Assignment 2 - Part C A CRITICAL SYNTHESIS OF MY REFLECTION ON HOW MY VIEW OF THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER LIBRARIAN HAS CHANGED DURING THE COURSE OF THIS

My reasons for wanting to become a teacher librarian were (shamefully) based around the fact that I love reading and literature, and thought that it would be nice to teach about books and read to children all day. Also, it seemed a much easier job than that of the classroom teacher. This view was reinforced by my principal when she asked if I was doing this course because I wanted an easier job.
No reports to write, no parent teacher interviews to conduct. In fact, little to no contact with parents at all – another big motivation to leave the classroom.
My perception of the role of the TL was based around my personal experiences. For years I have waved goodbye to by Infants classes as they went to library lessons that consisted of literature activities and library skills. I was aware that there was more to the role, such as seeking out and purchasing exciting, appropriate and up-to-date resources for all to share. No collaboration at all.
The only drawback I could see to the TL role was that just one subject area was taught. I wondered if I would end up getting bored.
I am now painfully aware of how wrong I was.
It was the start of Topic 1 when I was first introduced to the term ‘information literacy’. Prior to that, I had never even heard of it. I began to realise that the role of the TL was diverse, and it dawned on me that they teach more than one subject area. My one misgiving about the role had been dissipated. A reading by Skrzeczynski (1999) has become a favourite of mine, as is recounted in my blog (Hashim, 2010). It has almost given me a blueprint of what the TL’s day can pan out like. It also reassured me that yes; information literacy can be taught with the Infants grades.
Information skills models were also foreign to me, although I have always tried to incorporate higher thinking skills into my classroom practice. I started to realise that, when I did finally become a TL, I going to play a major role in developing an ILSC. In fact I was surprised when I read that school libraries should have more non-fiction than fiction materials (Herring, 2007). Until then I had never realised that this was just the case in our school library (Hashim, 2010).
Along with this building excitement was incredible deflation. With schools placing such an emphasis on NAPLAN testing, what impact was this going to have on the role of the TL? My first notion that other students held the same opinion was through my own forum posting on (Hashim, 2010). I was relieved to get so much feedback from other students (Van Der Wyngaard; 2010, Bowyer, 2010; Veugen, 2010; Williams, 2010).
What about collaboration? There has been none of that at our school for over six years. I now realise how frustrated our TL must be – a little like being a qualified teacher but working as a teacher’s aide.
The forums have been a fantastic learning tool for me. I have been an avid reader them. Some students (Cooney, 2010; Carr, 2010; Langdon, 2010) have amazing insights and I continually seek out their postings. As was the case when attending uni tutorials, I have been more in the background than a vocal participant.
Another big revelation has been the role of assessment in the TL’s practice. Oberg (2002) made some valid points that I would never have considered and made me start to realise how TLs can impact on student achievement. I had never actually considered assessment or evaluation as a part of the TL’s job description.
My blog has been an interesting experience. I feel that I could have used it much better. Too many assignment mumblings and not enough content related to the course. I have included some interesting articles, but am realising that I should have done more of that for reference in future subjects.
The ‘light bulb’ moment has only just happened. When reading Eisenberg (2001) I realised that, like the littlies being talked about in the article, I am great at ‘doing’. I actually do a lot of planning in my daily life, but when it comes to academic matters I just ‘do’. From now on I will use an information skills model when doing assignments. This will make me a better TL because I will have firsthand experience.
The role of the TL is very diverse and incredibly challenging, although in vastly different ways to the classroom teacher. I have only just scratched the surface of the role of the teacher librarian, but am getting my shovel and looking forward to digging deeper.

References
Bowyer, K. (2010, March 3rd), ‘Re: RBL and testing’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum.

Carr, S. (2010 March 20th), ‘Re: TL faze out’, Message posted to ETL401 Messages

Carr, S. (2010 April 4th), ‘Light bulb moment’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 4 sub-forum

Carr, S. (2010 May 18th), ‘Re: [Assignment 2 - Rebecca White] Now I'm really confused!!’ Message posted to ETL401 Assignment 2 sub-forum

Cooney, P (2010, March 7th), ‘Evidence-Based Research’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 2 sub-forum


Cooney, P (2010, March 14th), ‘RBL and Curriculum Development’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 3 sub-forum


Cooney, P (2010, April 17th), ‘A brief comparison of seven of the models’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 4 sub-forum
Cooney, P (2010, May 16th), ‘Re: Help’, Message posted to ETL401 Assignment 2 sub-forum


Eisenberg, M. (2001), ‘Introducing the Super3: Working with the Very Youngest’, accessed May 4th, 2010
http://www.big6.com/2001/12/31/introducing-the-super3-working-with-the-very-youngest/

Hashim, M. (2010, March 3rd), ‘RBL and testing’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum.

