Many years ago, it was my second year of full time teaching that I was in the role of a library and IT teacher. I didn’t have any qualifications but after seeing that my grade five students couldn’t make columns in a word document, I wanted the position to ensure that students could have a basic navigation of office and that’s what I did! I also taught them a basic knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System, read lots of books – I had the grade six students engaged in ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ by Michelle Magorian and helped students with the accelerated reader program. I had nothing to go off and basically planned all the lessons from scratch.

In 2021, here I am embarking on my journey to becoming a teacher librarian. Back in 2017, I had enrolled in another course with a QLD uni but when we moved states a few principals said to be don’t bother, there is no money going into libraries because the money is being spent on literacy and helping students read. Whilst I was in my role as a library teacher, I attended another school to see what they were planning and the teacher librarian said that in the next 10 years we would see a decline in the amount of teacher librarians because they would be retiring and not replaced. It is a sad reality that this is the case in some schools.

After reading ‘What is a Teacher Librarian?’ I am shocked that there aren’t more teacher librarians considering their knowledge and contribution to learning. Yes, books are being put into library because it is important for students to read but a library should be the hub of the school and the teacher librarian should be involved in planning, teaching and learning. It is a role that is not widely promoted as a resource that should be incorporated and worked with. I wonder if we as teachers get into our own little bubble and do what we know and don’t venture out of our comfort zone. I know that I don’t utilise or include the teacher librarian enough and this will certainly be changing to more than just ‘can you gather these books for our integrated topic.’

With all of that said, thankfully I am able to be on my way to the book corner…..