In addition to its use as a reflective tool
to identify the strengths, challenges and areas for improvement in my role and
practices as a teacher librarian, these continued blog entries may hold varying
interest for others who have followed my path to teacher librarianship. Throughout
this process I have become aware of a variety of perceptions held by teachers,
friends, family members and teacher librarians themselves towards the role.
Some views are favourable, while others convey a misunderstanding of the value
and benefits that a teacher librarian affords a school, including such aspects
as promoting reading and technology skills for students,
and resource management (Australian
Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library
Association, 2004, p. 3). In hindsight, as a result of
my completion of the course, I can now identify that I too was quite unaware of
the complexity of the role at the outset. Of all the aspects, the empowerment
of the teacher librarian in impacting on students’ learning by developing
information literacy has had the greatest impact. In teaching students to effectively access, use,
organise, create, present and evaluate information (Ryan & Wall, 2010, p.
32), as a teacher librarian I can promote the ability to learn across the
curriculum (Herring, 2011a, p. 70), and importantly, in lifelong learning
beyond school.
On initially training as a classroom teacher in 2003, I had been
accepted to study at Charles Sturt University, but circumstances dictated that
I should complete my qualification at the University of Western Sydney as this
was closer to where I was living. At that time I did not envisage that I would
eventually specialise in teacher librarianship, and indeed I was unaware of
that this was a professional direction that might be available to me. However,
after completing the Bachelor of Education (Primary) and then following five
years of primary classroom teaching, I was ready to look towards the next stage
of my career, and I was to study at Charles Sturt University after all- an
eventuality about which I am pleased. My original interest in books, libraries,
literature and teaching reading presented teacher librarianship as a logical
and rewarding path. My interest was encouraged and informed on regaining
contact with the teacher librarians from my own primary and secondary
education, who have been sources of inspiration and support, and who I have
come to regard as colleagues, mentors and friends.
To this end I have also since developed a wider network of colleagues in
the information profession. For example, on participating in the study visit to
a range of information agencies in Sydney as a component of ETL507-
Professional Experience and Portfolio, I visited the University of NSW Library.
By coincidence, as I am a classroom teacher in the area local to the university
it transpired that the librarian who guided my group on a tour of the library
was the parent of a student in my class. Therefore in the context of my roles
as a teacher and in the future as a teacher librarian, I was provided with an
opportunity to establish a professional contact. Through the study visit, I was
also introduced by chance to a teacher librarian at another school in Sydney,
and we have since maintained contact, sharing a range of insights and
discussions about our learning in the course, and even meeting socially on
occasion. Another study visit participant recommended that I join the OZTL-NET
Australian Teacher Librarian Network
at http://oztlnet.com/about/ (School of Information Studies Charles Sturt University,
2012) and the NSW Teacher Librarian
Listserve (Sheppard,
2015). My membership of these groups has since proven interesting and
beneficial, with my resulting awareness of current issues in librarianship,
such as the advent of the Oliver library management system (Softlink, 2014)
increasing significantly. This is particularly important to me as I look to
become a practising teacher librarian.
More recently, I have had the chance to get to know and work with the teacher librarian on my placement at Randwick School Library through ETL507- Professional Experience and Portfolio, and I am very grateful to have benefited from the opportunity to learn directly from an experience in this setting. Consistently too, the subject coordinators in the course have always been available for teaching and assistance when required, most notably Barbara Combes, who facilitated ETL501- The Dynamic Information Environment, and ETL504- Teacher Librarian as Leader, and Beverley Moriarty, who coordinated EER500- Introduction to Educational Research. I have usually proceeded independently with the Interact (Charles Sturt University, 2015b) modules, readings and assessment tasks, and I would possibly be described as tending towards an intrapersonal learning intelligence in terms of the Multiple Intelligence Theory (Delavari & Delgoshaei, 2011, p. 362). In retrospect however, I could have perhaps instigated further engagement with the subject coordinators throughout the course to deepen my learning to an even greater extent. One example of an occasion where this may have been beneficial was in my study of ETL505- Describing and Analysing Education Resources, which I found to be undoubtedly the most challenging of all subjects completed in the course, although fortunately I achieved reasonable results. This subject provided a taste of cataloguing and a considerable appreciation for the role of the Schools Catalogue Information Service in providing schools with access to prepared catalogue records (Education Services Australia, 2013). Regardless, I have often connected with subject coordinators and other students by participating in forum discussions across all subjects studied, and I have benefited from those occasions where I have been able to discuss course content, and offer and receive clarification with my peers about issues in teacher librarianship. My participation in teacher librarianship social networking groups on Facebook such as Teacher Librarianship at CSU Online, accessed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TLCSU/ (O’Connell, 2014) and Teacher Librarians in Training (Rodgers, 2015) have also offered an avenue for this.
