Developing and managing a comprehensive professional learning strategy is pivotal for Teacher Librarians (TLs) as education is always evolving and TL’s need to keep up to date. Firstly, managing a personal learning strategy that has clear learning goals is paramount. The challenge lies in ensuring these goals align not only with my personal aspirations but also with the school priorities in the strategic plan.
Information Literacy
I teach inquiry with Year 6 and Digital Literacy and Information Literacy with Year 7. Collaborative relationships with subjects teachers are an important part of this curriculum support program. In reality, it depends on the teacher’s attitude as to how successful it is: some partnerships work better than others. For effective collaboration, there needs to be a good level of openness and equality; the TL and Teacher need to understand that they are aware of other each other’s values, strengths and weaknesses. There must be a culture of support and positivity rather than judgemental feedback. I think that if I provide clear detailed lesson planning – with lesson objectives, inquiry structure, links to the curriculum etc, before the inquiry begins, it helps support the value of what I am teaching the students.
Professional Development
Sharing knowledge and expertise is by no means an easy thing to do ; it takes courage and self-belief and I am still in the process of growth in this area. Nevertheless, I have shared specialist knowledge with staff during events such as Professional Development days; on such subjects as Digital Storytelling and ‘academic research skills’. I think this has helped me gain recognition and respect as a teacher leader but I think I could implement this professional learning more regularly in the future – perhaps through workshops or sessions throughout the year. Finally, I find it invaluable to develop my professional learning through extended reading, and both external and internal professional development courses, webinars and meetings. I love to learn and as a result I participate regularly in network meetings, meet TLs from other libraries regularly, and attend many specific professional development courses.
Managing the Collection
Part of my role as a TL involves keeping in tune with what is in the library collection – both physical and digital. I check for gaps, weed books that are outdated or no longer relevant and respond to curating materials that support all curriculum areas. Part of my strategy is to make sure I share and communicate to staff and students new resources and learning tools and make apparent the curriculum links. Communicating such information support may be through email, presence at department meetings and informal face to face chats.
Digital Literacy
I also have the opportunity to teach digital citizenship – and here we have focused on the ethics and social responsibilities for students when they are online – whether that be when conducting research or engaging in social media platforms. I find I have to constantly keep abreast of new trends for different age groups.
I hope to continue to be able to manage my professional learning strategy through communication and collaboration. Aiming to solve problems for students and staff is at the core of what I do on a daily basis. Building partnerships with teachers is part of this – but this often takes time which can sometimes make it more challenging.