Leadership by Jean Donham

This article was brilliant in its application to TL's leadership in the school. The clarity of the attributes and that Donham applied them specifically to the TL in the school made relating them to my role easy. I liked the idea that 'leaders act from an internal locus of control' (p. 296) and that we are in control of our actions and outcomes but no one elses and that we should be focusing on others but on ours.

The other aspect I liked was the concept of pursuing what we are passionate about (p. 298) and this will generate enthusiasm and inspiration, which like the circle of life continues to perpetuate the other. I liked Fullan (1996) suggesting there were 3 attributes of sharedness, concreteness and clarity.

There were a few things I thought I could be working on and that included establishing one's expertise and processes for continuous reflection and assessment. I feel that I am one that enjoys the state of constant learning as long as there are opportunities to apply that learning and it is not going to waste (nearly stepping away from the 'can-do' mentality a leader is meant to have!)

I want to help the principal see the benefits of library media in school decision-making groups and really focus on the "leading from the middle" position (p. 301). I suppose the hardest thing I find is finding the time to achieve this, I will find alterative ways around this but it is an issue, between work, family (2 young children) and study there is little time to add in extra things to do but I want to look at my work and see if there are areas that I can refine that will allow better time management so I will have the time to do extra things.

And with reflection we do a reflective cluster day in Term 4 every year that is both looking back and looking forward as the 3 questions state (p. 303). I think I will print these 3 questions out and have them up for me so they remind me what I should be considering. I do think I can be reactive at work but it is very difficult to change that when every week there are different issues to sort out or refine and so forth. BUT I will do it!!

So here is my first journaling effort:
What did I learn today?
I learnt that reflection is as important as doing the job at hand

Whom did I nurture today?
This I feel was my staff (LA), students who were in the library at lunch time and other staff with technology issues.

What challenge did I confront today?
Fitting what I needed to into the time I had available.

How did I make a positive difference today?
I worked with staff, moved further in creating opportunities for me to show my expertise, initiated actions from my conference days and worked towards making my (or the students') library a more inviting place to be and easier to find information.

A short journaling entry today and I am sure they will get longer the more I do it.

Finally, from the article I also what to look at the action strategies more closely and plan towards achieving these in a little more detail for my libraries over this course.

Reference
Dohnam, J. (2005). Leadership. In Enhancing teaching and learning: a leadership guide for school library media specialists (2nd ed.) (pp. 295-305). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers

Visionary - Scenarios

I have just finished reading the first scenario in Arthur's book and I must say it scared me a little and fascinated me with where the future could be going and the role of the TL in it. I am not sure how I feel about the concept of no print at all and have a few queries in regards to 'space' that the internet has to hold all the information that will be out there. I think my biggest thing was that the lecturers/teachers where up with where the students were as were the parents to some degree. I am not sure in today's world that this would be the case. As was pointed out in the introduction the issue is not the technology and getting it to the schools it is skilling the teachers in the system that haven't been exposed or involved in it to a high degree that is needed to skill students and make it a worthwhile tool in the classroom.

I do see the concept of schools changing that there will be less time in the classroom and I would love to see the role the TL is playing in this but I fear that if the views of TLs doesn't change this won't be happening and if the future schools end up like this then it could be without TLs.
Well off to read the 2nd scenario now.

The start to another year...

Here we are again, 503 is over and 504 is beginning. I didn't end up posting much over the last unit, maybe because it was so hands on or maybe because I was juggling kids home on holiday, 2 subjects from two different Masters...who knows? But here I am again as I have to resurrect the blog for this subject, get on Skype, which is a newie. After the summer session I think I have a wiki with every free wiki available, blog/web pages set up all over the place and sometimes I don't know where anything is.

My little boy started a new school for Grade 1 this year and that was a big move, I have a new school and new hours so now I work 0.5 of a full load across two primary schools, this reduces my time down a little for work commitments but increased in school commitments for the kids!

Well I had better get posting with responses to readings and activities I suppose!

module 2 - Selection

Whoa! Quite a lot in this module to look at and consider, I am still trying to get my head around it all. The assignment is worrying me a little for trying to link it to theory but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Activity: obtaining data - TL alone? I don't think this is a job just for the TL it is where the teacher will be able to provide a lot of this and the adminisration can provide a lot of family details. The TL can further the data by what they do through surveys but there could be alot of meetings inbetween.

