Pathfinders

Well powerpoints are now a thing of the past as is reflecting on them. It all came together in the end and we are quite happy with it. We are now bonded to each other as you do when you go thru trials like creating assignments together. We will talk next week about our pathfinders which I might add I am getting on with . After initial worry, Kuhlthaus emotions kicked in and loss of sleep, I was advised to look at some online wiki tutorials and print off the help for wikis materials. I also looked at evaluation of wiki websites and finally decided on pbworks cause pb stands for peanut butter and thats how easy its supposed to be . As easy as making a peanut butter sandwich! Wetpaint had ads on it that were not appealing to an educational website esp as one ad promoted gambling. I have looked at dozens of pathfinders and am ready to go. Have done a title and an intro . Easy peasy so far , have uploaded images, too easy but still havent put any hyper links in yet. That is a mish for this weekend.

frustrated

This is the most frustrating thing working with other people. a great exercis in tolerance and remembering other people have lives and lead them. I have texted Beth who has a daughter in hospital and we are nt sure what is going on there.Sue has the internet down and no phone service or recepton for mobile phone . Will have to go back and do part B oh well, Bye

tired Thurs

I am ecstatic I have handed in 501 assignment and its all a matter of time now.We have been emailing, ringing texting and skypin g and using google docs last sun for 1 and half hours.Tues night i didnt go on and the girls just rang each other. Its a real exercise in tolerance as people work at different speeds and have busier lives than me another 1 and half hours tonight.Poor beths daughter is in hospital so hope she is alright. Realise tonight we have to relate organisational theory to the tl role heavily but succinctly stick to outcomes and im going to bed, now

collaboration

Well I m feeling good about our assignment. We spent 2 hours tues night on skype Discussing, communicating, changing the document. We have spent time on the google doc getting down the basics and quotes etc. Thurs night we spent another hour moving things around etc . We allocated slides to each other and i have done mine,. Sue and I met yesterday and had another hour getting note boxes put in, for the references. Part B is about to start and we will need to go thru part A again and it will be nearly ready to go, We meet again this arvo so good nearly done.

along the track-quality management

Quality management- this model can be used to enhance the info service provision at school and my profile. You can collaborate with teachers and customers ,kids in the library.The TL canbe an active contributor valued for creativity ( always finding creative ways around a situation)and intelligence, constantly transforming inputs to outputs of greater value to the ultimate customer. Quality and innovation of services is provided . Providing for the greater good. Every one wins or no-one wins.
Train up the office staff to know how they fit in Reward staff and monitors.They will perform at their best enabling the system to work efficiently when they have the knowledge and training to maximise their contribution to the process. chocolate works well. Collaborate to help improve processes. Work as a team.
Quality princip e no 1. The TL works on the system constantly trying to continouusly improve it....dinner time, See Quality management in education- Myron Tribus

A beginning of an assignment.

This has been a more difficult task than I considered it to be. I am used to people being up to date in technology and I even bought a new laptop with camera and microphone in it so that I would do the assignments with no hitches. I was not even considering the fact that others wouldnt have cameras and microphones or even the internet! It seems it has been difficult for some to even get the internet working ,one still doesnt have it operational due to moving house. So any way, we have done our best thru email and phone and last night I finally conne cted with one group member and tonight I connected with another . A third member is considering dropping out if internet challenges are not sorted soon. I have done a lot of emailing, texting, ringing and been on chat rooms and wikis and forums. I have been the pusher in the group, maybe because of my speedy work ethic. I like to get things done quickly and over quickly. I have discovered on this road that others are a bit more relaxed than me( or busier than me) and are taking more time to do things and get technology sorted. I have instigated most of the meeting times tho others have not been available at times. Frustration has set in at times esp where internet and skype is concerned. Last night I spent 2 hours emailing the lecturer and setting up a google doc to work on as wiki was a bit of a joke. Too sdmall to see much on it at all. The next meeting will get more done I am sure! Its interesting we have chosen the relationship theme for our assigment so we will have to develop good relationships in order to get our powerpoint finished. we might be very pleased withourselves when we are finished.

