Strategic leadership - Davies and Davies

I like the way this article paints a picture of the strategic leader. The following factors are outlined:

• the ability to be strategically oriented

This is about considering both the long term future and the current contextual setting of the organisation/school. It is linking visions with daily work. It is about creating the strategy with others and not merely communicating it to others - this is of the utmost importance (in my opinion).

• the ability to translate strategy into action

Converting strategy into operational terms. This requires maintaining current features and leading others in defining the future of the school.

• the ability to align people and organisations

This involves encouraging a commitment to shared values. The leader's personal ideas and values are highly important here. A connection between thinking and action needs to be built. Leaders need to inlfuence through creating meanings and setting goals. This is also about altering attitudes, values and beliefs.

• the ability to determine effective intervention points

This is about not only knowing what to do but when to intervene and change direction.

• the ability to develop strategic capabilities

Rather than testing to measure short term goals, the emphasis should be on understanding teaching and learning, problem solving, assessment for learning.
* fundamental understanding of teaching and learning rather than delivering the latest curriculum innovation
* problem solving culture rather than a blame culture
* assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning

• leaders having dissatisfaction/restlesness with the present

Senge 'restlesness = creative tension'. This is acting as advocates for change.

• leaders having absorptive capacity

Essentially this is absorbing new information, learning from it and applying it. Leaders need to hav eth ability to learn.

• leaders having adaptive capavity

Having the ability to change.

• leaders having leadership wisdom

Taking action at the right time. Sternberg identifies wisdom as 'balancing interests/time frames/responses to the environment, applying knowledge for common good, infusing values. This is about all levels of intelligence - practical, analytical, emotional and social.

Strategic leaders and strategic capabilities

Reading through this article has meant that Assignment 2 is starting to make sense. Phew!

With NAPLAN happening the next week, I was struck by the section about leaders having the ability to develop strategic capabilities. This discussed the focus on testing and the short term targets it achieves.

This has become a bit of a sticking point with me since commencing this course and becoming acquainted with the concept of information literacy. NAPLAN is not allowing teachers to develop students because, let's face it, most schools are 'teaching to the test'. One of the Year 5 teachers at my school was saying that she can't wait for NAPLAN to be over so that she can start doing some 'meaty' tasks.

In the staffroom only yesterday we were discussing how rather than following the education systems of countries such as the US and the UK, Australia should be looking towards Finland, Korea (at least I think that was the one mentioned!) - those countries where the standard of education is recognised for it excellence.

We need strategic leadership to start with the government - it's hard to be a visionary, strategic leader when we are 'teaching to the test'. A test, might I add, that anyone and everyone uses as a basis for judging individual schools. To me it all seems to be the polar opposite of what tls are working towards with information literacy.

Assignment 1a

Well, the powerpoint presentation is done, handed in and initial mark had been reported back. 29/54 - it is the second lowest mark. Oops. Such a shame to get a low mark after all the hard work that had been put into it by all but 1 person in our team.

I found this assignment incredibly difficult. It is probably just as well that it was a group task because I had no idea what it was really asking us to do - and it I'm completely honest I still don't!

The idea of collaborating with complete strangers was quite frightening. As we began our 1st chat session it was madde known that three of the members actually had worked together before and their friendship became obvious as they started to discuss having a get-together during the holidays. In fact I suspect that 2 of the three may have even asked to be in the same group - can't be sure but when you look at the group listings you can see where Arthur accommodated requests. I can see why this request might have been made - one of these people was the hardest working and the obvious leader of our groups and the other was the slackest and, to be completely honest, the laziest whose contribution was so poor that it had to be redone. By the rest of the team while she was sick in bed - apparently. I could vent about this for hours but won't.

Quality Management - Tribus article



As educators we should be continually doing all these things in order to continually strive for quality education and to make children motivated to learn, or to give them 'drive'

 I have gained a lot of insight from this article and, pleasingly, had some of my own thoughts reinforced :)

The first notation to make was on the first page when the differences between education and industry were highlighted:
1. schools are not factories
2. students are not the products
3. education is the product
4. there are several consumers: students, parents, future employers, society
5 students need to be co-managers of their education
6. there are no opportunities for recalls

I particularly liked in point 4 that future eomploers and society are consumers. This highlights the lifelong learning aspect of education, which is an integral part of Information Literacy.

I also liked the point that it takes quality learning experiences to create an independent learner. This ties in with children being co-managers of their education.

