Literature

When people think of libraries they immediately think of rows and rows of books and literature sorted by the Dewey Decimal System (DDS). This was the perception that I had when I began my degree in 2019. As I undertook my degree, I began to question what role the TL had within the school and more specifically within the library (Somner, 2019a).

The library that I had began to work in was unloved and unused. My students didn’t read and the data from our school supported this. Over the year of 2018, only 178 resources were borrowed across the whole library. This highlighted the idea that children and teenagers no longer borrowed books. I was shocked at this and began to consult research to gauge whether it was just my school that this was reflected in or if it was a wider issue and whether my job as a TL was becoming endangered due to lack of interest (Somner, 2019b). On consultation of the research, I realised that our students were the anomaly. It was reported that 67% of teenagers still read for fun (Gilmore & Burnett, 2014) and 95% of these readers preferred physical books over e-books (Zickuhr, Rainie, & Purcell, 2013). This gave me the inspiration to revitalise our literature collection and tailor it to our students to capture their interest.

As part of this process, I decided to get rid of the DDS and arrange our collection by genre, or otherwise known as genrefication. Genrefication is debated about whether it is successful or not across many libraries. I was inspired by the article “How Genrefication Makes School Libraries More Like Bookstores” (Cornwall, 2018) and agreed with the sentiments that the DDS often made finding new books for students seem too hard or that they did not know where or how to look for these resources. After two weeks of removing our books from their shelves, culling old resources and re-labelling literature into genres, we were ready for students to be re-introduced to the collection. Within months after the re-classification, we had less students needing help to find resources and many more students browsing and borrowing (Somner, 2020a). In order to make this classification accessible to students and to assist library staff in re-shelving books, we put coloured dots on each book which correlates back to their genre. This allowed for ease of re-shelving and for students to identify which genre the books belongs to without the DDS. This can be seen in the photograph.

Whilst this was a step in the right direction, we were still only appealing to a small selection of students. Thankfully, I had enrolled in ETL 402 – Literature Across the Curriculum. I realized that my library was lacking in the crucial element of diverse literature. This was vital in introducing students to different lifestyles, cultures and backgrounds (McDonald, 2013). Based on this information, I was able to analyse our collection and identify areas of need. I soon realised that our collection of picture books was lacking and based at very low stage 4 students, despite there being large collections of enriching and complex texts aimed at students in upper secondary being utilised in other schools (Somner, 2020a). I researched how picture books can assist in developing students’ literacy skills and realised that even year 12 students struggle to critically analyse visual texts (Turner, 2014) and this skill was crucial in their HSC exams. Picture books seemed like a natural solution to help bridge this gap. Based on this, I used the guides from ETL402, to influence my selections to purchase new texts for our picture book collections.

This, however, was not the only area that lacked resources. We have a large population

of LGBTQ students in our school and I did not have a single text to support them, fiction or non-fiction. This was an alarming finding as the research supported the idea that LGBTQ students often found safety within the library as a safe space and that in order to feel confident within themselves they needed to see people like themselves reflected within the texts that they read (Koehler, 2011). I needed to rectify this immediately in order to help reduce the victimisation of the LGBQT students through the promotion of inclusive literature (Oltmann, 2016). Based on this, I started to buy LGBQT resources and promote them using our Facebook page and our promotion section within the library. In order to promote these texts, we used both visual and written methods with a written list of new texts as well as a physical display of books by the entrance. These can both be seen in the accompanying photos. These texts were incredibly popular and were starting to be borrowed more frequently due to their promotion and inclusive message.

Over the course of the last 18 months, our library borrowing rates have rapidly increased. I believe this is due to changing the layout of our literature to being arranged by genre which has made it easier for students to find and borrow new, interesting books, as well as by identifying collections that were lacking such as LGBQT texts and supporting students by promoting an inclusive mindset. Our borrowing statistics have increased from 178 texts in 2018 to 1104 so far in 2020. I do believe that in order to continue with this success and build upon it, I will need to continually reflect on what we have done that is successful, what has not been successful and what else we could implement. Success is built upon the ideal of reflection and continually evaluating the changes that we make (Somner, 2019c).

Leadership styles

Prior to starting my degree, I did not make the correlation between TL and leader. This began to shift as I undertook ETL504 – Teacher Librarians as Leader. I began to realise that as a TL, I would need to initiate and lead change within the school environment to better our students. I was in the unique position to see the student as a whole, rather than as just an English student or just a science student. I needed to become their advocate for better approaches to learning.

The first step towards developing my leadership skills was to analyse my own approach to conflict management. An effective leader needs to be able to have difficult conversations and manage conflict whilst allowing all participants to feel understood and heard (HR360Inc, 2016). I undertook the conflict resolution questionnaire and realised that my ideals of conflict are based around the idea of compromise and that I tend to stay away from yielding as it only advantages one side whilst the other feels defeated. I needed to be aware that I would generally try and use avoidance to escape confrontation and that I needed to rectify this if I wanted to be successful (Somner, 2019d). Thankfully, at the head of my school, my principal was a prime example of a strong female leader, who was both effective and approachable. I was able to analyse some of her methods of leadership and adapt them to suit my own skillsets.