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Forming new relationships by Tracy Avery
The steps taken, by a leader, to foster a working relationshipWhen forced into a new relationship with colleagues, there are many steps to be taken along the path to fostering a relationship that sees no one person as the dominant figure. The steps can be defined and relate closely to the similarity of courting a beau. As an individual, one must assertain the degree to which they wish to contribute and the personality type they wish to portray within these relationships/groups in the workplace.When placed in a group for a group assignment, much time is spent setting up the relationship with the other peolpe forced into this situation. There is much to-ing and fro-ing to firstly introduce oneself and enquire about the personal background of each person, as well as setting up compatible talking times. This is the "Getting to know you" stage. One then can move onto the "Relating and being friends/or not" stage, where by the decision can be made as to whether you like the personality of the people you have met. These two stages may take a considerable amount of time and development of trust from each person. Within this stage a degree of caring and sharing can develop between the group members. Sympathy and empathy can develop and foster to help with trust building.Now that you have built a rapport with your group you can begin to work cohesively. Each personality should be known, including limitations. Each persons leadership qualities, or lack of, will be shining through as will the committment level they portray be easily seen.The "Check my personality" stage begins.As an individual within this group, you need to decide upon the leadership role you wish to take on. How are you going to potray yourself? How will decisions be made, autocratic, democratic or collaborative?With all these important factors sorted, it becomes time to knuckle down and start on the project at hand, thus begins the "Let's get moving" stage. During this time, the initail 3 stages will be constantly revisited.Oh, but wait! There's more!One more person to add to the mix, coming in 2 weeks behind the completed stages.Now come the many questions, What if she doesn't like what we've started? What if I can't appreciate her personality? Will she be willing to accept all that we have done and pick up from there? Will she comtribute, plus more, as she has been absent? Do I resent her for not being here in the beginning? Or more to the point...Can I continue to develop my qualities as a leader and continue the great role that I have undertaken within my group?Keep watching this space as the story unfolds.
Posted by Tracy at 4:11 PM
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Topic 3- Effective search straegies

As the TL at the school we are expected/ regarded as the expert when it comes to searching using search engines and compared to others we are. We need to try and use advanced google and boolean logic when searching. We also need to teach the students who are not good at searching, how to use the search engines and not just take google as gospel. The 7 habits of search engines is a good one, as is noodle tools and Kathy Schrock's guide and search engine showdown.
By doing the Volcanoes school teaching search it was interesting that the best sites werent at no 1 and 2 position on the web page. ask.com came up with no good info, Yahoo.com had a good powerpoint which was bright and written in kids language at no 4 on the web page. No 5 was very good also. Surfwax was a waste of time and had nothing of value to a highschool teacher.
The seven habits of Highly effective web searching is quite a good teaching tool as it explains in straight forward language some handy hints for successful web searching such as "Why is the sky blue?" is a better search strategy than a"sky blue question". Using your time wisely is the best idea yet, as time wasting on the net is such a frustrating annoyance for all of us.
Learning more about how stuff works on the web is important as its crucial to develop effective web search habits and you need to know how to do this effectively. The more effective you are the more you will cultivate a love of discovery and the more time wise you will become. Trying other search engines and search tools including meta search engines is a great idea also. 7 good habits is a gr8 website.

Getting started on a collaborative assignment

Well it seems everyone is busy and its very hard to get everyone together at the moment to wiki and I am sure it will all come together on the weekend when people have more time! And that is a precious commodity at the moment! I have gotten the ball rolling by posting on the chatroom and forum advertising for our members to come forth. As DET students we had a day with the lecturers and thus we have been split thruout the groups I guess to show a bit of leadership and guidance especially to those in our groups that are new to all of this. We have 2 new students and 2 who have survived last semester. We are the old hands and seem to be putting input into this task earlier than the others, perhaps because we know whats involved. One of our group has a new school, no internet and not done the readings yet, so it is a bit tricky trying to contact her. I have emailed everyone the names of journals we could be writing for and some good readings. Beth is emailing me an access article that she thought was good. Beth and I have nutted out a topic and a plan to get some ideas down this weekend on the wiki. Hopefully everyone will be on Skype by then. Time to go to bed!

