Now looking at services for children and childrens literature

I am a bit excited by this bit in my course. I am doing two subjects now as I have decreased my working days to two. My two days a week as a Teacher Librarian have started well and I have managed to run a couple of classes through an information literacy program (using the NSW DET model), run the teaching staff through the same program, run some orientation classes for the year 7, help start up a volunteer library crew and run the SRC (phew! on only two days! Just think of the empire building that could happen over a whole week!).

My new subjects are Trends in Children's Literature and Services to children and young adults - all very relevant to my role at the moment. This part of my degree seems a lot more relevant than the first part that I completed through Monash... Also a tad more interesting (not sure if they will kick me out of the alumni association for that comment).

I have been reading Fundamentals of Children's Services (2005) by Michael Sullivan and was struck by the quote "public libraries are becoming a place for children to spend productive, or at least nondestructive, hours"... "children's services can fill an important role in the community by providing a consistent, positive alternative to our society's most vulnerable members". (p 11).

critical synthesis of my role as a teacher librarian

At the beginning of studying this subject of Teacher Librarianship my views of the role of the teacher librarian were passionate, but, perhaps, naïve. I had worked as a teacher for nine years before leaving and studying to become a librarian. I then worked in a public library as a collection manager for two years before returning to teaching in 2011. In that time I developed some ideas as to what the role of a teacher librarian in a school might consist of.  What I did not realise is the sheer weight of debate that exists over the role of the teacher librarian, the issue of information literacy and the barriers impeding the work of the teacher librarian.

Herring (2007, p. 32) makes the point that a teacher librarian’s role should be educational rather than administrative – having come from a public library, where a lot of work that I did was administrative with only a small part educational, this idea has resonated with me. Hamilton (2011, p. 35), writes that for her the roles of “administrator, leader, instructional partner and information specialist” begin to blur in her position as a teacher librarian. I am now – as I am about to start a teacher librarian role in my school – beginning to understand just how that can happen and how it should happen. My first professional encounters with teacher librarians at the beginning of my teaching career were not that inspiring (Hannon, 2012d), and undoubtedly set up some initial barriers between collaboration with the library and my teaching. It wasn’t until I started studying to become a librarian that I came into contact with some real role models on how a teacher librarian could contribute in a positive and education way to a school.

Introducing information literacy into a school is one of the most important roles a teacher librarian can have. Defining and implementing a program teaching information literacy seems to be one of the hardest parts of this role. There was a lot of debate on the ETL401 Forum over just what the definition was,  how to make sure that it is taught as more than merely a set of skills and what sort of model should be used to do so. I could see how PLUS model from Herring (J  Herring & Tarter, 2007), could be used alongside the Munro Literacy strategies (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2009) we were already implementing in the school (Hannon, 2012a). Upon further investigation I changed my mind about which model to introduce and was deciding between the Big6 Model (Eisenberg, 2001) or the NSW Department of Education ISP Model (Dawson & Kallenberger, 2007).  Although there is a lot more literature available concerning the Big6 Model as it has been used in a large number of American schools, I have decided to introduce the ISP model in my school as I liked the circular outline (as opposed to the much more linear Big6), and I felt that it was more appropriate to an Australian school. Before investigating these models I was under the rather naïve impression that a teacher librarian could just do a few lessons on internet and book searching and some on correct referencing. I am now planning a whole school approach to information literacy (Hannon, 2012c).

To be able to teach information literacy across the whole school curriculum I have come to realise the importance of collaborating with the classroom teachers. I will need to get the support from my Principal and the leadership team to help me encourage collaboration between myself and those staff who still have the view that a teacher librarian is not a useful person to have in the school library (Hannon, 2011). As I will only be working two days a week collaboration will initially happen with only a small group of staff (Hannon, 2012b) – ones that I know are open to the idea of working with a teacher librarian to teach information literacy skills in the school.

 There is so much more to the role of a teacher librarian than I previously thought. This subject has increased my awareness of how much academic literature and debate is written which is devoted to increasing the awareness and the profile of teacher librarians in schools.  

References

Dawson, Merran, & Kallenberger, Niki (Eds.). (2007). Information skills in the school: engaging learners in constructing knowledge (SCIS 1343769). NSW Department of Education Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/ppub/index.htm.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009). Literacy to Learn: Getting Students Knowledge Ready for Literacy Learning  Retrieved 27/01/12, from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/strategies/literacytolearn.htm

Eisenberg, Michael B. (2001). Big6 Skills Overview. The Big6: Information and Technology Skills for Student Achievement  Retrieved 18/01/2012, 2012, from http://www.big6.com/2001/11/19/a-big6%E2%84%A2-skills-overview/

Hamilton, Buffy J. (2011). The School Librarian as Teacher: What kind of teacher are you? [Article]. Knowledge Quest, 39(5), 34-40.

