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.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Progress made today.....
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
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.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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!
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!
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