Educators Need to Know About This “Invisible” Disability

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Barbara Paciotti

Sometimes it’s important to talk about issues larger than our collection and lessons, especially if they impact the students we work with. That said, I need to make you aware of an “invisible” disability that is all too prevalent today. That disability is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Lest you think I’m referring to some extreme hypochondriac’s wild fantasy, let me assure you that MCS is hardly a rare condition. More than 10 million Americans suffer from multiple chemical sensitivity. That’s greater than the population of 41 individual U.S. states!

MCS & THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Federal government addresses Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in various departmental guidelines. Bennie Howard, Acting Director of the Office of Disability Policy at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. states that, under the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, HUD considers multiple chemical sensitivity to be a disability.

The Center for Disease Control, another Federal agency, implemented a new Indoor Environmental Quality Policy in June 2009 for all its facilities. It addresses the issue of MCS as follows:

Only green cleaning products shall be specified and used within CDC facilities and leased spaces unless otherwise approved by the Office of Health and Safety. [Under Definitions, Green Cleaning Products are “Janitorial cleaning products that are biodegradable, of low toxicity, fragrance-free, and otherwise less hazardous to human health or the environment.”]

Building Occupants
1. Non-Permissible Products
Scented or fragranced products are prohibited at all times in all interior space owned, rented, or leased by CDC. This includes the use of:

Incense, candles, or reed diffusers

Fragrance-emitting devices of any kind

Wall-mounted devices, similar to fragrance-emitting devices, that operate automatically or by pushing a button to dispense deodorizers or disinfectants

Potpourri

Plug-in or spray air fresheners

Urinal or toilet blocks

Other fragranced deodorizer/re-odorizer products

Personal care products (e.g. colognes, perfumes, essential oils, scented skin and hair products) should not be applied at or near actual workstations, restrooms, or anywhere in CDC owned or leased buildings.

In addition, CDC encourages employees to be as fragrance-free as possible when they arrive in the workplace. Fragrance is not appropriate for a professional work environment, and the use of some products with fragrance may be detrimental to the health of workers with chemical sensitivities, allergies, asthma, and chronic headaches/migraines.

Employees should avoid using scented detergents and fabric softeners on clothes worn to the office. Many fragrance-free personal care and laundry products are easily available and provide safer alternatives.

Still not convinced? Dr. Anne Steinemann, formerly a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Affairs at the University of Washington, has recently published important research documenting the presence of a large number of toxic chemicals in widely used fragranced products, including detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, air fresheners, disinfectants, cleaning products, shampoos, and other household and personal-care products.

HOW MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY “FEELS”

The topic of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities is important to me, because I have this “invisible” disability. I’m especially sensitive to fragrances and it’s amazing how frequently I am unable to enjoy my life in such basic and essential areas as employment, education, and securing goods and services. Decision makers are not the only ones unaware of barriers to people with a chemical and environmental disability, so I feel compelled to make the rest of you aware of how your inadvertent choices can have a significant negative impact on those around you.

If exposed to fragrances, I experience, progressively, a burning in my mouth ⇒ shooting pains through my head ⇒ increased histamine activity in my eyes, nose and throat ⇒ difficulty in breathing due to closure of my throat ⇒ coughing ⇒ heaving in my lungs ⇒ loss of my voice ⇒ disorientation and dizziness ⇒ inability to think. After 20 minutes of strong continuous exposure, I pass out…as in unconscious. Even brief exposure to fragrances requires nearly an hour of recovery, and longer exposure can require up to a full day. You can only imagine what this does to my brain and thinking processes!

Since fragrances permeate people’s personal hygiene (soaps, shampoos, deodorants, makeup, hair spray, and laundry products), it is difficult to avoid them. The accumulation of smells from your products induces a deadening of your senses, promoting the overuse of perfumes and colognes, which is even more perilous for an MCS sufferer. Needless to say, I am assaulted nearly everywhere I go, and because I must often avoid or remove myself from groups of people, those unaware of my condition consider me antisocial, snobbish, or weird. I can handle it—I’m an adult. But, on behalf of children everywhere, I caution those of you who regularly interact with them.

MCS IN THE CLASSROOM & SCHOOL LIBRARY

Children are especially sensitive to chemical and environmental factors, and even parents may be unaware of their child’s vulnerability. While asthmatic attacks are very visible, your fragrances can also cause confused, erratic thinking and lethargy in a child with whom you are in close proximity, or alternately cause heightened hypersensitivity to the point of attention-deficit and hyperactivity. I have personally seen positive changes in the personality, behavior, and learning of children removed from a “toxic” adult or classroom.