Organisational theory

From:	Rosemary Hawke	Date:	Mon 10-Aug-09 09:22 pm
To:	Organisational theory
Subject:	Quality management in Education

http://rosehawke.blogspot.com
rosemary.hawke@det.nsw.edu.au
The Quality management guide in Education can be applied to the TL job in the library. Quality management is a different way to organise the efforts of people. This article says that leadership provides people with PD and growth. Win/win situations are sought after and problems will be prevented when people see how they fit in, eg if you train up the office staff, they will see themselves as being beneficial to the library and will see their place in the niche that is the library.Reward staff and library monitors, parent helpers. have a vision for the future . Collaborate to help and improve processes and work as a team. share and make known your values and beliefs, mission and purpose. Surveys can be used to assess needs and advertising successes can be advertised in the newsletter. The only good competition is seen as competing to get better at pleasing the customer or helping the environment thru recycling. The wooing of the customer is never done and thus the library needs to be constantly reinvented and new products processes and the features of the environment is constantly improved upon.
In the library we can discuss with the students what it is that they need to do well. How can we enable that to happen?
Attention needs to be placed on the teaching learning process and above all students participating in creative team (BLOOMS) activities learn to set goals, work together and develop social skills.

TL as a leader

Well we have our groups and I have been in contact with 2 of the students . I think we will get along fine and they are keen to get going. Have had a play with the wiki and communicated thru chat and wiki to Bethany and Susan. When ever anyone asks my topic eg TL as a leader, I say we are middle managers, We lead from the middle. We are not in an authoritive position but have influence and contact with the whole staff and all students in the school on a regular basis making us perhaps the most influential member of staff. We are teaching explicit information seeking skills, involved in linking IL skills to the curriculum making it relevant to their learning. We are responsible for ensuring collaborative planning and teaching takes place and it is important that we get that message out to the rest of the staff and the teachers in general. This would be a good topic to follow up for assignment one, maybe a title TL, How managing from the middle can help you in your school! or words to that effect.

2nd semester 504

I am beginning a new semester and at the moment my knowledge of leadership is limited . I have picked up a book by Covey Called The Leader in Me. It is about a school which encourages leadership and the 7 habits in all of the children starting off with kindergarten. It looks like a sensational school and I hope to have a vision of helping to create a sensational school after I have finished this course.
Communication- well I realise that a good leader has to be a good communicator and this is integral to effective leadership. They must be able to communicate with all levels of the staff in order for a cohesive well in formed group to exist.
Organisational theory, Well I dont know much about that and I dont know how it relates to the TL.
Startegic planning.- i guess this means that there are strategies to be developed and adhered to, and a vision to develop, a mission statement must be developed and aims and objectives devised in order to follow a route to an end or a means to an end! I think I can learn a lot here.

2nd Semester Learning Journal

Well the good news is that I have got 2 credits and one of the markers said I am well on the way to understanding and synthesising the ideas of what makes a good librarian. I didnt know I had it in me. My collection management policy was also good. Roy has said that it is good to reflect and in doing so, keep a learning journal. So part of the next semester is about recording our thoughts and ideas on our learnings. The first subject is the TL as a leader. I asked my boss for some literature on leadership as I see him as a fine leader. He told me that I was a leader. I looked at him funny and said " Im not a leader now, but I will be by the end of the semester. " He smiled and walked away. Since reading a bit about leadership I have discovered that a good leader helps everyone to feel that they have leadership qualities. By bringing out the leader in everyone, everyone benefits both internally and externally. There are visions and strategic plans to follow as well as dips and anxiety being felt in the initial stages just like in Kuhlthaus info skills models. Oh well here goes .....

Part C Critical Synthesis of My Changing View Of The Role Of The TL

My journey along this teacher librarian (TL) path has been one of intense learning, incredible personal growth and overcoming of seemingly impossible challenges.
I happily took on a three-week or so, casual appointment as a teacher librarian (TL) last year and spent the first day with the transferring TL who stated to me “You’re in for a steep learning curve!” When I commented to my TL friend from a nearby school how easy it was, she answered with “Rose, it’s a pandora’s box!” Well it didn’t take me long to figure out that she was right. In my blog entry (6/3 Pandora’s Box) I commented on this aspect and the fact that later I realised that I had only just opened the box and I could begin to see that it was the tip of the ice- berg. The first mission in my course was to set up a blog. I remember writing on the forum what fun it had been and had no idea at the time, of the importance of reflecting on your learning and recording your thoughts in a journal. McGregor (1999), states that metacognition, or, thinking about your thinking, allows students (and TLs!) to evaluate their own thinking and to use appropriate thinking strategies in their learning. It is useful to look back on your journey and reflect on where you started and how far you have come, and how your understanding of the role of the TL has developed.

