Connecting School to Real Life: How Librarians can Help

Connecting School to Real Life: My technology in education class had us watch this really inspiring video on connecting school to the real world. Though she didn't exactly mention school librarians in the video. I think they play a big role in connecting school to the real world. (Take a look at the video below before reading the rest of this).


I have to say that I really agree with her that we need to make school more about connecting to the real world. Too often school is just: go to class and memorize facts that will show up on the state test. But the topics we learn in school should help us connect to our talents and interests in our real lives. I think this is totally and completely possible and I believe that this is happening in more and more schools. One of the things that really struck me about this video was her description of the student who really loved to take videos about buses. That this kid made videos and pictures and was really talented, but he was not being taught in school how to put that talent on the internet and he was not being taught in school how to make a website or start a blog or somehow put his talent out there. And I was listening to that thinking, well that's what school librarians should be doing.

 One of the awesome things about librarians is that they are able to connect to all the students in the school, they don't just see a particular class of students and they see the same students year after year, so in most cases the librarian really has a chance to learn about her student's interests and goals in life. I see librarians as the people who can show students and faculty how to get information, create information, share information, etc. This is not just for getting something for the class book report, this is working with students who want to research something or work on something that is outside the classroom. I, as a librarian, want to be able to teach my students how to blog, or how to create a video or how to post a review. I would most likely teach these techniques in relation to a project that is being done with the classroom teacher. However, I want students who are interested in blogging about their life to feel free to come to visit me in the library, not only to get books on student bloggers, but to ask my advice and help with setting up a blog. I would like to be able to be that person who can help a student realize his or her goals or interests and I feel that librarians do just that. When I do reader's advisory interviews one of the first things I ask is what are your interests, what do you like to watch on TV, what jobs do you think are cool, etc. I feel that librarians are in the perfect position of learning student's interests and thus,they can help work with the teachers to connect that student's interest with what they are learning in school. For example, say as a librarian I know that I have several students who really like to blog. They are really interested in telling stories and have been running their own blog for a few years now. I might suggest to the English teacher who is having students keep a reading journal, that perhaps the teacher might want to give their students a choice of keeping a reading journal or blogging about what they are reading.

 Now the one thing I did not agree with in this video was that the only way to connect students to the real world is to get rid of standards. On the contrary, I think that standards are the way that we can measure students' work to ensure that they are all understanding the basic information we want them to understand. While I think that students should have personal learning goals and I think that students should try to understand how what they are learning is going to effect them in real life, I don't think we need to get rid of standards to do that. Over the summer I took 618: Information Policy. In this class we had to do look at public sector information (data collected by the government). My group choose to look at public sector information and how it related to education. We found that the government collected a great deal of information; everything from satellite information to information about currents in the ocean and all of that information was available for the public to see and use. Websites like NOAA and NASA took the scientific data that they collected and often posted it on their websites along with sample lesson plans of how teachers can use this information. For example, there might be a lesson plan about students using NASA data to see if there is a relationship between water vapor and temperature of clouds. This has students using actual real world knowledge to help them understand topics they are learning about in class. Perhaps this may make students more interested in studying science or technology when they go to college.

 There are plenty of ways for teachers to connect what is being learned in school to the real world, this will add relevance to students lives and will allow students to see why what they are learning is important. However, that does not mean we should get rid of standards. We should still strive to get students to reach standards, just not by making them memorize facts. Now I understand this is difficult with state testing, but I don't think it is impossible. And I believe that librarians can help provide technology, websites and books that can help teachers connect their subject areas to the real world.