More recently, I have had the chance to get to know and work with the teacher librarian on my placement at Randwick School Library through ETL507- Professional Experience and Portfolio, and I am very grateful to have benefited from the opportunity to learn directly from an experience in this setting. Consistently too, the subject coordinators in the course have always been available for teaching and assistance when required, most notably Barbara Combes, who facilitated ETL501- The Dynamic Information Environment, and ETL504- Teacher Librarian as Leader, and Beverley Moriarty, who coordinated EER500- Introduction to Educational Research. I have usually proceeded independently with the Interact (Charles Sturt University, 2015b) modules, readings and assessment tasks, and I would possibly be described as tending towards an intrapersonal learning intelligence in terms of the Multiple Intelligence Theory (Delavari & Delgoshaei, 2011, p. 362). In retrospect however, I could have perhaps instigated further engagement with the subject coordinators throughout the course to deepen my learning to an even greater extent. One example of an occasion where this may have been beneficial was in my study of ETL505- Describing and Analysing Education Resources, which I found to be undoubtedly the most challenging of all subjects completed in the course, although fortunately I achieved reasonable results. This subject provided a taste of cataloguing and a considerable appreciation for the role of the Schools Catalogue Information Service in providing schools with access to prepared catalogue records (Education Services Australia, 2013). Regardless, I have often connected with subject coordinators and other students by participating in forum discussions across all subjects studied, and I have benefited from those occasions where I have been able to discuss course content, and offer and receive clarification with my peers about issues in teacher librarianship. My participation in teacher librarianship social networking groups on Facebook such as Teacher Librarianship at CSU Online, accessed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TLCSU/ (O’Connell, 2014) and Teacher Librarians in Training (Rodgers, 2015) have also offered an avenue for this.
Reflecting again to actually beginning my studies in the course, whereby I completed ETL401- Introduction to Teacher Librarianship, and ETL503- Resourcing the Curriculum- this proved to be quite challenging. The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, adjusting to the role of a student again, having become a classroom teacher in the interim, took some time
as I needed to recoup my writing skills. This was unexpected as writing had
previously been one of my academic strengths. On reflection, I consider that I
could have perhaps sourced the support available through the Charles Sturt University
Distance Education Outreach Team (Charles Sturt University, 2015a) to enable a
smoother transition. Nevertheless, I have always achieved reasonable results in
my studies, and this encouragement was essential, because the second challenge,
which was to continue for the duration of the course, was the difficulty in
contextualising the theories, literature, modules and assessment tasks in a
practical context through my role as a classroom teacher as opposed to that of a
teacher librarian. For example, my learning about information skills models such
as the Big Six (Eisenberg, 2008, p. 42) and the Information
Search Process (Kuhlthau and Maniotes, 2010, p. 18) in ETL401- Introduction to Teacher
Librarianship may have been
enhanced by the opportunity to teach a unit of work in a school library
focusing on these skills. Similarly, my learning about collection management in
ETL503- Resourcing the Curriculum, would have been strengthened by some
practical experience in processing orders, acquisitions, weeding, shelving,
loans and returns. In my circumstances then, throughout the course I was always
very mindful that I was completing the same learning tasks as teacher
librarians who were highly knowledgeable and experienced in these areas, and as
such the learning that I experienced from these processes was different. This
served to demonstrate that all teacher librarians studying the course may take
different benefits from their studies due to their professional experiences and
backgrounds. In turn, this is also a clear illustration of the practical
implications of constructivist learning (The University of Sydney, 2014).
Nevertheless, despite my original knowledge and skills pertaining to classroom teaching, on recently writing and submitting my Maintenance of Accreditation Report for the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW I was interested to find that I am now just as familiar with the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association, 2004, p. 2) as the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2011, p. 4). Indeed, although both sets of standards incorporate the domains of Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice, the elements contained within these are different. As a classroom teacher and an aspiring teacher librarian, I strive to be proficient in all standards in both documents. In particular while on my placement at Randwick School Library I noted that the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association, 2004, p. 2) were prominently displayed in the library office, and I intend to follow this practice to continually inform my work when I take up the role of the teacher librarian in a school library.
Nevertheless, despite my original knowledge and skills pertaining to classroom teaching, on recently writing and submitting my Maintenance of Accreditation Report for the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards NSW I was interested to find that I am now just as familiar with the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association, 2004, p. 2) as the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2011, p. 4). Indeed, although both sets of standards incorporate the domains of Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice, the elements contained within these are different. As a classroom teacher and an aspiring teacher librarian, I strive to be proficient in all standards in both documents. In particular while on my placement at Randwick School Library I noted that the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Australian Library and Information Association, & Australian School Library Association, 2004, p. 2) were prominently displayed in the library office, and I intend to follow this practice to continually inform my work when I take up the role of the teacher librarian in a school library.
On this placement I had the opportunity to practise working towards the Standards of Professional
Excellence for Teacher Librarians (Australian Library and
Information Association, & Australian School Library Association, 2004, p.
