2000 Hours

This summer I am starting 2000 hours project.  2000 hours is the brainchild of a teacher named Chuck who is fed up with the popular misconception that teaching is really a part-time job because, after all, we get to leave at 2pm and get the "summer off." To dispel this myth, he decided to log the number of hours he spends working during both during the school day and during his time off.  I love this idea.   I'm not sure I will continue it for an entire school year, the way Chuck is, but I am definitely ready to commit for summer. For one, I too am becoming grumpy with pundits and politicians who have never set foot in a classroom/school library, but who feel they have the right to comment on what an easy job we have. But also, I'm just interested in finding out how many hours I really do put in during the summer months.  (An aside, my husband is always complaining that I'm really a 12 month employee who settles for 10 month pay, so this summer we're going to see if he's right!) Anyway, I'm so geeked out over this project that I created a couple of items to help chronicle my (and maybe your???) journey.

First, I created this badge for my blog.  If you're gonna log your hours too and want to plaster a badge on your blog, feel free to use it, change it, share it, etc.  (The image is my own - one I took for my 365/Image a Day Project. The text I added using Picnik.)

Second, I created a spreadsheet to track my hours.  I used Google Docs to create the sheet and will use it as my "time card" for this project.  This way, I can access it if I am away from my home computer but still "working."  Plus, this way all the world can keep track of my hours.  Perhaps someone will even start a pool and take bets on just how little actual "life" I have. :)   Anyway, in addition to figuring out exactly how many hours I will spend working this summer, I'm also looking forward to seeing what type of work I do during the (almost) 2 months I have away from school.

However many hours I actually log, I feel like this is a good exercise for me - both personally and publicly. I can only imagine that being honest and reflective about the amount of time I spending working when I don't really have to will be a good thing. Plus, like the creator of this project, Chuck, I'm anxious to dispel a few myths myself.

So... how did I spend the first day of "summer break?"  I updated the library webpage to include a summer reading project and a super cool culminating video for our year end Food for Fines project.   Then I sent out a year end letter to parents inviting their students to participate in said summer reading fun and emailed my principal with an update.  All told, it took me just shy of 2 hours.

Anyway, if you're planning on clocking a few hours this summer, consider this a personal invitation to join the 2000 Hour Club. In addition to whatever updates I post here, I'll also be tweeting about it using the #2000hour hashtag.  So, c'mon!  Join me! (You know you want to!)

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's Our Annual Report!

I've been getting a fair amount of (friendly) grief this week as I've been toiling away on my library's annual report.  Why?  Well... because annual reports are not required in my district.  Apparently, to some people (and you know who you are!) crunching numbers, making graphs and reflecting on school years past (when you don't actually have to) is tantamount to madness. But the truth is, I love this stuff. Digging through data, discovering correlations and proving (or disproving) that what you believe, in your heart, to be true about your work is, well... fun!

Of course, my joy and naivety related to this process may be (at least partially) attributed to the fact that I've never done one before.  Yes.  This is my first annual report.  And since there was no one around to tell me how I should do it or what to include, I got to make up the rules as I went along, which was great, because it made me REALLY think about who my audience was going to be.  In the end, I realized that the group I most wanted to target with this information was administrators - both at my school and at central office, which reminded me of one of the first budget related conversations I ever had with my current principal (who is super supportive, by the way).  I remember going into her office armed with file folders full of evidence and research, ready to blow her high heels off with data proving that whatever I wanted deserved her time, attention and (most importantly) money.  After about 2 sentences she stopped me and asked "what's the bottom line?"  She wanted, what I might now refer to as, a tweetable budget request:  Short, sweet and to the point.

So... I wrote my annual report with this personality type in mind, making certain that:

1. All data is organized into bite sized chunks.
2. It's visually interesting and fun.
3. The "bottom line" is easy to recognize
4. What few narratives there are, are short, sweet and to the point.
5. I tried to focus on data they would actually care about.  (For example, instead of bemoaning the state of my 400s or shouting about the number of times A Diary of a Wimpy Kid was checked out, I focused on student impact, the relationship between library services and academic success and how our library meets the identified needs of students at our school). 

And finally, I took a page from the book of Gwyneth and decided to, if nothing else, lend a comic nudge/wink to my report.  I didn't use Comic Life (as Gwyneth swears by) and I'm nowhere near as talented as she is, but I did try to capture the spirit of her SPECTACULAR comic tutorials, in the hopes of making this report fun and easy to digest.

And who knows, Batman!  Somebody might actually read it! :)

MGMS annual report 2010 11

As always, everything I do, this is licensed under Creative Commons, so please feel free to use, share, mash-up and/or make this better.  Also, it's worth noting that lots of other FANTASTIC annual reports can be found here.  Have fun!

Beyond the Pie Chart: When Learning Can't Be Measured

F4F Flyer 2011

Like many libraries around the world, mine holds a Food for Fines event each year.  In fact, I got the idea from my local public library which held one 3 years ago, but then stopped (I’m not really sure why).  For us, Food for Fines equates to a one week event in which students can pay off library fines by making non-perishable food donations. While lots of students take advantage of this opportunity to clear their accounts, the vast majority of the donations we receive, are from students who DON’T have library fines.  This is because the event is heavily promoted, integrated into the curriculum, and used as a conversation starter between kids and adults about poverty, social justice and how the purpose of knowledge is to inspire action. 