My philosophy of the TL role has evolved as I have become aware of the multi- faceted role and dual nature of the TL involving being a teacher and a librarian.
I have learnt that the role of the TL is a very important one if the library is going to be at the hub of the learning community. By critically analysing the Twelve standards of Professional Excellence for TLs (ASLA/ALIA, 2004), and synthesising how that can be applied my role, I have become even more keenly aware of the knowledge, skills and attributes needed, and how these standards can be applied to the TL role.
Initially, I believed that the library was its own entity and worked in isolation to the rest of the school. In an earlier blog entry (23/2, Professional Discussion) I spoke with a TL from a nearby school and we discussed the fact that the first thing to setting up an ILSC is to get the principal and the executive on board. After reading some of the literature, Henri & Hay (1995), and forum entries, Caitlin White’s Thoughts On Topic 2 (18/03/09), I realised that the TL must work closely with the principal to gain their support and to inform them of the short and long term goals of the TL. Through reading various suggested and prescribed literature, such as Watts (1999), on the role of the TL, it is clear to me that the TL should have a vision for the future as technology has changed our role and a massive job is ahead advocating for support for the library.
In my blog entry (Today’s Walk, 27/4), my friend and mentor, Lyn, described to me how she had created a collaborative learning community by getting the principal on board and by working on one teacher at a time, to instil in them the benefits of collaborative teaching and resource based learning. The word spread fast and she soon had teachers lined up to book their classes in for some flexibly scheduled time with her in the library.
A short time later in a blog entry (Aaahhh Haaaa Moment, 3/3), I reflected on a comment that a staff member had said. She remarked to me that collaborative teaching and flexible scheduling was what was supposed to happen, wasn’t it? I agreed with her and my topic 4 forum entry Hawke, R. (Collaborating and How Do We learn, 21/3), thoughts, gave me some ideas on this topic. As I reflected on McGregor’s (1999), theories of learning and ideas on collaboration, I gained some ideas on where to start. By joining and leading curriculum committees, meeting with teachers and informing at staff meetings reasons for collaborative planning, developing and assessing units of work and reasons for linking the acquisition of information skills to the curriculum and to what they are studying in the classroom, a collaborative teaching environment can be developed.
In my Blog entry, An Expert (10/3), I noted that I was beginning to be seen as an expert by other teachers in sourcing information especially with internet- related activities. My confidence and ability has grown tremendously and this has been helped by finding associated course readings online and having to find and print online resources in the first ETL 503 assignment.

In conclusion, the experiences and readings that I have encountered along the way in this course have all contributed to my changing view of the role of the TL. I now see my role as being highly important, multi-faceted and complex, involving a diversity of interactions, activities and responsibilities in a variety of teaching and learning contexts.

Bibliography

ALIA & ASLA (2004), Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians, Australian Library and Information Association and Australian School Library Association, \accessed: 17 April, 2009. Available at: http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.htm

Hawke, R. (2009, March 21), Collaborating and How Do We Learn? Topic 4, Sub Forum entry, Information Literacy. ETL 401. Available at: http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=forums

Hawke, R. (2009). Roses Teacher Librarian Blog available at: http://rosehawke.blogspot.com

Henri, J. & Hay, L. (1995). The principal’s role in developing and supporting an information literate school community. Paper presented at the Australian School Library Association 14th Biennial Conference, Fremantle, Western Australia, 1-5 October.

McGregor, J.H. (1999), How do we learn?, in ‘Learning in libraries in an information age: principles and practice’ Stripling, B.K. (ed.) Englewood, Colorado, Libraries Unlimited, p25-53.

White, C. (2009, March 18) Thoughts on Topic Two, accessed: 20/03/09.: Topic Two Forum. The role of the teacher librarian. Available at:
http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_forum

Watts, J. (1999). The teacher librarian past: A literature review,
pp. 29-42 In The Information literate school community: best practice, J.Henri. Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.

Weeding and why do we need a collection when we have the internet?

As a new TL I have disposed of some books by putting them in the staffroom and asking people to help themselves. They then got thrown in the dumpster but all of this was done without a policy or process to follow. I can see the value now of a weeding policy and am looking forward to the mid semester break to turf some very old tired and unborrowed books out!

