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.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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 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.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
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.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Part C: Critical Synthesis for Assignment 2 ETL401
It was interesting to see the changes in my thinking when I started reading over my blog about my role as a teacher librarian (TL), whether it was new ideas, expanding on what I already knew or consolidating my own knowledge for clarity. Initially my thoughts were centred on the limited time I had in my schools - one day a week and that this was a draw back to doing what was required (King, 2010). As the unit progressed I realised that I could still manage to achieve goals in my schools even with the limited time I was there, in fact I could advocate for more time. The first time I started to realise this was with Covey (1990) where I started to see that saying 'no' was a positive attribute to have (King, 2010). Being able to say 'no' and prioritising tasks allowed me to see beyond the day-to-day management to the school's need for a focused teacher librarian. This was further cemented through Anne Randall's forum comment (Randall, 2010) about the complexity of TL expectations and Catherine Desanti's reply (Desanti, 2010) about the need to prioritise. Suddently I could reflect on my own practices and my understanding of the role I was in, the complex nature of the position (King, 2010a) and that I was the specialist (King, 2010b). Finally the confidence emerged and I could focus on the TL position of collaborating and teaching.
This confidence continued to grow as I started to read more on the TL as a leader and then had the realisation that I was not just a librarian, I was the specialist and I was a leader in my schools (King, 2010). I was being inspired by the readings and by what other TLs were doing and saying what could be achieved, such as Martineau (2009) who reinforced this view of leadership through examples. This merged with my understanding of prioritising and how being clear about my role, my time and expectations I too could be a leader within my schools. This was a turning point for me after one year of flailing about in the unknown land of teacher librarianship, I started to open my eyes to the possibilities in my schools' libraries. This awakening continued when reading about principals and their support of our role in the school and I started to consider how my principals acknowledged the role of the library. This lead to even further understanding of my role as a leader, especially after reading Hartzell (2002), where I could inform the principal of the latest research, I could promote my role to the principal and could, as Haycock (1999) pointed out, enhance the principal's position through what I did in the library. I thought to myself, this is where it starts - really getting into the idea of the TL in the school and what we can do but I thought with my limited time, where do I start? This is when I read Page (1999) and suddenly I could see my pathway, finally a specific look at a development approach to developing a school library, my light bulb went off! It was Kim Carter's (2010) response to Page's article that resonated within me about the views of starting small and that it takes time. I think I had stagnated, jumping from one task to another that I forgot to step back and look at the big picture (King, 2010) and it was this article that ignited the passion for moving forward that I needed.
Finally, entertwining this response with an information literate school community has been a major point of contention and one that I am still wrapping my head around. I think that the clearest point for me was Wolf's (2006) article about the view of using an information process as a scaffolding pathway, which links to a metacognitive tool. I realised the potential of the TL in the school context to be a driving force behind establishing a clear information literacy program across the school into the wider community and it is with this in mind that I am currently discussing literature with one of my principals and the current information literacy program (or lack of one), a proposal for increasing literacy through the library to be linked with our reading schemes within the classrooms. I have also planned to discuss the standards expected of me by using ALIA/ASLA (2004) professional standards and will definitely be having a large copy on display in the library. It is utilising my increased confidence in the specialist nature of this role that I feel I can work with the principal to create a future pathway for the library to be the central learning environment to all members of the school community. This is the first step in working towards a collaborative system within my schools and I know, but feel confident, that there will be many more to come.
References:
ALIA/ASLA. (2004). Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians. Retrieved from Australian School Library Association: http://www.asla.org.au/
Carter, K. (2010, April 15). Reflection on Page's article. Message posted to ETL401 Module 5 sub-forum.
Covey, S. (1990). Principles of personal management. In The seven habits of highly effective people : restoring the character ethic (pp. 145-164). NY : Simon & Schuster.
Desanti, C. (2010, March 20). Re: Henri (2005). Message posted to ETL401 Module 2 sub-forum
Hartzell, G. (2002). Why should principals support school libraries? Eric Digest, November (EDO-IR-2002-06).
Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and inforamtion literacy: Common behaviors of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.
King, A. (2010, February 27). Covey reading. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010a, March 6). In the beginning.... Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010b, March 6). Thoughts on being a TL. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, March 20). Own role statement vs. National role statement. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, April 26). My Journey. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, April 26). Re: Reflection on Page's article. Message posted to ETL401 Module 5 sub-forum.
Martineau, P. (2009). School librarians: Vital educational leaders. In California School Boards Authority. Retrieved from www.csba.org/CASchoolNews.aspx
Randall, A. (2010, March 20). Henri (2005). Message posted to ETL401 Module 2 sub-forum
Wolf, S. (2003). The Big Six information skills as a metacognitive scaffold: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/
This confidence continued to grow as I started to read more on the TL as a leader and then had the realisation that I was not just a librarian, I was the specialist and I was a leader in my schools (King, 2010). I was being inspired by the readings and by what other TLs were doing and saying what could be achieved, such as Martineau (2009) who reinforced this view of leadership through examples. This merged with my understanding of prioritising and how being clear about my role, my time and expectations I too could be a leader within my schools. This was a turning point for me after one year of flailing about in the unknown land of teacher librarianship, I started to open my eyes to the possibilities in my schools' libraries. This awakening continued when reading about principals and their support of our role in the school and I started to consider how my principals acknowledged the role of the library. This lead to even further understanding of my role as a leader, especially after reading Hartzell (2002), where I could inform the principal of the latest research, I could promote my role to the principal and could, as Haycock (1999) pointed out, enhance the principal's position through what I did in the library. I thought to myself, this is where it starts - really getting into the idea of the TL in the school and what we can do but I thought with my limited time, where do I start? This is when I read Page (1999) and suddenly I could see my pathway, finally a specific look at a development approach to developing a school library, my light bulb went off! It was Kim Carter's (2010) response to Page's article that resonated within me about the views of starting small and that it takes time. I think I had stagnated, jumping from one task to another that I forgot to step back and look at the big picture (King, 2010) and it was this article that ignited the passion for moving forward that I needed.
