Moving on

Tomorrow is my last day as a Teaching Assistant.  It is past time for me to leave, but it still makes me sad.  I've worked there for six of the eight years that my children were students there.  You don't get much more invested in an urban arts magnet! So many good people were laid off and an even larger number changed schools or even careers in frustration. 

I'm going to apply for unemployment and see if I can get some extra financial aid for this fall.

Schools without Librarians :(

Librarians cut
Rooms, resources, doors closed
Learning locked away

Written in response to an Observer article about CMS staffing cuts.

Librarians Losing Jobs

Reviving booknurse

I've never chosen the easy path.  The last eighteen months have been no exception.  Taking six credit hours while working full time very nearly did me in! That was last year. This fall I cut back to three credit hours which is a bit more manageable.  I continued my work as a teaching assistant, largely out of loyalty to my amazing colleagues but primarily for health insurance.  Increasingly disillusioned by funding cuts, reduced staffing, and pay for performance, I struggled to maintain my center in an increasingly toxic work environment.  This winter experienced what I lightly refer to as "my nineteenth nervous breakdown."  It was a dark and difficult time but my spirit is on the mend.  When I finally received my RIF (reduction in force) packet, I was sad but relieved. I am reviving this blog to create a space both for personal reflection and to keep in touch with colleagues and friends.

talking with librarians

This weekend I spent some time interviewing a local librarian. Someday I hope I can work in a library like his. He was so articulate and passionate about his work and the community that he served. "People are my most important resource," he explained. He takes care of his staff and empowers them to meet the needs of their patrons. In a perfect world all librarian managers would be like that!

Missing the library

I've made it through week one of the new schedule. I am out of the media center for three hours a day working with small groups in classrooms. Open check-out has been reduced to 20 minutes in the morning, 45 minutes from 10:45 - 11:30, and 90 minutes at the end of the day. K-2 students still come for class every week. Grades 3-5 are now"flex." We are scheduling 15 minute blocks so that teachers can bring their entire class to check out.

It is challenging for me because during checkout I may have 25 students in line plus another 25 in the library looking for books. Despite my best efforts, some students get extremely loud! I hate limiting their check-out time like this. I can see how students who come to get books three times a day are missing instruction time, but I still think they should have free access to books.

A related problem is that I have NO time for any shelving. My library workload is the same but now the time I had to work has been cut in half. When the kids are lined up 20 deep to checkout, I don't manage to get much shelving done.

LH

Workshop & small groups

I am not really a media assistant. When my position was eliminated 18 months ago, my principal gave up a K-2 TA position to keep me in the media center. Until this year we were able to have open check-out throughout the school day except during EOG testing. We have so many different groups now that even the media center is used.

Last week we got a new schedule. I will be assisting in 4 classrooms for 45 minutes a day. During "workshop" students work on reading and writing. The work itself is interesting but I feel bad about restricting access to the media center. Checkout hours are now 8:45 - 9:05, 10:45-11:30, and 1:45 - 3:15. Until this week they were 8:45 - 9:05 and then 9:20 - 3:15. Students are expected to be in their classrooms during morning announcements, which begin at 9:05

We have so few assistants now. There really isn't anybody else who can work with these small groups. Two of the other TA's are doing literacy groups full-time. That leaves 5 of us to cover the remaining 28 classes. There is one more TA in the school but she is a 1:1 for a kindergartner so she can't be part of the rotation. I could show my principal the research that supports open access to the media center but I don't think that would change things.

Libraries closing

The Free Library of Philadelphia, established in 1891, is closing because of the Pennsylvania budget Crisis:

http://libwww.freelibrary.org/closing/

Libraries are a precious resource. Never take them for granted.