ETL401 Part C - Critical synthesis

Part C
Critical synthesis & reflections of TL role
810words

I have now discovered that my initial reasons for wanting to become a teacher librarian were not the most honourable (Drury, 2010). I initially thought that it was an easy job where you had an assistant who did all of the hard work for you and you had lots of free time to prepare and tidy the library because after all as a teacher librarian you just read books to children, let them borrow and kept the library shelves neat and tidy. Since the beginning of this course and taking up a job share position in a library I realise how misguided I was.

Since reading the Professional Teacher librarian Standards (ASLA/ALIA, 2004) I have learnt that there is more to being a teacher librarian than I first thought. Reading the comments of other students I was heartened to discover that they were also on a similar pattern of learning (Noble, 2010). The standards also demonstrated to me that we are part of a professional group who have excellent skills and knowledge instead of just being on our own as I commented on my blog post (Drury, 2010). Completing the second part of assignment two in ETL401 proved to be a turning point in my views of being a teacher librarian. What started out as a compulsory exercise that I was required to complete in order to successfully finish this subject rapidly turned into an exciting adventure of learning where I gave the standards more than just a passing glance. I discovered that they are all encompassing and while they looked impossible to achieve when I first read them they have now become a set of standards to help my professional development in an effort to enhance the quality of education that I provide for the students at my school.

Information literacy skills was a skill I thought I knew all about (Drury, 2010) but I quickly learned that there are more than one set of definitions, more than one set of frameworks and everyone has a slightly different variation (Kuhlthau, 2004, Eisenberg and Berkowitz Big6, 2001, NSW Information Process, 2007). It was exciting that the more I read about information literacy the more I began to realise that I could have a positive effect on the development of strategies that would enable my students to become life long learners.

My eyes were opened as I read about collaboration and the positive impact that it has on students (Haycock, 2007). I also found it to be a bit of relief when I read the article written by (Todd, 2008) because as I commented on the forum (Drury, 2010) collaborative schools are selectively collaborative and not necessarily the most creative. I also commented on this on my blog (Drury, 2010) that I enjoyed a light bulb moment when I read that just because you collaboratively teach you don't necessarily get through double the work (Todd, 2008). This had always been my impression of collaborative partnerships so it was good to gain a better insight into collaborative teaching. I was also challenged when I read (Gilman, 2007) and it was suggested that a great way to encourage a collaborative attitude would be to set up library wide wikis. As a direct result I have set up several library blogs each one catering to a specific group. I have created blogs for staff, general library, stage 2, stage 3, Premier's reading challenge and library monitors. The feedback has been amazing as everyone feels free to contribute and add their comments. If it wasn't for this article and indeed this course I don't think I would have taken the step to create these blogs in an effort to create a collaborative atmosphere. My other light bulb moment occurred when I read that collaborative teaching affects student academic achievement for the better (Montiel-Overall, 2005 & Haycock, 2007).

Throughout this course I have gone through many highs and lows as I have grappled with the new information presented to me. It has given me a new sense of purpose as I endeavor to be the best teacher librarian I can. As I try to develop not only a love of literature in my students but so much more including information literacy skills to equip them for life long learning. As I also try to encourage a collaborative environment within my school and endeavour to raise the profile of the teacher librarian role so that it includes leadership responsibilities within the school and as I build up networks within the school and from outside the school to turn this into a reality.

I have come a long way since the days of playing pretend libraries in my bedroom, or being asked to resign as a library monitor in 6th class (Drury,2010), but strangely I feel like I am just beginning this extraordinary journey of learning how to be an excellent teacher librarian. Thankfully there are lots of resources out there to aid in my development. Resources that include the excellent set of standards (ASLA/ALIA, 2004) to work towards and many support networks that help to find solutions to problems that I may encounter.

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2004). Library standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org/policy/standards.htm

Drury, C. (2010, March 20) Standards of professional excellence for TL'S. Posted to http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com

Drury, C. (2010, April 19). Thoughts on Todd article. Message posted to ETL401 module 5 sub-forum.

Drury, C. (2010April 20). Developing powerful instructional collaborations does not happen by chance. Posted to http://cathyslibraryskillsporgress.blogspot.com

Drury, C. (2010, April 27). Information literacy and how my views are changing. Posted to http:cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com

Drury, C. (2010, May11). My inspiration to be a teacher librarian. Posted to http://cathyslibraryskillsprogress.blogspot.com

Eisenberg,M & Berkwitz, B. (2001). A Big6 skills overview. Retrieved from http://www.big6.com/2001/11/19/a-big%E2%84%A2-skills-overview

Gilman, T. (2007, May23). The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Four-Habits-of-Highly-E/46544

Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), pp25-35.

