[CALIBK12] motivating student assistants

Fri Feb 8 07:06:23 PST 2008

Man, I couldn't get anything done If I didn't have my student library aides.  I usually have some students who are "broken birds" out of PE, but most of my students have requested to be an aide.  They usually think it is going to be easy, but I work my kids fairly hard.  Most are surprised to find they end up enjoying their time in the library.

This quarter I have 12 student aides, 4 of whom are returning students who enjoy working in the library.  They view the library as a student power center on campus (rightly so IMHO).  I have a rotating jobs board with 8 jobs, 2 projects and 1 free day.  The jobs are filing, cleaning, mending, data entry, circulation, sorting cart, reading shelves, shelving.  I explain to them that because many of the jobs are dull, ticky work that must be done correctly, and that these jobs are exactly the same jobs that I do, I will give them a free day where they can put their heads down and no one will ask them to do anything.

Each student is assigned 2 sections in the library (one fic and one nonfic) that are their responsibility to keep in order. I try to give students sections where they show an interest in the subject matter or if they are on an IEP/504, I give them the sections that are not used as frequently, or a large section such as the 398.2's, so basically all they have to think about is alpha order.  Students shelve throughout the library, not just their sections.  They must do either a research project, or a book review to be posted on my blogs.  This quarter I tried something new which is not going as well as I had hoped (the school2school wiki project) so that will have to be revamped to be an inschool project.  I have weekly Dewey worksheets the student do, which teach web evaluation, boolean logic ( junior higher's love the word boolean)and other information fluency skills.  I am currently revising them, since we just switched over to Infocentre and lost several sorting features that I used to use. 

I use my student aides as AR reading log monitors, they love knowing the password (Power Baby, Power). 

How do I recruit my aides? By beginning in 7th grade, using students to do circulation before school, during break, and at lunch.  Students who wish to be library volunteers must take the time and make arrangements to attend a one hour training that is held after school.  This generally gets rid of the uncommitted.  These are usually the same students who become my Knights of the Round Library Table club members, who are in charge of the fundraising for the library.

Megan Fuller Aptos Junior High http://www.aptosjr.pvusd.net/library/ Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. -- Wernher von Braun > Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:30:24 -0800> From: mirandadoyle at yahoo.com> To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu> Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] motivating student assistants> > I'm a middle school librarian too, and also often get student "assistants" sent to help me in the library. I'm afraid I haven't had good luck with asking them to shelve, so I generally don't. When I've tried, they finish much too quickly and I find books shoved everywhere but where they belong. So I find other tasks, like stamping, labeling, cleaning, and so on. Even those tasks need to be supervised, and a good job perhaps rewarded with a little free time on the computer.> > However, I do sometimes ask students to sort the cart of returned books onto my sorting shelves. I have an area where I've labeled each shelf (200s, 300s, fiction, reference, etc). Students don't need to be as accurate when they are sorting by hundreds rather than actually shelving. Also, if they make mistakes, I can see and correct them easily, with no harm done. It does help me because when I'm ready to shelve the books are already sorted. Also, if I go for awhile without shelving, I can easily find the book I'm looking for on the sorting shelves.> > You could try using slips of colored paper in the books so that you can check their work, but that's really better for making sure they understand HOW to shelve before you turn them loose.> > I rarely even ask the students assigned to my elective class to shelve -- I have 4, all very motivated and hard workers, plus I give them a grade, and still they lose interest in shelving after a very short time (not that I can blame them, as it's not my favorite task either). I have many other jobs for them that they enjoy -- from checking in books to typing book reviews for the student book blog to making posters and bulletin board displays -- and so I can keep them busy in other ways. They love anything related to the computer, even if it's just scanning barcodes. Sometimes I will ask them to shelve for 10 minutes at the beginning of the period, with my help and supervision, before starting the more enjoyable tasks. I also emphasize to them that the skills they are learning may eventually help them get a job at the public library.> > I would love it if students would shelve all of my books and do a great job, but, at least for me, it doesn't seem to work out that way. I'm also reluctant to push them to do a task they don't enjoy, especially since my secret plan is for all of them to become librarians someday (okay, enthusiastic library users, at the very least!). > > Hope that helps,> Miranda Doyle> Teacher-Librarian> Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Middle School> > > ______________________> Message: 1> Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 20:52:23 -0800> From: "marcy drexler" <marcy.drexler at gmail.com>> > Anyone have any suggestions on motivating 8th grade assistants (randomly> assigned for "service," mostly uninterested in libraries, reading, etc.) to> care about shelving books accurately? Thinking of bribes, but afraid it's> illegal.> > _______________________________________________> CALIBK12 site list> CALIBK12 at lists.sjsu.edu> http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/calibk12> > For information about the Calibk12 listserve, please> visit http://www.calibk12.net.
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