My year as an elementary Specials Rotation Librarian nearly ended my library career.
I was a Specials librarian for only one year. It was all I could do.
The Specials rotation ultimately gave me the gentle shove I needed to get back into a middle school setting. I left my school the next school year to open a brand-new middle school in the same school district. When I applied as the middle school librarian, I was also prepared to apply as an English teacher.
Anything to get out of another year on the Specials.
WHAT IS THE SPECIALS ROTATION?
The Specials rotation exists in most, if not all, US elementary schools, though it may not always be called the Specials rotation. You may also hear it called a “fixed” library schedule because the schedule is the same every week for the entire school year.
The Specials are a rotating daily block when other “specials” teachers cover the regular classroom teachers’ conference periods. This is most often the art, music, and PE rotation, but sometimes, library and/or computer technology are in the mix, too.
In my school, all 750 students from K-Grade 5 rotated between art, music, PE, library, and computer classes. Students went to one of these classes each day for 50-55 minutes while their teacher got their much-needed conference period.
The specials teachers at my school each saw six classes every day for 50 minutes, with a 5-minute transition period between the classes. We also got a 50-minute conference period ourselves each morning.
FIXED VERSUS FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES
In contrast, a flexible schedule is one where the library schedule is collaborative with teachers and flexible for many different uses of the library. There are usually still scheduled classes, but there is plenty of time in the schedule for the library to just be “open” for walk-in or “open” checkout.
On a flexible schedule, teachers can bring their classes for additional library lessons as-needed. Examples of these lessons might include librarian-led instruction about using the library for research projects, how to create a bibliography, makerspace time, and more.
As the name implies, the schedule is flexible. The librarian still teaches classes in the library, but the schedule allows for a variety of collaborative lessons between the teacher and librarian. Those collaborations can also happen during the teacher’s conference period since the librarian is not actually covering the conference period.
If the librarian’s schedule is a full day of specials classes, any collaboration with teachers can only happen before or after school. This might work for some, but teachers and librarians often have duty or meetings at these times and cannot collaborate until these are over. By then, the contract day is over or nearly over, so collaboration at that point can only happen on our own time, when many of us have family obligations or even a second job to go to.
FROM FLEX TO FIXED
I went into the Specials rotation after four years on a flexible schedule.
At first, I embraced the opportunity to be “on the rotation.” No one could ask me to cover for absent teachers, something that happened regularly when I was on a flex schedule. Whoohoo!
I would also no longer have to figure out how to accommodate schedule changes for snow days, assemblies, and random teacher requests to reschedule. I saw classes back-to-back, every day. There was no way to “squeeze” another class in.
And because library would now serve as cover for teacher conference periods, classes were far more likely to arrive for library on time. This meant my thoughtfully-planned library lessons didn’t have to get cut short because a class arrived 10 minutes late and left 10 minutes early.
LIFE WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER, RIGHT?
WRONG.
Sure, my days of covering classes at a moment’s notice were over. It definitely helped me keep my schedule predictable. But, y’all, being a Specials Rotation Librarian was HARD. I had six 50-minute classes every day, in all six grade levels, K-5.
That meant that on Mondays, I had to have lessons for all six grade levels, right from the first day of the week. I had to plan my lessons well, or some of my more chaotic (not to mention large) classes would quickly get out of hand.
Worst of all, I had only 5 minutes between the classes, if I was lucky and all classes arrived exactly on time. That wasn’t the norm, so my ability to use the restroom and sip my cold coffee was also gone. This girl needs her potty and coffee, people!
THE FRIDAY ASSEMBLY = MORE TO PLAN
Technically, I had first period “off” for my conference period. I needed first period to decompress and clean up after the 60+ students who chose the library over the cafeteria before school. I’m sure you can imagine how busy my mornings were!
But as many teachers also experience, this “conference period” disappeared quickly. The other three Specials teachers and I were charged with running an assembly every Friday morning (also during our conference period).
