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.
Showing posts with label ETL 401. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ETL 401. Show all posts
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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....
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....
Sunday, March 21, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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.
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.
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