Reflections

Upon reflection and as I critically analyse my development over the course of ETL402, I am confident that the knowledge, skills and experiences have allowed for me to grow as a student in my Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) course and also as a professional Teacher Librarian (TL). When I began the subject I skimmed and scanned through the content and assessment outlines and I thought to myself ‘oh yeah, I know all about that and how I go about that in my library etc etc.’ but then I am always astounded at just how much more there is to know. In a practical sense, you know what you do but having that deep theoretical background is vital to be an effective TL. I value the learning content that is presented to me so I can critically analyse my own practice and open my views and perspectives on how to ensure I am evolving my pedagogy repertoire as I proceed. From being a classroom teacher for a decade, I believed I utilised literature fairly in most curriculum areas to foster engagement amongst my students. Having a broader knowledge of literary learning, I can see how to incorporate it more widely in all subjects which makes complete sense when your teaching young children.

Proceeding into a brand new schoolyear, 2023, I am excited to look at my Library through a fresh new lens from what I have gained from ETL402. I believe the biggest take away for me are the benefits of a quality fiction section and the ability to incorporate literary learning right across all areas of learning. Students deserve to have access to a diverse collection of fiction books and online resources that are quality and allow for the student to be immersed into a world that fosters creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and clear communication skills so that they can achieve success in their personal and academic lives. The practical assessments for this subject have given me an excellent bank of current titles to be able to use with my classes and also promote to teachers.

As the Head TL at my newly built school (operational for 1 year), programs are highly likely to get established seeing as other priorities have been taken care of. I would like to introduce a whole school buddy reading program with older students coaching younger students in a very short and sharp buddy exchange system. I did some further readings in this area and Morrice and Simmons (1991) claimed to have set up a pilot program and over time evolved it as student capacity developed. One prominent way they used the TL was that they employed their expertise to train the older students to help their buddies with library skills and the appropriate selection of texts. (1991, p.4) I found effective ways to establish a whole school reading program by reading this article along, amongst others.

I found that the library lunch time clubs and makerspace’s that Janelle (2022) commented on was something that I also had set up in my library. I identified that I would like to expand the number tinkering tables to cater for and appeal to 2-3 stages at a time. (Timmins, 2023, January 14). This can be done effectively now my library is becoming more established.

Reference

Morrice, C., & Simmons, M. (1991). Beyond Reading Buddies: A Whole Language Cross-Age Program. The Reading Teacher, 44(8), 572–577.