In our school library where we have few computers and most of these are very old, we still use print resources for research as well as internet. We only have 5 computers for 30 kids, so a lot of our information literacy involves research using encyclopaedias and non-fiction books. We have a good collection which provides appropriate easily accessed information. Reading for enjoyment is totally supported and encouraged and fiction books will live on forever I hope in our school collection. Posters, charts, C.D.s, DVDs, and ephemera will always be valuable adjuncts in the learning process and thus will also be valuable additions in our school library collection.

Todays walk

Today I had coffee and a walk with my old friend and my now mentor, Lyn. We discussed how years ago she had managed to whittle the RFF that she had been doing from All Stages down to just Early Stage One and stage One. The rest of the library time was available for flexible scheduling and the best and most effective teaching that she did had been done during this time. She had worked on one teacher at a time to instill in them the positive benefits of collaborative resource based teaching and word spread rapidly with teachers lining up to have their classes booked in to the library for some team teaching and Resource Based Learning. Unfortunately for her a new principal came along who didnt believe in flexible scheduling or who had a tight budget and she replaced the flexible library time with the RFF that exists today. This is so common with the local schools around here and a new paradigm needs to be brought in to change this. i feel that this course is equipping me with the courage and information to help bring this about. We laughed at how easy I thought the job was when I first started and at her remark that it was a Pandora's box. I sent her an sms a few weeks later that said "The Pandora's box has just been opened. I am still rummaging around the Pandora's box and there is not a bottom to it as far as I can see, but I feel that I am becoming more knowledgeable and better and better equipped to deal with and cater for a busy school library and the creation of an information literate school community. Oh and by the way great news i got 29.5 in my first assignment . I'm not dumb after all. In fact I made it to the top 30% in the course. Well done me !

A late addition to the last blog is that when stage 3 did have a planning meeting, they did discuss what I could do in the library (without me of course) and they decided that this term, I could concentrate on information skills process (DET one of course), In isolation of course, as that is what has been done before and what is expected. I can see that my first job is to inform the staff at a staff or a stage meeting, the value of collaborative planning and linking the acquisition of information skills to the curriculum and to what they are studying in the classroom. Ass 1 has been sent via EASTS both for 503 and 401. A quarter of the way there and loving it! 503 was more time consuming than expected but it was very valuable examining and using the different selection criteria in a relevant fashion. Ass 1 for 401 was a very timely assignment and gave me great insight into the role of the TL in creating the ILSC. I now have a clear idea of where I am with it and some strategies that I can use to help to address the obstacle at my school, that is the lack of commitment to and total vision for the creation of an ILSC at my school. It will be a slow path , But if I can get there step by step with a vision in mind, starting with getting one open teacher at a time to collaboratively plan, then to show or display the results to other interested non- threatened parties , I will slowly achieve the task of getting the rest of staff on board. the principal and the executive should also bed my first port of call.

Blog On and a set back

I started a TL Blog for our school as we dont have a School webpage to put pertinent educational links on it. My tech expert at school had a brilliant idea and decided my School TL blog , would be easily accessed by teachers if we could put it as a link on My Library. Guess what you can and we did! You now go to my particular school's "My Library " page thru the portal and click an educational link, which will take you to my Blog without having to type in a website for a blog page. Another amazing step for woman (librarian ) Kind. ....... ...A step back on another note however is that all of the stages had a planning day at the end of the term. I was not invited to one stages planning day as I guess my job is not seen as in conjunction with but superfluous to and outside the curriculum and it would have cost money to replace me as I do RF F and would have to be replaced. My role is a classic textbook case and my work is cut out for me to change things and make people aware, starting with the principal, of just what the TL can do for you !

School Library Blog

Wow today I actually followed through with my urge to fulfill a need at our school. I made a library blog with pertinent educational links which I will add to as we go along. Many teachers don't have time to surf the net and I intend to show everyone at a staff meeting how to use the Blog and what sites are linked to the blog. A very positive outcome from something I have learnt at the course.

