Case+Study+Rough+Draft+to+edit

I have cut about 1/4 of a page... I emailed it to your twu account! (3:30) In a word document this draft is almost 3 pages long... so we will need to edit and clean it up. I did not highlight our different sections because it was on the previous page. If you think we need to feel free. I am going to print it out because I like it tangible! lol

Thanks for the tangible. :) I have a hard time editing and working in the wiki. I have lost way too much work to the whims of a wiki to trust them very far. Way too user "unfriendly." Much prefer blogs to wikis.

I liked sending the drafts back and forth via email... I haven't quite got the hang of the wiki! I hope it will get better with time! You did a great job showing the edits on the wiki! Thanks! Last Name_Last Name_Assignment Number_Rubric

Case Study: Benefits of Collaboration

In education, our priority is to teach students the skills to become successful, productive, and overall life-long learners. By providing a wealth of resources and with support from administration, this process can be achieved through collaborative efforts of librarians, teachers, administrators, and students. These partnerships spark creativity, an openness to try new approaches, and support for taking risks, together all become achievers. Through this process everyone benefits and becomes an achiever. Librarians are known to be a wealth of knowledge and as Principal Paula states, “Librarians impact every student and interacts with all teachers…they impact achievement.” Building collaborative relationships with classroom teachers, designing, implementing, and evaluating inquiry-driven units are all part of a school librarian’s role as 21st-century leader. **These collaborations can benefit the librarian in unexpected ways. The American Association of School Libraries (AASL) states "For example, the school librarian can learn from students about popular new technologies" (AASL 20).** The librarian is the link that extends the team to include parents, members of the community, museums, academic and public libraries, municipal services, private organizations, and commercial entities to include their expertise and assistance in inquiry lessons and units, which all reach beyond the walls of the school. (Empowering Learners 20-21) By collaborating outside of the school with the community and other institutions, the librarian gains resources that would otherwise not be available (AASL 21). Establishing a foundation that welcomes students into a safe learning environment away from the classroom allows students to give feedback and problem solving ideas in a less formal atmosphere. Librarians use information from students to develop or improve ways to collaborate with members of the faculty. For a librarian, collaborating and sharing those results helps advocate for the library and the librarian’s role as a member of the teaching faculty. (Moreillon slide 8) One of the main goals as a librarian is to assure that collaborative efforts support the school’s goals and priorities. In using collaboration to support the school's goals and priorities, librarians gain the respect of both the administration and faculty (Zumuda and Harada 40-41). Although that respect is not the end goal, it does help maintain support for the library program, which in turn helps the "system improve its overall performance" (Zmuda and Harada 31). Librarians have the responsibility of being the role model for teachers and students, they set an example for collaboration. Collaborating with the librarian benefits all learning styles and improves student performance. Librarians have the awesome responsibility of being the leader s of for collaborati ve on efforts between teachers, students, librarians, and administrators. They benefit by allowing others to have a role in the library and influence its effect on the learning community are the one person that learns from everyone involved. Librarians may lead and impact everyone, however this also puts them in the position to be impacted by everyone as well. By empowering others, they become stronger leaders and learners. This leadership role influences teaching and learning by having an active part in the development process. Librarians truly have the best of both worlds. Collaboration between classroom teachers and librarians helps the teacher in many ways. In speaking on the benefits of collaboration, Pat and Mary Ann both mention that they learned right along with their students, especially in regards to technology. Zmuda and Harada state that collaboration “motivates staff members to grow instead of discouraging them with overwhelming tasks or unreasonable expectations” (33). Moreillon mentions that teachers are able to receive help with teaching ideas and that more resources are available with collaboration. ( Cooperation and Collaboration PP, slide 6) This is borne out in almost every interview, with when the teachers mention ing help with ideas, research, writing skills, storytelling, and resources. In addition, collaboration can help the teacher with feedback on both student learning and on the lesson itself. (Moreillon, slide 16) McGregor affirms this when she speaks of evaluation of the lesson (211). The teacher can learn not only from his or her own experience, but also from the perspective of the librarian and the students. In the chapter “The Learning Specialist,: the author quotes Morris as saying that in collaboration the library media specialists “serve as a bridge to help teachers make the connections between inquire-based learning and information-literacy skills throughout the curriculum at all levels” (Zmuda and Harada 37). Empowering Learners contains the statement that collaboration “assists classroom teachers in developing inquiry-driven curricular units that effectively teach contents and research skills to students of all learning styles” (20). Judi P., a third grade teacher, mentioned that collaboration helped make the lessons “more authentic” where they “find answers for themselves. ”Tracy talked about how collaboration expanded her instruction by making students more aware. Since teachers strive to empower their students with real learning, this assistance in making these connections in invaluable. All of these thoughts, ideas, and quotes mesh together to make collaboration. Collaboration is not neat and clean and easy. It takes effort and much pre-planning, construction and deconstruction, evaluation and re-evaluation. It also takes and an open mind on both all sides. Each brings Through it, teachers are able to bring their own special skills and expertise, and knowledge