Reflecting on my experiences as a teacher before I became interested in becoming a teacher librarian (TL) & my prior understanding of TLs in schools:
- I agree with Liz D that when I started teaching 20+ years ago, I did have a somewhat passing interest in being a TL but the computer side of the job left me feeling anxious (as I completed my undergraduate BA and some of my teaching degree all on the typewriter, only attaining a NEW laptop in my first year of teaching in 1998, costing well OVER $3000)… now I am reasonably well versed in technology.
- I was asked to be a TL a few years ago in a Primary School setting but felt totally out of depth and just focused on the Literacy side of learning (rather than the resourcing side of teaching and learning).
- I admired TLs in Primary Schools for being able to read picture books most of the day and create craft activities to match. [That’s what I thought they did anyhow.]
- I admired TLs in my Secondary School experience twenty years ago for being able to collect books about specific topics and help me find resources to inspire my classes. However, most school libraries now seem to cull the non-fiction section each year so that there is no way a ‘book box’ of non-fiction texts on one topic would be available to teachers in 2021.
- I loved how some libraries invited students to stay, sit and read… yet hated how others really pushed students away by making the space uninviting – the actual reading space has always piqued my interest. One awesome librarian had ‘Read to my Dog’ days when students could come and sit with a quiet Labrador Retriever and hold the canine close while reading. Reading was transformed into a comforting experience for the student (who was the reader and in control) … the dog received and returned love and didn’t judge when a student couldn’t “read” properly. It was almost like the Pavlov’s dog experiment where students were the ones being experimented upon – they were given a good feed of words while being loved and appreciated by a canine companion. The connection between books and love was created.
- I knew that TLs were always busy bees, making displays, connecting with staff and filing stuff.
- TLs were the arbiters of ‘good books’ and did away with the ‘old’ books (which I would always lovingly take for readers in my class or for students to take home and ‘keep’ if they wished).
- In terms of being arbiters of “good books” I was surprised to find the level of fantasy and manga at my new school (a Secondary School)… I believe TLs have a duty to provide quality literature and I have been very aware that they hold the power to improve students reading levels and enthusiasm or completely destroy it…
- At one school, a small school of 12 students, there was no TL…new books (100+) had been thrown on the shelf and not accessioned so students couldn’t borrow the books. This had me feeling very sad for the books as though they had been rejected… I accessioned them (teaching myself how) so students could borrow new books, new stories. Reading became our new “sport”… I was transformed too – wanting to be a TL.