geralt / Pixabay

A teacher librarian’s building dynamic relationships, and the relationship with the Principal is key, to being effective within the school community.

I have been lucky enough to work in schools where this relationship is beneficial to both the teacher librarian and the principal, and have seen in other schools what happens when this relationship is ignored.

Harry S Truman once said “It is amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit”, and this quote works beautifully when taken in context of the library.  Does the program you want have to be a ‘Library Program’ or can it be a ‘school initiative’?  When the TL communicates effectively, works to advance the school, includes other teachers or departments in the program they will in turn have a principal who supports their commitment, allows them the time to work with other teachers, and will enable the resources needed for their programs.

If on the other hand, there is little to no relationship, the teacher librarian could be isolated from resources, relegated to the sidelines of curriculum decisions and seen as obsolete.  Sometimes you need to find out what is important to the person holding the purse strings, and work towards that before you can add your own items to the agenda.