I found myself reading about the different styles of leadership and started to see myself reflected back in some of these styles. I found myself gravitating towards the transformational and instructional leadership styles more than any other. Transformational leadership is built upon the principles of teamwork and setting ourselves and other goals to strive to achieve in order to better ourselves, both personally and professionally (Ingram, 2017). This works very well for a TL who has skills that transfer easily into all Key Learning Areas (KLAs). Instructional leadership also focuses on learning for both staff and students, as well as utilising reflective practice to inform and change teaching (University of Washington, 2015). The TL is in a prime position to lead new pedagogical change within faculties based on their own skills and knowledge bases.

With this knowledge now fuelling my practices within the school, I started to create opportunities for myself to assist other teachers in bettering their own practice to create optimal learning environments for our students. Technology has always been a passion of mine and I aim to create engaging teaching and learning through incorporating technology in my classes. This, I realised, would be the platform that I would utilise to test out my leadership abilities. I spoke with head teachers in my school and let them know the services that I could provide and teach to their faculties to help them incorporate more ICT into their lessons. This was largely ignored until COVID-19 became a reality. Once school work needed to move online to become remote, teachers needed to learn how to teach virtually. I used this as an opportunity to make myself valuable and offered my skills to teach staff new ways of teaching and different platforms that they could utilise to teach students at home.

The English head teacher, soon emailed me to ask if I could lead some professional learning for their faculty based on the school’s online learning platform, Moodle and GoogleSuite. This is evident in the emails inserted here. I was able to engage with the English faculty and use my leadership skills to set them goals such as establishing home pages for all classes and was able to model the steps that they would need to take to do so. Through setting them achievable goals and modelling the steps, the staff felt supported and encouraged to learn and develop new skills which would help their students to engage from home. Through creating a positive environment where staff felt supported and safe to make mistakes, it created a positive culture where staff wanted to succeed (Smith, 2016). After the PL, the head teacher communicated back with me about what a great session it was and thanks to my leadership, her staff were confident in their abilities to transition to online learning and thrive.

 

 

Through this course, I have realised that leadership is vital in advocating for the skills that students will need in a 21^st century world. I need to make opportunities for myself to ensure that others in the school can see and understand how valuable the role of TL is in their school and how we can support their staff. I have discovered that once a few staff members realise the expertise you can teach, other staff members begin to be aware of it and then start to work together as a team towards the common good for the students and not for the individual (Somner, 2019e).

Collaboration

Collaboration often becomes a smaller subsection within leadership. I, however, believe that collaboration is one of the foundations of teaching and should not be overlooked or hidden away within larger concepts. Collaboration came up in ETL504 – Teacher Librarian as Leader and I have been fixated on this concept ever since. Collaboration is a symbiotic relationship that is complex and dependent on effective leadership, positive relationships and clear communication (Bishop, 2011).

I began to reflect on my own experiences of collaboration and realised that I had never been given any guidelines or instructions for effective collaboration, despite teachers relying so heavily on it. Through ETL504, I came to learn about Bell’s (2013) acronym of REACH. I found this simplistic method of respecting, educating, assuming, communicating and helping each other, provides a platform for effective and respectful collaboration. I became determined to make my library the desired place in the school for effective collaboration.

My first step towards this goal was getting more staff into the library space. Before I began in my role in 2019, there had been no TL for over 3 years. My principal allowed me to revitalise the space with innovative furniture which allowed changeable spaces, ideal for group work and communication. This change was inspired by the need to keep up with curriculum changes in the sense that students needed to be able to share information in other ways than just through the written form (Lippincott, Vedantham & Duckett, 2014). This meant that students needed spaces to learn how to work together, verbally communicate their ideas in large spaces and work in environments that were not typical classrooms in order to become effective 21^st century learners (Thoughtful Learning, 2017). Our spaces can be seen in the accompanying photographs.

As part of this revitalisation, we moved the shelves in the library to create a more open space, with moveable furniture and booths that encouraged collaboration and teamwork. Once we made these changes, the space was big enough for two classes to use the space at one time, with whiteboards covering one entire wall. Despite this change, teachers still were not using the space for collaboration and were only using it as an additional computer room. To overcome this, I worked with my principal to move our staff meetings to the library space. This meant that all professional learning (PL) would now take place here. The PL that was delivered in this space mirrored classroom learning. We strategically developed PL around collaborative learning which required the teachers to break up into small groups to work on a task and then report back to the larger group as seen in the photographs. This strategy was used to allow teachers to see the positive impact the library space can have on collaboration through the way that the room was set up. This was an effective strategy as it allowed teachers to get a first-hand understanding of the different pedagogical methods they could implement in the space through their involvement in collaborative and comprehensive PL (Cole, 2012).

From their PL, more teachers began to utilise the space. Due to the way that our timetable was set up, one year group usually had one subject on at the same time. This led to multiple staff in the same faculty wanting to teach in the space at the same time. This encouraged teachers to share the space and team teach. The library became known in the school as the place of active and collaborative learning, due to the interactive resources such as whiteboard tables and moveable seating (Holland, 2015).Through this collaboration, the teachers felt supported as I made myself available to help with the new furniture and how they could most effectively use the space.

