Tournament of the minds

I went to a facilitator training yesterday for tournament of the minds after my disastrous interview.
By contrast it was brilliant.
I think TOM is going to be extremely challenging but very rewarding in the end. I actually think I might enjoy it after all.
Just as well I dropped a subject at uni because I think that this is going to be really time consuming.
Unfortunately their will be about 120 teams at my region final so it will be difficult to get through to the next round. I suggested that perhaps we could compete at Armidale's final because there are only about 30 teams there....I figure that would be better odds to get through.

Guess I blew that interview!!!

I can't believe it, I knew all of the answers, I had even rehearsed all weekend, but when I actually had to tell the panel everything just flew out of my head.
Then you should have heard the crap I did say, most of it wasn't even relevant to the job, even as I was hearing myself saying it I knew it was all wrong.
Oh well, just as well I love the school I'm at because I have a feeling I am going to be there for some time to come.

Interact down....or is it?

Well today has been a frustrating day for me so I thought I would blog it.
I have tried to get onto the ETL401 site to look up the readings, modules and resources as I haven't done much all week. But alas there must be a problem because my screen keeps coming up blank. After posting my dilemma onto the forum I discovered lots of others are experiencing the same problem so I am now feeling slightly relieved.
Unfortunately it means I haven't been able to do any course work today which is disappointing.
I even suggested maybe Roy could give us all an extension. This was met with the suggestion that maybe we should have a plan B.
Oops, didn't think of that.
I guess I will just go on with preparing for my job interview on Monday. At least that will make me feel like I am using my time wisely.

I have finally admitted defeat!!!

Well today I finally admitted defeat and pulled out of ETL503.
It was a decision that I didn't take lightly but so much else is happening in my life and I didn't think it was fair to my family to be all consumed with Uni work and constantly cranky because I felt I was always behind.
Too many things have come up to take away from my uni time so I figured this was probably the best option.
Now over the holidays I will be able to spend time with the kids and do some fun things with them which will be nice.
It will be good to be able to totally devote all of my time to one subject. I'm actually really enjoying all of the reading and gaining of information.
I have my job interview on Monday so that is consuming me at the moment. Also on Monday I am attending the Tournament of the Minds facilitator workshop which is going to prove a huge challenge to me. I have never seen TOM operating and I have never had to be a facilitator. It's going to be huge.
Over the weekend I will post more about the reading I have been doing. It really is very interesting and thought provoking.

fostering collaboration

Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and information literacy: Common behaviours of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.

I felt this article stated the obvious on many occasions. The first was when it said that "Teaching partnerships and collaborative programs occur more readily where the school itself reflects a collaborative work culture." well duh! I guess it holds more currency when a professional writes it, instead of me saying it to a friend.
It also says that the Principal is the key factor in developing an effective integrated school library program. Unfortunately many schools don't work this way and library is used for release time because of budget restraints and time tabling issues. Most of the time library is just a 'drop and shop' time where teachers drop their kids for a 30minute lesson and then come back to collect them at the end of the time not really caring what has occurred in the 30 minutes except to make sure that the students have borrowed reading level appropriate books to take home from school until next week. Hmm not really conducive for an integrated library program. If the lessons are longer then the 'research' work you do with the class is only an add on to the classroom work and not considered very important! ( Maybe that's just my experience....)
The article goes on to say that the Principal should hire the best to ensure that this occurs. As I have a job interview for a teacher librarian position next week I am hoping that the principal and panel think that I am the best TL for the job. Oh well fingers crossed and hopefully I will be able to put some of this stuff into practice.
According to this article Principals mostly operate within a framework of their personal experience, as do most teachers I have encountered.
Oh well quite an interesting read and it means I can't keep blaming principals for not having collaborative planning/teaching as the responsibility falls onto me to make changes too....

Why should principals support school libraries?

