Lead to Succeed: TLA Conference in Houston is HERE! (almost...)

by Dorcas Hand

There’s nothing wrong with an occasional bit of shameless self-promotion – especially when every reader of this blog will wish they could attend. TLA conference April 19-22 is themed Open Libraries, Open Opportunities. What better information to take home to your school library campus than ways to strengthen your advocacy skills and program with Hilda Weisburg’s Lead to Succeed?

Hilda has been writing books about advocacy and strong school libraries for a very long time- you may even have subscribed to the magazine she started with Ruth Toor: School Librarian’s Workshop. She still writes a weekly blog by the same title. She’s coming all the way from New Jersey to share with us her practical insights into how we are leaders even when we don’t know it, and how to make our choices most effective.

Our own TLA ProCo (Program Committee) had the brainstorm to combine Hilda’s insights on leadership with concrete tools pulled together by TASL Legislative and Advocacy Committee Chairs Susi Grissom and Dorcas Hand. This 2 hour session is power packed, and includes interactive moments to discuss how best to incorporate new elements in your daily work. Also, the PowerPoint will be available after conference for links to important resources from TASL and other places. The Today’sMeet back channel will also be available for several months so that attendees and others can see what other participants thought. We are our community’s greatest strength; sharing our insights across the community will help school libraries across Texas and beyond be the most vibrant possible supports for student achievement – and will set us up for better success in ESSA implementation.

The program lists the official title Open School Libraries: Develop Your Leadership and Advocacy Abilities – but we have re-titled it “Lead to Succeed”. We hope you will join Hilda, Dorcas and Susi on Thursday, April 21 at 2-3:50. Check your program for the room number. Discover all the advocacy tools made available to you through TASL and AASL among other sources. Don’t miss it! Enjoy the Bluebonnet Luncheon and then head right over to be energized to finish the school year with enthusiasm, laying groundwork for next year at the same time. Every school librarian at conference will want to attend Lead to Succeed.

Stay tuned to this blog over the coming months for posts about many sessions at conference – the professional gift that keeps on giving.

PS: Check here for all the info about conference. I’m just making it easy for you to see what you need. There’s also the app.

PPS: Wednesday, 11-11:50, YART offers 10 Ways to Transform your School Library. Presenters Charla Hollingsworth (Alief ISD) and Lisa Stultz (Spring Branch ISD).

PPPS: Friday, 10-10:50, TASL also offers Resource Redefined: School Libraries as Learning Spaces. Presenters Stacy Cameron and Nancy Jo Lambert of Frisco ISD.

School Librarians Help Healthy Children Learn Better

By Dorcas Hand

This week’s story comes courtesy of an email from Stephen Krashen to the AASL Forum on March 26, 2016. He often sends editorials to magazines and newspapers in response to articles, and he is always on the side of school libraries and student literacy. If you aren’t already familiar with his work, check out his website  and this video from an LAUSDSchool Board meeting in Feb., 2014. 

Sent to US News. March 25

The decline in support for school nurses ("Many school districts don't have enough school nurses, March 23) has been accompanied by a decline in support for school libraries, despite clear evidence that school nurses and libraries have a positive impact on school achievement.

As US News points out, the school nurse is often the only source of accessible health care for children of poverty. Similarly, the school library is often their only source of books.

Schools seem to have plenty of money for chrome books and other expensive technology, but according to a major report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation Development, this has not been shown to be of use to students. Schools also seem to be eager to spend even more on untested new hi-tech teaching machines (competency-based education). 

Why this discrepancy? The ruling class, sometimes known as the .01%, makes big profits on new technology, but makes very little when we provide adequate health care and access to books. 
Stephen Krashen

The U.S. News article can be found in full online.

What this Letter to the Editor reminds us as librarians is that we need to build alliances beyond our own profession. We get busy fighting for the best library program we can build and forget sometimes that we are on a Team of school professionals that includes the nurse, the counselor, the reading support specialist and others. When we work with them and advocate for them as essential as well, we are actually offering a stronger support structure for our students, the ones who can’t learn because they are hungry or scared beyond school hours, the students for whom the library as well as the nurse’s or counselor’s office can be safe spaces. And we are building a stronger alliance across school professionals to work together for change.

