Assignment 2 ramblings

It is quite difficult to consider where to go with this assignment, there seems to be so much with it that it can be difficult to know where to begin with it. I know it is meant to be a vision for the next 3 years and how to implement it. But it seems like a big job, multiple readings to consider - it seems like a whole semester assignment rolled into 4 weeks, especially to do a good job on it.

I am unsure how to proceed, I keep thinking I should use the information from Balnaves' (1996) Appendix C readings but again, with such a variety provided it is hard to look through and consider. I might try and look at that now and see how it goes. Let's start with the Guidelines for strategic planning (p.85). The first point talks about taking the time to what makes sense in my school:

What are the prominent issues?
This is a hard one, being part time and trying to get the library back on track last year and on top of all its own issues I suppose there wasn't much inclination to consider what else was happening or not happening in the school. This year, we have a new LST teacher and Curriculum Coordinator so that is a bonus on what is happening, there is a bit of a renewal process going on in regards to previous expectations. I think looking at this aspect, I am trying to see how the library can be an integral part of the teachers' teaching. This links to issues in whole school approaches I suppose, I haven't been involved in whole school approaches that have been formulated and so the library isn't there in it. Also the school is up for school renewal this year, I am hoping I can be involved in this to look at the library and its role. One area that the LST is taking an avid interest is Reading and Spelling and sees this as an issue, one other area that I see an issue is with the information process procedure, using something like the NSW ISP. One final one is forming a whole school information literacy document for teachers and TLs for the Catholic Schools. This is a year by year document that will allow teachers and TLs to see what needs to be covered to match with ICTs and ACARA. There are issues with the DLP and teachers having their planning on it and the time management of it. Also I am the information specialist and I have expectations of helping maintain the system, I would like to consider more PD in this area to do a better job. Literacy is a concern too, in a broad sense and the role of the library in promoting literacy - I would like to do a better job in this.

I am not sure if this is what they mean about issues but this is what I see at the moment as concerns in my school, there are some big ones but some little ones too.

What do I personally wish to achieve?
1. further collaboration with teachers to work with them in their units
2. using the library to promote literacy for the students
3. whole school information literacy document, linking ACARA, ICTs and information literacies together.
4. leadership within the school - a realisation of the TLs knowledge and abilities in helping affect policy in the school.
5. more specialist knowledge of the information system - technically.

What terminology and style of approach are appropriate?
 This is something that needs further research, I am trying to work more with the principal and I need to look at the idea of leading from the middle I think as Donham (2005) talks about, there is a need to think about transformative leadership but perhaps looking more a the leadership capabilities (Wizenried, 2010; Davies and Davies, 2005) than the style of leadership needed. I think I need to consider that some of the ways will change with what I am hoping to achieve, for example with the collaboration, I am taking a whole school view with trying to get planning sheets set up and giving these at staff meetings or in pigeon holes but then actually talking with teachers individually about what they are wanting, if the library can help either through resources or through team teaching. I can also look at providing leadership in how the TL can help them. The library to promote literacy is for me, my staff and the principal to consider with promotion to students and teachers and the community through the newsletter. So all of these things need to be considered in regards to terminology and style.

What amount of effort is justifiable and can be resourced?
This is key, I only work 9 hours a week and need to consider what I can actually do in this time considering there are lessons to do, meetings with my staff, buying/resourcing discussions, meeting preparations, and because there is a lot of work coming in from other classes this is quite time consuming at the moment. Generally most of what I have to do can be resourced fairly effectively with minimal outlay, there would be some with PD, that would have to be discussed with the principal but the effort is the concern - what is justifiable, what is worth doing? I think the information literacy program, the collaboration are definitely worth it. I think discussions about the others and trying to allocate certain time frames would be worthwhile to achieve this.

So this covers the first consideration of what makes sense in the school - what I can do and what is justificable. Now I need to address the core elements of strategic planning and this is the big component.
I think I will need to do up some surveys for  staff, students and parents, I will need to discuss this with the principal and see what I can feasibly do in the timeframe for this assignment.

Group collaboration

What an interesting and vibrant aspect to an assignment - group work across distance and sometimes time! The first thought was how was this going to work, where the other group members as keen as me? And all the other thoughts that go with working in groups - I remember a number of times hearing and reading that working in groups is the hardest aspect to master, we as teachers love kids working in groups but when we are asked to work in groups in fills us with dread! It is hard to give up the control that is inherent in any person who makes their own decisions, responsible for their own marks, now they are responsible for others and have to come to agreement with other people. Maybe it is a fear that our views are not worthwhile or there will be criticism or maybe it is that fact that we think we know best and others can not know more than we do???

But what I found was that my group were as keen as I was, as eager to trial new ways of working together and that we worked well together. My only criticism would be the ease at which we found ourselves off track and the need to bring us back onto topic. Which allows my thoughts to drift to my EO talking about the construction of video games and the market at which they aimed - there was a need to try and pull in the female market and they wondered how to do that - they found it through social networking - online gaming and suddenly their games increased in sales, even war games because it was the ability to get online and talk that drew the people not the game itself. I found myself reminded of this a number of occasions during out Skype sessions. Oh how I love Skype! If every one were on Skype I could throw out my phone I think!

