"Do's" & "Do Not's" When beginning a new job

[Cathy Nelson]

I will begin a new job in a middle school in the fall. Short of reading up on middle school and young adult literature, particularly my state's 2008 award nominees, does anyone have other words of wisdom?

[Diane Cordell]

Cathy, Get ready for an adventure! One-on-one, middle school students are wonderful; as a group they can be daunting. Remember, some of them are in a new school environment and riding a hormonal roller coaster.
I would suggest that you establish your authority, being firm but pleasant; these kids need strong adult role models, not buddies. Those rewarding teacher-student relationships will develop over time as you all build an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. Don't get discouraged - young teens can be fun and energizing!
(My photos include a picture of our entire 8th grade class on a Social Studies trip to the USS Slater. What a group - individuals all!)

[C]

Take some time to get to know your teachers and administrators. You might step on someone's toes otherwise and make for hard times later. Good luck and have fun!

[Gretchen Hazlin]

I am just finishing up my first year in a middle school and I love it! Middle school kids are so much fun. I find them interested and open like younger kids with the ability to understand more complex things. Sure, they're often squirrelly, but I recommend accepting that they are teenagers and don't require the library to be a completely silent place (while still being a place for school-related not social activities).

Use your first year to build relationships -- attend team and department meetings (even if it means closing the library for a period to attend), see if you can get yourself onto instructional council or whatever the leadership team of your school is called (you are the only instructional position in the school who teaches every single student!), ask a lot of questions, each lunch in the faculty lunch room, and attend school social events.

Be flexible and work with your teachers and students -- go into classoomrs instead of always inviting teachers to do lessons in the library. I think that librarians are more effective when we think outside the physical space of the library.

Save the kudos you get (put the print ones in a folder on your desk, save the e-mailed ones to a folder in your inbox). These are great to refer to when you are having a bad day and also go to great lengths to help you prove your worth in your evaluations.

Do a quarterly report for your administration on the Library. It will show that you are a professional and organized and will also help you look at your program long term and see how much you have done over time.

Think of your program as a 5 year plan -- you won't be able to accomplish everything you want in a year but you can definitely have an incredible collaborative program in five years.

Have fun and don't stress! It's the best job in the world!

[Tracy Richards]

Cathy,

I have been at a middle school for five wonderful years. The most rewarding part of my job is giving book talks to every home room (often more than once a year). Before coming to the library, the students (gr 7-9) fill out a short questionairre about reading....like 'what is your favorite book?'. When they come to library, I point out where the manga is, the new books and what the spine labels are. I often 'sell' some of the popular books in the library and then let the kids look around. Meanwhile, I have picked some books off the shelf for them based on their favourite book. For example, if they liked Harry Potter, I will have "Children of the Lamp" out.

The kids love this. They like the fact that someone has taken the time to pick out a book especially for them. I get repeat customers back through the year during the daily silent reading often asking for recommendations. I often get between 60-100 books circulating a day. (which is huge in my low income school)

Now my school has 431 students, so depending on how big your school is.....

As to advice for teaching....it`s better to start off tough and ease up (hard to do the other way around)

[Bob Hassett]

I've been at my middle school (gr. 7-8) for less than two years after several years in a high school, so I'm still a newbie myself. But so far I think it's an awesome age. One piece of advice I'd offer -- I'm sure there are many who would disagree with me -- is to give them, as much as practicable, a lot of room. Kids are coming out of a period when everything is structured and there's almost always someone to hold their hands. Now they have to get used to managing a schedule, moving around the school a lot more during the day, not to mention the massive physical and emotional changes they're going through. With this newfound freedom comes a desire to figure out how far they can push it. So, let them push. You have to differentiate, of course. Some kids still need a lot of support. It doesn't take long to figure out what they need if you're willing to listen. But I struggle a lot to remain at the forward edge of my comfort zone.

I have no patience for outright disobedience or dangerous or threatening behavior. I agree with Tracy that, in a classroom setting, if you don't set your expectations early, you'll never be able to close the gap later. But, we're fortunate that we often deal with kids in a less formal environment. We're free to tweak that environment to make it more congenial and less structured than others in the school. For example, 13-year-old boys are forever slapping each other around. I'll often let a certain amount of that go with a questioning smirk. Almost always, it stops right away. As a result, I think I have more success when I need to tighten the reins -- because they know I only get that way when they're out of bounds.

In the same vein, I agree also with Gretchen (shout out, Gretchen!) about not insisting the Library be quiet all the time. It's generally the teachers who enforce this and I gently remind them that "choosing a book is a social activity." Young teens seem to talk almost constantly when given the opportunity. To deny that is to ignore their development.

[Diane Cordell]

Bob, You've raised some excellent points about how to be simultaneously firm and flexible in the LMC. I was just thinking this morning, that since I'm not giving grades to any of the students, they tend to consider me more an ally than an adversary, even when I'm "reminding" them of school rules.
Diane

[Jeri Hurd]

Hi Cathy--

Hey, I start a new job, too, 6-12. Let's keep in touch and share ideas!

Jeri Hurd

[Amanda Bond]

Doug Johnson's article "Top Ten Things Baby Teachers Should Know About School Libraries - April/May 2003" found at http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/baby.html provides some inspiration about the services a library can provide new teachers - it is worth a look.

Keep connected to forums like this one and lm_net to keep informed. It is great to share good ideas and have questions answered.

Keep reading.

[Terrie Hinojosa]

Hi Cathy,
I am in the same situation! I am coming up from being the librarian in all 5th grade center. I'd love to keep in touch as we start our new adventure!

[lyricaldi]

Cathy, I really miss middle-schoolers as their librarian (as a parent I praise God all 4 of mine finally got out of MS). The main comments I hear from my students as they first go to the middle school are: the middle school library has so many books & they're actually there when you want them, we can spend more time doing bigger projects together in the middle school, and we want to go to the library all the time but when we're there it's like the librarian doesn't want us there - she hovers over us constantly asking us what we need as if we should hurry up & get out. That was my indirect way of saying that many of these middle schoolers have come from flexible library programs where they were able to go to the library any time they needed. They enjoy the library atmosphere and they are truly excited about the new possibilities. Your attitude and the atmosphere you create are under your control. You will have some successes with middle-schoolers that will stay with you the rest of your life. Keep trying to match them to books and magazines. Put them in more control of things. If they can't find anything they want, hand them a review journal and dare them to do a better job selecting materials. You can be the isle of calm acceptance in those turbulent teen years so enjoy them.