Thoughts on being a TL

Before I get involved in finding out what I am supposed to be doing as a TL I want to put my own thoughts about how I perceive the role.

I must admit before working in a school as a TL I didn't give too much thought to the TL in the library - I didn't think they impacted upon my teaching in any way and I definitely didn't think they were involved in my planning. I thought a TL was a Librarian - someone the students could ask to find something in the library or maybe help with a search on the internet. I thought they could teach the students how to search the catalogue but didn't give much thought to the application of this in a wider capacity, such as boolean searches or advanced searches on Google as an example (I know, we always use Google, Google is God!! but at least everyone knows it). Maybe some of this was the fault of the TL in not promoting their role and what they can offer to a T, maybe of my own education as a T, not being informed about the use of TLs in planning and teaching. It could also be that as a secondary teacher I tried to keep up with new developments in my subjects and not across the curriculum.

It was not until I took a part time position as a TL that I started to realise there was more to the role, in fact sometimes more than our roles were supposed to be, especially in technology. There were still the basics that I thought a TL did, trying to promote reading, buying resources, managing the database and teaching students to use the catalogue but then came the ICTs. Integrating ICTs into lessons, collaborating with teachers, planning, developing resources, promoting ourselves and our service. Even after a year I am still trying to work out the actual boundaries of the TL position as I have and still do work across three schools and each school has a different view of the TL and their place in the school and not really one of them is using the TL as more than a resource stop for their own planning, if there is even time to do planning with teachers, which is a no go in a couple of the schools I know.

I'll leave it at that for the moment - I might have a think about what I have written and add (or subtract) thoughts or ideas. Signing off for the moment...