A few weeks ago I attended a Tony Ryan conference. He was taking about technology in education. The point made in this article on page 8 seemed to marry with what was said at teh conference. Features of a school might be all the technology etc in the school, but that doesn't make quality education. The quality comes from the way technology etc is used and the foundations for lifelong learning being laid. I disagreed with the point made that quality education can occur in a 1 room schoolhouse with few amenities. This may have been the case in the past, but in this era technology is essential - everything revolves around the use of technology and using it to access information is more imnportant than the knowing.

There were four categories of expectations in education:
1. knowledge
2. know-how
3. wisdom
4. character

I feel that as a future TL the know-how and wisdom are SO important. Students need to learn how to locate information and evaluate it rather than learn copious amount of information that may be irrelevant in a few years time.

Organisational theory

Initially I was confused about the idea of schools as organisations. I viewed this as a very corporate term.

After the readings I can see that schools are definitely an organisation. There is heirachial leadership, a mission and vision statement in place to reflect the philisophy, it has clients - that being the students, their parents and the wider community, structures are defined and there is a budget in place.

However schools ARE different to other organisations because:
1.  students HAVE to be there - legally
2. the people who run these organisations are not necessarily qualified in the field, that being education. They are politicians who are answerable to the general community, which always have something to say about the state of education today and how it has gone downhill since their days of schooling .... years ago
3. changes in schools are dictated by those running it - the same ones with no educational qualifications - and extras (personal development, social development, driver safety .... the list is endless!) which take away from the educational objectives that the school has set and are trying to work towards

The myschool website goes to the heart of these points. It is all too aften inaccurate, as is the case at the moment with regards to funding. I would never feel that I was in a position to tell a bank how to run their organisation - I leave it to those who are experts in that particular field. I wish the general community would extendthe same courtesy to those in the educational field and let us get on with the business of creating lifelong learners.

School of the future - youtube clip

This youtube clip was posted to the forums by Kerrie Maxwell.

Some parts of this were incredibly interesting.

I was concerned (?not sure if that is actually the correct word to use here) by the fact that the library has very few books. Maybe this is an area where I need to accept that change in inevitable. However, as someone who loves to read, I hate the thought of not having an acutal book to hold in my hand and turn the pages. If all books are electronic I think a little bit of pleasure will go - I cannot imagine reading an electronic book at the beach! Another area that I feel I might struggle with, at least initially, would be the lack of schedule - classes are posted online daily. As a teacher in a primary school, I wonder how this would fit with children with Asbergers - of which we hav several at our school.

The things I LOVED from this are:
1. that human resources are valued and considered inportant. There is such a push towards technology that I feel teachers are going to become undervalued and seen as easily replaced by computers etc.
2. no blackboards. We have IWBs in all classrooms at school and I am such an advocate. They are excellent for engaging students and cater for visual as well as auditory learners whereas regular whiteboards are there for the visual learners only
3. 'use the technology to teach' as opposed to 'teach the technology'. The latter statement is not doing any favours for learners in the 21st century
4. partnering on the outside is impoirtant because we are shaping children for the world and not just education. This brings to mind something said by Tony Ryan at a recent sonference attended. He told us of a uni (?) where the students were allowed to take mobile phones into the exam room to assist them. When challenged on this, the response was that the exam was structured around the students knowing how to find appropritate sources rather than knowing everything for the exam themselves. This was referred to as 'connectivism' - which is now my new 'buzz word' re education and life in the 21st century

ETL 504 - Introduction

That time of year is here again - the beginning on another uni year. Having read all the module titles and assessment items, I must say I am really quite nervous. This subject sounds REALLY hard. I just spent last weekend reading the text and didn't get a whole lot out of it. Quite a waste of money. (Should I even write that given that the author is the lecturer??)

I have made a start and read through the introduction. The other two subjects I have so far completed have made reference to the TL as leader, but I didn't really get the idea of that. To me a leader was one of the executive, and I had never heard of a TL on the executive team. Even with the little bit of reading done so far I now have a completely different view. Phew - something is sinking in :)

Donham reading - 'Leadership'
A recurring theme is collaboration - not just in this article but in this course so far. There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that there is a focus at school at the moment in working collaboratively (Although poor TL not included - just collaboration between grade partners is the focus. The bad news is that during staff meetings on this topic I have completely tuned out and taken very little in). I'm sure someone on staff will have the name of the 'expert' that Dr G continually refers to.

