Task C - A Critical Synthesis

Before I embarked on this Master’s Degree at the beginning of the semester, my personal perception of the role of the Teacher Librarian was very narrow- minded.  I am ashamed to admit that I thought that the Teacher Librarian’s role was of one of shelving books; reading to students when they visited the library for their weekly visit; overseeing borrowing and generally wondering around the library.  My perception was based on what I had seen as a relief teacher taking classes to the library over the past 3 years since I obtained my degree.  This was documented in my blog dated 19 July 2011 ‘Reading – My Reflection on Chapter 2 Teacher Librarians and the School Library’. Since completing this subject I am so proud to say that whilst this is what I still see on my rounds as a relief teacher I now know that a Teacher Librarians role is so much more and this is based on the different topics presented each week, readings, forum discussion, podcasts and research.  

Below are some reflections of my views of how the role of a Teacher Librarian has changed:-

Assignment 1 helped me have a greater understanding of a Teacher Librarian’s role especially since my experience was generally nil.  The Teacher Librarian is faced with many, ever changing, roles and requires each teacher librarian to wear many ‘hats’.  This was outlined by both the Purcell (2010) and Herring (2007) readings.  This was the start of my thought process of how wrong I was about the role of the Teacher Librarian.

One area of a Teacher Librarians role which I took a while to grasp was collaborative practice.  This is noted in my blog dated 26 September 2011 ‘Topic 5 – Collaborative Practice’.  As in my blog my understanding of collaborative practice was a Teacher Librarian working collaboratively with teacher’s however through my own experience and discussions with Teacher Librarians this appears to not be a standard practice.  Views were all mixed on the forum about this as it appears there are schools which do collaborative practice well, yet some felt time was a factor.   Ironically during this topic I asked a Teacher Librarian at one of the schools I go to whether they do any collaborative teaching and the answer was that they use to until a change in Principal!!!!!  That poses the question – What can Teacher Librarian’s do about this?  I find that this could be an obstacle of a Teacher Librarians role.

Another area of a Teacher Librarians role which surprised me was as an Information Specialist.  As stated in my blog ‘Topic 2 – The Role of the Teacher Librarian’ in the schools that I relieve in there are IT Specialists employed by the school who handle all the computer issues.  With technology having wider dominance at schools today, Purcell (2010) acknowledged that it is the teacher librarian role as a teacher to teach information and technology literacy skills to both students and teachers. I reflected on this comment and thought that one of the first activities that we had to do was create this blog as stated in my blog ‘I did it!!!’.  (Lamb & Johnson, p. 3) state “the teacher-librarian also facilitates student use of technology in both formal and informal learning situations and is able to weave technology tools and resource throughout the curriculum to address content area standard, while also promoting information and technology fluency”.  This lead into the topic of Information Literacy which if I am to be honest was very limited.  As stated in my blog ‘Topic 4 – Information Literacy’ there appears to be no ‘universal’ definition however many theorists agree that it is a tool which incorporates questioning, defining the type of information which is required and having the ability to locate, select and able to relay the information in some form and to reflect.  During this topic I reflected what it was like when I was at school when it came to completing assignments and how far we have come with technology and the way we teach and learn.

As highlighted above there are many roles to a Teacher Librarian and they certainly differ from my original picture of what a Teacher Librarian was at the commencement of this course.  A Teacher Librarian plays a vital role in every school and that role should not be underestimated.  Whilst there will be many obstacles along the way one thing is for sure a school and their library hopefully do not have librarians who patrol classrooms with a trolley as Arthur Winzenried posted in the Topic 5 forum.

References

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century: charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books right? A look at the roles of the school library media specialist. Library Media Connection 29 (3), 30-33. Available via CSU Library’s Academic Search Complete database.

Lamb, A; Johnson, L. Teacher librarian, Dec 2008, Vol. 36 Issue 2, p74-78, 5p; Abstract . Available via CSU Library’s Academic Search Complete database.

Topic 5 - Collaborative Practice

Yet another interesting topic for me.  Collaborative practice.......My idea of that is that the TL works collaboratively with all members of the staff not only for accessing topics which teachers are teaching but maybe even taking lessons - not babysitting in the library.  Well my experience has certainly been mixed.  At a school that I do relief at the TL works 5 days a week - spends 3 days teaching PE and the rest in the library ordering books, overseeing borrowing etc.  I actually asked if they did any collobrative teaching and the answer was that they use to until a change in Principal.  Another school had hit their quota for budget so the TL role was moved back into the classroom fulltime the following year.  At another school the TL works collaboratively with all staff.  The students come into the library where they teach a specific subject inconjunction with the classroom teacher.

So while working collaboratively is a great idea it appears to me at least that the first position to get shoved for a better word is the TL.  It appears that much of the decision making is from the top and if in agreeance it works and if not it doesn't.  So the long winded question is "What can TL's do about it?".  I asked a TL where they think TL's will be in 5 years and their answer was disolved!!!!!  Is this the common thought amongst all TL's?

