Thing #22 Nings

I enjoyed reading the information about Nings. I feel like I am learning a new language. I went to the Teacher Librarian Ning and clicked on Elementary School Librarians. There was a discussion on Flexible Scheduling in libraries, and since this is something that we are struggling with, I enjoyed reading those questions and comments. Many seem to be trying to do what we are doing--a mixture of fixed and flexible. Our teachers really fight the flexible scheduling and we have not had a lot of success with it.

There were a few librarians that gave some helpful hints about how it was working for them, but they also had an assistant and a computer teacher to collaborate and teach along with them, and they had the support of the administration. As a matter of fact, I was surprised at the number of librarians that still had aides and assistants. I wasn't surprised at the comments that many people think that if the librarian isn't directly teaching a class at the moment, that she/he must not be doing anything else. I guess it is like most jobs, you really have no idea how many things are involved until you actually start the work.

This Ning is probably a good way to share ideas and comments. I enjoy doing that in person more than on a social network or a blog. That is why I am not ready to join these "social networks" for the time being. I see the benefit to sharing the knowledge and ideas over the computer, but I also see it as much more isolating and very time consuming to read all of this on a computer instead of having a conversation or a meeting of librarians.