I believe many parts of this course have developed my skills and attitudes as a professional teacher librarian – often it was the courses I struggled with the most that were most necessary (such as Research in Practice, Teacher Librarian as Leader, and Describing and Analysing Resources). These subjects challenged my brain in ways it hadn’t been challenged in a very long time, yet what I have gained from them is a deeper understanding of research methodologies, leadership skills, and understanding the depth of cataloguing practices, all of which have added to my knowledge base. I believe I am proficient at the ASLA Standards 2.1, 3.2 and 3.4, and certainly developing in the standard of Professional Knowledge – my growing confidence coupled with more experience and what I have learnt in the master’s degree sees this standard continue to develop more every year.
I know I need to improve on Standard 2.2, Learning and Teaching. In this area, I now understand I need to make myself more visible to teaching staff by promoting myself as a valuable resource of collaboration. This is something I struggle with as I haven’t felt confident enough to put myself out there, and I really need to shake the “newbie” feeling that still lingers. Likewise, I need to have more confidence in my abilities as a leader (Standard 3.3) by actively engaging in school leadership (something I have kind of fallen into through my curiosity about Generative AI and how that will impact pedagogy, but again, don’t necessarily feel confident in).
Another area of growth is my management of our Resource Centre page (related to Standard 2.1), in which numerous updates to our school referencing policy, referencing resources, and database management need to happen in order for it to be more efficient and utilised. IT skills are not my strength, so this will require some training and development to see this through, as well as more consultation with staff and students about what they need this resource to be. I then need to figure out how to promote this, again through more collaboration with staff. The pandemic showed us that digital collections are incredibly important, with Talbot (2023) stating that collaborative conversations are essential to ensuring their relevance, as well as meeting “many varied standards to achieve professional success.”
Ultimately, I think my strength lies in how much I am loving my job and my own commitment to the profession (Standard 3). I see myself as a lifelong learner with no plans to leave my role; I have reached out to numerous TL networks to join in and foster my firm belief that every school needs and deserves an excellent teacher librarian. While I am not quite there yet, my experience of educating myself through the master’s degree and the skills I have gained by working in the role for the last three and half years have hopefully set me up for an incredibly fulfilling and exciting career.
REFERENCE LIST:
Australian School Library Association. (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. https://asla.org.au/resources/Documents/Website%20Documents/Policies/TLstandards.pdf
Danielson, C. (2007). The many faces of leadership. Educational Leadership, 65(1), 14 – 19. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept07/vol65/num01/The-Many-Faces-of-Leadership.aspx
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Merga, M. K. (2021). Libraries as wellbeing supportive spaces in contemporary schools. Journal of Library Administration, 61(6), 659 – 675. DOI: 10.1080/01930826.2021.1947056
Oddone, K. (2023). Empowering school library staff to navigate the AI frontier. SCIS Connections, 126(3), 1 – 3.
Proud, K. (2020). Working together: collaboration between libraries and bookstores. SCIS Connections, 112(1). https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-112/working-together-collaboration-between-libraries-and-bookstores/
Strachan, S. (2023). Empowering school library staff to navigate the AI frontier. SCIS Connections, 126(3), 12 – 13.
Szalacha, L.A. (2003). Safer sexual diversity climates: lessons learned from an evaluation of Massachusetts Safe Schools program for gay and lesbian students. American Journal of Education, 110(1), 58 – 88.
Talbot, K. (2023). Supporting learning: a digital collection tale. SCIS Connections, 124(1), 1 – 3.
Yorio, K. (2021, November 4). School libraries 2021: Fostering relationships between students and community members. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/school-libraries-2021-fostering-relationships-between-students-and-community-members