Kuhlthau, CC. (2004). Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services, 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). A Theoretical Understanding of Teacher and Librarian Collaboration, School Libraries Worldwide, 11(2), 24-48.

Noble, J. (2010, March10). Thoughts on standards. Message posted to ETL401 module 2 sub-forum.

New South Wales Department of Education and Training. (2007). Information skills in the school: engaging learners in constructing knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/docs/infoskills.pdf

Todd, R.J. (2008). The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations. Scan, 27(2), 19-28.

Highly offended!!!

I was just speaking to a girlfriend who recently attended a workshop for Asperger children. She thought it was highly amusing when the speaker said that many Asperger children retreat to the library in their breaks as it is an area where they feel safe. So far I would agree with that.

But then he went on to say that in his opinion many teacher librarians also had Asperger's.
Now in the words of Seinfeld "Not that there's anything wrong with that", but I don't appreciate being labeled that way.
I am anything but Asperger's trust me, and so are the teacher librarian's that I know......well there was one back in 1986 that may have been...........
Oh well food for thought anyway.

Part B put to bed and no library monitors.....

In the words of the newspaper newsroom I can put part B of assignment 2 to bed..........at last.
I am now working on part C of the assignment and at the moment words are coming easy, but in no particular order and I can remember things I read on the forum about the topics I am wanting to discuss but unfortunately I am having a difficult time locating them again. In my next subject I am going to keep a really good record of where and when I read things so that when I need to recall information it will be a simple exercise.
It has been great at work today as stage 3 has an excursion so I have had a bit of time on my hands so I have been working on my assignment. My program is up to date and all of my lessons have been prepared for next week so I've used my time to get this done.
A highlight of my day was that I didn't have any library monitors in the library at lunch time...It was bliss. They are such an enthusiastic bunch but are really more of a hindrance than a help most of the time, so it was a very relaxing lunch break today........Maybe we could ban library monitors, but then I guess there would be a huge outcry. Oh well something to think about anyway.

second chat room experience- how exciting!

Last night I was participating in my second chat room ever while we talked about the second assignment.
I was so surprised when Tania commented on my blog.
Wow, I didn't think anyone was reading it except for my good friend Julie who has only just discovered it.
Tania, you have no idea what a boost to my self-esteem your comment was. I have not been sure if I have been on track or not during this subject and you provided me with the confidence I needed, so thank-you.
I spent all of Monday and Tuesday working on Part B of the assignment and thought I had finished, however after last nights chat I think I had better have another look at it.
Despite all of my complaining and crying at the computer screen I really have been enjoying this subject.

How hilarious is this?
I have been put in charge of all the school blogging, in particular the staff blog. Our IT teacher is leaving the school for the rest of the year to work as the region head of something to do with technology.
When he was first offered this role I was asked if I wanted to take over his role at the school. My response was to double over in laughter in front of the principal....then I realised she was serious!!
Who would have thought that I would have made so much progress in my technology skills to be asked this question?
Can't wait to tell Greg at my old school. He will think it is just as hilarious as I do!
Anyway after I realised she was serious I politely declined and suggested someone who knows more than I do which wouldn't be hard really.

Inspired by Jessica Watson

On Saturday instead of working on my assignment I was totally mesmerised by Jessica Watson completing her sail around the world. I didn't move from the lounge all day as I flicked between all of the television channels watching whoever had the best coverage at the time.
Now as I sit here becoming quite frustrated with the whole process of gaining my Master of Education in Teacher Librarianship and thinking that I will never get my qualification to enable me to fulfil my dream of becoming a teacher librarian. I am reminded of some words of wisdom that Jessica Watson spoke after she arrived safely back in Sydney after sailing around the world in response to the Prime Minister calling her a hero.
She said,

" I'm not a hero, I am just an ordinary girl who had a dream, you just have to have a dream, believe in it and work hard."

So with those words of wisdom from a very mature 16year old I am going to continue to work hard to get this assignment completed well to enable me to pass this subject so that I will be a step closer in achieving my very modest dream of becoming a qualified teacher librarian.

reading and the library

I just came across this great quote in my reading for assignment 2.

Classroom collections are most appropriate for learning to read; school libraries are most appropriate for reading and reinforcing the reading process

- Frances Roscello, AASL President 2003-2004

What a great quote.

Beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel

As I sit here trying to do my assignment...still. I am no further advanced than I was last weekend. Today however I have renewed hope. I listened to Roy's podcast yesterday and thought that I was beginning to get it, then today the wonderful Philip posted on the forum an answer to someones question about how to start.
After reading his post (and printing it) I now really think I have a handle on this whole part B section. I have all of my research printed off beside me and have eagerly started writing.
That guy should get a HD for this course because of all of the help he has been to me. I have read his blog regularly sometimes checking it several times a day to see if there has been an update and I love reading his forum entries. He just has a way of explaining things simply so that you understand the concept that bit better.
I think any parent would be banging down the principals door at the school he teaches at requesting him as a teacher for their child.
Well done Philip. If I get through this course it will be because of your generosity to share your thoughts and understandings.

Progress made today.....

Today and over the weekend I have spent all of my time researching the standards required for this assignment. However after reading many articles, blogs and forum entries I have loads of information. Unfortunately I think I am stuck in the collect stage just like Thinkbox wrote about in her/his blog. It seems that I too need a push to determine what to do with all of the information I have collected. Oh well maybe tomorrow night if I'm not too tired after work, or it will have to wait until the weekend again.

My inspiration to be a teacher librarian

I have been busy reflecting on why I want to so desperately become a teacher librarian.
As I was lying in bed thinking about it the other night I recalled playing libraries with my toys when I was about 4 and then for many years later. I vividly remember making cards and putting them in the backs of my books and then borrowing them out to my toys and any friends I happened to have over.
Wow! I should have gone on this path many years ago.
At primary school I was made a librarian and led the famous South Grafton Primary librarian's strike for better working conditions. Mrs Finn (the librarian) decided that perhaps it would be best if I led my followers outside and resigned from our position. After we got bored with our sit in we figured that was probably a good option.
When I first started teaching at Bennett Road Public school we had the most amazing librarian who made the most magnificent displays in the library for book week and made library lots of fun. Back then it was before the introduction of RFF so teachers participated in library lessons. It was great and sometimes I thought what a great profession this would be.
I really should have started training back then....I wish I had.
Several years ago I started working at Inaburra and met Julie who was the teacher librarian. I thought she had it made, heaps of release time to do who knows what, a library assistant and she didn't have to do sport. I thought this is a job I want, and I often used to joke in the staff room that I was going to come back as a teacher librarian because they had such a cushy life. Unfortunately this didn't go down well with Julie who always insisted that she worked really hard...yea right.
Julie started to give me casual days in the library and I thought this is the life, you get to team teach with the classroom teacher, you don't have to deal with parents or write reports. Yep this is the life for me!
Then by chance I picked up a 3 day a week job as relieving teacher librarian at Jannali East. I loved it, I had finally found my calling in life. It was everything I had dreamed it was.
Unfortunately I missed out on the permanent job as I didn't have any experience, but thankfully I moved onto Yowie Bay into a maternity leave position. In this job it all hit the fan so to speak.
I have teachers at me all the time wanting resources for their classrooms, The class readers are stored in the library so there is a constant turnover of books as the reading groups require new books on a weekly basis, team teaching is not an option so I have to teach classes alone which was really challenging in the beginning as students tested me. I had to organise a book fair for book week- what a nightmare that was! I had to talk to the new kindy parents at an information morning, I actually have to program information literacy skills into my teaching and I have to accession, make new borrowing cards, ensure that all infants students complete the Premier's reading challenge, encourage primary students to do likewise, put up with pushy parents who insist on borrowing 'suitable' books for their children to read for the challenge because after all they really don't know what to choose! and do a million other things around the school.
Sometimes you are not looked on as a 'REAL' teacher and sometimes you don't feel part of things because you don't have a close working relationship with other teachers on the same grade.
In all, I don't think I have ever worked so hard in my life, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love getting to work each day, I love the smell of books as I walk into the library every morning, I love discovering new ways to teach research skills to students so that they will become life long learners and Julie I take back everything I have ever said about library teaching being a bludge.

chat rooms

Last night I participated in a chat room for the purposes of trying to get some clear answers about how to do my assignment.
It was an interesting experience, actually much better than previous ones I have participated in. Instead of using the CSU site we went 'external' and used a site called neatchat. It was neat and I found it much easier to follow the disjointed flow of conversation in between getting dinner ready for my family and having my questions answered.
Today I have gone through the chat transcript and deleted anything that I didn't think was relevant and printed it out so that I could look easily at the conversation as I do my research. If I had printed the entire chat it would have been more than 20 pages long, by deleting unnecessary stuff it was reduced to 6 pages which was much better.
An interesting thing that did come out of the chat was that Brooke casually mentioned that her school had moved away from quality teaching and was now onto collaborative classrooms. Wow the uproar that this statement could have caused, but it didn't it went through relatively un-noticed although Roy did seem a bit baffled by it. I am looking forward to hearing more about this model of teaching in the future.
Anyway I have now run out of excuses to complete part B of this assignment so I had better start.
Part C is going to be really easy to do as I have learnt so much and have come to realise that this job is way more than just shelving a few books.

