Introduction for ETL504

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.

ETL401 Part C

My journey hasn’t been perfect but it is mine and I have to own it. I have made mistakes but if I had my time over again I don’t think I would change anything. I don’t want to give up the librarian position I got even though the process has taken up way more of my time than I expected and I don’t think a different course would have made me feel as empowered as I do in the role.

Online meetings were a powerful experience. I seem to do my best when I am interacting with others not plodding along alone, which is a new thing I learned about myself. I knew I was social but I didn’t realise how much it impacted on my learning. That said I didn’t really contribute to the forums, another surprise to me as I am a very regular contributor to Yammer and the On butterfly wings pages on Facebook. After soul searching I think it’s the fear of being judge. I know I am a good teacher I can think outside the box and create engaging learning experiences but as a librarian I am brand new. To share and advise others was too intimidating. When I did reach out, like I did on 2nd April and 30th March in the assignment 2 discussion forums, I had an overwhelming response that touched my heart and showed me I was not as isolated as I felt.

I explained my learning had snuck up on me in my blog post on 13th May I was surprised at how much I had already changed my teaching processes. As a teacher I was already adjusting what I was doing based on what I was learning in this course. My discussion essay on makerspaces had me planning changes to my STEM focused Release from Face to Face classroom so I could incorporate more critical thinking practices and have students dig deeper into their learning. I was getting students to reference albeit not in APA style. Plagiarism was openly discussed and even year 2 knew they couldn’t use someone else’s words.

Once I walked into my own library the cogs really started turning. How could I be as effective as Lori? Where should I start to become familiar with all the high school content? How do I as the Teacher Librarian help facilitate the learning of all the students not just the classes I see regularly from kindergarten to yr. 8? Being in a central school I am already seeing the potential for return on my investment so to speak. The things I teach the younger grades will be the basis for the skills I see them displaying when they are completing assignments for the HSC if I can embed inquiry learning and information literacy into their learning know they may have limitless potential in the future.

Now when any class is working in the library I am thinking how would the ISP model be useful for this class? What could I be doing as a TL to assist the classroom teacher. I won’t be able to use an inquiry model with every class for every subject straight away but I have the confidence and knowledge to make a start. Once the students become familiar with the process I can introduce some of the other models. I think some will work better for different subjects and age groups than others or be preferred by teachers. Over time students may apply the critical thinking skills they have learned to evaluate the different styles for themselves. If they go on to further study having a sound understanding of how to research assignments could be extremely beneficial.

Last term I had wanted students to feel they had ownership of their learning. I gave them two very broad inquiry questions and thought they would jump at the chance to explore Earth and/or other planets. They very quickly got to work but they all grabbed a laptop and started making their powerpoints. The piles of books were left untouched. They copy and pasted from the internet. I was horrified. I had assumed they knew how to research. I called the class back together and we started over. I did the same lesson with two more classes just to see if it was an anomaly. It was not. Having read Thread 5.3b I was slightly relieved when Perry (2019, May 11) talked about the students lack of research skills but also knew I had been guilty of assuming the engagement would come because they chose their own topic and not ensuring they had they appropriate support.

 

References

Perry, A. (2019, May 11). Thread 5.3b guided inquiry [online discussion comment]. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_42380_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_78883_1&forum_id=_147406_1&message_id=_2093728_1

Part B ETL503

Before commencing my masters I gave very little thought to the behind the scenes running of a library. I listened attentively to my colleague excited about new resources in the library but I never really had to think about the collection policy, or even knew that it existed, as I have always just gone out and bought resources I want to use in my classroom for myself. I have never been one that was able to let someone else determine if I really did need a certain resource. I helped with stocktakes and greedily snaffled “perfectly good” books that had no one borrowed. The relevance of this course really hit me once I took on a Teacher librarian role as I discussed in my blog post of 13th May.

Now as a newly appointed librarian I wander around the space and my mind is constantly coming up with questions. Are all these nonfiction books still relevant? Why do we not have the books by this author? Do there seem to be too many treehouse and bad guy style books that appeal to boys but fewer novels they may like? What is my budget? How do I order new books? I am more critical of what I see. Is it enough to have a lot of books or should I be more focused on the quality? A room full of technology is something many schools would be envious of but is it being used effectively? Can I locate resources that can enhance the teaching of ICT and other skills across the school? With the limbo the library has been in over the last two years without a permanent librarian is it adequately resourced to teach the new syllabus documents?

I have found a number of articles about collection development policies that I have squirrelled away ready to start writing the first draft of one for my library before semester 2 starts. I found Michelle Lynch’s post in forum 6.1 was useful as her situation is similar to mine and she gave me ideas on where to start.

