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!

Using Google Maps

Hi I have just started experimenting with Google Maps as suggested by J. Herring in Improving students' web use and information literacy (p.22). I could show  Stage 1 how to use it for their walking tour unit and Stage 2 for the literacy research unit.
Here is the link for the map. This will give an extra dimension to the unit of work the children will be doing. In Stage 1 we can use their photos in the map we create.

Annandale North PS Walking Tour Sample Test

Donkey Library

What can I say? This man is a hero. I look at him and feel so thankful for all the advantages we take for granted every day. Barbara Braxton shared this on OzTL net. She also suggested that it be watched after reading My Library is a Camel.

Exciting changes in my library work and studies.

Oh how quickly things are moving for me this year. V. is starting to study more; R too and U is growing up so quickly. On a professional front, I am making my own website for school using Weebly. This can be used for my assignment for my masters so that works in nicely. Also, it means that I will have to buckle down and make the website more quickly than I originally had in mind, which I suppose is a good thing. I can't put a link to the website because it is, at the moment, unpublished.

Another exciting thing that has happened recently  is that Fearless from the book by Colin Thompson is coming to our school this week. I have the children all primed for his arrival. I did this by bringing my stuffed Lu Lu to school saying that she came to wait for her new friend Fearless. The children are almost as excited as I am. I will take pictures and use them to make a Photopeach of his visit.

Part C- Critical synthesis of my view of the role of a teacher librarian

Part C –  Critical synthesis of my view of the role of a teacher librarian

As Marcoux (2009) said it should be, my learning curve as a trainee teacher librarian (TL) has been rapid and ongoing. This blog entry is a critical synthesis of how my view of the role of TL has changed. In this essay, I will discuss what I think the role of the TL is, followed by a discussion of the strengths and limitations of my learning journey through this course.

 After studying this subject (ETL 401) I am beginning to understand  what  the roles of the TL are. For me the roles described by the Learning Resources Council (2005) are the most relevant. They describe the TL as a leader, collaborator , teacher and manager.

Strengths

One of my main strengths before beginning the course was my interest in learning about how to be a TL. This is an example of how I was beginning to be a lifelong learner.  I was developing an interest in how technology can be used to facilitate learning. Examples of my use of web 2.0 tools in my teaching are provided in the following links - Wikispaces (Ramrakha, 2011a), Delicious (Ramrakha, 2011b) and Prezi (Ramrakha, 2011c). In the blog entry in March the impact of the ETL401 is apparent, as it is evident that I am beginning to think about how to use the wiki to teach information literacy.

Limitations

After reading during the first assessment task, Herring (2007) and his list of roles  and the 12 Australian School Library Association (ASLA, 2004) standards  of excellence, I was unsure whether I would be able to reach that sort of level. Since then, I have been thinking that the best approach is to tackle one major role/job at a time.  For example, at the same time as writing this essay I am writing 400 report comments at work. I want to design a website for the school library but I also want to upload my comments in time for the other teachers to read and use them, so I will put off the website until they are finished. That is to say, that before commencing this course, not only did I not have an awareness of all of the different roles of a TL which I should have, I also did not understand how or the need to balance (Ramrakha, 2011a) them (Abilock, 2004).

Furthermore, when I first started the subject, all I could do was to paraphrase other writer’s opinions about the role of the TL without truly appreciating what these words meant. Examples of this can be found in the following two blog entries: they are More on the role of the teacher librarian (Ramrakha, 2011b) and Description of the duties of a teacher librarian (Ramrakha, 2011c).  Now I am developing a vocabulary of terms that are used frequently in the TL world. These include: inquiry learning, information literacy, collaborating, leadership and constructivism. This has meant that I can read the information about the work of a TL and understand it, more deeply.

Before completing this subject I had no idea of the centrality of the role of information literacy (Herring, 2007 , Purcell, 2010, ASLA ,2004 and Marcoux, 2009).  I thought my role was to stimulate ‘love of reading’ more than anything else. Unfortunately, I had little grasp of what the term information literacy and the information skills models referred to. I realize now, that I should have read more about my role, as I was working part time as a TL for two years before I started this course. 

Initially, my understanding of the role of the TL was that I thought it was one of service. I still believe that my role is to assist the school community in its work but as a leader and a collaborator not as a servant. Leadership, according to Everhart (2007) is when the TL provides access to information to the school community , regardless of their needs. Furthermore, Everhart describes how it also involves the development of IL across the curriculum using a collaborative approach. The research I conducted and wrote about on the ETL 401 Forum (Ramrakha, 2011g) regarding learning organizations highlighted  to me how all aspects of  SC need to work together for successful collaboration to occur.

I feel I could have learnt more about collaboration during the course. I have a need to learn more about it, as I believe it is the key to teaching information literacy across the school, effectively. As a lifelong learner, I will continue this pursuit in the future.

To conclude, I now am beginning to comprehend what it means to be TL. Furthermore, during the course I have gone from working as a TL in a very naive and uninformed position to one in which I can see in my daily practice what it means to teach information literacy, collaborate, lead and manage.

References Part C

Australian School Library Association. (2004) Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. [Policy sheet].Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm

Abilock, D. (2004). What's Your Name? Knowledge Quest, 32(3), 9-10.

Doll, C.A. (2005). Collaboration and the school library media specialist. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Everhart, N. (2007). Leadership: School library media specialists as effective school leaders. Knowledge Quest, 35(4), 54-57.

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians in the school library. In S. Ferguson. (Ed.). (2007). Libraries in the twenty-first century: Charting new directions in information services (pp.27-42). Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies.

Howard, J. K., & Eckhardt, S. A. (2005). Why Action Research? The leadership role of the library media specialist. Library Media Connection, 24(2), 32-34.

Lamb, A., & Johnson, I. (2008). School library media specialist 2.0: a dynamic collaborator, teacher, and technologist. Teacher Librarian, 36(2), 74-78.

Learning Resources Council, (2005, February 9) The role of the teacher librarian [Position paper]. Retrieved from http://aslc.teachers.ab.ca/About%20the%20Alberta%20School%20Library%20Council/Pages/Position-Papers.aspx

Marcoux, E. (2009). Intellectual access to information: the teacher-librarian as facilitator. Teacher Librarian, 36(5), 76-77.

Purcell, M. (2010). All Librarians Do Is Check Out Books, Right? A Look at the Roles of a School Library Media Specialist. Library Media Connection, 29(3), 30.

Ramrakha, S. (2011a, March 17). Using a wiki at school [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011/03/using-wiki-in-school.html#Using%20a%20wiki%20in%20school

Ramrakha, S. (2011b, April 19). Delcious [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011/04/delicious.html#Delicious

Ramrakha, S. (2011c, March 11). Prezi [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011/03/prezi.html#Prezi

Ramrakha, S. (2011d, March 18). "What's in a name?" [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011/03/whats-in-name.html#%22What's%20in%20a%20name?%22

Ramrakha, S. (2011e, March 2). More on the role of the teacher librarian [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-on-role-of-teacher-librarian.html

Ramrakha, S. (2011f, February 25). Description of the duties of a teacher librarian [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://susangwenr.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html