Reflection Journal Librarian: Christi Pickard Campus: Francone Date: 10/10/2008

SECTION ONE Respond to the following: If ‘Resilience’ is the measure of a student’s capacity to meet sustained challenges, complex tasks and new information, how does your library contribute to building greater resilience? After reading about The Resiliency Wheel (pg.48), I started thinking about how those factors are represented in Cy-Fair libraries. I believe that all the factors from the wheel are represented at Francone in some form or fashion. For example: Provide opportunities for meaningful participation: Our students are constantly adding their input to book talks, searching for their own books, or actively participating in reading incentives. Increase pro-social bonding: Last year, 5 th grade students began coming to the library in pairs during their recess time. They put away books and “faced” the library shelves together to help out our school. Set clear and consistent boundaries: Our campus sets very consistent boundaries across the board. Quiet signals and procedures are the same everywhere in the building and the library is no exception.

SECTION ONE Respond to the following: If ‘Resilience’ is the measure of a student’s capacity to meet sustained challenges, complex tasks and new information, how does your library contribute to building greater resilience? Teach Life Skills: The library strives to help students help themselves. We are working to build the skills needed to find information in everyday places like books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Provide Caring and Support: This is one area that is truly important to me. I try to be a smiling and supportive face to every student that comes into the library. Regardless of what kind of day they have had elsewhere in the building, the library is a place to start again with a clean slate. Set and Communicate High Expectations: I think the idea of choosing Just Right Books falls into this category. Students at Francone know how to choose the books that are just right for them. We try to stay consistent in making sure that they are making the most appropriate choices to increase reading skills.

SECTION TWO Respond to the following: Much discussion has taken place about technology integration in 21st century schools. How are CFISD libraries changing to be integral to the core instructional and behavioral practices that lead to student success? The libraries in Cy-Fair are undoubtedly the center of the schools both physically and figuratively. Technology is a huge part of this and is often checked out from the library, repaired through the library office, and troubleshooting questions often end up in our area. Students undoubtedly notice this and think of the library as a technology center. By having our card catalog set up through Destiny, students can access it from anywhere they have computer access. This simple fact alone can change instructional and behavioral practices because research is no longer tied to a specific place. They can also access many more resources than ever before because materials can be requested via our ILL system online. This stretches learning opportunities even more.

SECTION THREE Respond to the following: Compare your school library to the Resiliency model and identify the tipping point, the first small change that will bring about great change that will recreate your library as the heart beat of the school and create change in the building. A tipping point that I would like to begin in our library is listening more to our students when it comes to library materials and programming. I frequently use book talks, displays, and reading incentives to create a buzz about books. I would like to turn this around more this year and let the student’s create the buzz. One of the terms that I still have a hard time with is one I hear student’s or teacher’s refer to the collection as “Mrs. Pickard’s” library. My goal this year is to give more ownership to our students when it comes to taking care of the library, participating in programming, or choosing new materials. I think that as the hub of the school, the library is a great place to start taking ownership and making their opinions heard.