Quality Teaching and RBL

The QT strategies are very useful in implementing an RBL approach. QT encourages deep thinking on a planning and learning level. Modelling a quality piece of work is a fantastic way of showing students what a good quality piece of work looks like and what is expected. Explicit assessment criteria clearly shows what is also expected. Encouraging the students to work together, supports each other in their learning through conversation about required tasks. Goal setting, teaching strategies to encourage students to actively participate and learn, and identifying and supporting special learning needsare some of the useful QT strategies

Ideas for new TL to develop a collaborative planning culture

I am working in a non-collaborative environment,meaning we dont have any extra planning time apart from stage meetings and incidental staffroom discussions. I can see that my work is cut out for me to advocate for the library so that it can evolve into a collaborative resource based learning laboratory. This will take time and I will need to take advantage of opportunites as they present themselves eg with the new govt money on offer to improve schools we have put in for a new media centre to be added to the library. The role of the TL will necessarily change as infrastructure like this is added to schools. Oberg (06) suggests that TLs need to know and promote the schools goals and the principal needs to see that the TLs have valuable resources to share with principals so that together they can form a strong team. Gaining the principals support and respect is the first step for a new TL in beginning a planned approach to developing a collaborative school culture.

Thoughts on topic 2

Thoughts on Topic 2 by Caitlin White,18/03/09

I found the readings regarding the involvement of principals very interesting. I had never thought about the need for their involvement beyond funding. However the literature really highlighted to me the key role they can have in shaping the library and teacher librarians place in the school. While I am not in a school yet when that time comes I want to promote the idea of instructional teams. That is teacher, teacher librarian and principal working together and taking responsibility for students learning.

I think the way to get principals involved is to provide them with information that shows them the impact this service provides to all members of the school. Teacher librarians need to have open lines of communication with their principals so they can work together to achieve school outcomes. I think teacher librarians need to show principals what they are achieving with students. They need to make their role known so people don’t think of them as the traditional librarian who borrows, returns and files books as well as taking classes for relief.

The readings regrading evidence-based practice show that teacher librarians can have significant impacts on student achievement. It’s therefore important to work out the priorities of this role. I think the following may be ways of making priorities clear and palatable to the school community:
- provide people with a timetable of what you do to show how these priorities take up your time
- provide information in an appropriate form that shows evidence of benefits of these priorities eg overviews of literature, brochure, write up in newsletter about focuses for the week, etc
- provide the school community with the results from your own research with the school or portfolio to show these priorities are working
I think if people see the benefits to the school and students of these priorities that won’t question the teacher librarian. I think people often have queries from being uninformed. |I like what Caitlin Says, so Ditto

Collaboration

topic 4 .I love Mcgregors section on collaborating and what it looks like. After reading up on all of the learning theories, she says 1. to meet with teachers and emphasise the act that to share learning goals that go beyond content-based goals, learning activities will have more meaning. 2.Plan authentic learning activities that engage learners and get them to think creatively and generate discussion through brainstorming and discussion. 3.Integrate coaching, questioning and guiding into thoughtful teaching activities.. teaching alongside the teacher gives the student more access to more experts. 4. Make everyone aware of why are we doing this? As well as what are we supposed to do? 5. Finally talk to them as they learn. Have conversations that help them make sense of the info. Let them know their ideas are interesting and questions are of consequence. Encourage talking on the topic. show them that doubt and uncertainty are often necessary precursors to learning. (Just as applicable to me really).

An Expert!

One of my colleagues was finding it hard to get onto a website which had promised gr8 resources. I mentioned that I thought that I might be able to find another way. She said that she thought I could as she said that I was the expert! People are beginning to see me as a somewhat expert on internet related activities. I am becoming a master of finding things online after doing first assignment 501. Things are changing and people are noticing.

Staff meeting

Wow today at the staff meeting on COGs related stuff, We were discussing how to get all the COGS Stuff out there , to the teachers. All along as Ive been doing the course, a feeling has been growing in me as to the need for a school library website. We dont need to reinvent the wheel as one staff member said , so I will start small. I was reading Scan mag the other night before bed (after 10 hours of assignment writing) and there was an internet site for web page building for kids,. After doing this blog I think I will try building my own Library Web Page.

Reflection on my learning

Resource based learning has taken a turn for the better in our information literate library or at least my part in the process has improved on the old model. I am more explicit in my teaching, using higher order questioning ,making sure information is at appropriate levels for multi level classes. I am modelling and explaining what is expected of them by the end of the lesson and am getting great results. A much more focussed, settled class is presenting into my library and a much happier more satisfied student is leaving at the end of the lesson. I am happy too! Great results.

School Library Collection

In our school library where we have few computers and most of these are old, we still use print resources for research as well as internet. We have only 5 computers for 30 students , so a lot of our information literacy involves research using encyclopaedias and non-fiction books. We have a good collection which provides appropriate easily accessed information.
reading for enjoyment is totally supported and encouraged and fiction books will live on forever in our school collection. Posters, charts CDs, DVDs, and ephemera will always be valuable adjuncts in the learning process and will be another reason that we will always have a school library collection.

