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.
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