Once faculties, had started to team teach in the space, I began to work with our middle school teachers, our High Potential and Gifted Education (HPGE) teachers and our cross collaboration teachers to gather feedback to further refine the space. Through this collaboration, the teachers felt like their voices were being respected which helped them to educate their students (Bell, 2013) through the purchase and implementation of more innovative furniture. Due to this process, I have been able to collaborate with many different faculties to present as a team to students for on many occasions including a university information session with our careers team, seen in the photograph.

Through using Bell’s (2013) acronym, I have been able to allow staff to feel like their opinions are respected and heard before implementing change in our library’s collaborative space. Despite collaboration being a group activity, I have realised that I need to lead the initial implementation and discussions around what I can offer and help with, as well as what our space can offer as this leads to building all participant’s capacity, not only my own (Somner, 2019e). I have also realised that teachers, despite being expected to be collaborative, often have not been explicitly taught how to do so. I will need to continually reflect on this for future endeavours both in and out of the library in order to ensure all staff can be introduced to Bell’s (2013) REACH method to promote positive collaboration.

Reference List

Bell, M. A., Van Roekel, J. L., & Weimar, H. (2013). School librarians and the technology department: A practical guide to successful collaboration  [Linworth version]. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Bishop, K. (2011). Connecting libraries with classrooms. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.

Cole, P. (2012). Linking effective professional learning with effective teaching practice.
Retrieved from https://ptrconsulting.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/linking_effective_professional_learning_with_effective_teaching_practice_-_cole.pdf

Cornwall, G. (2018, July 22). How genrefication makes school libraries more like bookstores. In Mindshift. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51336/how-genrefication-makes-school-libraries-more-like-bookstores

Gilmore, N., & Burnett, M. (2014, December 16). Crunching numbers at the Nielsen children’s book summit. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www .publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrensindustry-news/article/65068-kids-are-thriving-readingand-hungry-for-more-crunching-numbers-at-the-nielsenchildren-s-book-summit.html

Holland, B. (2015, January 14). 21st century libraries: The learning commons. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/21st-century-libraries-learning-commons-beth-holland

HR360Inc. (2016, February 15). Tips for having difficult conversations with employees [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/mueGH8-BSNU [3.35 mins]

Ingram, D. (2017). Transformational leadership vs transactional leadership definition. In Hearst Newspapers: Small Business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transformational-leadership-vs-transactional-leadership-definition-13834.html

Koehler, E. (2011). The silent message: Professional journals’ failure to address LBGTQ issues. Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 1(4). Retrieved Oct. 2016.

Kosciw et al., “The Effect of Negative School Climate”; Hughes-Hassell, Overberg, and Harris, “(LGBTQ)-Themed Literature for Teens.”  

Lippincott, J., Vedantham, A., & Duckett, K. (2014). Libraries as enablers of pedagogical and curricular change. EDUCAUSE Rev [Internet], 27.

McDonald, L. (2013). A literature companion for teachers. Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association PETAA.

Oltmann, S. M. (2016).  . “They kind of rely on the library”: School librarian serving LGBT students. Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 7(1). Retrieved from http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Oltmann_They-Kind-of-Rely-on-the-Library.pdf

Smith, B. (2016). The role of leadership style in creating a great school. SELU Research Review Journal, 1(1), 65-78. Retrieved from https://selu.usask.ca/documents/research-and-publications/srrj/SRRJ-1-1-Smith.pdf

Somner, J. (2019a, March 10). Reflecting on my teaching journey and what a TL does. [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2019/03/10/reflecting-on-my-teaching-journey-and-what-a-tl-does/

Somner, J. (2019b, March 24). Are school librarians an endangered species? [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2019/03/24/are-school-librarians-an-endangered-species/

Somner, J. (2019c, May 19). Reflective Practice. [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2019/05/19/reflective-practice/

Somner, J. (2019d, August 11). Conflict Resolution. [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2019/08/11/conflict-resolution/

Somner, J. (2019e, October 6). Part B – Reflection. [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2019/10/06/part-b-reflection/

Somner, J. (2020a, May 23). Reflective Blog Post – ETL402. [Weblog post]. Retrieved from https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/jessicasomner/2020/05/23/reflective-blog-post-etl402/

Thoughtful Learning. (2017). What are 21st century skills? [FAQ]. Retrieved from https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills

Turner, C. (2014). Opening the portal: An exploration of the use of postmodern picture books to develop critical literacy and contribute to learning in the Australian Curriculum: English. Literacy Learning: Middle Years, (1), 52-61. Retrieved from https://www.alea.edu.au/

University of Washington. (2015). 4 dimensions of instructional leadership. In Center for Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://info.k-12leadership.org/4-dimensions-of-instructional-leadership

Zickuhr, K., Rainie, L., & Purcell, K. (2013). Younger American’s library habits and expectations. Washington, D.C.: PEW Research Center. Retrieved from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/06/25 /younger-americans-library-services/