Librarians' Classroom Management Training

Classroom management has extended to include the librarian as well as the teacher. Blackburn and Hays acknowledge the stress of classroom management skills not being taught to librarians and librarians having to learn about these skills on the job. Hays and Blackburn review the past thirty years of history involving librarian duties changing. Now, librarians have to incorporate technology with academic curriculum. Librarians have to collaborate with school faculty to discuss curriculum and learning outcomes as outlined in the introduction paragraph of the article.

Presently, faculty demands librarians teach one-shots of classroom lessons which Hays and Blackburn cite as an issue.

One of the insightful questions Blackburn and Hays pose is what classroom skills does the librarian have to manage student situations. I wondered if librarians had the skills to manage one-shot lessons demanded by teacher faculty. An even bigger demand placed on librarians is teaching semester-long courses, which Davis noted as a concern. Ideally, these librarians should get formal training for a course but school administration appears to ignore or forget this need.

The definition of classroom management is defined by Blackburn and Hays in a lengthy paragraph. Wong and Wong sum up classroom management as whatever a teacher does so student learning can take place. Essentially, librarians have to take on classroom management like teachers so all students can learn. Librarians are handed pre-planned curriculum or short lesson plans to execute teaching similar to teachers. Blackburn and Hayes are addressing how librarians must be in the classroom and not just the library.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified

Proficient in: Classroom

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Both authors use sources to describe how the training for classroom management designed for teachers is being challenged by academic critics. Blackburn and Hayes mention how teacher preparation programs should go beyond a theoretical format and more into guided practice, feedback in organizational procedures, and instructional strategies. Feedback is crucial to any educator attempting to improve how they teach a lesson. Blackburn and Hays capture an important part of what kind of classroom management training would help librarians or anyone performing a lesson in the classroom. There is a certain behavior needed from librarians or anyone cultivating classroom management.

Librarians must adopt a tone that is between being assertive and kind. Blackburn and Hays state all new teachers need to find a balance between friendliness and assertiveness. This statement is true but Blackburn and Hays fail to state specific tips on how a librarian strikes a balance between firmness and compassion.

However, Blackburn and Hays move past this mistake unto a positive discovery to achieving classroom management. Preservice teachers reported their supervising teacher had a greater impact on their classroom management than any coursework they completed about classroom management. Supervising teachers may be important to preservice teachers because they are sharing verbal advice or experience in performing classroom management. Surprisingly, Blackburn and Hays never mention supervising teachers advising librarians on classroom management. Blackburn and Hays offer a possible explanation in that classroom management training is not a focus of librarian training.

This article opened my knowledge up to the classroom management expectations of what librarians are subjected to in the present day. Librarians can no longer be secluded within the library working with books. Blackburn and Hayes describe a world where librarians must communicate with faculty on performing classroom lessons and take on the role of a teacher. Classroom management needs to be incorporated within librarian training so librarians can meeting the new challenges placed on them at school.