I must admit, I am ready for a rest, but the learning doesn’t stop for either students or teachers and as a school librarian, my viewpoint is a bit different. One of my goals is to provide equitable access to resources for ALL students. In my present position that means making sure that the students in my school can borrow books and use computers, as both of those things are in short supply in most of their homes. I can’t just lock my door and go away for the summer if that is to happen.
I have mixed feelings about the traditional school calendar. On one hand, living in Michigan, I think everyone, students and teachers alike benefits from time to experience the short period of decent weather to play outside. The window for enjoying the outdoors is without freezing is short here. In fact, if I ruled the world, Michigan would have a vacation shut down month like some areas of Europe do. People live and think better when they have time to connect with nature. Of course, students also need to keep learning and their brains shouldn’t go on holiday. In a perfect world, school scheduling would be more fluid and less stressful and everyone would spend at least an hour a day outside enjoying the weather. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. School is either open or closed in a very binary manner. We will finish out our high stakes tests and the year will be over, except here at these buildings, I need an alternative to being at school for seven hours per day on a fixed schedule or not being in school at all.
This summer due to the wonderful grant that was written by Dearborn Public Library, my students have access to a remote locker where Dearborn Public Library books are delivered to them. Now I only have to work it out with the school district to keep the Community Center room where it is housed open in the summer. This will also give the students access to computers. I am still waiting for the powers that be to give the green light to do the right thing for my students, to find some middle ground. I hope they will do the right thing.
makingthinkinglearning 