Here is a comment about the mental effects of fragrances from a formerly bright and creative young woman, who now suffers from MCS:

Spelling is hard; numbers are hard. I have dyslexia sometimes now. I always check and double check. I would write an envelope, and it would be returned because I mixed up my numbers. I never had a problem with numbers before. I did calculus and differential equations. If somebody asks me numbers or to spell something, it’s really hard. (J. Duncan from Chemical Sensitivity Foundation video)

If you regularly work with children, please do not wear perfumes, colognes, or after shaves, and minimize the mixture of fragranced products you use, perhaps buying some unscented ones.

If children will be in your classroom or library for extended periods of time, please abstain from using scented candles or room deodorizers.

From the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation, these powerful videos show the symptoms of two different MCS sufferers: inability to swallow or catch breath, progressive hoarseness of voice, spasms and seizures.

An 8-minute trailer previewing scenes from the video Fragrance Free Workplace
Watch the full 53-minute Fragrance Free Workplaces video on YouTube

5 Ways a School Librarian Can Improve Your Project Based Learning

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Barbara Paciotti

Educators have known for years that student projects are great assessment strategies, but the current trend in project based learning shows us that projects also provide a superior learning environment. Students are more engaged in critical thinking, their learning is contextual instead of disparate, and they make more authentic connections to the ‘real world’.

Many teachers struggle with Project Based Learning or have had a disappointing experience, and that doesn’t need to happen. I’m revealing the very best way to make Project Based Learning more successful: collaborate with the School Librarian!

A BIT OF BACKGROUND

An Edutopia article Project-Based Learning vs. Problem-Based Learning vs. X-BL, by Buck Institute for Education (BIE) Editor-in-Chief John Larner, states that “The term ‘project learning’ derives from the work of John Dewey and dates back to William Kilpatrick, who first used the term in 1918,” and “The use of case studies and simulations as ‘problems’ dates back to medical schools in the 1960s.” Thus there is a rich background for the success of PBL as a learning system.

According to Larner and BIE, project-based learning has an array of new monikers that take various forms, but it is primarily an “extended learning experience” that may include one or more of the following:

“investigating a topic or issue to develop an answer to an open-ended question”
“solving a real-world problem (may be simulated or fully authentic)”
“designing and/or creating a tangible product, performance or event.”

According to Larner, PBL et al. falls under the general category of inquiry-based learning—which also includes research papers, scientific investigations, Socratic Seminars or other text-based discussions, etc.” (Nice to know those research papers we’ve been assigning all these years are still relevant!)

HOW YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARIAN CAN HELP

If you’ve been reluctant to try PBL or had a bad experience with it, here are 5 ways your School Librarian can be an invaluable PBL partner:

We can show students the best research process model to guide them through the project/problem/design/challenge they’ve chosen. I’ve created a chart of the best research process models out there and it’s a FREE PDF download. All PSMs have 4 basic phases: plan, aggregate materials, create a product, and analyze outcome. Some have more steps, some fewer, and all develop in students a problem-solving mindset. Since each model has its benefits and flaws, a School Librarian, experienced in teaching these models, can determine the most suitable process for the project a teacher has in mind, can present it in a manner that supports student inquiry, and will scaffold the learning so students master each step.
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We can show students the best ways to develop meaningful questions.Students rarely have an opportunity to plan a research assignment, so they may not be adept at creating meaningful questions for PBL. School Librarians have brainstorming tools to help students formulate questions as they begin their projects. We can also show students how good questions help them sift through resources for specific information—saving them time—and how to analyze the value of that information to create a quality product or outcome.
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We can show each student the best information resources for their needs.
My school library had 10,000 non-fiction books, along with more than 50 different online services. Imagine the confusion for students trying to determine what to use for their information need. A school librarian knows all the resources available to students, and more importantly, knows how to match the most useful print, audio, video, digital, or web-based resources with the needs of each student’s project. We are the ultimate curators of information resources!
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We can show students all the best search strategies for those sources.
Before the Internet came along School Librarians taught students how to generate keywords to search an Index or Table of Contents in print materials. Our purpose has not changed; teaching students to generate keywords is essential for searching online, whether for text, graphic, audio or video materials. We’ve also mastered ways to fine-tune a search in online subscription services and search engines, such as Google. We can help each student customize their search for whatever their own project requires.
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We can show students the best way to gather information ethically and proficiently.
A prior blog post talked about Academic Honesty and teaching students note-taking methods for the ethical use of information. School Librarians also know a range of digital and online apps to assist students in gathering and organizing their information, some of which are excellent for presenting the final project/product.

Teachers can gain confidence for doing Project/Problem Based Learning by collaborating with their School Librarians. If you are a Teacher, now is a perfect time to visit with your School Librarian about planning PBL lessons for the coming school year.

If you are a School Librarian, here is a downloadable PDF document to share with your teachers about this article’s 5 Ways to collaborate with them for some exciting Project Based Learning experiences for students!

