The Power of a Book
As I complete my final semester of the MLIS program at Syracuse and look for full-time work as a school librarian, I have been substitute teaching at a local middle/high school (6-12) for a computer teacher who is out on paternity leave. Not only has this kept me busy and active in a school setting, it has provided me with some valuable classroom teaching experience. Many of my fellow MLIS-ers are former teachers, but I come to the library from the science field. Even though I spent a semester student teaching, substitute teaching is pushing my classroom management comfort zone. Students can smell fear or hesitation, and they will take advantage of the fact that you may not be familiar with every school procedure. So I have been struggling to refine my teaching style and develop lesson strategies and management skills, and I am getting better at it. However, I was initially worried when I was assigned to cover the in-school suspension room for a couple of periods each day. The ISS room is home to the “problem students,” the ones who don’t behave properly in their regular classrooms. How could I handle these kids?
But it didn’t take long for me to realize that I like working in the ISS room. I get to work with the students on a one-to-one basis, carrying on conversations, helping with homework, responding to inquiries. This level of interaction doesn’t happen in a busy computer classroom, and it is much closer to the point-of-need interactions with students that I enjoy in the secondary school library. When removed from the distractions of friends to show off for, teachers to antagonize, and the opposite sex to flirt with, these kids are…just kids. For the most part, they are calmer in the ISS room than in the regular classroom and I’ve enjoyed my conversations with them. For example, one day, the three students in ISS were wondering how many people were in the United States. I showed them the US Census website and they spent an entire period looking up the populations of cities across the country. That type of inquiry-based learning isn’t always possible in a classroom setting.
Yesterday I had my first tough customer in the ISS room. A frequent discipline problem, this boy has trouble sitting still and tends to be verbally abusive. Plus, he’s a lot bigger than me. But when I arrived at the ISS room, I was intrigued to find the student sitting calmly and quietly. How did that happen? He was being read Ben Mikaelsen’s Touching Spirit Bear by another student. He was mesmerized by the book. When she got to the end of a chapter, he demanded that she read more. He expressed hope that they would have time to finish the whole book! Was it a fluke? I decided to try it for myself, and today when I had a different student with some serious ADHD issues and an equally difficult time sitting still, I pulled My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George off the shelf and began to read. He sat. He didn’t talk. He complained about being bored, but he listened to every word, even asking a question now and then. I don’t know if this will work every time with every student, but I’m willing to try it whenever I get the chance. Reading to a student is a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
The other thing I like about covering the ISS room is that I am forging a bond with these students. Perhaps someday, when I am working as a library media specialist, I can entice some of them to come down to the library and check out some books. Or maybe I will just make it a practice to occasionally go up to the ISS room and read to students.
Feel free to comment here or on the Syracuse iSchool LIS facebook page.
Posted by Rebecca Buerkett, Syracuse MLIS distance student, rlbuerke@syr.edu.