Collaborative practice is great in theory but appears to be an uphill battle in reality.

Topic 4 - Information Literacy

Whilst there appears to be no "universal" definition of Information Literacy many agree that it is a tool which incorporates questioning; defining the type of information which is required and having the ability to locate this information; being selective of the information, being able to relay that information in some form and to reflect.

Eisenberg (2008) states that "information and technology literacy is clearly the "basic skills set of the 21st century".  With the increase of the internet and the amount of different technology tools that are available such as wiki I often wonder whether I am information literate!!!! 

I believe that if we would like the students of today and tomorrow to be Information Literate then we as teachers need to stay on top of the up to date technologies and have the ability to pass this knowledge down to our students.  We need to teach them what to look for in a website, use key words and be selective on what we use.  Certainly gone are the days when I was at school I would receive an assignment, I would go home and get the old Chambers Encyclopedia and copy slabs of words not really understanding what I was copying yet alone know what plagarism was, add a few pictures, hand it up and get an A+!!!! (showing my age now).

This course has certainly opened my eyes on a number of things which I did not learn whilst completing my BachEd and I only finished 3 years ago!!!!!  I did not realise that there were so many different Information Literacy Models on the market.  Now I have heard of the Information Search Process (ISP) but had not heard of the Big 6 model or the Plus model (sorry James).  Whilst they all appear to have similar items such as: defining and locating I am not sure whether they suit all students and their different learning needs or styles.  As said in previous posts I am not in a classroom on a fulltime basis so unaware of whether schools actually adopt a certain model and therefore all teachers use the same model across all year levels which would mean continuity for students as they up in year levels? or is it up to each teacher to use a model if they see fit? or do some teachers just use part of a model?  It appears that in New South Wales many of the schools use the New South Wales model (NSW DET 2007).  Will that still apply when the National Curriculum comes into effect?   

So many questions................

Topic 3 - The Teacher Librarian and the Curriculum

This is an interesting topic for me but also very confusing.  I am not a TL and I am not a full time classroom teacher (I am a relief teacher who goes into a classroom and delivers the program for the day as is laid out for me with all the resources).  I am a recent graduate who has only had 1 contract which was for 2 terms.  This was at an IB school which bases the curriculum on the students being inquiriers where the students had to list their prior knowledge on a topic, formulate their own questions, evaluate the information and build on this new knowledge.  This is what Edutechwiki (2010 Inquiry Based Learning) states "Inquiry learning is not about memorising facts - it is about formulation questions and finding appropriate resolutions to questions and issues".  So basically the teacher is there guiding whilst the students are finding the information and evaluating.

I had not heard of Project-based Learning until I read this topic.  Boss & Krauss (2007) define PBL as "students investigate open-ended questions and apply their knowledge to produce authentic products.  Projects typically allow for students choice, setting the stage for active learning and teamwork".  To me that sounds very much like Inquiry Based Learning!!!!

See why I am confused.  To make it even more confusing, I have come across TL's who do no curriculum teaching except PE. 

I think if and when I am in a classroom on a full time basis, I will have to make the choice and no doubt that choice could be made for me depending on the school.

The Merry Go Round

Who thinks life is like a merry-go-round??  That is how I am feeling at the moment.  Everything is spinning and I am not sure when or even how to get off!!!  No matter how hard I try to get on top of everything, something happens and throws eveything into disarray.  My mother is not well or should I say very ill and she lives in a different State and time is everything.  So if I am not home, I am on a plane there.  Now the crunch time has come as I need to finish my assignments for 2 subjects before I depart for yet another flight.  In my head I had everything worked out but needless to say nothing has worked out.  I am turning work away as I need to get these assignments finished.  I am tired, my head is hurting but I need to get through it.  Well whinging about it is not going to help, so it is time to type up my blogs and finish these assignments.  Have a great day.

A bit of Everything

Well after a few weeks of not blogging I am back!!!  My computer crashed and I lost the hard drive....That will teach me not to back anything up!!!

I had a stressful time getting assignments done and then the day/night my assignment for 401 was due the kids started the vomiting.....So assignment extension granted and bedclothes etc washed.  Lucky it was a sunny day.

Anyway, back to readings and expanding my knowledge.  I will say that my understanding of what a teacher librarian is or was at the start of this course certainly has changed.  I now realise how important their role is.  I am enjoying this subject even at times it gets on top of me due to family circumstances and work but that is a challenge and sometimes that is what I need.

My rant for the day!!!!!

Technology is great when it works and when it doesn't........it sure doesn't.  Writing my assignment for 401 my computer decided it did not want to go on, so it crashed and when I say crashed I mean CRASHED.  I have no assignment, no resources no nothing.  So now all weekend I will be working on not only 401 but 501 thanks to the computer. argh argh argh