As a librarian one of the highest barriers to overcome is
what I like to call the "Lone Wolf Syndrome." Teachers are lone wolves, they are
responsible for the planning, executing,
and assessing all the lessons for their students. Effective teachers
feel great pressure to cover the curriculum because students may not see this
content again and/or need the material as a platform for future learning. This
pressure can give teachers tunnel vision, and make them feel very much alone in this huge endeavor. Even in districts where teachers are
encouraged to collaborate, ultimately they are still responsible to their
students and their curriculum.
As a librarian one the greatest obstacles is getting
teachers to let me support them and their students. Recently, students came to
the library with a list in their hand asking about specific books. I had to ask
the student to lend me the handout to copy and then on the fly pull books for
the assignment. I inevitably remember the best book for that student after the
student has chosen another book and left the library.
This isn't the first time, it happens once or twice a
year. I find it odd because I am no wallflower librarian. Here are my strategies for overcoming this Lone Wolf
epidemic...
For each incident, I reach out to the teacher and ask for
the assignment and offer to pull the books for a display or cart to take to
their classrooms.
Second, I place a reminder on next year's calendar to
inquire about this assignment in advance,
Periodically, I send school wide email to staff advertising various services
offered by the library including specifically my assistance and collaboration.
At the beginning of the year, I do out reach to specific
departments who assign a lot of independent reading (English and Social
Studies) to remind them to send me their reading assignments.
At staff meetings, I also try to showcase my collaboration as a model of
the services our library offers.
With staff regularly changing, and new lone wolves
joining the pack each year it's a challenge.
What strategies do you employ to fight the "Lone Wolf Syndrome?"
