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 :)

Assignment 1 complete. Phew!

Finally assignment 1 is done and dusted. Not sure of how well it will be marked, but am looking forward to constructive feedback. Now time to be a mum for a little while before hitting the books again.

So overwhelmed

I have been reading fairly consistently, but am still struggling to get through all that needs to be read. Holidays are here and more time for reading (?)- although I am dealing with my daughter singing her Hannah Montana songs on her new microphone and amp (birthday pressie a week ago - possibly not the cleverest purchase I have made) and my son needing entertaining/cuddles - so possibly it is going to be harder than ever to get through everything.

Am really struggling with Assignment 1. How much of a definition on ILSC should I include? Am I describing or critically analysing the TL role? Am I making sure possible solutions to obstacles are supported by literature. But the BIGGEST challenge I am finding is with the referencing.

Anyhow, much has come from my readings. Firstly, I am wondering if it is just me, but most descriptions if ILSC seem to be more relevant to a high school than a primary school. Perphaps there are many elements that cross over, but the first few years of schooling and the final years would (and should) be apporached very differently by TLs.

I am bogged down in just how much variety there is in the TL role. I had thought there was a greater emhpasis on literacy before starting, but have realised that this isn't actually so. The role is more about teaching processes and skills. I wonder how many schools are utilising their TLs to the max. We certainly aren't at HS. I admit that I did see library lessons as RFF - and yes I am hanging my head in shame now. How am I going to overcome this when I actually start working in a TL role?

Am going to finish my airy-fairy mumblings here as I really want to get back to Assignment 1. Panic is starting to set in. Back in the old days ie when studying to be a teacher, I ALWAYS used to leave assignments to the last minute and thrived under pressure. This is not the case now - working four days a week and having two darling little children certainly changes things!

Wish me luck :)