First and Foremost a Teacher (Classroom Manager)

From the very beginning of my teaching career (which was an an English teacher, not a librarian), I thought classroom management was key to allowing instruction to happen whether it be in the library or an individual teacher's room.  Unfortunately, the high school library in these times of economic straits seems to be utilized as warehouse space for students rather than a place for robust learning.    I was reading the blog, Teacher in a Strange Land, a title I love because that's exactly how I feel as a librarian sometimes.  In Flanagan's blog, she talks about the "really important issues:  Building a functioning community.  Safety.  Personal dignity. Kindness.  Order.  Academic Integrity.  Democracy."  These concerns are exactly the kind of things I want to implement in a library space.  And so I'm copying verbatim from her blog the bullet points I also value:

• You're shooting for influence, not control.  Fact is, teachers never have absolute control over kids, even using techniques like fear, punishment, isolation and intimidation.  (In edu-speak, "consequences.")  You want kids to behave appropriately because they understand that there are rewards for everyone in a civil classroom.
• No matter what rules you put on paper, your most important job is role-modeling those practices, not enforcing them.  Behave the way you want kids to behave:  Ignore minor, brainless bids for attention.  Make eye contact with speakers.  Don't be an attention hog--your stories aren't more important than theirs.  Don't be rude to kids.  Apologize publicly when you're wrong.  Remember that you're the adult in the room.  It's your calm presence that institutes order, not rules.
• Rules shouldn't restate the obvious.  "No cheating" is a stupid rule.  "Bring a pencil to class" is a silly rule.  Any rule that begins with "don't" is a challenge to the rebels in every class.  Any sub-rule covered by the general idea of being respectful (or, if your students are in first grade, nice) doesn't need specificity.....
• Integrity helps build community.  The most important directives in democratic classrooms are around ethical practices:  A clear defnition of cheating, understood by all students, in the digital age.  Why trust and personal best are more important than winning.  Why substandard work isn't ever OK.  How true leadership--kids want to be leaders, too--is a function of respect.
• Carrots and sticks are temporary nudges toward desirable behavior at best, but ultimately destructive.  One of the phrases I hate most in the conversation around acceptable student behavior is "caught being good."  One of my kids' elementary school PTAs started a campaign to catch kids "being good"--one per week--and give them $5 and a mention in the P.A. announcements the next day.  Fortunately, the first rash of faux "good" behavior from spotlight-seeking 5th graders triggered a quick end to the plan.

Recently, a dean asked me to create rules for my high school library.  I resorted to my lifelong guidelines:  trustworthiness, truthfulness, active listening, personal best, no put-downs and crafted something similarly pithy.  Too pithy for him to just say that the library is an academic place of study and to use common sense.  But then again common sense isn't all that common when it comes to bureaucracy.

Flanagan, Nancy. "Who Makes the Rules in a Classroom? Seven Ideas about
     Rule-making." Teacher in a Strange Land. edweek, 14 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Aug.
     2012.