Sep 03 2008
First Day News
Happy First Day of School!
What a joy to see all the smiling, happy faces on students and staff as they came into school this morning. The beginning of school is such an exciting time, not only for your children, but the staff as well. Many of us had ‘butterflies’ dancing in our stomachs this morning.
In this Information Age, information literacy has become the single common denominator required for success at any stage of life. Our children, more than ever, ‘must be equipped to access, use and evaluate information competently in both print and electronic formats’ (School, 1). The data shows, in 19 states and 1 Canadian province, that “An abundance of evidence strongly supports the connection between student achievement and the presence of school libraries with qualified school library media specialists. When library media specialists work with teachers to support learning opportunities with books, computer resources, and more, students learn more, get better grades, and score higher on standardized test scores than their peers in schools without good libraries.” (School, 1)
As a result of this data, we changed our library program to reflect what is best for student learning. I will be collaborating much more with classroom teachers, helping to teach and reinforce information literacy skills needed in ‘real world’ situations. We all know that we don’t learn something if we learn it ‘out of context’. We have some exciting projects scheduled for the students with more to come.
Students also know that the library is ‘their’ library. Anytime they need materials, they may come to the library, with their teacher’s permission (not during a math lesson, for example, unless there is a math question to be answered), and obtain what they need. The library is also open for them before class begins (8:15 – 8:30) to select materials. To see what the program looks like for your child’s grade, please ‘click’ on the appropriate tab at the top of the page. Please feel free to stop by during Open House on September 11th, to see our wonderful library. I’m happy to show you around and answer any questions you may have.
I think Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) said it all … “Information is the currency of democracy.” We want to ensure that each student has what they need to be successful in this Information Age.
School Libraries Work! Research Foundation Paper. New York: Scholastic, 2008.