Hartzell, G. (2002). Why should principals support school libraries? ERIC Digest, November (EDO-IR-2002-06)

This article was fabulous to read. It supported a lot of my views, not to mention one the obstacles I am going to discuss in my assignment.
I thought that it was interesting that many principals overlook librarians as powerful allies as they are not usually written about in administrator journals. Who would have thought?
It was good that Hartzell made me aware of the 11 characteristics displayed by excellent librarians.
I loved the way he gave suggestions for ways principals can support libraries, and money wasn't listed as the only form of support.

NB. Principal support must be broad-based and multi-dimensional.

Happy Birthday Peter

Today is my brothers birthday.
Hope you had a great day!

The Information literate school community

This blog will be the death of me.

I'm finding it harder to keep this up to date than I am at keeping up to date with my readings.
I'm not really sure how I will be able to reflect on my growth at the end of this subject because I am so confused at the moment and everything is such a jumble I am not sure I am making any real progress.

Henri, J. 2005, 'Understanding the information literate school Community', in The Information literate school community 2, J Henri and M Asselin (eds.), Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia, pp.135-145.

As I reflected on the schools I have worked in while I was reading this I found it interesting that none of the schools could be described as information literate schools.
I think it would be possible though for my current school to work at building a learning community as they are part way there already and they are very open to change as is reflected in the way that they appear to be leading all of the other schools in the area in technology.
I believe that they are already operating within the 6 actions that Watkins and Marsick (1993) suggest. However, even though the principal encourages collaboration and team learning there is still a number of staff who are reluctant to fully collaborate in all areas and try to be better than their colleagues in many areas.
I guess with these actions already occurring within the school it should make it a fairly easy transition to becoming an information literate community.
Unfortunately this is where things get a bit tricky because library lessons are seen as an add on to the classroom by the teachers and not fully integrated into the classroom curriculum. The school also has fixed-length timetables which are not conducive to change according to Rosenholtz (1989). He also goes on to suggest that Characteristics of information literate schools include: emphasis on policy development, authentic process-driven assessment, integrated and flexible curriculum, and a strong role for specialists such as the curriculum coordinator and the teacher librarian.
I'm not really sure how any NSW school can have process driven assessment when the whole focus in schools is on the NAPLAN results, especially now that all schools are rated against each other.

I love the way that Henri has given suggestions for how the TL can be a catalyst for change. Mind you at the moment while I am doing this study, working in the library and running my family, I'm not really sure that I have the energy to try and make those changes within my school which I guess is like many other schools, extremely busy and reluctant to add too many more new things to their already busy schedules.
Oh well it's food for thought and gives me something to aim for.

Great handout for teacher librarians

I was just reading the forum and discovered this gem from Patricia. I hope she doesn't mind me adding it to my blog but it is very easy to read and simple to follow.
http://www.abc-clio.com/mark/pdf/LMC_Oct09_HandsOnHandout_102209.pdf

Standards of professional excellence for TL's

Topic 2: The role of the teacher librarian

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Library standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians.

Wow how amazing is this document?
Until I read this I was unaware there were any standards for TL's to aspire to. I kind of thought we were left out on our own a little bit.
Although this gives me something to aspire to it is also a little bit confronting when I see all of the qualities an excellent TL possesses, and all of the qualities that I don't possess. Oh well yet more goals I can add to my list of things to do.

This is what it says.....

Excellent teacher librarians.......................................

• understand the principles of lifelong learning
• know about learning and teaching across curriculum areas and development levels
• have a rich understanding of the school community and curriculum
  
• have a specialist knowledge of information, resources, technology and library management
• engage and challenge learners within a supportive, information rich learning environment
• collaboratively plan and resource curriculum programs which incorporate transferable information literacy and literature outcomes
• provide exemplary library and information services consistent with national standards
• evaluate student learning and library programs and services to inform professional practice
• model and promote lifelong learning
• commit to the principles of education and librarianship
• demonstrate leadership within school and professional communities
• actively participate in education and library professional networks
  

Final reading of module 1....

Well I am now back from a wonderful few days at 'COLOUR'. On a bit of a high until I walked through the door of my house and realised that I still have lots of uni work to do before my assignments are due at Easter, so thought I should get straight back into it and finish off module 1.