2) and enhance my understanding
of the subjects studied throughout the course. Further, I was able to observe
and receive guidance pertaining to specific Library programs in practice. I
thoroughly enjoyed my placement and benefited from learning about a range of
aspects of library management, and for this reason I wished that I had completed
it at the start of the course, instead of at the end. I considered that this
would have provided a practical basis from which to study the intricacies of
teacher librarianship. My role as a classroom teacher, and other professional
and personal commitments had not feasibly afforded the time and opportunity to
undertake this on a voluntary basis separate from the course. It therefore
follows that much of my future professional development as a teacher librarian
now needs to arise from practical engagement in a school library in order to
build upon the foundations established through both my studies and my
placement. To this end, I am taking steps to seek further professional
experience to put the knowledge, skills and abilities that have been instilled
into practice as soon as possible. This process presents its own challenges due
to the limited teacher librarian positions available in primary schools, and
the full time permanent nature of my current position as a classroom teacher.
This may require some determination, which is a characteristic that I
have developed by necessity throughout the course, along with considerably
improved organisation and management skills, evidenced in part by a higher task
completion rate and a better idea of what is realistically achievable within
given timeframes. Indeed, I have been pleased to observe these effects not only
through the subjects in the course, but also in my other professional and
personal life contexts. These are skills that were not necessarily explicitly
taught but were developed further through learning the content of the subjects
studied, and are transferable to other domains.
One example of this was my discovery of the concept mapping strategy
when it was introduced as a required mode of presentation for a project
completed in ETL504- Teacher Librarian as Leader. The
concept map is a structure diagram that organises (Cañas & Novak, 2008, p. 1), synthesises
and illustrates the relationships between the connected aspects of a topic (Chan,
2009, p. 1; Herring, 2011b, p. 15; White, 2011, p. 1). This is achieved by
presenting the concepts in boxes connected by arrows (Chan, 2009, p. 1), called cross-links (Cañas & Novak, 2008, p. 12), thereby generating a network
(White, 2011, p. 1). My concept map
(https://bubbl.us/?h=1f5163/3f591a/20iSXS3PsdOzw&r=779591788), created using Bubbl.us (2014), a web 2.0 tool, is structured
hierarchically (White, 2011, p. 2) by colour from leadership in schools, as the
main general topic at the centre, to the more specific subtopics (Chan,
2009, p. 1) of organisational theory and leading change, and
their elements. I had
not previously used this strategy, and I was pleased to find that it is highly
effective in representing the knowledge, ideas and understanding
associated with a specific topic, and is quite conducive to my learning style. I have since successfully incorporated this strategy when
planning assignments, brainstorming problems and teaching lessons with primary
students.
Similarly, resources such as Storybird (Storybird, 2014) and Glogster
(Glogster EDU, 2013) also provided inspiration to teach the curriculum through
a creative use of literature and online learning tools in my study of ETL402-
Literature Across the Curriculum as an elective. My study in this subject has
proven useful in a number of contexts- for example, in my role as a classroom
teacher I am presently programming for the learning area of English for 2015
for six Year One classes, drawing on my learning in ETL402- Literature Across
the Curriculum to select high quality literature. I envisage that this may
provide a foundation to use these skills in planning programs in the school
library context.
Another effective
strategy for use in both school libraries and
classrooms is that of social bookmarking, which I started using quite early on
in the course to keep a list of relevant articles, websites and resources (https://delicious.com/katherinel) for future reference through Delicious (Delicious
Science, 2015). As this is an online resource accessible from anywhere, it
proved to be very useful on a practical level for continual uninterrupted
access as I have moved house by necessity four times while studying the course,
and in terms of employment, I also accepted a position at a new school. To this
end, my studies in the course have been a source of consistency throughout
considerable upheaval in both professional and personal contexts.
However,
the most challenging use of technology that exceeded my expectations was the
creation of a pathfinder (http://infoenvironment.weebly.com/) as a learning resource for students. This was a
project for ETL501- The Dynamic Information Environment, based on the resources
available in the Granville Primary School Library as I was a classroom teacher
there. I created the
pathfinder in the context of a unit of work being studied by particular classes
in the school so that it had an authentic use, and I was excited to see that I
had actually created a website. This is a strategy that I intend to use for
school library programs in the future. Similarly, my educational research
proposal created in EER500- Introduction to Educational Research also had a
genuine link and potential application to a real context. I designed my
project, investigating the promotion of Year One students’ comprehension skills
during the guided reading of narratives, so that it could realistically be
completed with my class in the school in which I teach, and result in findings
that would be relevant to both classroom and school library settings. Should
the opportunity arise I intend to request approval from my school principal to
instigate the project, a prospect which is feasible as it is only a small piece
of research in accordance with the requirements of the assessment tasks for
this subject.
It can be
surmised then, that training to become a teacher librarian has been a path of
which I have afforded a significant investment of time and finances. I have
completed the course over three years, including one year of leave, and also
changed my employment status to teach only part time so that I could focus to a
greater extent on studying. Now that I qualify for the Master of Education
(Teacher Librarianship) I look forward in anticipation to the opportunity to
engage in the role of teacher librarian for which I have been trained. Reflecting
on where I was when I started compared to where I am now, I am sure that the
transition will prove to be worthwhile.
References
Australian Library and Information
Association, & Australian School Library Association
(2004). Standards of professional
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=779591788
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Chan, C.
(2009). Concept map assessments. Retrieved from http://ar.cetl.hku.hk/am_cm.htm
distance-education/student-support/de-outreach
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(2014). Teacher
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