but also learn other knowledge and skills that will enhance their instruction. to the table, and each must be willing to share that and accept experience in instruction and in the content area. She also has a deep knowledge of her students. However, she can learn much from working with the librarian in other areas that will enhance what she already knows. Its is like a woven rug. A rug that has the same pattern and the same color is nice and functions just fine. However, if you can add more color and more texture to that weave, it still serves the same function but becomes richer and more enjoyable to use. The same can be said with collaboration. The teacher can exist alone in the classroom one dimension or her classroom, but how much deeper and richer her instruction can become if she opens up to teach and learn through collaboration collaborating with the librarian. One of the first benefit s of collaboration for students would be that students they are no longer confined to a single isolated in the classroom. The library expands their learning zone and is considered to be a classroom. With such a this vast amount of resources available and tools, students are allowed encouraged to explore various avenues in order to take on an “active role in shaping their learning.” ( Empowering Learners AASL 20) Teachers and librarians collaborate to assure students Students have the benefit of having two teachers to ensure that they have the appropriate tools and skills for collecting, communicating, finding, and using information in an ethical manner. Collaborative lessons beginning with elementary students build skills that teach citation and ethical uses of technology. Using self-assessment tools such as rubrics, students have the ability to engage in critical reflections as they perform various learning tasks in the library (Harada 14). Collaboration gives the also provides an opportunity for students to give feedback and opinions, both positive and negative, about the learning and share both positive and negative aspects of the learning experience, which gives. Self-assessment is a key strand for the Stands for the 21st Century Learner. (AASL 2007) Students evaluations give teachers and librarians a tool to improve future learning activities. Zmuda and Harada explain that the focus of collaboration “should be on what the students need, not what the adults prefer” (33) The more students are engaged, the more learning will take place and collaboration is definitely a key component. Who would have thought students would take on the role as teacher? Collaboration allows them to get not only the best instruction of teachers and librarians, but also gives them an opportunity to share their knowledge. As an educator, I have learned that keeping students productively involved in lessons has the benefit of boosting student success. Through collaboration, students are no longer held to just book, paper, and pencil, but learning extends into real life.The more students are engaged, the more learning will take place, and collaboration is definitely a key component in engaging students. Administrators have the broad responsibility of ensuring that student learning goals are achieved. They and must lead the staff to accomplish the goals i n a way that will enable them to achieve that. Zmuda and Harada write that However, “leaders can make decisions with their authority, but they can implement those decisions only through collaboration” (Zmuda and Harada 31) In the PowerPoint “Cooperation and Collaboration, Moreillon points out that collaboration can help “them achieve their instructional goals for the school” ( slide 9) On page 29, they state that “while measure of external accountability have reframed public debate on education, external accountability cannot save a system in which staff members work in isolation from one another” (Zmuda and Harada 29). Collaboration is one important a way to end that isolation that administrators can use. High school art teacher, Diane Roderick mentioned that her district had implemented writing across the curriculum as a goal. She said that through collaboration, she was able to achieve that goal and integrate research and writing into her art curriculum in a very an effective way. So the goal of the administration was achieved more fully and effectively through collaboration. Principal Paula Godfrey feels that the librarian is the only other person in the school beside the principal that really has a global view of the school; that sees the whole picture. She feels that the librarian is one of the most important educators in the building for this reason and Administrators value librarians for the fact that through collaboration he or she they touch es and impact s every person in the school, both faculty and students (Principal Paula Godfrey). Administrators have a powerful, yet difficult position. They have the power, but they must tread a fine line. They can force a teacher to do something, but are more effective when they lead that teacher to improve their practice. The administrator can use the collaborative relationship between teachers and the librarian to effect change in their learning community. They can also use Using their own collaborative relationship with the librarian allows them to reach the other teachers in a more an informal and less threatening way. As pointed out in previous sections, collaboration can enhance every aspect of learning. However, the administrator must make that collaborative atmosphere possible through active support, such as scheduling or other factors. Saying that they want collaboration and then making it more difficult through scheduling or other factors will not achieve the high level of collaboration that will enable greater learning. Collaboration itself though is a resource, not an end in and of itself. The end goal is to improve student learning that t he administrator can and should utilize the resource of collaboration to benefit the entire learning community. Collaboration can help administrators become better learners and leaders if they are willing to take a chance try. Although all educators do not yet embrace collaboration collaboration is not yet embraced by all educators, people have to want to collaborate for it to work. As librarians, when we work collaboratively with others, we cannot lose sight that the end goal is not the collaboration itself but he results of the collaboration. We must also evaluate our own library practices to enable students to be the kind of learners we have envisioned.
 * //School Librarians://**
 * //Teachers://**
 * //Students://**
 * //Administrators://**

