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
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
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.......................................
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
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.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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.
....Teacher librarians have a key role in the education of students....
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.
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.
Monday, March 8, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
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.
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