DeAnne Barre: A View on Teacher Preparation
DeAnne Barre, a library technology specialist, describes the benefits of the Generation www.Y program for teachers and students.
1. How do students benefit from the Generation www.Y program?
It's absolutely joyful to work with these kids. The more power you give them, the more empowered they become, the more motivated they are to carry that throughout their whole school day. They take responsibility for their own learning. They get very excited about having authentic, purposeful reasons to be at school and authentic ways in helping their teachers. They take charge of their learning, and it carries across into all of the disciplines. They just really feel that it's important for them to be here, that they are the people who matter in this school.
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2. How do teachers benefit from the Generation www.Y program?
Teachers love having the in-class support. It's not unusual for me to start a lesson and start to show students how to reach the server or get to their folders and hear a Gen www.Y student say, "Well, I'm teaching that in my class today." The teachers love having that support in class -- people that they can count on to co-teach, to be mentors to the other kids. It cuts down on all the behavior problems. It cuts down on reasons not to want to come to school. Kids are very happy to be in a teaching role and teachers in my school are happy to let them share that.
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3. What are some important aspects of a library technology specialist’s job?
It's a really exciting time to be a library technology specialist. We've moved into library information specialists -- people who've always been sort of at the heart of a school and who need to integrate all of the pieces for the students' and teachers' resource-based education, integrated curriculum, technology-infused lessons. And it's a real pivotal role, and students are key players in that whole piece, especially with the Gen www.Y program. We can have them working with librarians who have a little more flexibility and time and have a scope and sequence awareness of the school so they can send out these mentors and kids who can be just-in-time support people for the teachers in their classrooms. And we can make a very technologically literate population.