A Critical Reflection of ETL401

As a classroom teacher with 24yrs experience it was time for a change. I wanted to continue to work in education, but not necessarily in the classroom environment. The potential to combine a love of literature, interacting with other educators and teaching children directed me to teacher librarianship. This reflection will focus on my increased awareness of the teacher librarian’s (TL) role in light of the readings, discussions and critical feedback received throughout this course.

My perception of a TL has changed greatly. I thought they simply read books to children, had minimal contact with parents, didn’t write school reports, provided teachers with resources to support programs, weren’t necessarily required to attend staff meetings and didn’t have to hand in a program reflecting teaching and learning opportunities. This belief was based on cursory observations and limited professional interactions with TLs at the various schools I have worked in.

Web2.0 tools in the information skills process

Loved this link between the DET's ISP model and ICT - wish I'd used it more effectivey in Assign 2!

http://Irrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/IrrSecure?Sites?LRRView/10457/10457_00.htm?Signat...

Assignment 1 Blues

Feeling a bit down :(
Not overly thrilled with Assign One results as I thought that I'd done so much research and invested a lot of time, and yes lost a LOT of sleep and definately some potentially good social times. How did I MISS so badly in one of the key areas?
I really appreciated the feedback as it was very succient and in one particular area fairly direct in outlining the weaknesses in my essay. Having to cop it on the chin is a great learning experience. Made me think about the kids at school and how we constantly provide both written and verbal, feedback re bhr, work samples etc and the subsequent effects that they have on their confidence and attitude to learning.

Expert Teachers- and therefore Expert TLs

It's Sunday evening and while all my boys are watching Merlin (may I just say up front - YES! I love Merlin too!) I've decided to use the relative quiet of my dining rm to catch up - or really start- on some much needed reading!
While scrolling thru websites to find info for Assign 2 I located an article called "Teachers Make a Difference - What is the research evidence?" written by New Zealander John Hattie (mental note - lots of educational stuff written by NZrs)
This was a brilliant article contrasting novice, experienced and expert teachers and ultimately giving a description of what constitutes an "expert teacher". Very easy to follow and understand; two attributes essential for me.

Split between BEING a CT and WANTING to be a TL

Ive just finished reading the Todd article " The dynamics of classroom teacher and teacher librarian instructional collaborations" ( Scan Vol27 No2 May 2008) and can't believe I'm actually compelled to BLOG something on a Friday evening  at 9:30pm!!
My understanding from reading the summary of the ILILE program ( trying to be clever - it actually stands for Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education) reasearch in Ohio 2002 -2005 is that the DIFFERENCES between CTs and TLs with regards to the benefit of collaboration for THEMSELVES as Professionals is somewhat different.
Let me just clarify at this stage that I am a CT but want to be a TL so forgive me if I upset anyone!

INquiry Learning

Found a fantastic site QuEST written by Trevor Bond a New Zealander who created the SAUCE IL model.
Locate from http://ictnz.com/Inquiry%20Learning/inquirydefinition.htm

Bond (n.d.) defines inquiry learning as "an apporach that provides learners opportunities to develop skills  that enable them to locate, gather, analyse, critique and apply inofrmation in a wide range of contexts as they develop understanding."

Assignment Blues

Which Models do I choose? What standards should I select? Do I really have anything useful to say in my Blog?

Collaboration in Action

Term Two already! My TL and I have spent time organising a Web Quest to link in with the HSIE Unit Australia You're Standing In It (Stage 2). She has very kindly (and might I say selflessly) rescheduled her Admin time  so that it coincides with my Computer Lab time. The class will be divided into two grps. She will take half and go through the various print and video resources we have available in the library, and my grp will scroll through websites that we have selected to decide which ones are most suitable. We are starting with brainstorming of ideas using the bubbleus.com mind mapping tool and going from there.