Collegiate meeting

Well today was our once a term librarians meeting with lots of cake and coffee. we discussed all manner of things including IT (international travel). We did discuss Oasis and Scissing and I had lots of questions answered. Will try OPac tomorrow to find those missing books I bought at bookfair. it seems there is no equity in public school education as some schools have a budget of $14000 and others only what the P&C gives them eg $ 2000. depending on the schools financial position . It is becoming clear to me the problem for ass ETL 401 . The lack of vision, support and belief in the library as anything other than RFF classes with little office support.

Pandoras Box

I was just reflecting on an answer to a question in one of my readings which was Where do you see yourself being placed in the teacher librarian profession? I had written down a couple of weeks ago that I see myself placed centrally within the teacher librarian profession. What was I thinking? Two weeks later I realise that I am just on the tip of the iceberg. My friend Lyn described the TL job as a pandora's box when i came home from my 2nd week on the job and said how easy it was. Boy was she right.

AAAHHH HAAAA Moment

Today I printed some COGS resources from the DET website and also from the CAP website. I gave the appropriate teachers their resources and everyone said that I was a legend . I even got a hug and a kiss from one staff member. One of the resources was a Roald Dahl resource. These sites had been alerted to me at the TL orientation workshop and judging by the appreciation I got, I would like a lot more timetabled time to collaboratively plan units with the teachers. One teacher even said " Thats what librarians are supposed to do isnt it . Help and advise and use flexible scheduling instead of isolated R.F.F. " I agreed with her and decided it was time to think about an approach to changing the RFF approach to library lessons at my school

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I have just returned from the orientation course in Sydney for ETL 401 and ETL 503.Wow what a learning curve. I met some great people most of them from the country. We spent dinner and breakfasts together and managed to begin a lasting (I hope )network of T.L. s. One of the activities at the course was to identify our strengths and weaknesses, so right now I see myself as a good networker, am good at networking, love reading and learning new things, love the internet and am quite OK with I.T. My fears are of writing assignments , not getting enough sleep, not enough time and lacking in confidence to do a Uni course 30 years further on!
I see opportunities to learn so much more about the role of TL and running a library.
Ihave expectations of receiving help and support in order to pass and I expect to learn heaps about libraries.
Last night at dinner the conversation turned to the TL role and Information Literacy and my cousin agreed that in todays world it was imperative that children become information literate in order to survive and not be left behind. We are also really in the beginning of the IT explosion and who knows where it will lead!

Professional Discussion

This afternoon I met up with a fellow Teacher Librarian who has taught in both primary and high schools, both public and private. We talked about this course and the course that she had done ten years ago. We discussed the role of the teacher librarian and even touched on information literacy and some of the problems in developing an information literate community. Getting the executive and the principal on board was a problem to be addressed in her eyes.
She told me that every teacher is a learner. Today I also learnt from her what a wiki is and also what a Ning is. Like facebook but more secure and smaller.
We learn things when we least expect them.

New Skills Learnt Already

Wow after fooling around with this site I have discovered gadgets can be added and it is fun. Inspirational quotes, sunsets, cute animals and you tube. If you go to you tube and type in Mind Movies Miracles Happen you will see a great little inspirational movie to help you keep inspired in the course. This is fantastic!

Rose's Teacher Librarian Blog

Hi All,
This is a new experience for me, writing a blog as it is for most of you. I am a teacher Librarian at Moruya Public School and am about to embark on an exciting mission. That is to embrace learning with a passion and to enjoy training in my new job. Meeting and collaborating with fellow students will enhance the experience and I am looking forward to developing many new friendships. I get the feeling from the chatrooms and the forum that that we will be a supportive lot. I have already found texts from the forum to purchase and have made arrangements to meet up with fellow students before the course on Wed night.
A bit about me- I am married with three children and have been teaching for 30 years this year. I have been casual for 24 years due to having to resign to raise children and so when I stepped in to relieve in the library, I was surprised to find out that I would be able to apply for the advertised position. I applied and was successful at the interview and have been librarian now for 7 months. Who would have thought I would be embarking on an academic challenge at this stage of my life. Its out of left field but I intend to enjoy every minute of it. Any way here goes.........