Every teacher librarian (TL) experiences the time when a class is in the library and is being noisy and off task. This could even be a daily occurrence. So, what do you do about it? Well…that depends on how you look at the situation. There are short-term solutions ranging from asking the students to be on task, to long-term solutions which involve collaboration with staff and analysing the library environment. The short-term solutions might be the easy go-to, but it does get pretty draining asking students to be on task day after day. The long-term solutions require analysis and reflection about the library space but are well worth the effort. The results are a win-win for students, teachers and the TL.

Short-term solutions:

Short-term solutions are required to solve the issue straight away but are not a total solution in themselves. Short-term solutions don’t particularly require any level of leadership from the TL, just a good ‘teacher stare’, quick reminders and positive interactions with students. Here are some ideas:

Do a check of what is really happening. Talk to the teacher about what the task actually is. You never know…the students might be on task, but it just doesn’t look like it!

If there are students off task, ask yourself, is it really the whole class who are noisy and off task or just a few students? Remind students to stay on task and to be respectful of others. Ask the students who are off task to show you what they are working on (in a positive way) and show interest in their work. Some students need the stimulus of a conversation to get on track. Ask students what their task is. Ask them how you can assist them in that task, or better yet, show them how the library can support them in the task. Here is a great opportunity for servant leadership to listen to students’ needs and act on them.

Long-term solutions

Long-term solutions may not solve the issues at hand immediately in that particular moment, but they will help to mitigate the same situation from occurring in the future. These long-term solutions rely on a combination of servant and transformational leadership and how these two styles interconnect.

Having a conversation with the classroom teacher is a wonderful place to start. Ask them what the task entails and, depending on their answer, it might be an opportunity for collaboration with the classroom teacher to devise inquiry learning tasks. Through servant leadership you could devise library guides and pathfinders for the teacher and students to use. There’s also an opportunity here to team-teach with the classroom teacher which results in more support for the students in their learning. This would be a positive approach to support the teacher to make their library time more effective.

Delving in deeper from this point is reflection on the environment of the library space. A close analysis of how the library space is set-up is essential to supporting student learning. There is an opportunity to ask yourself several questions in addition to talking to teachers and students about what they would like to see in the set-up of the library space. Questions could include

• Is the current set-up conducive to student learning?
• Are there sufficient break-out spaces for collaboration?
• Are there private study spaces for students who want to work quietly?
• Do the students and teachers know about the services available at the library?

There are a mountain of questions to ask in this process of analysis and reflection and changes would need to be made over time rather than in one fell swoop.

Gone are the days of the shushing library dragon and oppressive silence of a library, however, students need to be supported to achieve their best and TLs play a major role in this support through their leadership, collaboration and management of the library space and resources.