point out things you might not have considered.
And for that, I am grateful. I really do want someone to throw some mud into my rose colored glasses and make me look at this more critically.
I do understand that clerking is a large part of the job, but it's moreso in the younger grades, I think. Older grades use the library more for research papers, long term projects, and the like. Also, students who have to have papers typed use the media center before and after school and during study halls.
From what I've seen, library "lessons" tend to be microlessons, spanning 10 minutes or so. Just a brief primer on how to get the kids started, then spending the remainder of the class advising and helping.
Plus, I think there's a lot of potential in libraries that isn't used. Then again, I have often entertained the idea of opening a bookstore, too (which I know is not the most practical of goals in the age of amazon, borders and barnes & noble).
Edit: As an addendum, I think the fights over budgets and book choice are more up my alley than why little Timmy got a B.
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FlyingCow- In my experience the clerking is much more in the upper grades, and much less in the lower ones. I still remember my librarian's name from elementary school, I don't think I ever did in high school. I certainly never paid any attention to her, although I went in and out of the library all of the time. What did she have to teach me? How to use a card catalog or the computers? I learned that years before elementary school. I was past the age when I needed anyone to direct me towards books I would enjoy, or towards information that would be helpful in a research project. In fact, I doubt I could have told you which of the three women who worked in the library was the librarian, and which was the clerk.
This is just from the experience of a student, so I don't know what was going on behind the scenes.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Elementary and secondary media centers differ in many ways. Yes, elementary librarians deal a lot more with the "how to use a library" sort of instruction. However, secondary librarians deal more with the "I need four sources, at least two from periodicals... and where can I find information on Queen Hatshepsut that's not just generic wikipedia stuff?".
Students remember their elementary school librarians, but they use their secondary school librarians. While programs like internet explorer are pretty intuitive and have become second nature, searches in periodical databases or electronic newspaper archives can be more difficult to grasp - leading students to ask more questions.
Just knowing where to look for that Omni article from 1998, and then retrieving it, normally requires a media specialist to at least show students the process once or twice - and then be available for questions.
The goals are different, too. Elementary school libraries are trying to boost a love of reading and an interest in many topics, encouraging students to take out books on various things in the hopes that it will kindle a flame. Secondary school libraries are used far more as tools for research, and students are taught (ideally) how to make the most efficient use of their time and resources.
There is a lot of potential - and I think that media centers are very much underutilized in schools. Given all the time I'll be checking out books, I'll be able to work up some proposals to integrate them more into student learning, for sure. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Things must be different where you are, Flying Cow. Because in my kids' school system, they have a technology teacher who teaches them all that electronic searching stuff. They have classes where they learn to do electronic searches and learn how to use the web and the Alabama Virtual Library and all that stuff. Point being, yes, someone does need to teach them that stuff, but it ain't the librarian who's doing it.
In fact, aside from English, technology is an area I considered becoming certified in. And may still, one day.
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I'm curious, but what does the technology teacher get a degree in?
I know that Rutgers offers a masters in Library, Media and Information Sciences - and you can focus in all manner of areas (education being one).
In the school with the crappy, crappy librarian, there was a technology teacher that handled all things technical.
In the school with the awesome librarian, there was also a technology teacher - but she mainly handled commonly used applications like MS Word, MS Excel, etc. All research-library-specific applications (like newspaper archives, magazine databases, etc) were handled in the library on a class by class basis by the media specialist. Mainly because they were "off the beaten path" applications that weren't exactly for day-in-day-out use. The technology teacher was there so kids could adequately word process papers, and the media specialist was there to help them find the sources electronically.
Did that make sense?
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:But you probably won't even have them for that long. If kids are lucky, they spend one hour a week in the library. And most of that time is spent in the action of checking in and out books. There is little chance for the librarian to be anything to the kids other than a clerk.
Not at all. As has been noted here, the character of the library has a lot to do with what the librarian makes of it. Our librarian (she still calls herself that, even though her title is library media specialist) teaches actual lessons. She also sends out those notices about the resources that are available, and trains teachers on how to use internet resources for lessons in the regular classrooms. To be a school librarian in New York you must have teacher certification, and most (that I know) use it fully.