Hay, L., Foley, C. School libraries building capacity for student learning in 21C, Scan 28(2), 17-26.

This reading was good in that it considered the vision of school libraries and the way in which TL's, resources and technology are able to come together and create engaging and meaningful learning experiences for everyone.
This article presented a comprehensive framework that could be used to assess and build a library's capacity for short term as well as long term planning, complete with many examples of what capacity building should look like in practice.

Teacher Librarians and the school Library

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.)Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information (pp27-42) Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.


School mission statements
Many school libraries include reading for enjoyment as well as for information in their mission statements.
Mission Statements for school libraries should be brief statements that encapsulate the ethos of both the school and the library.

The role of the TL
The role of the TL is a multi-faceted one.

Information literacy in schools
Developing information literate students is the key role of the TL.
Students need to be taught how to avoid plagiarism.

Collection Management
Collection management focuses on the organisation of the collection and in some cases is interpreted as managing a collection for access, and includes aspects of cataloguing, classification and circulation.
The materials chosen need to be relevant to the needs of the school.

The school library website and school intranet
School library websites can be used for a range of purposes.

• promotion of library
• links to digital and print resources and to the local community
• specific learning resources in curricular areas
• provision of information literacy guidelines that students can access at anytime and from anywhere.

....Teacher librarians have a key role in the education of students....

Quadrant 4 here I am!!!

Before I start on this reading, I think that it is interesting that I proved yet again that I mostly operate in the 4th quadrant of Covey's time management matrix.
Yesterday when I should have been doing uni work I spent the day phoning builders, looking up different building companies on the Internet, looking up plans for our house, then phoning friends and telling them that we were going to demolish our house and rebuild. Of course these were all time wasters. Not to mention the biggest time waster of all was writing out my resume for a job interview that I don't have any hope of getting and then going to visit staff at a school I used to work at so that they could 'help' me with my resume. Yep all quadrant 4 and all time wasters.
This term my goal is to allow myself to fall into this quadrant less frequently than I am currently doing.
As a result of my extremely poor time management skills I got absolutely no uni work done on my allocated uni day and I am off to 'COLOUR' a women's conference tomorrow for the weekend so things aren't looking that great work wise.
Oh well here I go writing some stuff before I have to get dinner tonight.


Haycock, K. (2003). The crisis in Canada's school libraries: The case for reform and re-investment

This was an absolutely fascinating article to read in the wake of what's occurring at Loftus public school. The Principal there has deemed that a TL is unnecessary and so has not employed on this year in an effort to try and save money in his budget. After reading this he is doing exactly what they are doing in Canada.I feel like going up to the school and presenting him with all of the research to show him why he is doing the children such a huge disservice.
1. School libraries are more than rooms dedicated to storing books.
2. Well stocked, well equipped libraries with motivated professional TL's can expect to have * capable and avid readers;
* learners who are information literate;
* teachers who are partnering with the TL to create high quality learning experiences.
* standardised tests tend to be 10-20% higher than in schools without this investment.
3. High achieving schools place a high priority on the library.
4. Teachers' quality of teaching is seriously hampered when there is no library support.
5. School libraries and TL's have a positive effect on student achievement.
6. Collaboration between the Tl and the class teacher is essential to maximise student achievement.
7. TL's have a positive impact on student proficiency in information skills and research strategies.
8. Students learn more and produce better research products following planned, integrated information skills instruction by the teacher and TL together (Haycock, 1997) Therefore it is not a great idea to use library as release from face to face teaching.
9. Students often lack a clear search focus and need to develop search strategies when searching for information on the Internet.
10. If students are to become independent, efficient readers, they need a rich supply of books. (Allington, 2002)
11. Flexible library scheduling helps to increase student motivation and library use.

Developing a culture of collaboration is not easy.

week 1 readings

Wow it's already the beginning of week 2 and I feel like I am already behind. I had such high expectations for me this semester, oh well I will just continue to chase my tail.

