Readings in conclusion section

One of the readings in the conclusion section of the module is "The seven most critical challenges facing our profession" by Doug Johnson.

Johnson, D. (2002). Challenges: The seven most critical challenges facing our profession, Teacher Librarian, 29(5), 21-24.

He makes a good point when he says that many librarians are too busy creating their own programmes in the library without seeing what is needed and happening in the school. This would be where collaboration comes into play, and seeking to understand where the school, teachers are placing their focus.

Things like serving on department teams, reporting back of students skills to the school community, collaborating with teachers a curriculum where students learn, practice and hone their skills are important things a teacher librarian can do.

Making sure that the TL is an expert in technology, and making sure that students and teachers are technologically literate is another important role. This is evident in ETL501 where we are learning about evaluating websites and resources.

Keeping a TL's core values is also important, and must be remembered, especially when some are going to be forced to babysit, or caretake the library only.

It was an encouraging article, with practical ideas on how to stay focused on the role of the TL and show why its necessary to have them in schools.

Thoughts on the latest readings...

I may be behind on the readings for this week, not sure.
I have just finished reading Todd's article on "The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations". Todd, R. J. (2008). The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations. Scan, 27(2), 19-28.

The main thing that came to mind is the difference between how I used to work in a pre school and how I worked in a school. In a pre-school you collaborate with the whole teaching team. The director, the SSO's and myself all sat down on the friday to plan ahead for the next week. We shared ideas about what we thought the children needed, how this could be achieved etc. Then I moved to a primary school, and I was on my own. No planning with anyone (there was no TL, or even a SSO to work in the library), everyone looked after their own curriculum.

I also don't recall alot of emphasis being placed on it at uni, or if any. I know we were taught to let the student's collaborate, but I don't recall anything on collaborating with other teachers of TL's.

I think what Todd highlighted at the end of the study was interesting. He asked the question "Was there a common goal that was driving the collaborative experience?" He concluded from the results that it was more a "I'm going to prove the importance of my role" type of thing. There wasn't much discussion on the learning outcomes for students, and that being the main reason why collaboration was seen to be something of importance.

I think there are many reasons why collaboration doesn't occur. Some were highlighted in this research, lack of time, lack of admin/principal support, working with another person who is different in teaching style/organisation. However, I think things like pride (I know everything I need to teach the children), lack of knowledge about collaboration and its benefits, and feeling overwhelmed are factors too.

A-HA!

So I was doing one of the readings for last week (I'm a week behind because of assignments, illnesses and work) on the Big 6 and I had an A-ha moment! I remember reading on someone else's blog about how this course expects alot from us, reading wise etc and isn't really backing up what its teaching us... Anyway, when I read about metacognition, I realised the purpose of this blog. Its so we can see, and our lecturers can see that which can't be "seen", how we think about thinking, how we are sorting out all this information, what we are thinking about it, learning about ourselves and how we approach learning, study, research.

so it all became clear.
End of a-ha moment, and now back to reading...

Assignment complete

I'm so glad that I was able to complete my assignment last week. I really felt it was going to be difficult, but it wasn't so much difficult, just that you had to include quite a few different sections or aspects.
I FINALLY got it all complete this week with the reference list. Gosh. I don't like reference lists. Didn't help that I didn't not the references well and had to search through my bookmarks or the net to find them again... I know... bad TL in training. I have learnt from that mistake though and I am doing alot better in ETL501 assignment!