3 Assessment Tools for the School Librarian

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Barbara Paciotti

It’s rare, indeed, to find a School Librarian who records grades for students. In fact, it’s unusual to find a school or district with a formal school library curriculum to teach, much less assess. It seems no one expects any kind of assessment, whether formative, summative, or standardized test, from a School Librarian’s instruction, yet we do have a variety of ways that we can measure and show student learning from our lessons. During my years as a Middle School Librarian I regularly used 3 assessment tools for my Library Lessons:

graphic organizers
rubric criteria
library statistics.

It’s important to have a relevant lesson for every scheduled class visit to the School Library, and it must be in a formal written form so that teachers and principals take us seriously as teaching professionals. For that reason I developed my Library Lesson Planner. As my form evolved and became more comprehensive, my lessons—and consequently—student learning improved.

NoSweat Library Lesson Planner Template Section 1: Desired Results (Standards, Understandings, Key Questions, Objectives, Vocabulary)

click to enlarge

Section 1 of my Planner uses subject and library standards to create long-term understandings, key questions, and objectives.

Once that is filled in, I use Section 2 of my Library Lesson Planner to develop Assessment Evidence, the proof that through my lesson students meet the objectives. Here’s how Section 2 looks before I begin entering information for the lesson:

That very first line determines which assessment tool I use.

If the final product is the subject teacher’s classroom activity or project, then my lesson is a portion of the process, and I use a graphic organizer or rubric criteria to show that students learned my part of the process.
If the final product is a library-only lesson, then I use a graphic organizer and library statistics to show learning.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

I’m a Form Fanatic, and I like graphic organizers because students develop an understanding of conceptual knowledge themselves. Graphic organizers can be very simple or very complex, depending on where in the scaffolding process the lesson fits, and I often have students work together in groups of 2 or 4 with the more complex ones. Graphic organizers can be a final assessment tool by having students create an infographic of what they know and can do—sometimes the infographic being a sheet of paper that covers the whole library table!

Teachers appreciate having a student-generated graphic organizer for a Library Lesson—it keeps students on task and teachers can use it as evidence for a daily grade. If teachers will collect the document I evaluate student mastery by walking about and seeing what they’ve filled in on their organizer; at other times I collect the document to provide assessment to students and then give the stack to teacher(s) so they can record the grade or extend the learning.

Here are examples of graphic organizers I like to use: Thinking Maps are proprietary forms and Zoom In-Zoom Out is a common content literacy form.

RUBRIC CRITERIA

For a classroom product where the teacher has an assessment rubric, I generate library rubric criteria to add to the teacher’s assessment rubric. The secret to success with this assessment tool is that we clearly define for both students and teachers what comprises exemplary, proficient, or acceptable. Neither students nor teachers are knowledgeable about library curriculum and teachers may not give us the opportunity to perform the grading for the “library criteria” (although those who have accepted my offer are very grateful that I help with assessment).

For a library-only lesson we can fill out rubrics and return them to students, but I find that giving students the opportunity to self- or peer-assess increases the value of the learning experience…not to mention saving me a lot of time yet still producing accountability for my teaching. In fact, I design many of my Library Lessons to incorporate a rubric assessment right on the activity worksheet. Here are examples of a teacher rubric and a peer rubric that I’ve used:

NoSweat Library Research Helper: PACE Assessment Rubric

Project rubric

Library Lesson - Peer Evaluation Rubric for a Video Booktalk

Peer-eval rubric

LIBRARY STATISTICS

For evaluating how my Library-only Lessons are effective with students, an analysis of library statistics can be very revealing; however, using library statistics for assessment is the most difficult tool to configure and analyze. The purpose of the lesson determines the information-gathering method that will generate data on what students have learned. For example:

If the purpose is to introduce a special collection of books that support a content area, then circulation numbers for that collection—generated as a report through the library automation system—indicate whether students grasped the value of those support materials.
If the purpose is to teach an aspect of the research process, then counts of incidental, independent library use by those students for several days after the lesson indicate the success of the lesson; if they can work independently to pursue research for the project, then they know and can do what we have taught.

Here’s an example of a “statistic” I use for assessment. I have a customized form to teach a student lesson on how to generate search criteria, and the depletion of additional forms over the next few days tells me whether students “got it” (few forms used because student search terms produced viable results) or they did not understand (more searches performed because students had difficulty generating the right search terms). I know this seems like a stretch, but School Librarians must sometimes use such contrivances to determine the success of our lessons and whether we produced our desired results.

When we teachers become School Librarians we don’t give up the tools we used in the classroom, but rather we refine and modify them. Assessment is a good example of the refining and modification we must do to provide students with the best possible education.

My Library Lesson Planner and the Keyword Search Form are available for download on my Free Librarian Resources page.

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

Reflections from A Middle School Librarian

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