Ok. I came from a school where going to the library/media center was considered a "special", just like art, music, and PE. You dropped your kids off and the librarian/media specialist was responsible for them, even sometimes teaching lessons on Dewey Decimal and using resources. In the school that I teach in now, I am expected to stay with my students in the library and monitor their behavior. I'm lucky if the librarian/media specialist even comes out to help them find books! How is it at your school? I get really miffed with our set-up. Our media specialist gets annoyed when I have to "bother" her to help a child find a book. It should not be my job to run my kids around the library finding books! Maybe I just grew up being used to the LIBRARIAN helping me in the LIBRARY. Sorry ... had to rant.
Not a specials for upper grades, so we send them with passes when they want to get another book. She's an angel to them, and so her aide. If we want her to do a lesson on some kind of media skill like reference sources, she creates the lesson and then schedules them and teaches it. We don't have to be in there with them.
Where I grew up and where I first taught we had a librarian/ media specialist who had the class for a "special" once a week. At the school I work at now our kids are sent down w/ a pass to get books. The librarian is cranky ALL the time and I honestly don't know what she does with all of her time... She isn't very willing to help us ever and the library is closed once a week for the most random reasons.
In my district library is considered a special, so I am allowed to leave my kids there and have a 1/2 hour of planning time. Our librarian is wonderful about taking the kids and getting them books. She always tries to squeeze us in during short weeks as well, and even though I offer to stay with my class when the lesson is shorter than normal (15-20 minutes instead of the normal 30) to help out, she always refuses. Our library is also open during recess so the students can return and check out books any day during the week.
It's not a special for my district (we're super lucky to even have a librarian), but they do help the kids find books and, for kinder and first, they will also read a story to the class before they check books out.
We don't have a librarian per se... we do have a crazy woman who acts as a librarian and will complain at staff meetings if books are left out of place. She's really a french teacher though. Teachers are to come in with their students.
At the schools I sub at we teachers are required to stay with the students while they are in the library. They go once a week.
At my school in grades k-2 the media specialist does lessons with the kids and then they pick out books. We do not stay with them. In the upper grades, the teachers bring them to the library once a week for a half hour of book selection, but the teacher has to stay with them.
Where my kids go to school library is a "special" and there's a librarian who runs the class and does activities with them. There are also often one or two volunteers that help check books out or write out "Oooops, I left the following books at home" notes to send home. The elementary school I student taught at also had it as a "drop off" special.
I don't remember if my teacher dropped us off after 4th grade or not, i know we could take passes in 5 and 6... before that we got dropped off for library time. We LOVED the librarian. My littlest sister had my old 4th grade teacher as her librarian, I should ask her how she gets to go.
Wow, after reading some of the post I am more convinced than ever that I am extremely lucky. Our Media Specialist is absolutely wonderful. She teaches the kids anything remotely related to Library/Research skills that is testing related. She has taught my students to use a dictionary, thesaurus, map skills, the difference between an index, glossary, table of contents, encyclopedia, atlas, and how to do a non-fiction research paper. That was besides teaching them "normal" library skills and also doing "tutoring" 2 days a week when she doesn't have students scheduled so that those students that need extra help can get it. She has them for 50 minutes every week. The tutoring sessions are 30 minutes two days a week.
Wow. Our students can go to the library every day if we want them to. One or two at a time, unescorted, or the whole class if the teacher accompanies them. The "open" hours are 8:15-9:15 and 2:15-3:15, with the remainder of the time scheduled for classes who go to the library for special lessons or readalongs with the librarian. Our librarian is fantastic, and she tries to help everyone she can, but we know that is impossible so we all pitch in uncomplainingly to help her. There are also numerous parent volunteers who also do a wonderful job helping the kids. I knew we were lucky, but now I feel even luckier BTW, many of my students were low readers last year. Thanks to a librarian who welcomes them at any time with open arms, they have blossomed into stellar readers!
We go for 30 minutes once a week. The librarian reads a story and then the students check out books. We are supposed to stay with them. In our district they are instructional assistants and not certified.
It's not a special for us. I student taught at a school where it was and I miss it! We don't have a full time librarian. We bring our kids in at a scheduled time and check the books out to them ourselves. If there weren't two of us co-teaching in my room I don't know what we would do! It definitely gets crazy in there.
Our librarian is a not a certified teacher, but she does get my class for 40 minutes a week. She doesn't give grades though. She also does cross walk duty in the morning and afterschool. She rocks!
The librarian at my school doesn't come up with a lesson plan but she does happily help them find books on a certain topic. She also helps with online research, teaching students how to look for information in the right places -- such as doing searches in reliable online database like LexisNexis and not like Wikipedia. I have had her come to my psychology class to give a short presentation on researching and citing properly. When I send my students to the library, they can go to her for help but she isn't expected to look after them. I usually sit in the library so that I can answer any questions they have about the research project.
My old school used media as a special. She did all kinds of things with them. Older kids had a lot of independent reading with online quizzes to win prizes. She was very creative with the younger ones in that she'd read a story to them and then whatever the theme of the story was, she'd follow up with a related activity. I walked in and saw her teaching kindergarteners how to brush their teeth one day! The media teacher at my current school is given classes but he "doesn't know what to do with them" so they get reassigned to others. *rolls eyes* He feels he shouldn't have classes so that he can maintain the library and do other things. That's just goofy.
We go to the school library once a week and the teachers stay with the kids and help them find books. There's no librarian, but some teachers get the library assigned to them as an extra "chore" to keep in order and tidy. (All teachers get one room outside their classroom that they are responsible for) I have not worked in any schools with a librarian.. Apparently it's to expensive to have one..
Our kids go 30 minutes one day per week. It's a regular special (prep time for me). They read a book and usually do some sort of mini lesson (how to find books, internet safety, etc.). Our Media Specialist is awesome! I have computer lab time (I have to teach it), and I asked her for websites and resources, and she offered to teach it for me! I just have to be there to help. I LOVED media center time when I was in elementary school! It was one of my favorite things, and I'm so glad that my students get to enjoy it as well.
Each grade at my school has library time scheduled once a week. For grades PreK-5 it is a 30 min. class which teachers use as a prep. For grades 6-8 it is only a 10 min. time to exchange books. Students can go to the library anytime though to check out a different book. It doesn't have to be during library time. If I do say so myself, our librarian is very helpful and does a great job (BTW I am the librarian at my school :lol
We have library for 45 minutes once a week. The librarian does a lesson and then the children pick out books. The classroom teacher must be there with the children.
At my school K and 1 go to the library as a class, but after that, the kids go to the library as needed. I can't imagine only having library once a week unless the kids could get five or six books at a time. (And then how would you keep up with them?) However, this may be because our school uses AR, so the kids are doing a lot of independent reading.
Why have a librarian if she isn't going to teach or take responsibility for a class? You could hire someone a lot cheaper and have a book monitor!! lol When my kids were in school (a few years back) the librarian had each class once a week to the library and she actually taught something for 15-20 minutes then helped students pick AR books or other books. Most of the time she would find out ahead of time from the teachers topics they were teaching and try to correspond her lesson to the classroom lessons for that week.
My kids have library once a week for 45 minutes-I drop them off. They can go to the library on their own whenever it's open to get more books. I usually will send mine in groups in the morning during our AR reading time.
