First Year Firsts

I remember my first day on my first job in the library. I was greeted with a hug from the school secretary. I was ushered down the hall and handed a key to the library. The door was opened for me, it was closed behind me, and I found myself utterly alone.

Almost every school library media specialist can recount a similar story about starting the job. Someone hands us a key, shows us where the door to the library is, and then leaves us to pick up the reins of the program. I suppose the assumption is that we know what to do. I suspect, however, that most of us would say that we managed to bumble through somehow until we figured it out.

As the years pass, the sense of fear, awe, excitement, and maybe sheer terror dims to an August of another year, another first day, and another group of students and teachers. Sometimes, however, it might be a good idea to pretend that it is the first year all over again. Here are some tips for the new or not-so-new library media specialist.

First Week

During the first week of school, the library media specialist's life will be filled with teacher work days, mandatory meetings, piles of stuff with no apparent purpose, and a line of teachers and other staff who want something from the library. There is little time to get to know the collection or the routine, and less time to figure out where everything goes. Try this list as a set of goals for the first week of school.

Introduce yourself to classroom teachers and school staff.

Start with your very first day before school even starts. Each day visit your prospective library, explore the halls. Many teachers spend a week or more at school before they have to be there. This is a good time for introductions. Obtain a list of faculty and staff, and cross off the ones that you've met. When the first week of school arrives, set out with a purpose to find the ones you haven't met yet.

Find one good resource for one teacher.

One of the reasons for meeting teachers in their classrooms is that you can easily find out what they will be studying during the first few weeks, simply by looking at their preparation materials and bulletin boards. Take notes so that you can be prepared for future needs, but then try to locate one really great resource. It will make you feel like you are already doing your job, and it will make one teacher see your value.

Find one good book for one student.

When school starts, have displays ready for student reading. Listen and engage in conversations about reading, books, magazines, and movies. Try to place yourself physically near students. Inexperienced teachers sometimes have a zone of fear around them, and approach students to answer a question and then quickly back off to safety. Place yourself in the thick of things. Be able to say after the first week that one student is reading a good book that you suggested.

Put up one display.

Displays, bulletin boards, and library signage are important, but they are also time-consuming. Less is more. Remember that displays are part of the instructional process. A display should have a measurable educational objective. A display highlighting football fiction and biographies has a reading encouragement goal, measured by the number of books checked out from the display, and the number of students who found the resources interesting enough to talk about.

Do one newsletter or Web page.

Along with introducing yourself face-to-face with faculty and staff, you also have to introduce the library and its resources. Check with administration to find out whether e-mail newsletters or links to Web pages are preferred by faculty. Print newsletters tend to use a lot of paper. E-mail links may be preferred. Be careful with humor, although the tone can be light. School faculty can be touchy at times and unintended slights will last for years.

Be where the students are.

It would be nice to say that you were so busy with students in the library that you did not have time to venture into the hall at all. Unfortunately, the reverse may be true, and you may find that the library is removed from the chaos of the rest of the school. Don't make yourself an island. Step into the halls when classes change. Visit the cafeteria during student lunch hours. Nod and say hello to students and teachers. You will find that for the most part they will be equally full of good cheer, and some may stop and talk.

First Week Summary

Whew! Exhausted already. And this is just the beginning. At the end of the first week, you should have a sense of the faculty, staff, and student emotional climate. You should be able to talk specifically about your impressions of the school population. True, you still don't know much about the library or collections, but the first week needs to be a people-focused week. There is plenty of time for learning about the stuff.

First Month

Some brand-new school library media specialists make the mistake of first writing policy and procedures, goals and strategies, without ever meeting a single patron. Policy and procedures should be based on the people in the school, not inflicted on them. The end of the first month is plenty of time to think about the library program you could have in this school.

Set a standard for discipline based on your values and beliefs and the culture of the school.

If you believe that you are in the business of granting temporary privileges to use your library, you will work very hard to set up policies and procedures to keep as many students and staff out as possible. If, on the other hand, you believe that the resources paid for by parents and other taxpayers are owned by the students, and that you are the facilitator of their library, then you will take a very different approach. Spend some time thinking about what you believe. Read the mission, vision, and goals of Information Power, then set your standards accordingly. Remember that you will have the type and level of behavior that you either expect or that you come to accept over a period of time. Expect students to use the library. Refuse to accept disrespect from students or staff.

