21st Century School Librarian

21st Century School Librarian
After reading this post it makes me realise what a huge couple of years we have in front of us as information professionals. I am submitting a budget at school which will appeal to the principal to give the library budget more money to buy more books in the areas of the cross curriculum priorities such as Asian and sustainability. We already  have a more than adequate number of books regarding aborigines.
This will be my first budget submission so I have drawn on the help of the members of the TL listserv. As always, they have been very generous with their assistance and advice, volunteering their own budget submissions to help me.

Reflection ETL 504 Teacher as Leader

For me the most useful part of this course was the Vision Statement. It had me looking ( as I continue to) at my library at school and thinking about what I could do with it. I have already implemented some of the changes, such as the cushions and the front facing books. Wow - what a difference that makes! So many of the books that are borrowed are the ones I have displayed on the shelves! So simple yet so effective.

EBSCOhost: The State and Futures of Educational Technologies

EBSCOhost: The State and Futures of Educational Technologies
This article has blown my mind about what being a 21st century TL can mean. Technology is changing how we teach, what we teach and where we teach. I will be interested how the DEC keeps up with safe cloud computing. How do we make it accessible to all? Maybe in the future the TL will be able to move around the school and the library will come with her in her pocket? Amazing and exciting!

Trash and Treasure Note Taking

This video provides an excellent description of how to use " Trash and Treasure Notetaking". It takes the viewer from the beginning when one has to locate the keywords in the question to how to use those keywords to find relevant information.

Opportunity for change

We have just written a new mission statement at my school, which emphasizes 21 century learning. After reading about strategic change, particularly Gibb's article (Gibbs, R. (2003) Reframing the role of the teacher-librarian: The case for collaboration and flexibility Scan 22(3) 4), I felt empowered by the idea of a flexible timetable. I have read about it before but never really grasped the idea properly. Now that we have this new mission statement I believe that it gives me an opportunity to start to discuss this with our new principal who should be starting by next term. The change in leadership I am hoping will give me a chance to change too.
I was thinking in preparation for their arrival I would survey the school community about their opinion, positive and negative, regarding the library program. This, I am hoping, would provide me with data to support the changes I would like to make.
(Forum entry - ETL 504 201230, Module 4 Innovation and Change, 17/04/12)

Graphic Organisers

This term I have been using venn diagrams with Stage 2 to compare and contrast their work on different religions. It has been amazing to see the depth of thinking that a simple graphic organiser can bring about. Who would of thought that the Dreamtime and Hinduism had so much in common!

One area that the children had difficulty with was understanding what the beliefs of the various religions meant. I suppose I will should have worked more closely with them on that.

I have also been teaching them about notetaking. We will delve into that more next term. They are starting to understand what I am talking about. I will give them some more exercises from The Thoughtful Researcher by Virginia Rankin. I used her approach during Term 1, 2012 and I found that it was easy to follow and that most of the children were making adequate notes by the end of the term. The teachers too have asked that we learn about notetaking next term again. I will give them some other exercises with different material. As they become more efficient we can start to learn about referencing and getting info from more than one source.

Thanks to Jame's teaching I am starting to really understand the role of a TL.

Book Fair

Today was the last day of the book fair in my library. I have sold about 500 books and numerous fluffy pens and skateboard rubbers over the last 4 days! The children really enjoy the book fair. It was a bit of positive PR for the library as  the parents come with the children. I made sure I said hello to as many children, by name, as possible. During the past year, I have made a great effort to get to know the children.
Also, this year, the Director General visited the school and I suggested to the principal that she come to see our book fair. It was great timing as she came when there were many children in the library and the book fair was in full swing.

Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Video - Introduction to the CBAM

Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Video - Introduction to the CBAM
Here is a video I sourced that gives a clear explanation of CBAM.  I think it's a sound place to start my research on the subject.

Leadership, a wiki and an iPad

Now it looks like the wiki is the recommended way to share information from the iPad. I am using my wiki again this year with Stage 3. The next stumbling block is how to save onto it using the iPads. When the students and I last tried it was a failure. However, the material we tried to save was recoverable when using a computer to access the wiki.
I have asked for help on Yammer. We will see what it brings.

Wiki 2012

We have iPads at school with a limited memory. I have been trying to work out how to get around this problem so that the children can work collaboratively using the wiki I made last year. I have discovered that it is accessible by the children in my school, i.e. it is not a restricted site, anymore.
I am using it this year so that the children can compile there notes and share with other children in their class. It will also mean that they can access the wiki in class  or at home, which will give them time to write their information sheets or any other work. They need this extra time as the time they have in library isn't always sufficient to get  things done.
What it means in terms of the iPads is that they will be able to write their notes using the iPads and then view those notes elsewhere without having to email to themselves! This is a problem I have been trying to nut out for a while.

TL as a leader

Forum Entry on Donham

I appreciated a number of references in the Donham (2005) article. They include those referring to journaling, using the planning guideline from the AASL (1999),  using your passion to maintain enthusiasm and the list of characteristics of a leader.

1.     Journalling: She said that we should ask the following questions when we journal – “What did I learn today? Whom did I nuture today? What challenge did I confront today? How did I make a positive difference today?”

2.     Using A PlanningGuide for Information Power: Partnerships for Learning (American Association of School Librarians ) 1999.

This, she writes, involves setting a direction and writing steps out describing how to reach set goals. This spoke to me as we have just finished writing a mission statement at school, which refers to  21^st

learning.  It has inspired me to incorporate this into my planning for the library.

3.     Passion My passion is technology and its uses in teaching and learning. This article gives me permission to pursue this and hone my skills in this area.

4.     List of characteristics of the leader She refers to Warren Bennis (1999) who lists a number of ways a leader can be described. He included: “technical competence…conceptual skill…people skills…. Judgment…(and) character.

This article has given me a framework to move forward with my work as a TL. It has done this by putting into context and giving a reason for  many of the things I was already doing or could do better.

 

Donham, J. (2005). Leadership. In Enhancing teaching and learning : a leadership guide for school library media specialists (2nd ed.) (pp. 295-305). New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers.

A Fresh Start for the New Year

I have just finished writing my program for this term. Now that I am half way through my Masters I finally am developing a sense of what it is I am supposed to be doing. While teaching Stage 2 about different religions and Stage 3 about Mt Kosciuszko National Park, I am teaching the skill of notetaking. Later in the units I will be asking the children to ask themselves if the notes they have taken are sufficient or appropriate for their needs.
I am using a book called The Thoughtful Researcher by V. Rankin (1999). It is quite old but it breaks down the teaching  of information literacy into usable chunks. This is what I was looking for. I am considering buying it for the library or at least for myself. Some of the information relating to using the internet is too dated to use, however, the content on note taking and analysing information is very useful.

Ipad and Textbooks

I was looking at my nswl listserv today and it had this link to Youtube about Ipads and textbooks. I was particularly excited about the note taking facilities that the new app brings. Also, ipads offer a book publishing program which is free. When I am back at school I must look into this for our students. Very exciting!