Collaborating at Polo Road Elementary

Polo Road Elementary Librarian, James McTeer, demonstrates the Collaborate competency by:

• facilitating collaboration opportunities
• demonstrating the importance of personal, social, and intellectual networks
• promoting working productively with others to solve problems
• fostering active participation in learning situations

In order to implement these competencies, Mr. McTeer keeps his collection (print and digital, fiction and nonfiction, and databases) up to date, teaches K-2 as part of the normal curricular schedule, works with teachers to determine curricular needs, and offers space for classes and programs to be able to use the library resources to fit their needs.

During my visit, Mr. McTeer was facilitating a lesson to which not only promoted the school reading program sponsored by the Fireflies, the Columbia Minor League Baseball Team but also encouraged learners to read widely, challenged them to work with others to enable the development of broader and deeper understandings, and demonstrated how to solicit and respond to feedback. Using the story times during his K-2 classes on the regular school schedule, Mr. McTeer advocated and modeled respect for diverse perspectives to guide the inquiry process. He made a point to choose books from diverse populations to not only reflect the students themselves but also to enable students to develop empathy for other people's perspectives. Mr. McTeer conducted a Q&A session with the students in which he modeled how to solicit and respond to feedback respectfully as well as how to actively contribute to group discussions.

Polo Road Elementary School also has a dual-language immersion program. This creates special challenges in finding appropriate resources too. Other challenges faced include funding for more DLI materials, space, and time to fully engage with all learners and teachers at the school. Mr. McTeer said that even though he is on the regular schedule working with students in grades K-2, that actually takes time away from his other librarian duties, but by working with these students now, he believes will be making a long-term difference for them when they have a solid foundation for reading and researching in the library.

There were no other additions to this interview. Mr. McTeer is just what elementary students need, a passionate, driven, and dedicated professional who sees it as his mission to "start them off right."