Some New Thoughts

I had a surreal experience the other day. A friend of mine (and fellow tchr) has a son in Yr Nine who had to complete an assignment for School. She was telling me that not only didn't they understand the question, they had no idea how they would go about tackling it. I know this sounds really strange, but I actually suggested that we look at using an Info Lit Model(I'm really not looking for brownie points, but we attempted to use the PLUS Model). We were able to break the question down into parts to ascertain WHAT exactly he was being asked to do. We then followed the PLUS process to create a scaffold for him to follow in order to complete the assignment. God knows whether we were entirely successful, but he felt more confident with the result so that has to mean something!!

QUEST - Quality Education Support and Training

While scrolling through stuff online about Information Literacy Models (because let's face it that's all I seem to be doing lately) I found a site called QUEST - Quality Education Support and Training - written by Trevor Bond from New Zealand.
It had some great info re: different Models, ICT and Info Literacy as well as what I thought was easy to read and informative ideas about THINKING itself. There were links to various sites that further explained some of the models.
Trevor Bond is the creator of the  SAUCE process which is an Info Literacy Skills Model that facilitates pupils into inquiry learning, thinking and information literacy.
To read more info about SAUCE see:
http://ictnz.com/sauce-resources/SAUCEDiagram.htm

Libraries for post-literate society- Doug Johnson

I read this fascinating article in Connections (Schools Catalogue Information Service) Issue No: 72 Term 1 2010 about POST LITERACY. (By the way I had NEVER heard about these journals before our TL popped this one in my pigeon hole at work)

Essentially, the article by Doug Johnson discusses the idea that with the overwhelming amt of technology available feeding us all manner of info at a moments notice, the art of READING a book is actually declining. People are relying on audio, video, graphics and gaming to support their information and recreational needs.

Collaboration

After reading fairly extensively, I have come to the conclusion that one of the KEY elements in creating an ILS is COLLABORATION. This does not only mean between c'rm tchrs but includes, the principal, students and specialists tchrs as well.
A collaboratively organised Unit is one where:

• there is an equal partnership between c'rm tchr and the TL.
• each partner has an opportunity to share their expertise so that learning experiences are enriched.
• activities move away frm behaviourist to the use of cognitive strategies (Herring 2004) so that they are student centred.
• resources, info skills, and objectives are shared and support a common vision.
• the work load is shared throughout the learning process - planning, implementation, assessment and evaluation.

Ideas that speak to me - a work in progress!

Henri, J (2005) "Community is something that transforms thinking within the school and does so in such a way that the transforming pulls the world of school and the world outside school closer together." (p. 12 Information literate school community 2)
Henri, J (2005) "Schools must be places and spaces where people learn to learn and this must be transparently obvious and demonstrable." (p. 13 Information literate school community 2)

Survey at HS

As part of Assign One I thought I'd do a quick survey of members of the HS School Community (this thought occurred one morning at about 2:30am when I was in yet another state of panic!)
Basically I asked similiar questions of the Principal, TL, C'rm Tchrs and Students. I realised afterwards that I'd left out the Parents- oops!!
Summary of results:

Thoughts After Completing Topic One

I have finally completed all the readings for Topic One and have come to some personal and educational conclusions.
* I really NEED to organise a study timetable ASAP! Between work, family, friends,building and study commitments I have felt like I was drowning at times these last few weeks - and it's only the beginning! BALANCING everything is the challenge I have set myself.
* I need to learn to say NO more often so that I don't feel so inundated with projects - though painting the School asphalt so that the kids have some crazy games and murals to look at and use will be fun:)
* I need to STOP being so concerned and critical of my study skills and accept that this is a learning journey that will have ups and downs (hopefully more of the first though!)

Initial Impressions

Ok! I have finally created what I hope is a user (and reader) friendly Blog. I have to say that once I disregarded the needs of my family and work to focus on the TL Course I nearly died! It is initially somewhat overwhelming trying to get my head around such foreign things as Forums, threads, Subject Outlines etc etc, but I am determined to give this my best shot. Balance will be the key, and knowing that I am in the same boat as many of my fellow students is quite a relief :) So thank you all for being honest in describing how you feel at this early stage of our Study. I look forward to sharing ideas, experiences etc as the year progresses.