One of the prerequisites of obtaining a permanent position in NSW Department of Education as a Teacher Librarian is having the  qualification of/or being enrolled in a nominated Teacher Librarian course.

I was a librarian (ALIA eligible) before I became a teacher, working for  research unit and managing a website. I then qualified as a HSIE teacher,  working in secondary schools in Australia and the UK since 2011. I have also worked as a teacher librarian in the private and state systems and  I am currently employed as a teacher librarian in the north shore on a temporary contract. I am looking forward to upskilling myself and learning how to do the job better through studying this course and hopefully, this qualification will provide a permanent position.

Current TL duties

As well as running the library, I teach year 7 research skills which is a struggle sometimes given that I only see them once a fortnight – sometimes less when school trips, sports day, assemblies, exams etc get in the way. I have realised  that it is hard to teach students you do not see regularly or have  a proper relationship with. Today we were learning about plagiarism. Students were not allowed to use laptops as I had made a worksheet (always an experiment when you start from scratch!). They were bored quickly and when asked to write the meaning of plagiarism in their own words (having been given a statement and had a discussion)  many reached for their laptops to give them the answer! It is challenging teaching these skills to young students – they don’t see the need to know this information or have these skills.

I also take year 9 once a fortnight for Learning Journeys. Students reflect on their year in each subject and put together a porfolio that demonstrates their thinking.  Student reflect on three assignments – two good and one not so good and think about what went well and not so well and why. Tricky for these teenagers but  quite useful as they present to a panel of three people – a year 8 student, a teacher and a community member. I am organising this all day event.

Today year 12 returned their text books  – all issued, theoretically, through the library. Of course, as student returned books many students claimed they had returned their books already to teachers – and many students returned books that were not issued in their name etc etc.

I started the year with 1500 overdue books – we are down to just over 600 – many of which are the year 12 student missing, lost, ‘returned’ textbooks.

The best part of my current job is working one on one with senior students to find appropriate resources and to encourage them to read and think and read again while looking at good sources of information.

I have worked as a research librarian in a university setting so I do feel I have an understanding of this side of the work but this is certainly only a small part of the job.

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