After writing the SWOT analysis for a teacher librarian in a specific school context for Assessment 1. I thought I might perform one for myself as a teacher librarian!
Strengths
- Passion for teaching
- Love for a diverse range of people
- Interpersonal skills/good rapport with students and staff
- Two decades of teaching experience
- (nearly) Master’s level education
- Experience with special needs
- Communication skills
- Good support at school
- I now have two assistants to help in the library
- I am good at following through on my ideas to completion
Weaknesses
- I can have too many ideas at once
- I can become overwhelmed with how far I am from where I want to be
- I can become discouraged when the rest of the staff don’t share my understanding/vision for the library (yet).
- Only work part-time but do a full-time job
- My children have high needs—guilt over not doing enough for them
- My husband’s job is demanding
Opportunities
- Healthy library budget
- Supportive leadership
- I have the opportunity to do more PD
- I could work full-time in the future
- My local SLAV group is creating a Junior School specific chapter that will be even more relevant to me.
- Accelerated Reader has increased Middle School exposure to the library
Threats
- Heavy workload/life balance
- The socioeconomic level of the school = little ICT
- ICT is totally separate from the library
- Both my assistants are part-time and together don’t equal full time
- Many teachers don’t see themselves as readers
- It’s a K-12 library, but really functions just as a Junior School library