The Light in the Chasm

PART B – ASSIGNMENT 1

My father was a Teacher-Librarian and my mother was a midwife.

When I was a child people would say to me, “Are you going to be a teacher like your father?” Or, “Are you going to be a nurse like your mother?” The answer to both was an emphatic NO!

I have now started my sixth career, five of these required university qualifications, and I am now back to the beginning. A Teacher-Librarian after all. Some people may call that fate, some people may call that opportunity, others might say that is simply free-falling. I hope it is serendipity.

I felt like I entered the deep, dark chasm when I took on the role of Teacher Librarian.  I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was about to move schools in Week 7 of Term 1 of this year after I was awarded the position after the incumbent TL and Ancient History teacher became very ill at the end of January.

I asked the TL at the school I was at what I should do and she said, “You’ll know when you get there.” And I asked the previous TL at my current school and he said, “Just have fun!” I asked my father and he said, “You’ll be fantastic.” Thanks. I was looking for clarity and I received platitudes.

Just as the CSU readings and the lecturers have said, I have discovered the plethora of roles that make up the TL position once I donned the mantle. I am in the process of introducing a literacy program for students at both ends of the reading spectrum. I am liaising with the KLAs to give them multiple learning opportunities through the physical, digital and technological resources we have including  VRs, museum boxes and iPads, while also allocating targeted budgetary resources. I have talked to the executive about how the library can reflect the school vision, I have met with parents during the open night and I encouraged my Library Assistant to talk on community radio, which she did in her own hilarious style. I am now trying to update and reorganise our AV resources. So it is true, I did discover what to do.

Of course there are books. I was told I would have trouble spending my budget, and I have promptly proven everyone wrong! I love liaising with the English staff who have a completely different reading program to my last school where I was previously an English and History teacher. I have also started to get used to the regular readers and the types of books they are interested in – Graphic Novels, Humour and Crime seem to be the go. Science fiction is a deserted alien landscape and Action seems to be a bit lifeless as well. Lastly, there are the students who create the buzz and extra lift to my day. And so it is true, it is fun.

Every day I learn, and sometimes I learn that there is so much left to learn. That is why I have started the M.Ed at CSU, and one day I hope to fill my chasm of knowledge with light and be the fabulous person that my father believes was always inside.

Linda Gleeson

15 July, 2023