April 19, 2007 – Green Meadow School
My “official” Capital District tour is scheduled for August but there are so many Capital District area libraries that have asked me to visit that I have tried to schedule a few at odd times throughout the year. Jill Leinung, the School Library Media Specialist, asked me to come to her library at the Green Meadow School in East Greenbush. Most of you know Jill through her active participation in the SLMS section of NYLA. I also met Library Clerk Balbir Chahal. 
Jill has boundless energy. On this one particular day, she had a myriad of projects scheduled with various grades, all of them orchestrated with precision and enthusiasm. The 3rd grade worked on an Egypt-themed project that included an archeological dig, flooding of the Nile, construction of Egyptian model homes, and today, baking a nut cake. 
Assemblyman Tim Gordon had visited with the 4th grade the previous day as part of a local government project, so Jill had some follow-up work to do with those students. She provided an kindergarten enrichment lesson on dogs (!) and helped the 5th graders create their own journal as part of a continuing project on Lewis & Clark. With the 2nd grade, she supervised the production of covers (using marshmallows and toothpicks) for student-developed books on stars. The amount of time, thought, and preparation that went into each one of these classes was awe-inspiring. For the baking project, she had several mom-assistants, but having helpers means having to assign tasks and supervise them as well as the kids. From the antibacterial wipes to the large print recipe to the cleanup drill, she had everything under control. Most amazing though was how each child was acknowledged by name and made to feel unique, appreciated, and special. 
In between classes, I took pictures and asked Jill for her wish list – for her library and for all school libraries:
- Mandated school library media specialists in EVERY school;
- Increased state aid for library materials – $6.25 per student just doesn’t go far enough;
- Every school library media center should have its own web page that identifies safe Internet research sites for students – for example, see http://green-meadow.egcsd.org and click on Library on the left;
- Revise the wording on state law so that “software” can be used for resources like online databases and web products;
- NYLA to produce brochures and radio ads that promote libraries to the general public;
- Each member of NYLA should commit to getting one new person to join each year;
- For her library, she would like to be able to afford to bring in a well-known author every year. Through book fairs and sales, and collaboration with the PTO, she has been able to do this but not as often as she would like.
In addition to her certification as a School Library Media Specialist, Jill is also a certified K-12 English teacher. She has terrific cooperation with the teachers in her school, as well as with the local public libraries.
Jill was recently the recipient of an award from the Capital Area School Development Association (CASDA) - Congratulations, Jill! You so deserve the recognition for your many contributions to your library, your school and especially, your lucky students.
May 17, 2007 at 7:06 pm
While I think it makes sense that for younger students, a list of acceptable websites makes sense (but really, I think enough places has done that already – yahoo kids, ILL, etc thats it not needed for every place to reinvent the wheel), its not useful for older kids at all. Older students need to be taught how to identify and critique useful and academically accepatable websites themselves – because they are simply NOT getting that level of instruction and college professors *assume* students know this coming in. We are actually creating an environment where college and even graduate students are having to be taught this at a time that they are suppose to be moving on to much higher levels of thinking!