Here we go again!
Semester 2 and I already feel like a different person compared to the last time I wrote an introduction. New job as a Teacher Librarian in a new school and wrapping my head around the Central School setting again after 14 years. I even had to learn to drive in snow!
I have learned so much already and it’s been enough to bring me to the point that I can see all the things I don’t know about being a librarian. Last semester I was in blissful ignorance.
About me –
I have been a permanent teacher in the NSW department of Education for 18 years and a Teacher Librarian for 10 weeks.
I am a proud member of the Facebook group ‘on butterfly wings’ which surrounds me with amazing educators who inspire me on a daily basis
I also belong to yammer and recently discovered I can use Twitter for more than following comedians
I am a bit fan of growth mindset, blooms taxonomy, multiple intelligences and, since last semester, inquiry learning!
I am single no kids and am blown away by all the awesome students I am meeting in online meetings who have 300 ducks with every single one in a row.
I love technology in the classroom my latest obsessions are Minecraft education edition and coding.
After the meeting last night I think I need to add my views on leadership.
I have always said I can be an excellent follower. Tell me what my job is and I will do it. I am not scared to voice my ideas and opinions in group work and I can even be team leader with success. But do I see myself as a leader? Not really, or rather not until the last 18 months or so.
I do not want to be a principaliknow my limitations and tact is not my friend. To me this meant I wasn’t a leader. If I wasn’t the boss I wasn’t the leader. But my journey of late has shown me to be a different kind of leader.
I hate change for the sake of change, as I think all teachers do, and I rebel against it but I love embracing new technologies and learning styles that I can see the benefit of incorporating into the classroom. I trailed the first interactive whiteboards in my school for a term which turned into three because no one wanted them and then I set about actively encouraging others to try. This was my first foray into leadership I just didn’t know it at the time. Since then this pattern has repeated over and over, blogs, TENS, robotics, flexible seating, visible learning. I thought I was just sharing what worked for me but I was leading.
I recognised our school didn’t always support casuals well. I spoke up. I became a mentor, meeting with our tempory teachers once a week. I said I didn’t know how to do that and a colleague pointed out I had been doing it to her and others for years.
I guess my opinion of leadership now isn’t that a leader is the person who knows THE way but rather the person willing to try to find A way and share what they find with others so they can find A way too.