Board of Education

On April 19, I attended my first Board of Education meeting. Maddie met me there after school. It was a very odd mix of old meets new. With minor changes in dress, it could have been a scene from the 1950's--a moment of silence, a student leading the Pledge of Allegiance, recognition of principals and vice principals, another student singing a popular inspirational song and Amazing Grace, lots of awards certificates punctuated with photos for the local press. The meeting was as much pomp and circumstance as it was business. Only the topics of discussion connected the meeting to the 21st Century.

And sadly, most of those connections were about the current fiscal crisis. On a happier note, year's National Board Certified Teachers were recognized along with the county's winning Battle of the Books team. But then the hard business began. A PTO president rose to speak about staff shortages in his school and the local county NCAE rep urged the county to sign on to a resolution urging the legislature to "Fund Schools First". Lots of Roberts Rules of Order.

I wasn't sitting in a good position to either hear or see. The Board was clearly visible, but guest speakers had their backs to the audience and some of the discussion was too technical and specific for the casual observer. Clearly, reading the newspaper report the next day would have been more informative and we left about half way through the meeting. I did not get a feel for how much the board responded to its visitors--if their concerns were really considered, or just politely listened to. On the surface, the emphasis was on tradition, patriotism, and decorum. What happens beneath that surface, I could not tell from this one visit. Food for discussion when I see Maddie next.

Encouragement

I attend Quaker meeting. The tradition includes sitting in watchful silence until somone is led to speak. This past meeting, it was, among others, me. My favorite Easter story is the last chapter of John--Jesus's final appearance to his disciples. They have fished all night with nothing to show for it. They don't recognize Jesus on the shore but he is waiting for them with a hot breakfast. He encourages them to cast their nets one more time. Which they do, and the story records that their nets were bursting with "great fishes"--enough to have destroyed their nets. But the nets hold and they bring them to shore. With this, they recognize Jesus. As Peter greets him, three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Three times Peter replies to Jesus that he does. And three times Jesus responds, "then feed my sheep"--Jesus's last words on earth to his followers.

Some interpret this as Jesus's command to the church to preach the gospel. Others, of which I am one, believe that he meant exactly what he said--that we are to provide materially for each other as well as spiritually. Jesus spent too much time and energy providing food and healing along with his words for us to think we are not called to do the same.

But for some reason this Sunday morning, the word "encouragement" would not leave me. I lost my older sister a couple of weeks ago. Over these past few years we have been reconnecting after a long absence. And then suddenly she was gone. I've been trying to put into words the space she has left. And it finally came to me, the thing I miss most is her encouragement. We neither one of us got much parental approval growing up. I think she realized, by its absence, what a precious gift it is. So she gave it generously. To me, to my kids, to her children, to her co-workers. In a recent conversation, her husband told me how stunned he was at her memorial to hear people he'd never met talk about what gifts she'd given them, mostly through her encouragement.

For over 25 years, I've taught adults the craft of weaving. But I haven't worked much teaching children and I've never been responsible for disciplining any but my own. So I've been studying Maddie's interactions with them in the library. She can be pretty stern, but even when she is setting limits or correcting them, she offers instruction and encouragement on behaving the right way. And her positive interactions are always about encouraging their interests, asking them to share with her, letting them know by her interest that they matter to her. I am amazed at her attention to this. She has an assistant who works mostly in the back room. Maddie is pretty much the face of the library, and she offers her attention to all 850 children along with all the paperwork, faculty support and technology stuff her job requires. It is likely that her principal will evaluate her based on these last items, but the real power behind her effectiveness as a librarian lies in the little words of interest and enthusiam that she shares with each child. With them she is feeding her sheep.

I don't know how a library program can teach this. Clearly Jesus struggled to convey to Peter the importance of this kind of caring. Now that I am at the end of my library program, with nearly four years of work experience under my belt, I'm certain that I have the professional and technology skills to hold up the technical end of the job. But I'm beginning to understand that everything we've learned in school is not the job--it's only a tool to be used in doing the real job--caring for, encouraging, supporting each other and our community--feeding our sheep.

I've already turned in my portfolio for my degree. It includes, as required, my personal philosophy of library science. But were I to post it now, I think I'd use this quotation I recently came across. It is credited to Bryant S. Hinckley:

"To give encouragement, to impart sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self-confidence, and awaken hope in the hearts of others, in short--to love them and to show it--is to render the most precious service."

