School Media Student Teaching
All school media students have to do a total of 400 hours of fieldwork/practica student teaching experience in order to become NY State certified as a school librarian. We are required to spend time teaching at both the elementary and secondary levels. It may seem like a lot of time but it goes by so fast! I’m currently in the final weeks of my last practicum, and I’ve been having so much fun, both working with the kids and learning from my Library Media Specialist colleagues. Here are just a few of the things I’ve learned so far:
- If you read a book to kindergarteners in which the main character needs to pee, instantly about 80% of the kids will decide they need to go to the bathroom too.
- If you let them, students will find most of their information for research projects using Google. However, if you require them to use books first and won’t allow them to use the Web until several days into a research proejct, they will find most of the information they need from the books.
- Pathfinders tend to be appreciated more by teachers than by students, but they can save a lot of time for both teachers and students. The key is to allow students to struggle and fail to find information using Google, then remind them of the pathfinder and show them how to use it.
- You cannot possibly cover plagiarism too many times. At any age level.
- Don’t assume elementary age students are too young to understand how to do proper citations. They aren’t.
- Food and coffee are powerful motivators for getting teachers into the library.
- Two different school principals gave me the same good advice: to deliver more than I promise, and deliver on all promises.
- Students are drawn to technology; fortunately there are lots of ways to capitalize on technology as a learning tool.
- No matter how old they are, kids love to be read to.
- Test out all technology prior to teaching, and have a backup plan if it fails!