Walking into a library that seems brilliantly resources was overwhelming. I started to become familiar with the collection by looking for Premier’s reading challenge list books. This meant I have physically touched and looked at every single book in the picture book collection so far. I found forgotten favorites that may have been culled from other collections for being too old. I identified areas that are missing or authors that are not as well represented as I would have expected.

I need to create a collection management policy so I have the guidelines in place to know what the collection needs. I need to be able to answer queries from faculties with confidence when they ask if I am able to subscribe to particular e-publications or if that needs to come out of their budget. When 60 books from the English faculty and 100 readers for infants land in my to do box I need to have a policy that lays out how they will be catalogued and stored.

Having a policy in place that is clearly communicated to staff will give me protection as well. It’s not me saying no to the request for multiple copies of this year’s national simultaneous storytime book. It is the policy. On 22nd April, I blogged about my understanding of the roles collaborator, steward and thinker. When I reread this post I was able to see how those roles were represented within an effective management policy. By taking on board all the information I have learned during this subject and using a document such as ‘A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres’ (ALIA , 2017) I am confident I can create a policy with supporting procedures that will guide my way forward and ensure library staff are following best practice. Having the documentation in place will give direction to the school collection and maintain consistency. It is also important for times like this when new syllabus documents mean new resources are required in multiple areas and decisions about priorities need to be made.

E-resources will be a major focus for me going forward and I found Christopher Murphy’s comment in forum 2.7 about research all being more different than similar summed up the situation well. This course has built a foundation for me to stand on as I critically access and make informed opinions about the right direction for the library I manage rather than just believe the findings of the first article I see.

References

ALIA (2017) A manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres. (2nd ed). Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/ALIA%20Schools%20policies%20and%20procedures%20manual_FINAL.pdf

Lynch, M (2019, 18 May). Forum 6.1 editing a collection development policy [online discussion comment]. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_42383_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_78886_1&forum_id=_147542_1&message_id=_2294288_1

Murphy, C (2019, 14 April). Forum 2.7 e-resource selection criteria [online discussion comment]. Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_42383_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_78886_1&forum_id=_158984_1&message_id=_2248471_1

I just had an AHA! moment

As always I have more on my to do list than my its done list but right in this moment I am okay with that. I have been thinking how can I reflect on my new learning when I really haven’t learned enough yet due to my own issues. In the car this morning I was listening to a podcast (up and vanished by Payne Lindsay I would say listen to it but be prepared for an emotional journey.)  Podcasts are new to me I have always been a music in the car person but my sister raves about them and I promised I would listen to them in the morning on my 40 minute drive to my new job but of an afternoon I would be tired and need music. I was wrong. I podcast the whole commute and occasionally when not commuting.  But back to cutting a short story long I was thinking as I drove how great it would be to have podcasts of each weeks information. Obviously the reading would still need to be read but the content online would be so useful as a podcast and you could repeat it or refer to the online version as needed. I felt like I solved my life in one thought.  But it doesn’t exist yet so that was that.

Period 1 a class comes into my library and they are researching people who made significant contributions to a specific field. I was working at the front desk so could easily hear the instructions and conversations. My thoughts were

  • but they didn’t deconstruct the task
  • no don’t tell them that the Wikipedia link look good
  • there was no mention of putting it in their own words
  • are they referencing their information?
  • what about the free online journals they can access?
  • where’s the critical thinking about the quality of the sources?

I was shocked at the fact all this was lacking when a little voice popped into my head “How much of that did you do before you started your Masters?” That little voice caused my AHA moment. I have always encouraged using your own words and taught summarising etc to my primary students but referencing is new this year. The changes this course are having on my teaching have been so subtle over time it wasn’t until I deliberately looked back that I saw the significance.  I always tell people I try new techniques and incorporate everything I learn into my teaching but I normally do it deliberately like using STEM to engage students. These changes are almost subconscious and until I held up a mirror I couldn’t see it.

A long way to go in a couple of weeks but at least now I can see that I have actually made a good start in the right direction.

ETL401      ETL503

 

Collaborator steward and thinker

ETL503

3.1

Accession and Aquistion – Managing a budget.

Reading the recommended website The school media specialist (Lamb & Johnson, 2012) was quite thought provoking for me. I start my role as a teacher librarian at the start of term 2 so the budget has already been submitted by my predecessor.  As a result I will be tied to what she felt were the priorities and I have no doubt in most cases she will be right but we all bring our our perspectives to our roles.

The three roles we are asked to consider are Collaborator, Steward, and Thinker.

Collaboration is something I consider myself very good at. I do tend to be overly flexible thought and feel that i need to be slightly less accommodating as a librarian or my attempts to please everyone will disadvantage the library as a whole.  As I am coming into the roles of TL i think the collaborator role will be extremely important. If I have money to spend on resources I am not really in a position to make the judgement calls yet as I dont know the needs of the school well enough. I will have to have frank and open discussions with my colleagues and learn what support they need especially around resourcing the new curriculum.

