Back in the swing of things

Have just finished my first assignment for my Teacher Librarian subject and feeling rather good about myself - until I listened to the podcast that the lecturer put up about the assignment and now I feel worried that I have not done the right thing! Ignorance is bliss...

I actually enjoyed putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard more appropriately), and writing because (as I tell my year 9 english students 'I love writing essays!'), I have missed doing a bit of thinking and writing. Hopefully I have been thinking and writing about the right stuff. I have included a 'wordle' I have made using my assignment - the bigger the word the more times it appears in my essay - easy way to see what I have been writing it about.

It is a beautiful New Year's Day - the kids and the husband are at the beach (we live only 10 minutes from the coast) - and I am contemplating doing some more reading on the collaboration between teacher librarians and teachers. My head is stuffed full of information on TL standards and critical comparisons so it will nice to have a bit of change of pace... or I might go and get the trashy romance I have been reading to serve as a spot of head clearing...

Initiating collaboration

I am starting a new role as a two-day a week TL within a school that has not had a TL for very many years. My principal asked me whether I was prepared to go out and hassle staff to be involved in collaboration as there was a perception that having an expert teacher in the library was a 'waste' and I would have to prove the role was worthwhile for it to continue (nothing like a little bit of pressure!). There are a number of 'old-timers' who only see the library as a computer space or a place to put books and there are a number of younger staff who have never been in a school with a functioning TL (rather than a teacher who has been 'moved' into the library because of issues with their teaching).

Luckily I have already sounded out a few open-minded staff about collaboration and they seem keen. As I only have a couple of days a week I figure I will only really be able to work with a couple of staff each term and build up some units that can showcase our work for the rest of the school. Hopefully they will help to 'prove' the role to the administration, parents and students.

Encouraging administration...

I am in the process of trying to encourage the administration in our school to employ me on the basis as a teacher/librarian for a couple of days a week in the school library. Previously they have had an Educational Support Officer working full-time who was not library trained but was the only person willing to take on the job when the previous TL moved on. This lady has now retired and saw herself as merely the 'caretaker' of the library as she had no real passion for library work. They have now got someone who is training to be a library tech working three days a week and she is passionate about libraries. I am hoping that between the two of us we can re-invigorate the school library (and perhaps build our own empire?), and make it more of a place of learning than a place with some computers. Fingers crossed there is an extra bit of money in the budget that will enable the school to pay me as a TL.