Offer to collaborate with one teacher.

Okay, you've casually mentioned working with a teacher to teach information skills. You put it in the newsletter Web page. And still no takers. Obviously, you will need to be a bit more direct. Choose one teacher who either owes you a favor, or who seems to be creative and innovative. Approach him or her directly and ask about doing a collaborative project together. If it works, fine. If not, plan on another teacher for next month. Sooner or later, you will find a yes.

Set goals for the year.

By the end of the first month, you should know what you want to achieve for the school and for the library program. Formulate at least three ideas into goals, each aligning to one of the Information Power roles. See Figure 1 for a simple spreadsheet approach to doing this.

Write a scenario of your vision for the library program in terms of instruction, environment, and collection.

One of the best things about being a school librarian is that we have the freedom and flexibility to concentrate on a variety of interests, since no one in the school truly knows what our job is. On the other hand, one of the worst aspects of the job is trying to explain what our job is to our peers who have no idea. A scenario is a picture of the future if everything worked out the way that it is supposed to. It time travels the reader into the future. A one-page scenario envisioning the library program five years in the future is a great way to explain and justify goals.

First Month Summary

Wow. You have your feet under you now, although still at times you realize how much there is to know. Still, by now you have a good rapport with a few teachers, and are on speaking terms with most. You know some of the students by name, and are even able to identify a few regulars. You have your goals set, and have a fairly clear idea of what needs to be accomplished. You are ready to start achieving.

First Year

As busy as the first year is, at the end of five years you will look back and wonder what you did to keep yourself occupied. Program growth is exponential, and the more that you serve the needs of students and staff, the more needs there are to be fulfilled. At the end of each year, however, it's good to step back and reflect on the passage of the year. Here are some first year goals:

Survive!

Walking into your first year as a school library media specialist is like jumping on a roller coaster going at top speed. Your only goal is not to fall off. Finesse moves such as waving your hands in the air will come later. Survival is the first real goal. Life cannot slow down while you catch up. You will have to hop on and hold tight. You need to feel good about doing that, instead of berating yourself for what you didn't do. You survived. For the first year, that was your job.

List three things that you are proud of.

It's easy to see the disasters that happened, and there will always be some. For now, list three things that you are proud of doing. These may not be big program-changing events. In fact, what makes us proud to do what we do are sometimes the little things, like finding one book for one child, or having a really great research session with the ninth graders, or impressing a middle schooler with our knowledge of databases.

List three things that you want to change.

Re-read your original goals and scenario that you wrote at the end of your first month. What are some of the barriers that are preventing that scenario from becoming a reality? Remember that your changes cannot address the behavior of others. People can change, but you can't change them. You can only change your response to their behavior. Keep your list to only three things. More will overwhelm you, less is not doing enough. You want to be able to assess how these changes will help your program, and you can't do this by changing everything at once.

Evaluate your program, then meet with your principal to discuss your goals for next year.

There are several instruments available to evaluate your program and your performance. Search in the literature for one you are comfortable with, or develop your own. Contact your state school library office to see if there is a statewide instrument available. Strive for an objective tone, neither too negative nor too positive. Write a one-page factual executive summary, and then make an appointment with your principal to discuss it. Try to schedule this after the students leave, when he or she has more relaxed time.

Take the summer off.

I know. You need to do inventory, catalog, reshelf, cover the shelves. Then you need to come in every few weeks to check on summer school, check for new boxes, see if the custodians have moved anything. Then midway through the summer, you need to come in to get the library ready for next year.

Relax. Go to the beach. Pick up some great reading. Clear your mind. You have a whole career ahead of you. Taking care of you is the most important job you have all summer. Put 'Do Nothing' on your to do list as your only task. It may be harder than you think.

Plan for next year.

Summer is thinking time. Reflect on the past year, and plan to make small changes each month that will get you closer to your goals. Think also of the difference in your feelings between starting your first year and starting your second. Imagine what it will be like when you start your tenth year. Each year is different, but the elements of sameness will always make the library feel like home.

Your First Principal

And while we are on the first year, here are some tips for the care and feeding of your first principal.

Work toward school goals.