Totally frustrated

The one thing that I can't get used to in distance study is not having face to face contact with a class in a lecture hall. I used to pick up so much in that environment, much more than I pick up now off the forums.
At the moment I am really finding it difficult to get started on part B of my assignment.
Within the confines of a lecture theatre people would bounce ideas off each other and ideas would springboard around the room. Just by listening you could pick up enough clues to at least get on the right track.
Unfortunately the forum doesn't quite give the same result. Sure, if people ask the right question that may help you, but at the moment I have listened to the podcasts, read the notes and read all of the comments on the assignment 2 forum but I still cannot seem to be able to get started.

I remember last semester when I tried to get information I was told that you had to make your own decisions at this level of study. I know that is the case but it is really difficult to make an informed decision when you don't even have a starting point.
I just wish the whole thing was over as I seem to be going nowhere fast.....I don't think I'm even treading water well enough to keep my head above water.

I know that Roy has said that the only dumb question is the one not asked, but I can't even think of a question to ask.

It's Mother's day

What's wrong with this picture???

It's mother's day, a day that my 3 children should be pampering and spoiling me. Instead I am sitting here trying to get my head around part B of the assignment. The problem is I just don't get it, I don't know where to start and I don't even know what questions to ask of Roy to help make it better. So as I sit here fumbling around wasting hours on Google scholar trying to find articles about teacher standards at least I can gorge myself on the beautiful Gulyian chocolates that my eldest son bought me for Mother's Day. That in itself is a miracle. On his way home from school he stopped at the shops and bought me the biggest box out of his own money and he also went to the newsagent and bought me a gorgeous card, not a $1 card from the cheap shop. For those of you that don't know my son he is incredibly tight with his money. He didn't even come to the Easter Show with us because we told him if he wanted to go on any rides or buy any show bags he would have to pay for them himself and as he doesn't part with his money as a rule he decided not to come. So it is REALLY special as a mum to get this present from him today. Actually I am still in shock.

So re capping:
Miracle 1 was my son buying me a present.
Miracle 2 will be working out how to do this dreaded assignment.

Now I have to go and endure lunch with the in-laws. Oh what fun it will be!!! The things we do for Mother's Day.

Part A done and dusted

I didn't move from the computer all day yesterday (I didn't even watch Ellen or Oprah....such a sacrifice) and I had worked solidly on it all day Monday and over the weekend too. As a result of staying focused I went to bed last night safe in the knowledge that I have completed Part A of our ETL401 assignment 2......and it's not due for a few weeks.

The only problem with completing it so soon is that I will now spend the next few weeks fine tuning it constantly.

I now have a sound knowledge of information literacy models and feel quite comfortable using the NSW DET model with a few minor variations depending on my class at the time.

I really enjoyed researching all of the models and would have liked a few more words in my word count to add a few more things, but like we kept being told "Keep it succinct" so I did.

I can now put IL models behind me and move onto the teacher librarian standards. On that, I would love to meet a librarian that has managed to achieve all of the standards. I think that it's an impossible task and way out of reach of mere mortals. But like we are told it is something to aim for. I think it would be easier to fly to the moon than achieve those standards though.

Just like having babies.....

I am sitting here looking up articles about information literacy models and teaching standards.
I love spending time researching and finding that elusive article, but unfortunately that doesn't get my assignment written.
I am also busy looking at previous forum postings and other people's blogs in the hope of getting a lead on some great stuff to include.

This level of education really pushes you to the limit. I remember saying after I finished my degree over 22 years ago that I would never study again. Oh how I wish I had upheld that promise to myself because if I did I could be out enjoying myself today with a few friends who also have today off work.
Study is actually like having a baby. After the birth of your first child you say I am never going to do that again, but then over time you forget the pain and sleepless nights and have another baby....Trust me if I ever finish this course I will NEVER do any study again and I will have this blog to read to remind me of all the pain and sacrifice that I have made to get this qualification. So I won't EVER forget!