It is especially interesting to see this article just now when the Houston ISD school board has been wrestling with the idea of requiring school librarians, counselors and nurses for every district campus. The proposal first surfaced in January but was quickly sidetracked in the face of the current budget crisis. Sadly, the idea remains, for the moment, just that, an idea. But there are board members who continue to push it – so we HISD Library advocates remain hopeful that it will eventually be successful in demonstrating to the Board and district administrators that strong libraries support strong test scores. We know that our students are better when there are nurses and counselors aswell.

We have already used Krashen’s article in conversation with the HISD Board – to remind them how important student health is to strong achievement. And we continue to remind them in the ongoing conversation how school libraries are closely connected to literacy growth and love of learning, as they rely on student health and comfort as supported by the campus nurse and counselor.

This is also a reminder to think outside the box as we build our advocacy programs. We know to look to our stakeholders, but we have many other potential allies in our efforts. Please remember all the essential personnel who help students in dicey situations learn to their fullest potential. The Team of librarian, nurse, counselor and reading support teachers are important to every campus.

The image comes from http://www.iu28.orgPage259

References from Krashen’s email:

·         Value of school nurses: Berliner, D. 2009. Poverty and Potential:  Out-of-School Factors and School Success.  Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential;  
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/lb/schoollibrstats08.asp

·         Value of school libraries: Krashen, S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, and Westport, CONN: Libraries Unlimited (second edition).

·         Lack of impact of technology: OECD. 2015. Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection  Organization for Economic Coordination and Development. Oecd.org

Storytelling Matters- So Do School Libraries

Dorcas Hand

Storytelling makes price irrelevant, Kindra Hall said, as she relayed a study on significant objects. Researchers put 200 little knickknacks on eBay and paired them with a compelling story to see how much they would sell for. As an example they put a No. 4 tile on the auction site, which is available for $6 from The Home Depot. They paired that tile with a story of a couple moving into their first home. The tile sold for $88. In another example, they posted a cute little pony, which they purchased for $1. They paired it with a story of a woman whose daughter’s favorite toy was that pony. She said she hoped that someone would enjoy it as much as her daughter did. The selling price: $104.54.

“If you’re facing the challenge of value, you’re not telling the right stories. People will pay a lot of money for a good story,” Kindra said. “I’m not telling you to lie; I think the truth is much more interesting.” You can raise the value of something by 3,200 percent with a story, she added.

School libraries need to take this perspective to heart. We are “selling” things we consider essential to student success in a world where our administrators don’t always see them as essential. We need to improve our sales skills.

We need to improve our storytelling skills.

Blogger Ari Pinkus recounted Kindra Hall’s comments at the National Assn of Independent Schools (NAIS) conference last week (Feb 24-26, 2016). I was so intrigued by the post that I am offering a few ideas here. Please read on – this is important to school librarians.

So now to the meat of the matter: STORY. To quote Kindra Hall, via Pinkus: … we need to understand what storytelling is not: tagline, slogan, mission statement, history lesson, date on a calendar (If the first line on your website is the year you were founded, you’re missing the point, she said.)…...

Kindra’s three key steps to storytelling: finding the story (not easy); crafting the story (not easy); telling the story (easiest part). Data is not a story, although data supports a story. It is the emotional connection of the story that builds the connection, which sells the product - in this case school librarians and libraries.

In advance of the NAIS conference, attendees were asked to post a photo of everyday objects to tell a story about [their] school life. How might we use this idea to construct still life images to tell the story of the importance of school libraries? How can we improve our storytelling skills, using words to further illuminate what we need our allies and stakeholders to understand? Will you take the challenge? Try it for yourself, for your library and program.

Remember, if you’re facing the challenge of value, you’re not telling the right stories. How will you tell the RIGHT story? Check out the complete blog post for more information.

Pinkus, Ari. On Why Storytelling Matters – And How We Can Tell Compelling Stories