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