AASL Standards Interview with Michal Hope Brandon, Librarian at Muller Road Middle School.

AASL Standards Interview with Michal Hope Brandon, Librarian at Muller Road Middle School.

Ms. Brandon is the certified librarian that works at Muller Road Middle School, in Blythewood, South Carolina. I spent a full day in September, 2022, at Muller Road interning under Ms. Brandon as part of my MLIS practicum hours. After spending the day learning about the library program there, I interviewed her about the Shared Foundation ‘Engage,’ from the American Association of School Librarian’s National School Library Standards. I wanted to know some ways the library program implements the domains and competencies that encompass the ‘Engage’ foundation. I asked the following questions:

1. What are some examples of the ways in which you are implementing these competencies in your library program?

2. What are some of the resources in your library program that you are using to implement these competencies?

3. Do any of the competencies that you are implementing include collaboration with classroom teachers? If so, please provide examples.

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

5. Are there any other comments that you would like to make regarding the Shared Foundation / Competencies and Domains that we have discussed today?

Ms. Brandon was able to give me many examples of ways she implements this foundation into her library program. She took the example of the school morning show, and talked about how it can be used to implement engagement. The ‘think’ domain says, “School librarians promote ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by: 1. Directing learners to responsibly use information, technology, and media for learning, and modeling this responsible use. 2. Modeling the understanding of ethical use of information, technology, and media. 3. Teaching learners how and why to evaluate information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need.” This competencies of this domain go perfectly with the morning show activities, because students must learn how to gather and present information using technology, and must do so ethically by making sure to use and cite credible sources. They must also use the competencies of the share domain, as they put the information into their own words to share with the school. The grow domain is also in play, because the students are using innovative technologies to produce their show. Some resources she uses for this are WiVideo, a green screen, and other technologies. Ms. Brandon says that she had to collaborate with other teachers to assemble her morning show team, because the teachers nominated students they thought would be best for the job.

Some challenges Ms. Brandon brought up were students that do not attempt to cite sources, because not all of their teachers require it. She believes good professional development on what age appropriate citation is, could be helpful to make sure all staff are on board. Overall, she thinks that her students do a great job in this area, and she says that middle school is the perfect age to really understand why we must give credit to others for their work.