What is the most frustrating thing about being a librarian in Texas?

[Shonda Brisco]

You've seen it all...or you think you have. Once again something happens and school librarians are left behind...waiting for someone or something to happen to help improve their budgets, their salaries, their overwhelming workload....So, what's the most frustrating thing about being a librarian in Texas? Do you have any ideas...suggestions...thoughts? We'd love to hear them!!

[Jennifer Turney]

Oh, that's easy.

TAKS.

I'm sure your campuses aren't like this, but even my students are getting tired of having TAKS shoved down their throats 8 hours a day. It's only because we have a 20 minute silent reading time during the day that kids are ready anything that isn't directly TAKS- or curriculum-related. (That also happens to be what saved my circulation stats.)

I'm soooooo ready to get rid of TAKS.

[Shonda Brisco]

We are taking the TAKS test (I'm at Peaster ISD--- public school). We are following the guidelines, but our administration is pretty flexible to allow us to "make it possible" for our kids to learn by doing what we need to do. By that I mean, we aren't breathing the TAKS test every day, but we are teaching AND we're doing the "extras" like field trips, guest speakers, what ever it takes to make learning 'well-rounded'. It's much like what I saw in the private schools (lots of enjoyment in learning because teachers are allowed to teach without "teaching to the test.")

My hope is to help bring the reading scores up--->to help other scores go up too, in the process!

[Kathleen Reeves]

The most frustrating thing about being a librarian in Texas is absolutely the TAKS test. The ELA subject area coordinator has told me in no uncertain terms that her teachers will not use the library for research until after the test in April!!! I've told her that there is no way I can accomodate all of her teachers (10) in four weeks. She tells me that this is a directive from the principal. So I've talked with the principal about the situation and this, of course, was not the directive. The prince just wants their projects to change. No more researching an author kind of projects, I guess.

Anyway, I've booked Nany Polette, who I saw at TLA last year for professional development in January. We're going to have her present "Research without Copying," which recommends changing the product so kids will stop cutting and pasting stuff from the Internet. Hopefully, with the principal's recommendation, the ELA teachers will come back to the library.

Grrrrrrr.....so frustrating. Any other recommendations to get them back in?

~Kathleen

[Doug Valentine]

TAKS is the most frustrating but I have solved my problem of getting all the classes into the library by making sure all my lessons are directly TAKS related..from a literature standpoint. My principal gave me the school curriculum pacing calendar for all grade levels so I know exactly what the classes are working on and when. The teachers appreciate coming to the library and having me expand on what they are doing in class. I really have a fairly low level of frustration.

[Betty Welch]

I think that the most frustrating situation in school libraries today is principals who look at the librarian as a babysitter for the teacher's off period. I have been told on numerous occassions that I don't need a budget for books since I am just the babysitter and the principal doesn't care what I do with those kids. In a former school here in Texas I didn't purchase a single book with school money. I beg, pleaded, cried to no avail. What did I do for books? I purchased them myself. Yes, you read that right. How did I afford that? Well, I would purchase books using my personal book credit at a local book resale shop. I then would use that book at all levels (pk-5) and then put it in the collection. I also at Christmas time asked my Sunday School group to purchase 2 books. One for the collection and one for a child who did not have any books in the home. I would use the donated books for the annual gift basket silent action heald twice a year (fall and spring). Each teacher was required to "make" a gift basket.

[Marsha Edney]

I think the most frustrating thing in libraries is the lack of funding that says "surely, you don't believe a library is still a place to research" this must be what the admin is thinking since I have been cut to 2000. For the year in all budgets! Super 4A school. I know that most of the teachers I work with believe that there is a reason to continue, but some days there seems to be little hope. And I have been in the business for 2 + decades. I only hope that one day the pendulum will swing back again to prove that there is no substitute for the printed word and the book! Why have banned book week, hardly anyone is reading now!
Sorry for the gloom & doom but some days i just get so down. just having a place to vent will make my day tomorrow better. i just have to go back to why i became a librarian in the first place - to help people find the answers they don't already know the answer to.
thanks friends for "listening"
marsha

[E Raymond Wells]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that, according to the state, librarians aren't necessary in schools. There is a growing trend not to replace retiring librarians. Aides and volunteers can do the job, you know.
In the midst of raising the bar - requiring an MLS with 2 years teaching experience - the universities and professors failed to mention that our jobs aren't really that secure here in Texas.