The Teacher Librarian (TL) has this incredibly important job of maintaining constant connections with both their library team and also the Classroom Teachers (CT) that they are able to work with. Working together with these colleagues provides more opportunities to collaborate and work together in enhancing learning, particularly so that it can benefit the students and their learning experiences too. It’s not just the students that we teach that are constantly learning, both TL and CT are able to “bounce ideas” off each other. This allows further ideas to be developed as they can often involve how a new unit of work can implement the use of more technology or even how more inquiry based learning can be used in teaching.
Collay (2011, p. 84) notices that leadership is not only found from someone who carries out ideas, but is someone that has a visionary that can be implemented and planned “behind the scenes.” Allowing this plan to slowly build over time demonstrates that the TL can work with their colleagues to improve and work together in demonstrating new ways to present information, whether that be in programming or in teaching lessons.
Watanabe-Crockett (2018) also identifies that good learners make knowledge their own, particularly when poorly constructed visions need to be worked on in order to finish what’s only partially built. In this process, the TL is able to build a bigger and better knowledge structure by working with their colleagues. Having the opportunity to plan and organise times throughout the school term will allow for individuals to start working together in teams and communicating more effectively with each other. Once a team is built they can then strive to work on building new formal and informal learning experiences together. These experiences can range from whole staff Professional Learning time to discussing with stage teams on how to use new applications on class iPads.
References:
Collay, M. (2011). Everyday teacher leadership: Taking action where you are. John Wiley & Sons, 75-108. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.
Watanabe-Crockett, L. (2018, December 12). The 7 top characteristics that define good learners [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/7-characteristics-define-good-learners
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