Finding Fossils!

What better way to end the week than to let the kids play in the dirt. Six million year old dirt. With fossils.

At the eastern most tip of Beaufort County lies the tiny town of Aurora, home to a massive phosphate mine. While largely unknown to the rest of the state, researchers from around the globe visit this tiny town to see what the phosphate folks are digging up. Teachers come too, along with the occasional fossil afficionado tourist. For their pleasure and reward, each week the mine owners dump a load of fossil-laden mine tailings (quaintly referred to as "reject") in a pile across the street from the Aurora Fossil Museum, the town's sole attraction. Maddie makes a pilgrimage to Aurora once a year to fill these three plastic buckets for a day of learning and fun with the 8th grade science class. This is her favorite lesson to teach, and despite spending weeks in a foot cast after twisting her ankle on this last trek, she sounded ready to head back for next year's stash.

This past year she brought her elderly mother along who had so much fun dirt-digging she refused to leave until she'd filled the pockets of her housecoat. (Apparently Maddie comes by this love honestly. ) The kids felt this way, too. As soon as she'd dumped a large coffee mug of reject before each student they were into it. And almost immediately you could hear the oohs and aahs of discovery. Twice she'd have students stand up and switch piles with someone else. And with each switch, there were new discoveries.

This lesson is part of a collaborative project with one of the 8th grade science teachers. Each student received a pictoral guide, a zip lock bag, a mug of dirt, and lots of encouragement. Even the teacher couldn't keep her fingers away from the stuff. Maddie began the lesson with a map of NC counties and a quick geography lesson to orient students to the reject's source. She also had a dataprojector set up to explore the fossil museum web page. She used audio/visual aids, textual information, and tactile engagement to anchor the lesson and address multiple learning styles. Switching tables gave the students a chance to stretch and move with a purpose. They were encouraged to speak softly with one another to collaborate on identifying their "finds". And their science teacher assessed them on their participation and deportment. Sure seemed like an A+ lesson plan to me!

Obi-Wan Follette

Who has seen a Star Wars movie and not wanted to be a Jedi Knight or play with a light saber? Well, I came close to it today.

Maddie's library operates on a split schedule--three days fixed and two days flexible. It just so happened that today, there were no scheduled classes in the library. A rare opportunity to catch up on paperwork. She's been explaining to me the year end forms she needs to complete, both for the county and for NCDPI. The big deal now is getting an inventory done and reconciling differences between the shelf list and the catalog.

My job today was to play with the Follette Bar Code Reader. You can see in the picture how she's positioned barcodes on the back of her books. With the flip of a finger, the barcode label is exposed, the Jedi throws back his cape, grasps his weapon. Light erupts from his saber as he wields it with aplomb towards his intended target . . . Oops. I meant, you can aim the targeted red light of the barcode reader at the barcode label, and in a literal flash, have a record of the selected item for inventory.

Maddie's collection contains about 19,000 items, all of which have to be inventoried by the end of the year. I did her entire fiction section today--I'm guessing between 3 and 4000 books. It was fun. (I'm sure it wouldn't be if it were my responsibility for the whole job every year!) After reading several hundred barcodes, I'd take the reader to her computer. She'd download the results into Destiny and any discrepancies would come out in report form. I'd go back and bring her the books in question and she'd set the records straight. What an amazing tool!

Besides having fun, I did learn a few things. At our new library, we'll have a different vendor, but we are supposed to get a similar barcode reader. Placement of the labels is everything. Maddie uses duplicates--one inside the front cover and one strategically placed on the back. Previous librarians have labelled some books in other places. And books that are heavily used often have the back label obscured or torn. Having to use the inside label really slows the process. And labels placed too close to ISBN barcodes can cause misreadings. So we'll talk about this when I get back to my real job.

Another thing I learned today was a whole new meaning for the term "boxed sets". While I played Jedi, Maddie was hard at work cataloging "boxed sets". Certain titles are purchased in sets of 30 or more for classroom use. They are kept in lidded plastic tubs for easy transport to the classroom. But they still have to be barcoded, inventoried and cataloged like everything else. Between new purchases, and correcting a previous staff member's mistakes, there was considerable muttering from behind her desk. I tried not to make like I was having too much fun, but . . . Oh, and did I mention I had a chair on wheels for doing the job? Yippee!!