When teachers assign projects and reports they often bring their classes down to the library for several days in a row and pretty much turn them over to the librarian. Our librarian also runs storytelling events, like on Halloween, and they announce it over the PA in the morning, so kids come down during lunch or study hall to listen. This is middle school, and the kids love it.
I've also had her come into my class (I teach "computers") and have her teach lessons on the online library resources. She gave out "golden tickets" to use the research sites, and told the kids they could use the library computers to "cerf the web" even without an assignment from a teacher provided they use the library web page. Lo and behold, the kids started coming down from study hall just to use surf the library site.
Flying Cow, it always bothers me when I hear of a teacher bailing out. This sounds like a good alternative for you, and you can make your library what you want it to be. I'd say go for it!
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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My dad was a teacher in a high school and aside from the administration he liked it. As for interacting with students, he would comment that classes would come in and he'd sometimes do presentations or whatever for them. I think he got to know some of the students as well. I can't speak to anymore than that, but I'm also debating going into some sort of library field (both my parents are librarians, so I think it's in my genes).
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Some students I knew got to know the librarian very well, and the library was their option of choice for their free time - either to use the computers, do schoolwork, or read.
On the other side of the coin, some students got to know the librarian because they tried to go to the library instead of class, or some other obligation.
I think an important key is having clear rules for library use, and the ability to send kids back to class for violating them.
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I think it might depend on the school. I used my librarian for help some...but to be honest I used the public librarian more simply because the public library was better than the school one. Of course, if I didn't have a parent willing to take me to the Public library, I would have likely used the school one more. If you go to a school with good library funding it would likely be different.
Have you thought about college? When I was in college, the librarian seemed to have more involvement with students. Professors set up time for her to teach us research (so the professor wouldn't get crappy research papers) and we then went for more help when we did the project.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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blacwolve, There were three women in the high school library? Wow. I know which one is the librarian, and I know her name, but I didn't find her of any use.
Flying Cow, my senior year in high school I was doing cadet teaching in a first grade classroom and trying to pick a major. I talked to most of the teachers in that school, the librarian there, and the librarian that had been in that elementary when I was a student. The librarians both said they had each class in the building at least 20 minutes a week for story time or to learn some aspect of using a library. They didn't have an aid, but had parent volunteers for the checking out, they spent lots of time ordering books but that was almost as much fun as teaching the kids.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Flying Cow, the university I'm at now actually did have a technology certification track, but they no longer do. I don't know if it's because of NCLB, but they no longer have it in the catalog as a major you can pursue.
At my daughter's school, the technology teacher is a former math teacher, she is still certified in math. I honestly don't know if a technology teacher must be highly qualified and what highly qualified means for someone who teaches technology.
It sounds like you've given this a lot of thought and are really sure this is what you want to pursue. If you do go through with it I hope you make the school library a place that inspires kids and gives them the tools they need to succeed. We certainly need good school librarians. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Right now I'm taking the idea for a test drive, kicking the tires, looking under the hood, and checking the preset stations on the radio. I haven't committed to buying anything, yet.
It was an idea that occurred to me mainly back when we had the awful librarian a few years ago - I said to myself something along the lines of "I could do such a better job than that! If I ran this library..." Having been off the job for 10 months, now, and looking back with more perspective on exactly what it was that drove me away, I've started to think more seriously about the possibility.
Some other background info, too, is that my girlfriend and I are really thinking about a future together, and I'd like to find a career that a) I enjoy, b) has longterm potential and stability, and c) is relatively portable, in that if we decide to move cross country I can still find work with it. Another bonus would be if she decides to focus on pediatrics with her Occupational Therapy and worked in the school systems - that would mean we'd have similar hours and vacation time.
I've got the emails of a couple librarians I need to contact. One is a friend of erosomniac (thanks for the contact info!) and another is the librarian in the high school my roommate teaches at (who used to be a classroom teacher, but loves what she's doing now a lot more).
If nothing else, I should probably schedule a time to take the GRE. Anyone know of a good review book for that?
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I flirted with the idea of switching from teaching English to library/ media, and decided against it for a lot of the same reasons as Belle mentions. Our librarians are fantastic but often under-utilized. They LOVE it when I ask for any help at all, because usually they're not teaching. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
I don't know if it's because of NCLB, but they no longer have it in the catalog as a major you can pursue. ![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