Steward was not  a role I was familiar with prior to this reading and to be honest I need to explore the term a bit more. When I relate this to my role I took it to mean I will need to  be all over the budget, needs and daily running of the library. I need to be accountable for everything that happens. I need to make the decisions about priorities and directions and have solid reasoning to back up my decisions if challenged. This is where I follow the policies.

The role of Thinker is simple enough to understand. My first thought was I need to make sure I know the school strategic plan so my decisions are guided by it. I then need to get the most bang for my buck. Will spending money on the resource a teacher has requested add to the library or is there another resource that is more appropriate? do we already provide the same information with a different resource. This is where the planning happening. The making of policies.

I don’t think one role is more important than another and I don’t think you really use the roles one at a time. while collaborating you also need to thinking and acting as a steward so you can deliver accurate information to those you are collaborating with and don’t make rash promises you are in not position to deliver.

Think of an occasion when you have witnessed tension between what a teacher or student is looking for and what a library collection holds. ETL503

I must be blind to conflicts in my school environment.

The closest I can think of is when I was on Prac and teachers would complain about the kids only wanting to read goosebump books. I was thinking but surely them reading is better than not reading. That is still my viewpoint today. I just try to entice them towards other authors or genres as well.

“Yes Johnny Minecraft books are great, no I don’t have the new minecraft zombie book yet but how about you try this instead.” It doesn’t always work but at least I know they can engage and imagine even if its not my idea of quality texts.

Fiction V Non Fiction (ETL503)

I found the articles we were assigned to read about this topic to be interesting and a nice change from some of the heavier stuff that was making me wonder if I would ever get though it.

I found the comments made throughout Sarah Mosle’s article (2012) to be horrifying at first but as I read on I was relieved that the author saw a need to incorporate non fiction into fiction.

I haven’t noticed a conflict between fiction and non fiction across my school but then again I have never looked out for it either. We have a mix of fiction and non fiction in our readers and in many cases teachers team them up e.g. a factual text on mice followed by a story.

I have always incorporated non fiction into my classroom library and English program without considering I need to balance it. I just had students that responded well to non fiction so I took advantage of it. If we were studying a fiction text I would make sure to have related non fiction on hand as a way to draw those students into the topic. It also worked the other way in that a good picture book or novel would have students seeking out facts about a topic.

I think literary nonfiction fills an important role. I know the library at my school have a number of examples the historical novels by Jackie French come to mind.  They can cause curiosity in students and lead them in directions they would not usually have taken.

ETL401 Assessment 1

I find myself having to go back a long way if I am to answer this question as written. I was in year 5 or 6 when I decided I wanted to be a school teacher. It’s all Miss Ebert’s fault as she made teaching look so amazing and easy. As the years progressed I flirted with other careers. Interior designer, Immuno-haematologist, Public relations but I kept coming back to teaching. I had always loved the school library and in my naivety I assumed being a teacher automatically meant I could be the librarian, just a choice you made like teaching yr 5 or kindergarten. Being a librarian was always on my radar.

Last year I decided waiting 20 yrs was a waste of time and it was now or never. So I enrolled and just have to hope I get the chance to let my inner librarian free one day. But I will pretend I have only just thought about this career recently so I can fit the question.

I have never met two librarians who were the same. Each one brings their own personal philosophy and priorities to the position. Some value books and research skills. Some value technology. Some value spreading the knowledge of how libraries run. Some feel they are the keepers of secrets and only give out snippets of information when required.

In my opinion librarians are essential in schools. Apart from educating students, it is their role to support classroom teachers. Not only as an RFF teacher but as curriculum support. They know what they have in their libraries so when teachers are teaching a unit librarians are able to locate resources and suggest things teachers may not have considered. This is not to say I believe librarians are there to do teachers work for them. Teachers should know how to search for the resources in the library themselves but expert advice is always welcome, provided it is delivered as advice not as a command.

This brings me to my next role of the librarian. They are communicators. They have their finger on the pulse of what is going on in schools, who is doing what, who had success with something new. They are in the perfect place to communicate this information to other staff. They need to have the skills to do this in the correct way. Friendly not authoritative, suggestions not criticisms. They need to share so much information they need to be able to do it well.

The last and most important role for a librarian, outside of actually teaching of course, is to be a trailblazer. In the Primary setting a Librarian sees every class every week. There is such potential there to bring new technologies, ideas and skills to the whole school. I have seen librarians introduce not just authors but graphic organisers, websites and robotics across the school.

This post has been quite timely as I have 2 library interviews in the next few days. My mind is flooded with thoughts and this helped to calm them.

What am I doing?

wow day 3 and I am already weeks behind! No prep for the online meetings because I have been focused on applying for librarian jobs. Dont think thats ironic and no idea what it is other than silly. Hope someone else is already feeling overwhelmed.

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