It's not about you, or your little fiefdom of the library. The real question is how you contribute towards school goals. In each memo that you write, for each point that you achieve, connect the dots to show how your work in the library contributes toward school goals and student achievement.

Send a monthly report.

One of the most overlooked ways to keep your principal on your side is the monthly report of progress. List stats briefly and explain them, note significant accomplishments, then note challenges. Turn it in faithfully each month. This has several benefits. First, it will give you a chance to periodically reflect on the progress toward library goals. Second, it provides the principal with needed sound bites of what is happening in the library. Be sure to mention an instructional unit and a teacher by name. Also mention a few "coulda, woulda, shoulda" events. These are great things that didn't happen. Maybe you just didn't have time, maybe you didn't have the money, maybe the stars were not in alignment. Regardless, over a period of a few years, this will help you and your principal see recurring barriers to improved student learning.

Here are guidelines for the monthly report:

• One-page
• Circulation and other stats
• Accomplishments
• Notable instruction and assessments
• Almost home runs, and why you missed them
• Progress toward goals

Say "Thank You."

Principals sometimes take on the most amazing tasks. Every time you see your principal make an opening speech to the PTA, or face an angry parent, or defuse a simmering confrontation between students, be sure to let him or her know that you thought it was worth praise. Although at times we slip out the door to go home very happy that we are not sitting in the principal's chair, they rarely hear those thoughts spoken.

Remember that kudos come to those who:

Show up. It's amazing how much of the time simply by always showing up and being on time people will think you are doing a great job.

Support school goals. It also means enforcing school rules, even if you don't agree with them. School goals, however, need to be integrated into library goals for the year, and progress toward them evaluated.

Care about student learning. We are not here to keep the books straight and in pristine condition. We need to care about assessments, help to figure out ways to increase student learning, and shoulder part of the responsibility when students do not achieve.

Care about teaching. Good teachers are constantly searching for ways to improve their teaching. They scour journals, agonize over just-taught lessons, and ask for advice from others.

Are professional. Professional teachers are members of their professional association, read widely in the education and subject-field journals, and are able to discuss trends and issues in education.

Share turf. There is a difference between sharing turf and being a doormat. Value your space so highly that you want to share it with others so that students can benefit from the library.

Make school work for everyone. The schooling process has worked for teachers and administrators. They are products of the system that they are engaged in promoting. There are others, however, for whom school did not and does not work. These include some parents, some students, and even some school staff. Find a way to make their involvement in the school a source of pride.

Just for You

A school library media specialist takes care of a wide range of needs for students, staff, and the school community. You can't do that unless you first take care of you. Starting with year one, put this to do list on top of the pile:

Join your state professional association.

Most state associations now have discussion lists, so it's a great way to get questions answered. It is also a great way to find out the names of the school library media specialists in neighboring schools and districts. It's usually fairly inexpensive to do this, and it helps to be able to talk with people who know the issues of your state and where to find resources.

Join AASL.

I don't want to hear that you don't have the money. You probably spend more on a month of diet soda than you would spend on a year's membership. You're a professional. It's just what you do. Enough said. And besides, AASL is your lifeline for the knowledge, continuing skills, and resources that you need to do your job. You get far more than you pay for with your membership.

Attend state and national conferences.

You need to get away. At school library conferences, you will find people who understand you, your school, your trials and tribulations, and your enthusiasm for your job. The whiners tend to stay home, and that's a good thing. Even if you pay your own way, and most people do, use conference time as your own personal getaway time to relax, refresh, and rejuvenate.

Get in touch.

Along with reading professional journals, you also should think seriously about joining a committee. It's nice to be involved in professional work outside of your school, and you will make some lasting friendships. Post a 'hi, I'm new here' note to a school library discussion list. You will find others eager to extend a hand. Remember, school library media specialists are only as isolated as they allow themselves to be.

Make long-term goals.

Your program will do fine now that you're in charge, but remember you also have to be in charge of you. Make long-term goals for yourself as well in terms of professional growth, learning, and skills. Think seriously about applying for National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification in a few years. It will be a tremendous challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity for you to join the community of school library media specialists as accomplished teachers.

Big Finish!

After it's all over, you've gotten through the year, and you can look back and be amazed at all you've accomplished. Go out and celebrate! You are well on your way.