Engage with Angie Thoele at CMS

Angie Thoele has been the librarian at Chapin Middle since the new building opened in 2015. She previously worked at what is now Chapin Intermediate School and Irmo Middle School, so she has spent her career as a District Five librarian. As I also work in a middle school, I know that we tend to focus on teaching digital citizenship, privacy practices, and fair use. Therefore, I created the following interview questions based on the Engage AASL standard: 

• Can you describe your approach to teaching students about ethical and legal information usage?

• How do you model and facilitate positive digital citizenship in your library?

• How do you handle challenges to library materials and can you provide an example of a situation you've faced?

• What are some of the challenges that you face when trying to implement these competencies?

Angie teaches the concepts of fair use and digital citizenship in tandem with collaborative lessons, rather than in isolation. She finds this challenging as students are familiar with the terms but not with the concepts in practice.  While the district has provided digital citizenship lessons for students in the past, students often fail to connect these lessons with everyday practices. This seems to widen the disconnect between digital literacy skills and content area knowledge. Angie is typically asked to collaborate with ELA teachers when doing research. She facilitates lessons having to do with citations and critically evaluating online resources. In the past, Angie has collaborated with departments, but most teach these skills in their own classrooms, rather than using the school librarian as a resource. 

Challenges of library materials used to be handled by school, but are now handled by the district. The policy has recently changed and does not require the challenger to read the book in question. The Chapin cluster of schools within the district often has more challenges or questions about curriculum, so Angie deals with questions about books frequently. During inventory, Angie said she’s noticed more controversial books just “disappear” from circulation. She always replaces them, but said that this indirect censorship of books has become more prominent in recent years. 

When talking with Angie about implementing this standard, I learned it is difficult to teach any type of lesson or standard when teachers are not willing to collaborate. Throughout the interview and visit, I had empathy for Angie’s situation, as it seems as if her skills as a librarian are not valued by her administration or staff. When a school librarian does not have support, it becomes difficult to teach the necessary skills students need in order to engage appropriately with online resources and implement effective research. I am fortunate to have connections with my current staff and a rapport with teachers from all departments. However, I am apprehensive about taking on the school librarian role and not being able to make those same connections necessary for collaboration. I need to show how to effectively integrate digital literacy skills in content area classes in a meaningful way. I will also need to be proactive in my approach and show how I can positively impact lessons and classroom learning.