I like the information of internal/external locus of control. We all have the external locus in us at times - some more often than others!

It was a relief to read that TLs cannot be expected to excel in every facet of their role. However, at HS the TL role is very much about resources and how quickly they can be placed in our hands. There is an expectation that library skills will be taught. But information literacy? Not the domain of the TL - at least this is what the general opinion of the staff is. As a result, the teachers at school think our TL is the queen of all TLs. She can name practically resource available for every unit of work in every KLA in every grade. Information literacy is pretty much either a. not taught or b. taught by classroom teachers. This is why, as excellent as I think our TL is, there is a lot lacking in her daily role. I know that she is frustrated by this, but as she is heading towards the end of her career she has said that she really can't be bothered fighting a losing battle. I guess this is an example of external locus of control. God bless you HC - you are a great TL and this isn't meant as a criticism of you but more of how your role is perceived.

Leading from the middle is a new concept to me. Essentially it means that you have no recognised leadership role as such, but very much are a leader through the very nature of your role. Donham makes mention that TLs lead through influence - and this is based on establishing expertise, collaborating with others, maintaining a good 'say-do' ratio and reflection and assessing. Communication is essential - an TLs need to articulate information literacy curriculum and how it can be measured.

Strategic leadership is also highlighted. I think this is the basis for assignment 2 - the vision statement. It compares a library as a 'resource-filled centre for teaching and learning' as opposed to a 'storehouse for educational resources' and an 'academic centre for the school' as opposed to 'an academic support programme'. In both instances I believe that the staff at HS see the library as the latter. And to be completely honest, until a year ago I did too! This to me highlights the need for the TL to communicate their role and responsibilities.

Action strategies highlighted include

• learning and teaching - identifying expertise and using this to develop the library
• information access and delivery - making the library more visible via school's web page and a library homepage that can be easily navigated
• programme administration - involve others in strategic planning for the library programme, which to me = collaboration

My learning journey continues. My head is hurting and I have only just started :-o

Too long between posts!!!

It has obviously been too long between posts. Firstly, I went to wikispaces, which was what I thought my blog was. Then I had no idea of my username or password. I have just spent the better part of the last half hour trying to get in. If only my computer still had all the usernnames and passwords stored. Hmmmm

ETL501 - Topic 3: Effective Search strategies

Okay, this has been a learning curve. I am such a 'googler' that I really hadn't ever considered using another search engine! I liked the information on '7 Habits of Highly Effective Web Searchers'. I am still a bit lost with a lot of this - boolean, specific phrases etc. I know that this is just the basics of web searching and all educators should be proficient in this area. The whole concept of 'inurl' was almost too much to cope with - I was thinking about ending my time in this course there and then. However I am confident that I will eventually get my head around it all. It doesn't help that I haven't taken my class to the IT lab for YEARS - thhis is don't by the other teacher who is in 1 day a week. Next year I am going to change that wround and will take over that area myself.
My goal for the time being is to familiarise myself with different search engines. I have made a very small step towards this by bookmarking some of them.

Topic 1 - Teaching and Learning

                                                                        behaviourist

constructivist

This topic is all about the teacher librarian and teaching and learning. There are some things that have been covered in this topic that, as I read/listened to them, I had a flashback to ACU roughly 20 years ago!

One question asked by James Herring in his podcast was what the learning context of your school was. I would have to say that, for the most part, HS is constructivist. Having said that, there are some teachers there that pride themselves on how technologically savvy they are - only to use IWBs as regular whiteboards would be used ie to copy down information. BLOOMS is used in many classrooms in many different ways. Some of the Stage 2/3 classes seem to favour deBono with the coloured thinking hats prominently displayed in their rooms. I have never incorporated deBono myself, but that is purely because I am familiar with BLOOMS. The main point is that all stages in our school embrace HOTS and incorporate it into their classrooms.

Currently in Year 1 we are using BLOOMS in our shared reading unit for The Paperbag Princess. This is a fantastic unit of work where the children are not only encouraged, but expected to engage in HOTS throughout the term.

The question of how TLs can help develop better teachers was fantastic. I question though how many teachers would agree????? Many seem to see the role of the TL as predominently librarian and information/resource management, rather than teacher. I know that this is an area which TLs need to address in order for the profession to continue.