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2011, 29/12/ 2011). Initiating collaboration.  Retrieved from http://reehannon-silenceinthelibrary.blogspot.com/2011/12/initiating-collaboration.html

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012a). PLUS model and Munro strategies.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub6_forum&message_id=5524128

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012b, 01/01/12). Re: Initialising collaboration within a school.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub7_forum&message_id=5517015

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012c, 22/01/12). Re: Not just a TL job.  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201190_W_D_Sub6_forum&message_id=5535445

Hannon, Ann-Maree. (2012d, January 18, 2012). Thoughts on the role of a teacher librarian.  Retrieved from http://reehannon-silenceinthelibrary.blogspot.com/

Herring, J , & Tarter, A (2007). Progress in developing information literacy in secondary school using the PLUS model. School Libraries in View, 23, 23-27.

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.

lost blog

Small meltdown... lost the dashboard for this blog and have to post part of my last assignment to this blog. Forgot had signed into an old blog I started last year and used a different account... crisis averted, chocolate consumed...

libspeak

As I have passed out the address of this blog to a few people recently I thought I better get a move on updating it. I have been wrestling with my last assignment for my Teacher Librarian subject (whilst wrestling with the difficulty of coping with the fact that everyone else is on holiday!!), and feel slightly overwhelmed with information floating through my head. I have noticed that Library journal articles are as filled with jargon as Education journal articles and I have been impressing my husband with terms like "scaffolding" (a current favourite of our leadership team at school), "metacognitive scaffold" (one of those terms that I understand when I am really thinking hard about it but have difficulty retaining for any length of time), "transferring of knowledge" and many more. I have previously called educational jargon 'eduspeak' - 'libspeak' perhaps for library jargon?

thoughts on the role of a Teacher Librarian

I only wish I remembered or - in reality - was the sort of person who regularly updated things like blogs. This is in fact my second ever blog and I seem to have just as much problem with this one as my last one - the notion of sending my thoughts into the ether is just not one that I am overly comfortable with. To have to update my 'learning' on a blog I find rather difficult as most of my good thinking seems to happen in the quiet time when trying to get to sleep or in the quiet time on the loo - before the kids come looking for me.

My notions of a teacher librarian really started to change when I first started studying my Information Managment Graduate Diploma way back in 2002. The TLs around when I was teaching were there in the background but not that influential on what I was teaching or the sorts of things I was doing in the library. Some of that stemed from the personality of the person who was the TL - I didn't like going to him as he would talk and talk and talk and you could never get away. The kids didn't like going to him either. He was a teacher who had been 'moved' across into the library because his classroom skills were not that great. The other TL at the senior campus had been moved across as well and freely admitted he didn't really like reading... No wonder the staff as a whole didn't see much use in the TLs. This attitude of mine started to change when I was working casually in the library at Monash and I ran into another casual who was also a TL. She started to tell me about some of the things she could do as a TL and it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. I suddenly realised I could combine my love of teaching with my passion for libraries.

In my role as a Collection Manager at a public library I managed to infiltrate the local schools and kindergartens and help set up and run some educational programs. I began to see just how important and how influential a librarian could actually become. We have recently moved and to help support the family - and because we had moved into a small rural town with a small high school that did not employ a TL - I had to return to teaching after 8 years out of it. I have enjoyed the teaching but I have realised that there is a real role in my school for a passionate TL that can fill the spaces that the teachers can't. I have managed to convince the principal to allow me two days a week to work in the library as a TL and I have so many plans in my head of what I can do that I am going to need to cut them down quite a lot - there are enough plans for a full time TL easily.

The readings for the TL unit have helped me to refine my thinking of the philosophy behind what it is I am seeking to do and they have helped me with ideas on how to do some of the teaching but I don't think they have really changed the essence of my belief of the role of the TL in the school.

Flying high - crashing low...

Just got back the feedback and mark from my first assignment - am now very sad! I thought I had 'unpacked' the question and answered what was asked but obviously not quite enough. Even reading the comments I am unsure how I would have changed it - very frustrating. In the 'critical' discussion of the role of the TL and the ALIA/ASLA standards it seems I was too negatively critical - it is always hard to be objectively critical about something. Most times if asked to be critical I know I tend to approach it as a bit more of an argumentative type piece. The first assignment back from a new lecturer/university always gives you a bit more of an idea on what sort of things are expected I suppose. Am now somewhat dejected about assignment 2 though...