Finally, entertwining this response with an information literate school community has been a major point of contention and one that I am still wrapping my head around. I think that the clearest point for me was Wolf's (2006) article about the view of using an information process as a scaffolding pathway, which links to a metacognitive tool. I realised the potential of the TL in the school context to be a driving force behind establishing a clear information literacy program across the school into the wider community and it is with this in mind that I am currently discussing literature with one of my principals and the current information literacy program (or lack of one), a proposal for increasing literacy through the library to be linked with our reading schemes within the classrooms. I have also planned to discuss the standards expected of me by using ALIA/ASLA (2004) professional standards and will definitely be having a large copy on display in the library. It is utilising my increased confidence in the specialist nature of this role that I feel I can work with the principal to create a future pathway for the library to be the central learning environment to all members of the school community. This is the first step in working towards a collaborative system within my schools and I know, but feel confident, that there will be many more to come.
References:
ALIA/ASLA. (2004). Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians. Retrieved from Australian School Library Association: http://www.asla.org.au/
Carter, K. (2010, April 15). Reflection on Page's article. Message posted to ETL401 Module 5 sub-forum.
Covey, S. (1990). Principles of personal management. In The seven habits of highly effective people : restoring the character ethic (pp. 145-164). NY : Simon & Schuster.
Desanti, C. (2010, March 20). Re: Henri (2005). Message posted to ETL401 Module 2 sub-forum
Hartzell, G. (2002). Why should principals support school libraries? Eric Digest, November (EDO-IR-2002-06).
Haycock, K. (1999). Fostering collaboration, leadership and inforamtion literacy: Common behaviors of uncommon principals and faculties. NASSP Bulletin, 83(605), 82-87.
King, A. (2010, February 27). Covey reading. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010a, March 6). In the beginning.... Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010b, March 6). Thoughts on being a TL. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, March 20). Own role statement vs. National role statement. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, April 26). My Journey. Message posted to http://tlliterate.blogspot.com/
King, A. (2010, April 26). Re: Reflection on Page's article. Message posted to ETL401 Module 5 sub-forum.
Martineau, P. (2009). School librarians: Vital educational leaders. In California School Boards Authority. Retrieved from www.csba.org/CASchoolNews.aspx
Randall, A. (2010, March 20). Henri (2005). Message posted to ETL401 Module 2 sub-forum
Wolf, S. (2003). The Big Six information skills as a metacognitive scaffold: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Professional Standards
I was just reading over the TL standards from ASLA/ALIA last night in bed and thought how my views on them had changed. The first time I truly read them slowly and thought about them I thought to myself, 'how does anyone get to this standard?', 'these are impossible standards to meet' and so forth. But last night I thought, what great points to try and meet, I would love to work more diligently towards these standards and attain the level of professional excellence set before me. And I thought, I can do this, it is not instantaneous, just like setting up an ILSC or a Collaborative partnership it is something that takes time and whether I work on one standard, or set of standards, or work across the board on them I know it is something I can strive for. It also allows me to have this framework to base my thoughts to future jobs, as I can use these to guide me to where I would like to be.
Information literacy
I think I had a little 'aha' moment when reading this information. I had always touched on information literacy models but had never had the time to sit and do some readings on them, or realise there were so many. I think it was Wolf's (2003?) article that gave me the moment. The idea of the model as a metacognitive scaffold, my 'aha' moment was two-fold. Firstly, just to comprehend the idea of the model as a scaffolding process made it all the more clearer to me the link between modelling this and students becoming the life long learner. Secondly, as a TL I think it clarified to me part of my position in finding out about this within my schools and working towards unity in the school on this process. I started to envisage conversations with the principal and then presenting at staff meetings, defining the information literate student as a school and leading to the model that we all should be using. I started to understand the TL as a leader at the beginning and felt more confident in that role but after this I see the TL as an initiator, enabler and leader to ensure the school has policies regarding this, that the library is a support to the curriculum and the student. I think I had a focus on student interests at the beginning of this course, and that may be due to one of my schools needing that for our library - for students to want to be there to read books that interested them. I think I remembered the library when I was a student, it wasn't really there for research for me it was there for reading. After doing the readings in this unit I now understand the complexity of my role - there is the part of making sure students have books to read but I now see that if I help consolidate the information process model in use in the school with teachers and help make it clear in their mind then students will be able to use the library effectively for themselves. There is so much more I could say but I think I want to try and pull some of my thoughts together.
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