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