What does it mean to be “at the heart of the school”? This is a phrase I have heard quite a bit over the last few years as I have undertaken the study in this course. We want libraries and teacher librarians to be at the centre, the heart learning and the school. But what does that actually look like? Today I had a thought. And it is this:

21st Century Learning is about problems. Defining them, investigating them, seeking, proposing and testing possible solutions, communicating and then applying new knowledge. The 21st Century education is not about memorising lots and lots of facts. It is about learning to find, evaluate, use and think about facts and information. This is the specialist area of teacher librarians. Knowledge management, fact finding, fact connection and evaluating is our schtick – our bread and butter. Teacher librarians, then, are at the pointy end of 21st Century education. Far from being a dying breed, relegated to the dusty innards of a book shed, armed with an RFF roster, a date stamp and supply of unfortunately coloured twin sets, teacher librarians need to be leading, modelling, reflecting on and investigating 21st Century learning in our schools, sharing our skills and new knowledge with our colleagues as well as our students.

My focus now needs to be on how we actually go about this. 40 minutes a week with 2 classes in the room on a fixed schedule 7 periods a day 5 days a week poses a challenge in terms of practicality – actually having the time during each lesson to accomplish all that is needed and give students time to participate, explore and partake in hands on learning as well as manage borrowing time requires exquisite time and classroom management skills. I am not sure it is actually possible and so a new way of thinking about the problem is needed – an opportunity to engage in some problem based learning myself!