We spent at least two of our conference periods during the week planning for the Friday assembly. The group elected me to be the emcee of those events because I was the only one who felt comfortable speaking in front of a crowd of 1000 students, teachers, administrators, and parents.
If you’ve ever planned an assembly, then you know how much work it would be to be in charge of planning and emceeing one EVERY FRIDAY.
NO OPEN CHECKOUT
My schedule was so full that I really could not do open checkout during the day. While I did have a full-time library aide, she was pulled daily for lunch and recess duties, not to mention subbing, testing, and other random stuff that came up.
Since I was constantly teaching classes that could number over 30 students, I could not also run open checkout at the same time. Who would help students check out while I was with a class?
This was such a shame to me; I have always loved offering the flexibility of open checkout all day, every day. The students and teachers wanted open checkout, too.
I’m sad to say that two years after I went up to middle school, district administrators cut all library aide positions in our district. Our elementary librarians, many of whom were in the Specials rotation, were then stretched even more thin during the day.
FAMILY ISSUES
Add into this that I was also a mom of a toddler and a preschooler. This was the school year that my toddler was sick pretty much all the time (asthma, food allergies, and lactose intolerance were the eventual diagnosis).
It was also the year that my three-year old broke his arm on the playground at his preschool. In addition to having surgery on his broken arm, he was also hospitalized twice that school year for symptoms caused by walking pneumonia.
Thankfully, my principal was a single mom of two young boys. She may not have liked my 17 absences that year, but at least she understood.
MY EXPERIENCE IS NOT UNIQUE
Maybe you are reading all this and thinking that my experience was probably unusual. Most librarians are not planning weekly assemblies or seeing six 50-minute classes a day or dealing with sick babies…right?
I am here to tell you that my situation is not unique. Maybe all specials rotation librarians aren’t planning assemblies, but they may be teaching ESL classes or running a video news program. Maybe they are also the testing coordinator or campus technology integrator at their school. Maybe they coach after-school teams or sponsor extra-curricular clubs.
MY MOST DIFFICULT YEAR IN EDUCATION
Being a Specials librarian is enough, all by itself. For me, my one year on the Specials was the hardest year of my 18 years in education, and it was my 8th year in education!
It was harder than my first year as a middle school ELA teacher.
Harder than my first year as an elementary librarian, coming from the middle school classroom, still in graduate school, opening a brand-new school, and six months pregnant with my first child.
Harder than my first year as a librarian in Suzhou, China, a country I had never even visited, knew no one, and did not speak the language.
Ultimately, I applied for (and got) the librarian position at the new middle school in my district. When I applied, I had already decided that if I didn’t get the library job, I would apply as a middle school English teacher instead. If I was going to teach six 50-minute classes every day, I wanted to teach the same 150 students each week. Not all 750 students in the school.
I wanted to know all my students names. I wanted to know them individually. I did not want to be in a “turn-em-and-burn-em” environment where I felt more like a babysitter than an important and valued member of the teaching staff.
For me, the Specials rotation was not sustainable.
It did not jive with my philosophy for the library.
And it was just so hard.
ARE YOU A SPECIALS ROTATION LIBRARIAN?
I know many librarians do Specials and do them well. If you are thriving in the Specials rotation – or at least keeping your sanity intact – I am in awe of you. To me, you have a superpower that I absolutely do not possess.
If you are a Specials librarian wondering if maybe library wasn’t the right path for you, I encourage you to seek a different situation. I loved every minute of being a middle school librarian, and later as a 6-12 librarian. And I loved being an elementary librarian for the four years before I found myself on the Specials rotation.
If you aren’t enamored with Specials, I encourage you to apply for middle or high school positions. Or, look for elementary schools with libraries on a flex schedule, as I had enjoyed for my first four years. Talking to your principal about taking the library out of Specials may also work, but I personally found that to be a dead end. I get it: many schools are just understaffed and out of options.
LET’S CHAT ABOUT IT!
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