Covey, S. (1990). Principles of personal management.In The seven habits of highly effective people: restoring the character ethic (pp145-164) NY: Simon & Shuster.

While this was extremely interesting to read it was also slightly confronting as I saw myself in more than one area. Instead of completing my uni work I have been operating in the 4th quadrant of not important, not urgent activities. Making phone calls has been at the top of my list, followed my making another coffee while I checked the mail box. Oops, as I said very confronting. At work it also occurs as I make the umpteenth visit to photocopy worksheets that I won't need for a few more weeks instead of accessioning that huge pile of resources that can't be found on SCIS.
One aspect of this reading was that it's ok to say no. That is actually something I am quite good at doing, although the reasons are not always the ones given in this reading.
I used to be really good at time management at prioritising things, but then I had children and seem to spend a lot of time walking around in circles putting out fires.
Quadrant 2 is my aim so that I can manage my life effectively.
Quadrant 2 has the following 6 criteria.
1. Coherence
2. Balance
3. Focus
4. A "People" dimension
5. Flexibility
6. Portability

Who knows by the end of this semester I might be functioning in that quadrant much more frequently.

Hazell, A (1990). School library and information services in Australia. In M. Nimon & Hazell (Eds),Promoting learning: challenges in teacher librarianship(pp.17-22). Adelaide: Auslib Press.

This article talks about what has happened in teacher librarianship in Australia in the 80's. It suggested that:
1. TL clarify their role in an effort to continue to make an impact on the educational program of their schools.
2. The TL major focus must be to work cooperatively with classroom teachers to produce information literate students.
3. The TL needs to promote their role to administrators and colleagues.
4. the need to develop an updated set of national guidelines and statistical database relating to school libraries is essential if effective lobbying of resources is to occur.

Thankfully this article gave a definition of Resource based learning which was a good thing because I had no idea what it was.
The definition given was " The methodology that assumes students learn from their own direct confrontation, individually or in a group, with a learning resource or set of resources and activities connected with them, rather than by a conventional exposition by a teacher"


Haycock, C 1991, 'Resource-based learning: a shift in the roles of teacher, learner', NASSP Bulletin, vol. 75(535), pp 15-22.

This article was all about Resource-Based learning. Haycock said that RBL is not a way of teaching. It is a way of facilitating learning where students use resources to broaden their learning base.

Information literacy is synonymous with knowing how to learn which which is what I strive for when teaching students in library.
It's interesting that the teacher must plan the resource based environment and can't just use the time as completing a project, but instead it goes beyond this.

For information literacy to be learnt it can't be done in isolation, but instead needs to be integrated. I try to do this in my current position by working collaboratively with the other teachers to ensure that what we cover in library links in with whatever unit they are studying. at present stage 3 is studying democracy so in library we are researching different people that had an impact on democracy. It's harder than it sounds.

2 1/2 billion seconds!

Today at church I learnt that we only live for approximately two and a half billion seconds, so I'm not going to waste one of those seconds. I'm going to get stuck into all of my readings and get on top of this course.

Looking over the final assignment I don't want to get caught the way I did last year and not have a proper starting point to reflect back on.
Having already completed 2 subjects,(1 more successful than the other)I have a much better idea of the role of a teacher librarian.
When I first started I thought the role entailed reading stories to children, scanning their books as they borrowed them and getting heaps of release time to do all of that library admin. I now know that it is soooo much more, and the more I learn the more incapable I feel.
As a TL I have a responsibility to stay informed about the latest resources that may be of some help to my students and colleagues. These resources include both written and electronic. I also need to be able to critically evaluate them and not merely describe them. One of the major things I feel that I can contribute to a school is to teach students information literacy skills so that they will be life long learners and not just completing assignments for the sake of them.
I also want to create a love of reading in my students by constantly sourcing my library with up to date books and culling the older books that have many pages falling out.
The role of a TL is constantly changing as technology is also changing.
Hopefully at the end of the semester when I complete my second assignment this information will be of some use to me, but it will also be interesting if I change my views in any way.