Hashim, M (2010, March 11th), ‘Fiction vs Non-Fiction’, message posted to http://soon2btchrlib.blogspot.com/

Hashim, M. (2010, March 23rd), ‘Skrzeczynski – a great article’, message posted to http://soon2btchrlib.blogspot.com/

Herring, J. E. (2007), ‘Teacher librarians and the school library’, in S Ferguson (Ed), Libraries in the twenty-first century: Charting new directions in information services. Wagga Wagga, N.S.W.: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University

Langdon, S. (2010 March 6th), ‘RBL - a worthwhile balancing act’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum

Langdon, S. (2010 March 18th), ‘RB teaching and learning and the integration student’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum

Langdon, S. (2010 March 25th), ‘RBL is worth the effort’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 3 sub-forum

Oberg, D. (2002), ‘Looking for evidence: Do school libraries improve student achievement?, School Libraries in Canada, 22(2), 10 – 14

Skrzeczynski, C. (1999), Ch 16 Breaking the barriers: sculpturing an information literate school community, pp. 241-258 In The Information literate school community: best practice, J. Henri. Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.

Van Der Wyngaard, C. (2010 March 12th), ‘Re: RBL and testing’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum

Veugen, R. (2010 March 22nd), ‘Re: RBL and testing’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum

Williams, K. (2010 March 3rd), ‘Re: RBL and testing’, Message posted to ETL401 Module 1 sub-forum.

Absolutely outraged!

I found this article while trying to locate information for Assignment 2. I am SOOO annoyed at the response by K Johns at the bottom.


http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/background/few-statistics/teacher-librarian-numbers-in-decline/

I have just found this as I concluded Part C of Assignment 2, so will not be referencing it in my blog. Good the see that some readers posted their thoughts with regards to her lack of knowledge of teacher librarians.

Shame, K Johns. Shame.

Some interesting articles have been placed in my pigeon hole courtesy of our fantastic T/L

The first one includes an open letter to Julia Gillard from Marj Kirkland (National President The Children’s Book Council of Australia)
The main points that I liked were:
o The Lonsdale Report (2003) advocates that school library programmes should be run by a trained teacher librarian in order to make significant difference to student learning outcomes – must read this report further!!!!
o OECD shows Australian literacy levels are declining. This underpins an individual’s ability to succeed. The best way to improve literacy is to immerse children in reading (Krashen 2008) – must read this too!!
o Teacher librarians are dedicated to finding the right reading for each student and run specialised reading programmes to encourage reading
I particularly liked this last point. When I originally started the course it was because I had such a love of reading and literacy. Very little mention has been made throughout the course of reading, with the bulk of the emphasis being on RBL and information literacy. I was pleased to see that reading was actually still a part of the T/L’s role.
Phew!

The other was from Australian Standing Orders (April 2010). SOme interesting points here were:

• There is no mandate in Australia to employ T/Ls in schools
• Brisbane Catholic Education Office is now offering scholarships for current teachers to retrain as librarians - living and working in the wrong city aren't I??
• The position of T/L needs to be placed outside of school staffing allocations so that principals are not forced to choose between a T/L and smaller class sizes

Here's hoping that the profession of T/L is not on the way out as seems to be the case - have actually read/heard a few things since starting this course. Would hate to start a new direction in my career only to see it stall. Especially given the impact it is having on me - feeling like I have less time with the children and temper is more frayed and incredibly frustrated by this.

Assignment 2 - not finished yet

Still struggling with Assignment 2. Am reaslly worried that I am going to repeat Assignment 1 mistake and not answer the question properly. I can literally rattle off by heart the various marking criteria on the rubric. Is it bad that I am more familiar with that rubric than the actual assignment question? Had an assignment day with Brid yesterday. Two heads are definitely better than one :)
Was really stressed last night about the whole thing - and unfortunately my children bore teh brunt of my stress. Must remember to take a deep breath and remember that it isn't their fault that I am finding this so hard. Roll on May 24th when faily life will resume to some sort of even keel.
Actually, that isn't the case - I then have to start writing reports and preparing for Parent/Teacher interviews. Bugger!

Assignment 1 results in

Well it finally arrived. I passed - by half a mark :) I cannot tell you how pleased I have been. It has been some time since study and I really didn't expect much. I completely missed the mark with Part 1 - write copious amounts about information literacy, but didn't relate it to an information literate school community. Doh!
Now I am worried about Assignment 2 - the 'major assignment'. I have to be right on the mark or I risk failing this unit. Must get my head around everything. It is going to be a huge struggle.

Waiting for Assignment 1 results!!

Still waiting!!! Am going nuts. Have not been this keyed up about getting assignment/exam results since the HSC. I've even been to check in the leterboxes of the neighbours - two have mail and some of the others don't. (having said that I am only seeing if there is any mail sticking out and not actually opening up to check) I even asked the next door neighbour if her mail was from today or yesterday. She wasn't sure.
Maybe I have one more sleep to go - if it doesn't come today I will be coming back during lunchtime tomorrow to check cause there is ballet and soccer after school. Cannot possibly last until 6pm TOMORROW night!
Come on postie - where are you????