Overall, our donations were down this year.  Although I’m a little disappointed, I’m not really surprised.  In addition to the economic turmoil that we’re all facing, my school is experiencing the (often exciting and wonderful, but also sometimes messy) growing pains of redistricting.  And the fact is that our new population simply isn’t as affluent as those of years past.  Even so, there are plenty of other numbers indicating that this event was a success:

100%      This is the number of classes that participated in the event this year. 

               No matter how small, every class gave something.

84           This is the number of boxes of food that will be donated to Mother 

               Hubbard’s Cupboard in Wilmington, NC.

55           This is the number of fines that were paid.

21           This is the number of homeless students at my school who will benefit

               from donations given to our “back pack buddies” program.

9             This is the number of classes I worked with to discuss and discover

               information related to poverty in our area.

2             This is the number of school buses it will take to deliver our donation.

1             This is the number of students who were utterly shocked to learn that

               both peanut butter and tuna fish are considered protein (we have the 

               students sort the food into food groups so that we can make a nutritious 

               donation).  Ok.  I admit this number may actually be much larger.

"Busy Hands"  http://ow.ly/59RZi

But the really important outcomes can’t be measured.  I don’t know about you, but at this time of year, when I’m trying to make sense of end of year data, I sometimes find it tempting to rethink projects that can’t be defended with a pie chart or a bar graph.  However, this is wrong and dangerous thinking. The conversations that grew out of this project, the seeds of empathy and philanthropy that were planted, and the understanding that once you know a thing, you can’t unknow it, (you can choose to ignore it or choose to act on it, but you must choose) – these outcomes cannot be measured – but that makes them no less important than those that can be.

As school librarians, we are in the business of impacting student learning.  And like all teachers, that means we have to be concerned with academic success, growth and proficiency.  However, this week has reminded me that knowledge is best cultivated in an environment of dialog and participation – of conversation and discovery.  And while those environments are often discordant and produce results that are difficult to quantify, they are the ones that are most likely to help our students grow into thinkers, questioners, innovators and (big, big social) problem solvers.

As I always am at the end of Food for Fines week, today I find myself both exhausted and grateful.  Not only am I pooped by the sheer effort it takes to pull the whole thing off (not that I do it alone, by any stretch of the imagination) but I am also utterly humbled to be a part of a profession whose very mission is rooted in making the world, and the people in it, better.

When the Crazies Come Knocking, Will You Be Ready?

"Interrogation" cc  images from http://ow.ly/4UG6x

I first became aware of "The Disgraceful Interrogation of L.A. School Librarians" when Neil Gaiman tweeted the link along with the note "this makes my blood boil."  Within hours, my twitter and facebook feeds were full of responses, one of my favorites having to do with how clearly the crime rate in LA must have dropped to something less than miniscule proportions.  How else can you explain school librarians being interrogated like criminals?  Anyway, soon I was led to this blog post that recounts the experience in LA first hand followed by this letter to the editor in my local paper (from a former principal!) which (although unrelated) basically says fixing my state's fiscal woes is easy because we don't need school librarians (or guidance counselors or nurses!) anyway.

Needless to say, it's been a rough week for educators, and for school librarians in particular.  And lots of (really smart) people have been writing about it to express their outrage and frustration.  Unfortunately, however, while this is an extreme example to be sure, it's only one in a long line of beatings that all educators are currently taking from lawmakers and a populous who want to balance state checkbooks without taking any of the blame for mismanaging the funds.  I hate to say it, but I think this is only the beginning of such "interrogations."  While, hopefully, most of us will not be dragged down into a basement and forced to prove our worth under hot, and really unflattering, florescent lights - rest assured, we WILL be asked to prove our worth.

I guess the question we have to ask ourselves now is: can we?

Now is the time of year when many in libraryland start thinking about end of year reports.  And gosh, there's lots of really cool examples out there that showcase the work that goes on in our libraries.   This year,  however, as I put these numbers together, I will be thinking a lot about how to draw the line between the data I've collected and student learning. This year, whatever form(s) my report takes, its ultimate purpose will be to prove that my work is a) the solution to the problems that keep my principal and superintendent up at night b) directly linked to student achievement and c) an indispensable part of our school culture and mission.  More than ever, I think these reports need to take the extra step of bridging the gap between simply presenting the facts and linking those facts to student achievement.

Along those same lines, if you're anything like me, then this time of year also leads to endless prognostications about how I'll do things "next year."  It's funny, but I can remember, being told my first year teaching "not to worry," that after five years I'd "get my groove" - which in this case meant that after 5 years, I'd have a cadre of resources at my fingertips and I would no longer have to create new things every year.  Unfortunately, if that's the definition of getting one's groove, I've yet to achieve this zen like state.  Rather, I'm the kind of teacher who is constantly reinventing the wheel.  No matter how successful or enjoyable or impactful a program/project/collaboration may be, I seem to always be able to think of ways to make it better.  And this year is no exception.

Even as I start gathering together the fruits of this year's labor, I am overcome with thoughts of how I will collect data next year.  I'll be writing about this in more depth later, but for now I think it's well worth mentioning that if I am lucky enough to still have a job next year, I'll be taking extra care to ensure that I collect data that spotlights the impact of my work.  Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because when my seat in the basement is ready, I want to make sure I'm prepared.