Librarian Interview #1
Leah Gannon
Forest Acres
Elementary School
Easley, SC
Interview date - October
22, 2020
I spoke
with Leah Gannon, the school librarian at Forest Acres Elementary. We focused on the National School Library
Standards domain of Inquire.
Mrs. Gannon began by discussing the Think competency
in the Inquire domain. She
said, “When I think consider the Think strand, I focus on learners. I want to develop their curiosity. I encourage them to try new kinds of books
when they are checking them out.”
“One second grade teacher that I work with, does a class
project on researching nocturnal animals.
When I work with the class, we work on formulating questions. I help start a K-W-L chart in the library to
activate prior knowledge and give them background for the topic.”
“When classes come to the library and we study fiction, I
spend a lot of time making connections with books they may have read. In first and second grade, the teachers talk
about characters. In the library, we
talk about character traits. We work on
using describing words.”
We then turned to the Share competency in the Inquire
domain. Mrs. Gannon related, “When I get
the students to share, I want them to interact with the content from me. I might have read a book or a chapter, or showed
them a website on the board. With COVID,
I follow the same seating chart, because they are in their classroom, but in
other years, we could do group and partner work. I could let them discuss an idea with table
talk.”
Our next topic of discussion was the Grow competency
in the Inquire domain.
Mrs. Gannon stated, “I think encouraging
them to grow includes teaching them how to find the books they want. Showing them how to use Destiny and find
books on the shelves. It also means
being able to find information and be independent. I teach them how to find websites and
apps. I also teach them how to use
DISCUS to do research for a biography project that they have.”
Our last topic of discussion was the Create competency
in the Inquire domain.
Mrs. Gannon explained, “I do a lot with the create strand with third and
fifth graders. With the onset of digital
learning, I taught them how to make Google slides to show what they had
learned. When we were able to be
face-to-face (pre-COVID), I would get a big sheet of bulletin board paper and
the students could collaborate on that.
They could make posters. Our
fifth grade does a big unit on the Harlem Renaissance. I help them publish their reports.”
After we had discussed the National School Library
Standards, I had a few other questions for Mrs. Gannon. I asked her about her scheduling in the
library. Mrs. Gannon reported that she
has a flexible schedule. She is not on
the related arts schedule. I also asked
her about how COVID had impacted her schedule.
She related that at present she was going into classrooms, instead of
having students visit the library. She
has pulled a selection of books and rolls them to each class on a cart.
I also asked Mrs. Gannon about the opportunities that she
had to collaborate with other teachers in her school. She did not describe herself as working collaboratively
with other teachers very much. She did
give one example. She described, “For
three weeks in a row, I knew that the same class was studying bats, so I
extended that discussion in the library.”
She also said that occasionally teachers would ask her to lead certain
lessons in the library. Unfortunately,
she did not give specific examples.
As we closed our discussion, we did spend a few minutes
talking about how her library program has been affected by COVID-19. She had already told me about how she was
visiting classrooms with books on a cart, so that students would be able to browse
and check out books there. She is also
providing flex time for certain teachers by covering their class. (Although she had said earlier that she was
not considered a related arts teacher at her school.) Mrs. Gannon said that she would visit only
one class per grade level, but she visited every day. “I have really liked it,” she asserted. “It takes more planning, because before I
would have been presenting the same lessons over and over. I also get to know the kids better. Another plus is that we don’t have to review
as much, because I am seeing the students more often. “
I felt a little frustrated with the interview process for this interview. Mrs. Gannon and I conducted our interview over the phone, and I think that this hampered our ability to connect. While this was unavoidable due to the current situation surrounding COVID-19, I couldn't help feeling that we could have made a better connection if I could have spoken with her face to face. I also would have loved to have seen her library. I am finding that you can get so many ideas by just looking around another space. Seeing displays and posters can also give you ideas of where to take your discussion.
Regardless of this, I enjoyed speaking with Mrs. Gannon and wish her well during the school year.
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