Activity: Tl collaborate with school community. We currently have a suggestion box for students to help with what they want, I have had to go and see teachers or supply information sheets about what they are teaching or requiring for their subjects. It is very rare that I would get a specific book request from teachers or staff, usually it is a general area that will match their teaching area. Sometimes this can be a specific line of research required. I have also asked them to forward sites they have found that they are using that are useful. As to the final say - for the specific library collection it should be the TL as they know the collection and have their budget, on the other hand for teachers who are requiring resources they often have their own budget but it still needs collaboration to ensure we don't have that item in the library collection already.

Activity: Print format diminishing? Digital increase? I think we do need to increase digital resources as that is where many learners are at but i don't think we can rule out print in any way, we still need print to help with traditional literacy skills and for some aspects print is more suited for students rather than the copious amount of searching the may do on the computer for research. As many workplaces are techonolgically wired we need to ensure that we are exposing students to digital aspects, whether that be CD-ROMs, digital objects or searching the internet.

Activity: selection aids - Pegiwilliams. A great site for TLs, provide a variety of books on appro if required, will send them to you, postage free. Limited information at times on the books.

ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum - The beginning

The thought of doing a subject over the Christmas break seemed like a good idea, until I realised that I would have both kids at home for a majority of it! Oh well, 'thems the breaks'. I was looking at the assessment pieces and thinking this is going to be a lot of work but this is an area that I need more clarity on - I am fairly sure in my interviews for jobs it is my understanding (or lack of) that limits my ability to 'nail' it.

I think one of the main aspects I have to get my head around is the digital collection - especially reviewing and see if it suits my school. It seems easy enough to look at this with the print collection but I seem to run out of time with the digital side and I know this is a problem as we head towards a digital library scene.

I started by reading the first section of Chapter 1 - What is collection management? and found that this matches what we consider collection management in our schools - again I have to make sure I go through our guidelines a little more thoroughly for this subject! I continued reading the next section and was interested in how the two terms developed and for what reasons. It seemed a little pedantic to change the term as I am sure that as libraries were doing collection development there was the management side to it too, so to introduce collection management then and have the confusion or synonomous meanings occuring seemed likely. What I will take from this is as our module states, 'advisable to detect and take into account' the differences when people are writing about them. This will be the main issue with me I think is to have it clear in my head what they are meaning with the use of the term they have chosen.

I did like the alternate definitions in our notes where it linked it to school libraries with teaching and learning aspects and the needs of the users.

Finally, I examined and considered the definitions of 'selection', 'acquisition', 'deselection' and 'collection evaluation' and thought that for the student interest side of needs of the users of a library these are fairly standard - but that for curricular needs and teaching practices/learning theories there requires to be a knowledge of the units teachers are teaching, quite difficult when I am there one day a week and with teachers who haven't used a TL in that way before. So even though we have a Guidelines document for policy and procedure it is generic and I am looking forward to putting some school level documents in there.

The beginning of another subject...

Just started ETL501 Information Environment - thought yes I will get a head start and really get into it so I can be on top of my work. Well that got blown out the window due to work and kids, then getting sick. So here I am the beginning of Week 2 and just getting underway properly.

The first thing we were asked to look at was Bloom's Taxonomy. This was bringing back memories of my early teaching days and I realised that quite often a focus on learning through a specific technique such as Blooms falls to the wayside in the mayhem of teaching. When we were a small school with small numbers we seemed to have the luxury of focusing on these things but as we grew bigger, went to senior schooling the focus seemed on getting work programs done, assessment pieces written, curriculum taught that a lot of the school development of teaching and learning was not being done.

I have been reading up on a number of people's views on the activity of looking for resources for a curricular area and am amazed at the depth some have gone to in looking at the activity. It is something I need to work on I think - clarifying my own thinking. As I read whether they needed more information to complete it accurately I realised that I had done some of that thinking myself (not all though). I realised that I had been thinking about who it would be aimed at, what type of assessment piece they were going to be doing and how they were going to learn it and so on. What I didn't clarify in my own mind was the type of learner or catering for different levels as such. I found that I completed the activity thinking about what I would be looking at doing if I was teaching the class, not what students I would be catering for. That is something I must think about. The one thing in reading some of the posts was the extending of my own understanding of the resources I was thinking about.

The end is nigh....for this subject anyway

thank goodness it is over! Results are in for Assignment 2 and must say am alot happier with my results and my comments. They are constructive and provide examples of what I could have been looking at. I feel relief that this first subject is over but still apprehensive that I have another 6 to go. Not sure I am going to handle the stress associated with the expected work load and assignments if they are much like this first unit. But it is nice to be relaxed and concentrating on my family and work at the moment. Hopefully some of the readings for my next unit will be up over the holidays and I can get a heads up on them.