Another quick note - a lesson on academic and professional was learned - academic = peer reviewed; professional = not as an easy statement.

Action Research and Collaboration

I am finding the information excellent in this subject and the readings are really inspiring to 'get motivated' in my schools. The problem I am finding is that being part time (and it feels like I harp on this all the time) I can't get into it effectively. One day a week in a school does not effectively allow relationships to form and true collaboration to occur - it takes a lot of hard work just to clarify to teachers what you can do for them but if you don't fall on a day that they have non-contact or if it is only in 1/2 hour blocks it is very difficult to find times to do it and do it right. I know there is the idea of principal support and I feel that technically the principals do support me but that there is so much else happening in the school and when others can work that sometimes it is not feasible to be changing the scheduling. Perhaps if I worked more frequently there it would be better. I do have that some teachers really don't see my potential in collaborating with them but see it as more work.

Harada (2004) really clarifed the Action Research side of things and I can see the benefit of it and hope to include it in my future lessons (at the schools where I have managed to talk to one teacher [starting small as Page (1999) indicated] and found some movement towards collaboration). But again it was with a kindergarten class where flexibility is able to occur quite easily but working to a curriculum where a number of Essential Learnings have to be achieved or where certain types of assessment need to be completed I still have doubts sometimes that it can work effectively across a school. Maybe it is the pessimist in me.

I will say that last week I did my first lesson with the Year 7s on a topic they were studying in class - basic collaboration at the planning level but a start. It seem to go well - it was mainly focused around refreshing students knowledge about our library database but I also introduced them to our Regional library online to look at different results. I will see how our lesson goes this week with some new pointers.

Page's Paper

I found Page's (1999) paper very enlightening,  I love the way they broke down the way to adopt a collaborative approach at a school. I could actually see myself implementing some of these applications at my schools, again the reinforcement of administrators being critical to the success of it was highlighted but I also liked how they indicated that teachers were critical to implement it. I found this a key aspect about teachers - in my schools if the teacher is not interested in collaborating then it doesn't happen. I even have it where a teacher is interested but as I am only there one day a week it makes it hard to set aside time - even our own. But back to Page (1999), the first Phase of "Establishing Systems and Structures" (p. 208) where it is important to identify the strengths and weakenesses of your own area then the other aspects of school and it identify the 'key' people. Then to look at what you have versus what you want it to be and define your role to the staff in a number of ways. The concept of the plan and using topic sheets was something that I could utilise in my schools, I had started it in a very informal way through email and mentioning it to staff at meetings but to actually have a sheet that identifies the topics for the term in the different key learning areas that all teachers fill in and then indicate if they want planning time for cooperative learning I thought was a great way to start. It also added to records to keep for referring to.

I also thought the communication aspect was vital in my position of only being very part time in my schools, it is something I am trying to improve upon and it was great seeing how important it is in establishing this collaborative plan. But the best thing I liked was the concept of starting small - it was something that most other papers didn't recognise (whether they thought it was implied or not needed due to a whole school approach) as in my position I can only work with one teacher in this detail and for the time required to begin with so to actually have a paper point this out and say it is where to start and not try to change everything at once was great.

This paper is something I can see my future plans revolving around, I am looking forward to outlining a plan using the different phases and components of the phases for my schools. Also to be discussing this with my principals - it gives me somewhere to start specifically. I feel more positive about implementing a collaborative approach now than I have with previous papers.

ETL401 Assignment

For something I was meant to do straight after the assignment, this is coming a little late. I have been thinking about it but trouble with the internet and kids make it difficult to find a quiet niche to write something but here I am finally.

The assignment was quite thought provoking - a number of the ideas I had made it difficult to narrow it down to what I wanted to write about. I did find it hard clarifying an ILSC, I think because I had all the pieces but couldn't see the overall picture [a bit like Senge (2007) was talking about I found]. So when I was researching about an ILSC I was thinking I know this but when it came to writing about it I came a bit unstuck. I think the main aspect I gathered from an ILSC was that everyone needs to be involved in creating and maintaining one. Not just the teachers and students but the parents and support staff as well. That it isn't just about having the information available but that an information process is being used by all in everything that happens in the school.

The role of the TL needs to be clear and outlined to all staff - fine detailed role descriptions need to be accessible and the TL needs to be seen as a specialist teacher with clear attributes that can be used by the staff in the school. Such as integrated units being created by teachers and TLs, including assessment and evaluation. The TL needs to be adequately trained to meet these requirements in a school - I have even found that by doing this subject I am trying to make some changes in the schools I work in. Little changes to begin with due to being at each school only one day a week, but changes nonetheless.

My obstacle I focused on was the principal's support in making the TL a leader in collaborative practices as I found in all my schools that this was not happening to the level it is required. The readings were quite clear on schools benefiting from having principal support but there was minimal literature on what was happening in schools that did not have this support and how TLs were achieving change. I used most of the readings in our course outline to support my solutions, which were mainly on the TL's role. The TL needs to be making the prinicpal aware of the possibilities in curriculum where the TL can benefit the school's vision. Through leadeship roles, ongoing PD and evaluation and some funding.

Overall I found the topic interesting and consolidating in its nature. A clarification of the place we have in our schools at this point and of where we want to go with our role in the future.