I particularly liked a comment by Bronwyn Sanderman (Topic 1 Reflection) posted on the forums:

'While we have a job to help locate resources, we also have a job to educate and help others how to do it themselves'

Blooms

Topic 1 is about Blooms. This is something I have used a lot in the classroom. At the moment we are doing a great shared reading unit for The Paper Bag Princess which is based around Blooms.

I really love the top image in this post. It demonstrates which Web 2.0 tools can be used in conjunction with Blooms and where they fit in.

I was interested to read in the intoduction of this topic that 'the web has generally enhanced the role of the TL'. I do not disagree with it and it was heartening to read this after a recent staffroom discussion. In this discussion I was talking about how I was going to be using all my long service leave in study/assignments while I try to complete this course. Another member of staff (who had been bragging about all the international destinations she was travelling to whilst on LSL!!!) wondered aloud why I was putting myself through all the stress of study when principals were looking to move their IT coordinators into TL roles. This absolutely floored me. Surely this is not where th esystem is headed??!! I am really enjoying the learning, but it is coming at a cost - less quality time with the children when assignments are due, using ALL my LSL so that I can try to keep a ballance between study and home life when assignments are due. I know that the powers that be are looking into TLs and hope that some type of mandate is handed down re TL qualifications.

Assignment 2 results

Results are in and once again I got just over 50% of the total marks. At least I'm consistent!

What am I doing wrong? Easy - both markers said that I was describing and explaining rather than cricially analysing and synthesising. The difficulty here is that I have no idea HOW to do this!!!!!

I have been into the CSU learning skills forum and there are a few links there by Stewart McKinney which might be helpful. This is an area I need to master. I feel that I am learning so much about teacher librarians, but this is not evident in my marks. If only there was a Bachelor course - I know that I am not really 'masters' material, but there isn't a choice.

I know where my weakness is, I now just need to try to develop this. Am happy to keep passing and am not aiming for HD or D, but would like to see my marks go just a little higher so that I won't have to worry about getting scaled DOWN in the final grade and then failing.

Not much happening :)

I am pleased to say that not much has been happening of late - with regards to study that is!

There is a link to the next subject on the Interact page. I have gone in and checked out the assignments for the next unit of study and man am I freaking out! I have also googled electronic pathfinder to see if I can get a heads up an what the hell it is. I even asked our school librarian but she didn't seem overly familiar witht eh term.

On a different note, school reports are finished and almost ready to be handed into the principal. Parent/Teacher interviews are in a fortnight, so it is going to be pretty full on until they are over.

I am also trying to sing my teeth into the Web2.0 course and hopefully get that completed before the next semester starts. Will see how that goes. I am sure that there was a mention of it somewhere in the course outline, so better to get throughg it now while there is little else hasppening.

Results are out this week. Keeping my fingers crossed for a pass. Will be pretty distraught if I don't but then again maybe having to resubmit might consolidate a few things for me.

Am really sad that Brid has deferred. She was such a sounding board for me. Feeling very lonely with regards to study - having a colleague doing exactly the same course made such a difference. Oh well, another challenge :)

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????

Assignment 2 - struggling

Really struggling with assignment 2. Had a nightmare about the mark for assignment 1 which I think was my subconscious telling me to get myself a bit more organised with assignment 2. Have selected my 3 standards from ALIA/ASLA. This was pretty easy. I planned to highlight all the ones that really jumped out at me as the ones that were really about student learning outcomes, and then cull from the ones highlighted. It turned out that I only highlighted 3!! Am still deciding if this is a good or bad thing. All are realted on some level to student outcomes, but to me 1.1, 1.2 and 2.2 jumped out.
1.1 - knowledge of principles of lifelong learning - what more canI say about this? Tchrs and TLs should be teaching chn how to be learners, and this carries through for their lifetime. An obvious choice
1.2 - learning and teaching across curriculum areas - involves knowledge about pedagogy, developmental backgrounds, resourcing. Another standout choice
2.2 - collaboratively planning and resourcing programmes relating to IL and literature outcomes - the esssence of the TL role appears to be collaboration. Collaboration leads to well developed stimulating ans meaningfull tasks. Once again, chooling this outcome was a no-brainer.

NOW I wonder whether these outcomes will still remain the standout ones as I work through Part 2 of the assignment a bit more.

All I have to do now is choose the 3 information skills models. There are some I really like but there is no much literature on them. Do I stick with these ones or go with the other ones that have more literature to read up about them. I am guessing I will have to go with the latter. Fingers crossed that I choose wisely :)