Works Consulted "3rd-Grade Teacher." Interview by Judi Moreillon. 2001. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. < []  >.“7th Grade Language Arts Teacher.” Inteview by Judi Moreillon, 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. < [] >.

“7th Grade Social Studies Teacher.” Interview by Judi Moreillon, 2009. Web 19 Sept. 2011. < [] >.

“8th Grade Language Arts Teacher.” Interview by Judi Moreillon. 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2001. < [] >.

American Association of School Librarians. Empowering Learners:Guidelines for school library media programs.Chicago:American Association for School Libraries, 2009.Print

“Elementary Art Instructor.” Interview by Judi Moreillon, 2001. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.< [] >.

Harada, Violet H. "Self-Assessment: Challenging Students to Take Charge of Learning." //School Library Monthly// 26.10 (2010): 13-15.

“High School Art Teacher.” Interview by Judy Moreillon, 2003. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.< [] >.

"High School Student Teacher.” Interview by Judy Moreillon, 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.< [] >.

“High School Teacher.” Interview by Judy Moreillon, 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.< [] >.

McGregor, Joy. "Collaboration and Leadership." //Curriculum Connections through the Library//. Ed. B. K. Stripling and S. Hughes-Hassell. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. 119-219.Moreillon, Judi. "Cooperation and Collaboration: Similarities and Differences." Powerpoint provided in Module 1.2 for LS5443.20 Librarians as Instructional Partners. TWU. Fall 2011.

“Principal.” Interview by Judi Morellon, 2001. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. < [|http://teachertube.com/members/][|__viewVideo__][|.php?video_id=121838&title=Principal] >.

Schultz-Jones, Barbara. "Collaboration in the School Social Network." //Knowledge Quest// 37.4 (2009): 20-25.

Zmuda, Allison. "What Does It Really Look Like When Students Are Learnging in the Library?" //School Library Media Activities Monthly// 25.1 (2008): 25-27.

Zmuda, Allison and Violet H. Harada. "The Learning Specialist: Clarifying the Role of Library Media Specialists." //Librarians as Learning Specialists: Meeting the Imperative for the 21st Century//. Ed. Allison Zmuda and Violet H. Harada. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2008. 23-43.